Page 159 of Serpent and Shadow

“We don’t know.”

My jaw worked as I fought to think.

“What about the others?” I asked. “Forsooth? The rest of the Golden Sun?”

“Don’t worry about them,” my cousin warned, glancing over his shoulder at me. “They have their own contingency plans. We’re to get you out. That’s all that matters.”

“Is it?” I retorted. “What about everyone else? Jolie Harringbone? Luc Mocking? Miranda Rook? Have any of them been informed? Do they even know what’s going on?”

No one answered me.

Frustration made it difficult to remain quiet, but I didn’t slow my steps. I was glad for the boots, but I could feel my exhaustion catching up to me as I jogged down the steep steps. I was sweating more than I should be, and I was too out of breath.

“What’s wrong with you?” Quicksilver asked, his voice terse.

I glanced back just long enough to frown in his direction.

I didn’t bother to answer him, but fought to think about how I might get a message to Miranda, Draken, and the others. I could now see the Praecuri with Valor at the bottom of the circular staircase. One of them held open the wooden door while the others ran through. For the first time, it occurred to me to wonder something else.

“How did you even get in here?” I asked, my voice harder. “Did Forsooth break into my chimaeras? And if so, why wasn’t I informed that was something he could do?”

“He said there were no protective chimaeras on the lower floors,” Valor said, dismissive. “Nothing that wouldn’t allow us inside.”

I let out an outraged scoff. “The hell their weren’t.”

Valor glanced back at me, his eyes holding a faint puzzlement. “There weren’t, Leda. There was nothing until we got to the higher floor. I saw a kind of chimaeric field that mimicked a security barrier, but it let us through without any trouble.”

I felt something in my chest constrict.

Alarm bells were going off again, but I couldn’t decide what they meant. For the same reason, I didn’t try to answer my cousin, but focused on my feet as I ran down the steps, practically on his heels.

A few seconds later, we burst out into the north corridor.

I saw people exiting out the central part of the hall into the fields that led north, in the direction of the Faerie River and The Eyrie. They were all talking loudly and I heard screams and cries as they shoved their way through the glass doors just behind the main tower. I wondered why they weren’t going out the front, where the steps met with the Promenade, then realized there could only be one answer.

“They’re coming in,” I said. “We can’t go that way.”

Valor stared in the same direction as I did, his expression grim.

“Yes,” he said. “Right.”

He looked at me, a frown in his eyes, as if trying to decide.

Then he motioned with his head, and began walking me in the direction of the rapidly growing crowd. “We have to move fast.” He stared dubiously at my state, seemingly noticing the same thing Quicksilver had, with my being out of breath and pale and whatever else. “Can you run right now? If not, one of us can help you––”

“I don’t need help,” I cut in. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll keep up.”

His mouth pursed, but he seemed to make up his mind not to argue. He nodded, once, then began taking off down the hallway, moving fast.

“If you don’t, I’m going to carry you,” he called back.

It sounded almost like a threat.

I sped my pace to a trot, then a fast jog, then a run, when Valor began to sprint ahead of me down the hall. Quicksilver remained behind, and unlike Valor, he didn’t offer to carry me.

We reached the crowd faster than I would have expected.

I looked to my left, at the door leading to the northern balcony. I could see them below the balcony now, running in all directions. Some were heading west, likely in an attempt to cut through the forest and reach the gate by traveling parallel to the Promenade. Others strapped on wings and took to the air, heading in the direction of the east entrance, likely in the hopes it would still be open.