She hunched low on the roof, looking out towards her first objective. Through a window she could see lanterns illuminating the interior of the warehouse. Rows and piles of glinting metal, a stockpile of weapons.
Two days had passed since they arrived in Morath, and all that time had been spent preparing for this moment. She smiled under the darkness of her hood, all was ready on her end, now she just waited for the signal that the other one was ready to go too. She pulled out her flint, preparing herself. They would have to keep their magic usage to a minimum, lest Erawan would easier sense their approach.
Aelin turned her gaze to the horizon, towards where Old Aelin were finishing up on her part of the plan. A faint glow, looking more like slightly iridescent mist. Aelin quickly lit the cord in front of her with her piece of flint, then made a beeline across the roofs until she reached her next cord, and lit that one too. This pattern she repeated until all her cords were lit.
Keeping low atop the roofs, she hurried towards their rendezvous close to their planned entry into the keep. The cool night air nipped at her cheek while she ran quietly. In the corner of her eye she could see one of her cord had finally lit the building it was connected to. They would not lit in the same order as she had, because all the cords were different lengths causing the fire to light up randomly.
She grinned, this would cause quite the stir, keeping all eyes away from the keep. She glanced towards the other side of the city, random fires spreading there too. Aelin quickly and nimbly climbed down from the roof, and once she was in the streets she hurried through the back alleys. Then she waited.
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Rowan flapped his wings with powerful strokes, heading straight towards Morath. Well, towards the encampments around the city. His Fae soldiers kept close, an army of different kinds of birds covered the sky around him, and even more followed on foot. He quickly dipped beneath the cloud cover, to get a better sense of how close they were.
His hawk eyes widened, fifteen or sixteen fires dotted the city, in no seemingly logic pattern at all. But he didn't need to guess who was behind it all, clever foxes. He released a cry, and all the Fae around him quickly angled into a dive, heading straight for the soldiers who were already in disarray because of the ruckus inside the city walls.
When he neared the ground, he shifted and drew his sword a second before impaling his first victim, then the carnage began as his brethren descended upon their enemies.
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People hurried past them, almost every one of them carrying buckets of water to throw on the flames. Aelin inched open the door leading to the servant passages of the keep, and slipped inside, the other Aelin followed closely behind on silent feet.
Most of the servants had been sent out to help with the fires, giving the women almost unlimited access to their passages. Which also meant that getting from on end of the keep to the other won't be too hard. The hard part would be getting into the tomb, since it would surely be guarded by highly trained soldiers, or even demons.
Aelin fought the urge to scratch her skin, the wyrdmarks they had painstakingly drawn all over their bodies constantly itching her. They slowly advanced through the tunnels, hiding in alcoves or behind curtains whenever they encountered a passing servant. They reached what seemed like a dead end, but Old Aelin tapped around on the wall until one stone shifted. An old sounding mechanism clicked and a secret passage was revealed to them.
«Gotta love ancient buildings and all their secret, forgotten doors.» Old Aelin whispered, then slipped inside. Aelin carefully pushed the door closed behind them, and a stealth light appeared before them.«We need to hurry up, before Erawan learns we're here.»
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«My King, we're under attack!» the soldier said,«the city is burning, and nothing we do are stopping the flames.»
Erawan growled at the soldier, and the boy flinched. He needed time to make more rings, these puny humans were getting irritable. Everything about this war had become irritable, after his enemies had somehow mad them all go back in time, to a time where he wasn't finished with his many experiments.«How many soldiers have attacked?» he said, pinning the soldier down with a lethal glare.
«Uhm, well, there's no fighting, only fires, My King.» the soldier said, sweating profusely.
«No fighting... It's a decoy, the attack will happen somewhere else, or it might be an inifi--» the door slammed open and another soldier rushed in.
«Fae! Fae are attacking the war camps!» he shouted as he jogged into the room, panting heavily.
Erawan snarled. «Call for the ilken, I don't care that their not ready, send out the best we have. Take as many prisoners as possible, I need more subjects.» he commanded, and both soldiers saluted and hurried out of the room.
So his enemies thought they had an advantage now... His jaw tightened, they would not win this skirmish.
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«I'll take those on the left.» Old Aelin silently muttered, and Aelin nodded.
Six guards, and all of them reeked like death, the scent of Valg infested people. As one the women moved, blades drawn and infused with the power of their flames, then they were upon the guards. In a flurry of heated blades and searing flames Aelin ducked, then slashed open one of them, while sending fires down the throat of the second one. A dark blade glinting with what was most likely poison swiped for her head, but she jumped back just in time.
The one she had slashed still stood, snarling like a beast before charging at her once more simultaneously as the third one. She sidestepped the wounded one, and swung her blade lodging it in his throat, tearing through flesh and bone, and ripped it back out. He fell to the stone floor, and did not rise. The third one lunged at her, but made it two steps before flames poured out of his mouth, and then crumbled to the floor in a heap of ash.
«Thanks, but I didn't need any help.» She said, but Old Aelin shrugged.
«I know, but we need to hurry up.» was all she said, then pulled open the door the demons had been guarding. Aelin glanced at the three guards her older self had fought. One was in pieces, and the others were mere piles of ash. They closed the door, and locked it with a wyrdmark before setting of into the passage as fast as they dared without making too much noise. When they finally reached the end, Old Aelin cursed colorfully, even in languages unknown to Aelin.
Aelin glanced up to see what she was looking at, and what she saw had her cursing with flare as well.«Can you decipher it?» she asked quietly.
«Already on it.» she said curtly.
Aelin went to watch the passage, they would not want anyone to surprise them now. They were so close to getting the keys, if only Old Aelin could despell the door fast enough. She glanced over at her companion, who had now made a slit in her arm and had begun drawing new marks around the door. No sounds came from the passage as she worked, then a faint glow lit up the freshly made marks and the door swung open.
Old Aelin huffed out a breath and motioned for her to follow. Again they sealed the door behind them with a locking mark, before turning to the massive chamber. Their stealth light illuminated the room, showing them a closed sarcophagus of stone and a wall with intricate design.
«Shit, another puzzle. They're inside that wall, I can sense them.» Old Aelin said, and walked over to the wall covered in stone carvings. The carvings depicted several people, from what she could tell. Three men and a woman surrounded by spiders, all placed on separate round discs that could be turned arranged in a square with one corner, Erawan's disc, at the top, and Maeve's at the bottom. The two other discs where set to the sides. They probably didn't want to find out what happens if they turned the wrong one.
«We'll have to be really thorough and extremely sure before we touch anything on there.» she said, frowning at the wall.
«But we still need to be quick about it.» Old Aelin muttered, squinting up at the wall, gleening for any kind of detail that could help them solve this thing.
«They were after Maeve, right? So what if we turn that one...» she said, but Old Aelin shook her head.
«That's too simple, and trust me, if something is too easy it's most likely a trap.» she took a step closer.«But what if...mhm.» she reached out, and gingerly touched the disc depicting one of Erawan's brothers, then slowly turned it. A hard clunk sounded from the wall, and they both stiffened. Nothing happened. She then reached out to the second brother, turning that one the opposite direction. Another clunk clanged on the other side. Yet, nothing more happened.
«Two brothers defeated, and a wish for vengeance.» Old Aelin muttered, then turned Maeve's disc upside down. And this time a series of clunks came, and the women exchanged a look, hoping that it would not be their last one.