Outside her cell, Lyrani found herself in a corridor lined by identical doors set into earthen walls and illuminated by the overhead skylights.
To her right was a dead end. To her left, the passage disappeared into the darkness.
There was no doubt which path she had to take.
Lyrani moved along the corridor, her senses on high alert for the slightest sound or sight of trouble. Nash may have given her an easy way out of her cell, but there were still many things that could go wrong.
The guards could apprehend her. She could get lost and burrow deeper into a cold, isolated section of the prison. Worst of all, Rayn could take control of Nash and hunt her down before she escaped.
The unwelcome possibilities overwhelmed her, and she took a breath to banish them. As long as she kept her focus, she would hit the bullseye she was aiming for.
Lyrani turned the corner into another corridor. It was identical to the previous one except for the light at the end of it. That must be her way out.
Lyrani raced towards it, her bare feet beating against the hard ground. She felt every bump, every stone that pressed into the soles of her feet. Never had she longed for her trusty pair of boots as she did then, but she kept running.
A commotion greeted Lyrani as she neared the end of the passage. Not breaking her stride, she gathered the darkness around her.
"Miss, you shouldn't be down here," said a male voice, probably one of the guards.
"Sorry, I think I'm lost," said a woman.
Lyrani narrowed her eyes. She knew that voice.
A woman in a dress the pale blue of ice stepped into view. Lyrani wrapped the darkness around her before merging with the shadows at the edge of the room.
"Can you show me the way to the ballroom?" asked the woman.
Her back was to Lyrani. Sundrops were woven into her braid, yellow blooms bright against her dark hair.
Lyrani knew of only one person who loved sundrops and could grow them with a wave of her hand.
There was a muffled cry, then a thud. Lyrani looked around the room, but she couldn't tell where the sound had come from.
"Listen miss, I don't know..." The guard sounded uncertain now. His eyes flitted about the room.
Quicker than he could react, the woman grabbed him and clamped a cloth over his mouth and nose. He struggled, but the woman didn't relent. With each passing second, his resistance weakened until he wasn't moving at all.
In her elegant gown, the woman looked more prepared for a formal dinner than a prison break, which was probably her intention. For all the guards knew, she was just a guest who had lost her way.
Lyrani, however, knew otherwise. "Dessie?"
Her best friend looked up, still holding the cloth over the guard's face. "Lyrani?" She smiled. "Morloy, she's okay! We weren't too late!"
Morloy's bright smile betrayed his position in a shadowy corner of the chamber. Lyrani blinked until he came into focus where he crouched and tied up the guard he had knocked out.
Lyrani looked between her friends in disbelief. "What are you two doing here?"
Dessie dragged the unconscious guard to Morloy. "What does it look like we're doing?"
Lyrani joined them in the shadows framing the room and knelt to help Morloy secure the guards.
"We heard our friend was in trouble. We came as quickly as we could."
Dessie's explanation raised more questions in Lyrani's mind, but it would have to do for now.
All that mattered was that Lyrani needed her friends, and they were here.
"I told you I can be an agent." Morloy tightened the last knot around the guard's wrist and stepped back to admire his handiwork.
It was impressive, Lyrani had to admit. It would take the guards valuable minutes to escape their bonds if they regained consciousness, by which time Lyrani and her friends had to be long gone.
Dessie seemed to share Lyrani's thought. "Well, come on, Agent Ailk! We must be out of here before they wake up."
Lyrani looked between her friends. "Do you have a plan?"
"What kind of question is that?" Morloy gave Lyrani a confident smile, and she returned it.
They would escape this prison because they were together.
"Come on!" It was the seamstress who spurred the healer and the assassin into action.
Dessie gathered her skirt with one hand and grabbed Lyrani's arm with the other.
With Morloy behind them, they ran up a narrow metal staircase set into the dirt and then two more. When they reached the top of the last flight, they pressed themselves flat against the steps to survey the scene.
Three guards watched the dungeon's exit, patrolling with the complacency of men who hadn't noticed that their king had been down at the high-security cells for an awfully long time. They'd notice soon enough.
A thick rope dangled from a bell hanging from the ceiling behind the guards.
Lyrani and her friends would have to cross the room and pass the guards to reach the opening leading up into the afternoon. They also had to keep the guards from ringing the bell to alert the rest of the palace to trouble in the dungeons, or their escape would fail, and Morloy and Dessie would be arrested too.
Lyrani wouldn't subject them to Rayn's torture and games. She'd punch down as many people as was necessary in order to make sure of that.
Lyrani smelled the fresh air. She could taste her freedom, and nothing was going to take it away from her, not a vengeful spirit or a group of guards.
"Stay behind me," whispered Lyrani. She waved her hands, gathering the darkness around herself and her friends. "Don't make a sound."
Lyrani watched the guards as she and her friends inched towards the exit with their backs pressed against the wall. The men's voices resonated through the room with startling clarity as they talked and guffawed about King Nash and his latest paramour from Irylen.
One guard leaned towards the others as if he had a juicy secret to share. "Apparently, she tried to kill him afterwards."
"Is he that bad in bed?" Another snorted with suppressed laughter.
"Only way to know for sure is to ask her," sneered the guard who had first spoken.
"I heard she ran through the palace naked. Wouldn't that have been a sight?" The third guard chortled.
Lyrani stopped dead. How could they talk about her and Nash like they were a joke? How dare they exchange nonsensical gossip and laugh about it?
"Keep moving," whispered Morloy beside Lyrani. "They're not worth it."
His warning came too late.
Lyrani's concentration was broken, and the darkness melted away from her and her friends like ink dissolving in water.
Open-mouthed, the guards stared at them.
"Don't let them get to the bell!" Lyrani cried.
She lunged at the third guard, the one who had chuckled about her running through the palace.
She punched him in the throat. He choked, his eyes watering. Before he could recover, Lyrani slipped behind him and pulled a corner of her cloak taut across his neck.
He wriggled in her grasp, but she pinned his arms against his sides with her elbows. She gritted her teeth. He was stronger than she was, but she had the upper hand.
There was a deep and ferocious part of Lyrani that wanted to squeeze the life out of him, but then she remembered.
She didn't kill people who were only guilty of mistimed jeers. She didn't kill in passion.
Morloy engaged the second guard in a fistfight. Dessie took off one of her heeled shoes and brandished it like a weapon before advancing on the remaining guard.
The guard in Lyrani's grip gasped. It was a nasty sound, like a sick person wheezing. His eyes rolled back in his head. When his body went slack, Lyrani let him fall at her feet.
Morloy's opponent slumped to the ground. The guard Dessie had subdued lay on the floor, stemming the blood oozing from his stiletto-impaled hand and moaning.
"Let's get out of here," said Lyrani.
Dessie and Morloy had followed her halfway to the door when the bell clanged.
The last guard lay on the ground, tugging the rope with his uninjured hand.
Dessie cursed and ran back towards him.
He whimpered and crawled away from her, but he made the mistake of trying to keep ringing the bell. Dessie caught up and clubbed him on the head with her heavy platform. He collapsed on the ground, his body limp.
"I should've done that in the first place," Dessie huffed.
"No time for regrets!" Morloy pulled Lyrani after him.
Dessie's feet thudded as she raced to catch up.
Morloy was the first to climb up to the hole leading outside. Lyrani was just behind him, and Dessie followed her.
A group of guards clustered among the long shadows of the trees, presumably having heard the bell. Sunset had arrived, a familiar stain on a day different from any other Lyrani had spent at the palace.
A chorus of shouts rang out.
"This way!" Morloy led the way into the forest while the guards fumbled to gather themselves and their weapons, giving Lyrani and her friends precious moments in which to escape.
Lyrani matched Morloy's pace, even as her feet burned from running.
"Dessie, can you keep up?" Morloy called back.
Lyrani looked back. Beyond her friend, a group of guards was in pursuit.
"You try running in stilletos!" screamed Dessie.
"Take the cursed things off then!" yelled Morloy. "I will not have any of us die because you decided to be fashionable."
"Fine!" Dessie had the shoes off in a matter of seconds then she was sprinting, gaining on Lyrani and Morloy.
They took a narrow path that branched off from the main one. Morloy slowed down as they neared a group of trees standing close together.
"But...the guards..." Lyrani looked back at Dessie.
She was still ahead of Vlitavia's finest elves but not by much.
Dessie had just passed onto the side path after Lyrani and Morloy when a wall of fire rose from the ground, extending as far along the main path as Lyrani could see. The trees crackled in the embrace of the flames.
Lyrani's first thought was that it was a dragon that had come to their aid. Her second was that she knew someone at Vlitavia Palace who could create fire with a snap of her fingers.
The guards fell back, yelling in alarm on the other side of the barrier of flames.
Dessie reached Lyrani's side, panting. "Let's go!"
The guards exchanged shouts as they tried to figure out how to get past the flaming wall. Lyrani took advantage of their frantic confusion, pulling Dessie with her into the nearby copse of trees Morloy had vanished into.
So dense were the leaves that the sun's last rays were blocked out, turning the space between the trees as cool as the evening. Lyrani didn't think anyone would spot them here if they hadn't seen them go inside.
At the centre of the trees, a familiar ally awaited them with two magnificent creatures standing beside her.
They were muscular with bronze feathers and eyes too intelligent for animals. Lyrani stared at them in wonder. Even if she stood on her tiptoes, her head would only reach their shoulders.
Lyrani had heard many stories about griffins, even told a few herself, but she had never seen any except for the one on the ECISI badge.
Isarea smiled when she saw Lyrani and her friends, but it didn't quite reach her puffy eyes. "I thought you'd gotten into some trouble in the dungeons."
"Oh, we did," said Lyrani. "Luckily, we got back out."
Isarea's lips curved slightly, but the rest of her face wore her pain. Like for Lyrani, the loss of Trelle was still painfully fresh.
"Get on." Morloy climbed onto a griffin and helped Lyrani up behind him.
Dessie handed her high heels to Isarea. One stiletto was covered in blood while the other had broken along the way.
"Do me a favour and burn these. I'll never wear them again."
"Of course." Isarea let out a soft laugh, laced by the sadness she carried in her eyes.
Isarea and Trelle had meant so much to each other. Trelle had finally met someone she would leave ECISI for. Instead, her last mission had killed her.
How many promises had she made to Isarea that she wouldn't get to see through? How many dreams had they shared that were now shattered beyond repair?
"Isarea...I'm sorry," said Lyrani.
"I don't blame you. I should've done something." Isarea sniffled. "I loved her, you know."
Her words tore at Lyrani's heart. "I'm going to make this right."
Lyrani could never bring Trelle back, but she could ensure a happier future for Isarea, one without a murderous spirit commanding her.
Isarea smiled through her tears. "I know you will."
Shouts sounded in the distance, rising with excitement. The elves all turned in the direction of the noise.
"The guards." Morloy's eyes went wide. "They must've found a way through the fire."
"Leave now," said Lyrani to Isarea. "Don't let them see that you helped us."
Rayn would not be pleased, and Isarea would pay for it.
"I'll be fine. Now go!" Isarea vanished among the trees.
Lyrani looked after her.
Please let her be safe. Too many have already died for this mission. Not just Trelle, but the Rosel and Keehege agents too.
Morloy tapped the griffin's neck, jolting Lyrani out of her thoughts. "Let's go, boy!"
The griffin bounded forward then harnessed the momentum to take to the sky. Lyrani flung her arms around Morloy's waist and glanced behind her. From the griffin she rode, Dessie gave a cheerful wave.
It was a little gesture, different from the curtsies and polite, restrained smiles Lyrani had seen over the past few days, but it was warm and familiar and it brought a weak grin to her face.
They were out of the dungeons, and they were safe.
The griffins headed for the clouds, leaving behind the discord of Vlitavia Palace.
And Nash.
Lyrani wished she could soar as the majestic winged beasts did, bold, carefree, but she couldn't shed the heaviness of everything that had happened.