THE ASHES OF LIGHT ✔

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Maythus

As soon as they were out of earshot of Maddi, Maythus immediately turned to Kane. "Are we seriously just going to leave Valencia behind like that?"

They were walking away from Maythus's room and he had no idea what was going to happen now that Maddi had banished the two of them.

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Kane ran a hand across his beard, stress evident in his eyes. "We have no other option and we need to get out of here before Maddi call the guards on us."

"Would she really do that?" Maythus asked. It was still hard to believe that his sister was the one behind all of this.

Kane shrugged, "I mean, you've seen what she's capable of. If she threatened us with execution, I really don't want to wait and find out if she'll go through with it."

The two walked in silence.

"Where are we going to go? What are we going to do?" Maythus questioned him, feeling the anxiety building up. He had so many questions about what laid ahead—not only for their own survival, but also for how they would eventually get back into the kingdom.

"There's an old fort about a mile out from here that used to be used as part of training in the Academy. I say we head there and make a plan once we arrive," Kane said, his mind clearly distracted.

"What about food? And clothing? I mean, what are we going to do?" Maythus's speech sped up as he began to freak out even more.

"Maythus, calm down," Kane was too distracted to pretend to be sympathetic. "We'll figure something out."

They made their way out of the palace and saw that for the most part, the crowds that were previously taking up space in the plaza had dissipated. It was the middle of the night, probably early morning, and everyone had retreated to their homes to get some sleep for the day ahead.

Maythus's throat tightened in fear as they got farther and farther away from the kingdom. If only Klara was here—she would know what to do. That was another thing Maddi had taken away.

After about fifteen minutes of brisk walking, they finally reached the fort that Kane had mentioned.

It was an old, dilapidated wooden building. Some of the walls were molding and crumbling and there wasn't a door hanging on the frame anymore. It looked at least decades old, but who knew how long the building had been standing there.

Kane entered first, carefully lighting up the room with a small candle that had been left behind. He made sure that there were no attackers waiting inside before allowing Maythus in. Now that they were outside of the kingdom, who knew what kind of people would try to interact with them—especially since Maythus was royalty. They already had seen what the Noxi were capable of, and Maythus had no idea how many more hostile clans like them were out there.

"It's getting late, I say we spend the night here and I'll have a better plan by morning," Kane said, pulling out a dusty chair to sit on. Maythus agreed and made his way over to an old sofa, which was also covered in dust.

As he sat down on the smelly cushions, a cloud of dirt and dust enveloped him, causing him to start coughing. However, Maythus was certainly more inclined to sleep on an old sofa than on the hard, wooden flooring, where holes had been nibbled into existence by rats.

Maythus fell asleep almost immediately—or at least that was what it felt like when he was startled awake by the sound of creaking footsteps entering the building. The one possible upside to staying in such an old fort was that the creaking of the floorboards sounded as an alarm for intruders.

Maythus's eyes opened wide as he tried to get a look at the invader without revealing that he was awake.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he soon realized that Kane was already standing and aiming his sword at the invader's throat.