Icy panic flooded my chest. If we were caught now, I wouldn't make it outside to find my mother.
"What should we do?" Fari asked, her own eyes wide with fear.
I bit down on my lower lip. The punishment for being caught out of bounds wasn't as severe as if we were caught breaking out of the city, but it would mean reduced rations for a month, and our portions were small enough as it was.
Volcaria hadn't always been this way, but I'd never known it any different. A blood feud, a broken engagement and a territory dispute almost two decades ago had spiralled into a war for control of the continent the Etealians and Lathrians had shared for centuries. The Lathrians had won and used it as an excuse to rob Etealia of its resources, using the kingdom's people to extract them, a penance they claimed was for our own moral improvement.
If my friends and I ran for the end of the corridor, the Lathrian guards would hear us and I wasn't sure we'd be quick enough to stay ahead for long. But at least we'd have tried to lose them. Waiting to be caught seemed ridiculous.
Before I could suggest we ran for it, the door behind us swung open. As the guards rounded the corner an Etealian stepped out and lent against the door, shielding us from view. "Good evening, officers," he said with surprising confidence. "Strange time for a patrol."
Behind him, we froze.
"It's after hours. You shouldn't be out of your dorm," one of the guards grunted in response.
"Just making polite conversation. That lot are getting a bit stale: 'Why does everything smell like mud?'; 'Which flavourless sludge do you think they'll be serving us for dinner tomorrow?'" He yawned. "What's new in the land of 'yes sir', 'no sir', 'how many generations of Etealians shall we make to suffer over a meaningless territory dispute, sir?' Are the twins up to their usual tricks?"
"The twins will be brought in any day now; you don't need to worry about them."
The twins were the leaders of the weak resistance movement some Etealians still clung to. They were violent and unpredictable, preferring mayhem over progress.
"With such sterling guards as yourselves on the beat, that's sure to be the case." As he spoke, he reached a hand behind his back. Unseen by the guards, he made a signal that was impossible to mistake: he was beckoning us into the room.
We looked at each other. Certain punishment if we were caught by the guards, or potential murder by a stranger inviting us into his dormitory. They weren't odds I liked. Mel shrugged, then started towards the doorway, leaving us with little option but to follow.
As we stepped through the door, one of the guards spoke again: "This door should have been locked earlier. Please return inside and we'll lock you in."
Great. Now we were going to be stuck with the probably-crazy person. Tears stung my eyes as I realised I was never going to reach my mother.
I expected a room much like our own: filled with bunks and weary Etealians, but the sight that met me made me reconsider our saviour's motives. We weren't the only night-time visitors to the room: almost fifty Etealians had crammed inside; men and women in a wider range of ages than I'd ever seen in one place outside of the canteen. Beds had been pushed to the sides to make space in the middle of the room. Paper was scattered on the floor between them. No one spoke, but every face turned towards us. The door closed and we heard the echoing footsteps of the guards as they passed.
"You've picked a bad night to sneak out after dark," the guy who'd distracted the guards said from the doorway. His words were serious, but the smile on his face suggested he was impressed.
"Why'd you help us?" Etealians weren't generous by nature. We couldn't afford to be. Lavinia and her friends would have fallen over themselves to sell out someone sneaking past our dorm. The fact that I wouldn't made me an exception rather than the norm.
"We Etealians need to stick up for each other more," he replied, moving further into the room and leaning against an empty bunk. "Think of it as a good deed done in the name of the twins. The rebellion needs more recruits." So that's what they were doing in here. The idiots. Beside me, Fari went up onto her tiptoes to scan the room. Did she really think the two most wanted rebels in the kingdoms would be sitting in a dorm room?
"Any recruits of the twins will end up lashed in the canteen. I'd have rather lost my rations," I replied. "The rebellion is a fool's errand."
Revolutionaries were reckless and violent; they thrived on the theatrical and caused more trouble than they were worth. We had reduced rations for a week the last time they tried to stage a protest in the canteen. Besides, in the fifteen years I'd been alive, I'd never seen them achieve anything.
"The rebellion is on the edge of success."
"They'll kill you all." My reply was barely a whisper. I'd seen it happen before: revolutionaries were always caught and they were always made an example of - everyone except the twins, who somehow managed to elude the Lathrians no matter how hard they tried to capture them.
"So be it," he replied. "I'd rather die seeking the flames than live in the shadows. Enjoy your night-time wandering, ladies, but don't forget what happened tonight. When the call to arms comes, you should answer it."
I shook my head. Revolutionaries were crazy. But this time their crazy had saved us. "We've got better places to be."
"Suit yourself, Kacia," he paused over my name - a name I was certain I hadn't told him - savouring the feel of it on his lips. I repressed a shiver, suddenly eager to leave. He appeared to be the group's spokesperson, despite his youth. He was only a couple of years older than us, his face all harsh angles and shadows, and he looked familiar. We must have been on labour rotation together at some point. "If you leave now, you should make it outside without further mishap."
"How are we going to do that, when the guards locked the door?" Fari asked, earning her an eye roll from Mel. If this many people had made it into the dorm for a secret meeting, locked doors weren't going to be a problem.
The guy grinned and pushed off from the bunk, moving back over to the door. He took a sliver of silver from his pocket and fiddled with the lock. A few seconds later, it clicked and the door sprung open.
"There shouldn't be any more guards here for a while," he said, showing us out. "Take care when you come back though, and make sure you watch out for altorae. I can't promise I'll be able to save you again."
"We'll be fine on our own. Come on, Mel and Fari." I headed out the door without a backwards glance. The corridors were quiet once more, but my pulse continued to race as we made our way towards the southern exit; I couldn't quite shake the unsettled feeling brought on by the mention of Volcaria's notorious twin delinquents.
The next corridor led to the guards' ring, which we couldn't leave the city without passing through. The outer rings all had their own exits from the city, but Etealians could only leave via the guards' quarters for security reasons. The upside to this was that they never bothered to put on a guard rotation, assuming corridors full of sleeping and distracted guards would be deterrent enough. The downside was that we had to sneak past twenty apartments before we made it to the door. It was a feat I'd attempted five times previously and I hadn't been caught yet.
We passed the first few apartments in silence, walking slowly so that our boots wouldn't echo along the empty corridor. Every apartment looked the same from the outside, with glass doors and one large window. All the curtains were shut, but even the slightest sound might disturb the guards and prompt them to look outside.
We were halfway towards the exit when the door opened.
"Good night!" a cheery voice called out as the guard turned away from the door and saw us. Her eyes widened; her hand shifted to the weapon at her side.
"Run!" I shouted, barrelling straight into the shocked guard and sending us both sprawling to the floor. Before she could register what had happened, I jumped to my feet and rushed to catch up with Fari and Mel.
Behind, I could hear doors opening and the guard calling for assistance. There was no going back now. I skidded around the corner into the long tunnel that led to the edge of the mountain. I didn't need to look over my shoulder to know that the guards would be mobilising behind me. But I'd come too far to give up without seeing my mother. I wasn't going to be punished for a failed attempt.
The lights flickered off overhead and I knew once we opened the door the ice storm would be raging, but I helped Mel to pull back the bolt anyway and we pushed hard against the metal exit. It took all three of us to heave it open, revealing a world of darkness and ice beyond. Sleet and hail poured to the ground in a frozen torrent and the wind that hit our faces was brutal in its attack.
"They're never this bad at this time of year!" Mel shouted to be heard over the crashes of the storm. She was right; I'd expected a flurry of snow - sleet if we were really unlucky - nothing like this.
"Going out there is insane," Fari added, barely audible over the howl of the wind. We stood for a moment, immobilised by the magnitude of the storm before the thundering footsteps behind brought us back to our senses.
Insanity or not, only one path lay open to us. I took Mel and Fari by the hands, squeezing them tightly, then we stepped into chaos.
An unexpected update?! Don't worry, there's still more to come on Friday, but I wanted to get this story going with a few extra updates (and okay, yes, use my shiny new in-chapter images).
Please vote if you enjoyed reading and let me know in the comments whether you think Kacia and her friends made the right choice stepping outside...