She pulled out an iron key from inside her cloak. It was only now that Emerie realised the woman had been wielding an obsidian dagger as well.
She gasped and took a step forward. “Where did you get that key? That should have been impossible to steal.”
The woman knelt down to unlock the metal shackles around his ankles. An additional defence in case he managed to get free of his rope bindings.
“Your leader may have hidden this away in a safe, but she wore the keys for it on her person. Once I figured out where both the keys and safe were, it was effortless.” Then she grumbled to herself as she said, “But it took me far too long to find the safe. Did they hurt you further?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes narrowed and her lips flattened at that, as did Emerie’s.
Emerie cut away the rest of the rope binding him, thankful she wouldn’t have to use her hammer and the tip of her blade to remove the locking pins of his chains. She actually hadn’t known if it would work, but she’d also been hoping he could just yank them free from the wall.
At least this was better.
Emerie’s heart quickened when he was finally unbound. She held her breath, unsure if he would suddenly leap on her with claws at the ready.
“Everything hurts,” he groaned, darting his head between them. He stretched his arms and legs out on all fours.
She let out her pent-up breath.
“Why did you leave these on him?” the woman asked, moving her stolen dagger to the ropes crossing over his back and down his limbs.
“Don’t,” Emerie cut in before gently grabbing her wrist. “Don’t remove them. I need them to stay on.”
The woman’s gaze was suspicious, her brows lowering as she glared. Thankfully, after a moment, she nodded.
Emerie walked over to the Duskwalker and clenched her jaw when his raven skull freely turned to look over his shoulder at her. Even on all fours, his skull was close to her own head height.
“C-can I climb onto your back?”
His head darted to the woman, who nodded, and he lowered himself for her. Once she was firmly on his back, she cringed. Crap. I forgot to put my jacket back on. It would have been perfect to sit on to protect her pubic bone from being annihilated by his lizard spikes.
She placed her bag there instead, hoping it was enough.
She gripped the rope around his neck. “Okay. Now don’t forget I’m up here and cut my head off going through a doorway.”
She let out the tiniest squeal when she jolted side to side as he stood properly. He absolutely did not feel like riding a horse.
“I’ll take the lead and clear the way,” the woman said, moving to open the dungeon door. “Let’s go.”
Emerie laid down the moment Ingram was in motion but kept her face firmly up to guide them. She struggled to keep her bearings on their location with how fast he sprinted, her hair whipping behind her from the chilly air streaking past them.
His paws and hands slapped and thudded against the stone ground, echoing in the hallways.
“Left,” she shouted. They turned down a short hallway that came to an intersection. “Left again. Then straight.”
At the end of the hall was the stairway to the ground level.
The woman opened the door, frightening the shit out of the guard before Emerie and Ingram emerged right behind her. Emerie glanced at them, and their bewildered eyes met her own determined ones.
“Go right!”
She yanked on the rope around his neck when a handful of guildmembers passing through the wide and tall hallway noticed them. Hard not to notice a giant Duskwalker, if she was being honest!
Ingram turned in that direction, and they were immediately followed.
“The door on the right,” she instructed, trying to keep her voice low.
A small staircase took them to the entrance of the lower south tower. She didn’t know if Ingram was panicked, but his breaths snorted from his nose holes, and his motions were more jolted. His body was hot against her knees and torso, and his muscles working beneath her brought attention to how… unbelievably strong he felt.
The alarm rang, and Emerie’s pulse thundered in her ears. Shit! I was hoping we’d have more time.
They sped down the hallway that would lead them to the northern lower tower, and as they were coming up to a staircase that lead to the top, a guildmember appeared in the entryway.
They took one step in their direction, started some outraged shout, then the woman running in front of them pounced. With one swift motion, acting so fast that Emerie barely had time to register it, she sliced their throat open.
Ingram leapt over the Demonslayer, who cupped their wound in a futile attempt to stop the bleeding, and Emerie’s eyes crinkled in guilt.
“I said not to kill anyone!”
“He made that promise,” she callously answered. “I did not.”
Gripping the rope around Ingram’s neck tighter in vexation, she glared at the back of the woman for a moment before admitting, There’s nothing I can do to change it. Only one person dying tonight was better than dozens. Besides, there was no time to lose focus.
“The door at the end leads to outside,” Emerie stated. “It’s locked. He’ll have to break it down.”
“You heard her, Ingram.”
With a snorting huff and a nod of his head, his pace quickened until he was swiftly gaining on the woman who had been dictating their pace.
The gasp that tore out of Emerie was so sharp and loud, it punched her lungs on its way out. Her eyes nearly bulged out of her skull when the Duskwalker sprinted through the woman!
She looked back to find her following them closely. She turned into a Ghost! Her entire body had turned colourless and transparent.
Then, before her very eyes, she turned corporeal. Brown skin formed from the tips of her toes and fingers, before quickly spreading up her limbs. Her hair, which had been white, nearly transparent, and floating, slowly dropped around her face and shoulders.
She couldn’t have been a Ghost for longer than a second, but Emerie knew what she’d seen. Knew it wasn’t a trick of the light or her mind.
Emerie’s gaze connected with the woman, who had a stern expression.
Too busy gaping behind her, she almost missed something critical. She only had enough time to lay flat against Ingram’s back after he roared, and he shoulder barged his way through the thick timber door. It broke in half and flung off its hinges, destroyed like it was nothing but paper.
It would have taken at least ten humans with a ram to knock it down over the course of minutes.
Wood splinters flew in all directions, forcing her eyelids shut when they rained over her face. She knew a few would be caught in her long, wavy hair as it fluttered wildly behind her.
She pulled back on the rope around Ingram’s neck while also yanking it to the right. “Watch out!”
He skidded across the ground as he tried to halt before jumping against the mountain wall directly in front of them. He darted to the right, but immediately paused when two rows of Demonslayers stood at the ready with spears.
“Shit,” Emerie muttered under her breath. “They beat us here.”
Then again, the route she’d taken them wasn’t as direct as going through the front doors.
At the back of the two rows of Demonslayers was Wren.