If I timed it right, I could make it from here to an opening in the inner wall. It wasn’t far from me, nearly opposite where I stood now.
From there, I could move between the arches until I got closer to the river. When I got to the wall beneath the armory, I’d have to scale it faster than I’d ever climbed before, and just pray I was in shadow.
And I had the Raven King on my side, didn’t I?
The voices in the stairwell were so close now, but the patrol hadn’t yet passed. Any moment, I could end up trapped between the two sets of soldiers. I wondered if they’d simply shoot me on sight, blowing us all up.
While I kept my back pressed to the wall, making myself small, I listened as the ground patrol passed by the door.
The others in the stairwell above were nearly here. My heart thundered, slamming against my ribs, making the briefcase vibrate.
Raven King, give me strength.
I felt like his spirit flowed through me, from the stones on up. The buried power in the soil …
Alice’s voice whispered in the dark hollows of my mind: Maybe the Albian kings were tyrants. But they were our tyrants.
Silently, I dashed outside behind the soldiers, and moved to the archway in the next wall.
I made it safely before the next group of patrols rounded the corner. Tucked in the darkness, I flattened myself against the stone. When I glanced to my right, I saw the group of soldiers leaving the tower where I’d been hiding, heading for the next one. To my left, I had a view of the courtyard.
Bloody hell. It would not be as easy to move across the courtyard.
My mind started to whirr with calculations, trying to come up with an alternate plan, but there weren’t many options. I could, perhaps, stash the bomb somewhere, then pretend I’d fallen asleep for the entire day. “Whoops! Drunk again.”
But the fact that this looked like a military operation in pursuit of an enemy told me maybe I was all out of chances to blag my way out of things by pretending to be an idiot. My chances of charming them were done. This was full-on war.
In the dark, it was hard to see the groups of patrols distinctly. But as one group started to pass me, I slunk back and pressed myself against the wall to stay hidden. I noticed they walked in a very precise formation—eyes forward, moving their rifles from one shoulder to the other in a rhythm.
And that gave me an idea. If I could sneak up behind one group, then walk quietly behind them, they might not notice. Their heads always faced forward. From the vantage point of the other soldiers in the distance, I’d blend in, just one of the crowd.
And lucky for me, the skies were clouding over, darkness billowing over the moon.
I whispered my silent prayer. In the archway, I waited for the next group of five to come through. And when they did, I took my chance. I slipped out behind them, silent as night. Close enough to them to blend in from afar, not close enough that they’d feel me breathing on their necks.
I paced each one of my footfalls in time with theirs, my steps in sync so they wouldn’t hear me. We were moving exactly where I needed to go, closer to the castle, to the armory wall.
The biggest risk would be when I had to branch off from them and rush across the courtyard, but I thought I could do it when we got close enough.
I glanced above. The storm was moving fast, almost like the sky itself was helping me cloak myself in total darkness.
At least, until lighting struck, touching down on one of the castle towers. The boom rumbled over the landscape, deafening.
And worst of all, it seemed one of the soldiers in front of me was terrified of lightning. He leapt back out of his formation, shrieking. When he fell back into me, my heart nearly stopped. I froze for a moment, waiting to see if the bomb was going to go off. I stared down at the briefcase, my chest heaving.
The other soldiers whirled, eyes landing on me.
Oh, bollocks.
Fear coursed through my veins, and I took a step back. Already, I had five bayonets pointed at me, and they were shouting in Clovian.
I swallowed hard and held up my hands. “You’re not going to want to shoot me right