Ayela held up a small jar of greenish glowing lichen to light the way. Isabel followed without a word, silently testing her feelings for the intensity she would need to cast a spell.
Behind them they heard a thud, then another and another followed by the sound of splintering wood.
“Ayela!” Trajan shouted.
They quickened their pace. The passage branched and Ayela went to the right without hesitation. It branched again … this time Ayela took the passage to the left that led down a flight of stairs into another passage that looked more like a natural tunnel than a constructed corridor.
Then Ayela started running. “We haven’t much time before the enemy arrives,” she said.
The passage ran in a meandering course for several hundred feet until it came to an abrupt stop. A rope ladder dangled against the wall to one side, leading up into the darkness.
Isabel saw light in the distance behind them.
“Quickly, your brother is coming.”
Ayela nodded and started climbing. Once they reached the top of the ladder, they scrambled through a hole that had been broken into the stone floor of a small room and Isabel pulled the ladder up.
“Ayela!” Trajan shouted from below.
“Where to now?” Isabel asked.
“This way,” Ayela said, leading her through a door into another hidden passage. Several minutes and many turns later, Ayela stopped and motioned for silence as she peered through a tiny hole in the wall. Satisfied, she pulled a lever and a secret panel popped open.
“This is my room,” Ayela said. “I just need to get my things before we leave.” She started loading her pack.
“Why were they coming for me?” Isabel asked.
“I warned them about the attack,” Ayela said. “Your husband appeared before me and told me your plan. At first I thought I was losing my mind, but he knew things he couldn’t have known, things that only you could have told him, so I listened, though I don’t pretend to understand how he could do such a thing.
“He told me of your plan. I know the legend of the Goiri but never truly believed it existed, much less that it can help us now. When he told me of the coming attack, I went straight to Trajan to warn him. I begged him not to tell the Sin’Rath, but that was the very first thing he did.
“I came for you as quickly as I could. They’ll kill you for revealing their location to Phane.”
“Let’s not give them the chance,” Isabel said, motioning for Ayela to hurry.
She buckled her belt and cinched down the straps of her pack, then hoisted it over her shoulders. She handed Isabel a dagger and said, “The hidden passages can take us to one of the entry halls, but none leads out of the fortress. We’ll have to escape from one of the guarded entrances.”
“That could be complicated,” Isabel said.
“I have a few things that might help,” Ayela said, patting her belt pouch. “Once we’re out, then what?”
“I have friends waiting for me,” Isabel said. “We’ll meet up with them and head for the Goiri’s crypt.”
Ayela followed a confusing maze of passages until they reached a small room where she motioned for silence, pointing to a peephole in the wall. Isabel looked through into a large entry hall filled with soldiers of Karth. Among them was one of the witches, a hideous creature with clawed hands, pale white skin, and thin black hair that barely covered her scalp. She stood amid the soldiers facing the door as the first thud of a battering ram slammed home.
Phane’s forces had arrived.
Alexander appeared and motioned for Isabel to follow him back into the passage, far enough away from the soldiers so they could talk without fear of being discovered.
“Hector and Horace are in the jungle waiting for you,” he said. “Once Phane’s people breach the defenses and enter the fortress, you should face minimal resistance.”
“What about my father and brother?” Ayela asked.
“As long as they’re under the influence of the Sin’Rath, I can’t help them,” Alexander said.
“Phane’s people will kill them,” Ayela said. “They’re all that’s left of my family.”
“The Sin’Rath have a secret way out of this fortress,” Alexander said. “They’ve already begun retreating and your father’s with them.”
“How can you know this? How can I trust you?” Ayela said.
“It’s a little late now, Ayela,” Isabel said. “If the witches catch you now, they’ll kill you. Besides, your family will always be at their mercy unless we destroy them.”