The woman wearing a white cloak of feathers, a dirt-stained white dress, and no shoes, swiftly turned to her. There was a dangerous, calculating glint in her eyes.
“Wait! Just hold up a second.” She put her hands up, one still holding her dagger, in a surrendering position. “I’m also trying to free him.”
That dangerous edge to her dark-brown eyes softened. She didn’t look away from Emerie, untrusting and still ready to attack.
“It’s why I’m here.” She pointed to the currently bound guard who had awoken at some point and was screaming against his mouth gag.
The woman looked Emerie up and down. “Why are you helping him?”
“No reason.” She shook her head. “There’s no ulterior motive. Just his release.”
“It is true,” Ingram agreed, who had enough room to shake his chains more.
The keen gaze of the mystery woman flicked to the already cut bits of rope around his knees before coming back to Emerie.
“Fine.” Then she nodded in the direction of the door. “I can do the rest.”
This was her opportunity to back out of this, knowing someone was on his side – even if it wasn’t her. But with a guard who had witnessed everything, the many others who had seen her walking this way, plus those at the armoury... she’d be the first suspect.
There was also one other problem.
“I know the best way out of here,” Emerie stated. “Zagros Fortress is like a labyrinth to those that don’t know it, and he’ll never make it through the front doors. I know a side door that leads to the yard and then another door that leads to the forest.”
Had they not shown her the night she’d captured this very Duskwalker, she wouldn’t have known about them.
“We will be fine,” the woman answered. “Those we come across will not get in our way.”
“He promised me he wouldn’t hurt anyone on purpose,” Emerie pleaded.
“Their deaths are deserved after what they’ve been doing to him.”
“I know.” Emerie’s features twisted with a wince. “But I’m offering a better chance of his escape. One that may not have to end in bloodshed. You’re human, you should understand.”
“Human?” the woman mused. “That I am not.” Then she turned to the Duskwalker. “What do you want?”
Ingram’s head tilted just enough to show he was looking between them. He seemed just as surprised as she was that the woman had asked him.
“I made a promise...” he hedged, then his orbs shifted to a bright orange. “I don’t wish to break it. She is also the only one who has been kind to me here.”
With a sigh, eyeing Emerie from the corner of her eye, she nodded. “If that’s what you want.”
She pulled out an iron key from inside her cloak. It was only now that Emerie realised the woman had been wielding an obsidian dagger as well.
She gasped and took a step forward. “Where did you get that key? That should have been impossible to steal.”
The woman knelt down to unlock the metal shackles around his ankles. An additional defence in case he managed to get free of his rope bindings.
“Your leader may have hidden this away in a safe, but she wore the keys for it on her person. Once I figured out where both the keys and safe were, it was effortless.” Then she grumbled to herself as she said, “But it took me far too long to find the safe. Did they hurt you further?”
“Yes.”
Her eyes narrowed and her lips flattened at that, as did Emerie’s.
Emerie cut away the rest of the rope binding him, thankful she wouldn’t have to use her hammer and the tip of her blade to remove the locking pins of his chains. She actually hadn’t known if it would work, but she’d also been hoping he could just yank them free from the wall.
At least this was better.
Emerie’s heart quickened when he was finally unbound. She held her breath, unsure if he would suddenly leap on her with claws at the ready.
“Everything hurts,” he groaned, darting his head between them. He stretched his arms and legs out on all fours.
She let out her pent-up breath.
“Why did you leave these on him?” the woman asked, moving her stolen dagger to the ropes crossing over his back and down his limbs.
“Don’t,” Emerie cut in before gently grabbing her wrist. “Don’t remove them. I need them to stay on.”
The woman’s gaze was suspicious, her brows lowering as she glared. Thankfully, after a moment, she nodded.
Emerie walked over to the Duskwalker and clenched her jaw when his raven skull freely turned to look over his shoulder at her. Even on all fours, his skull was close to her own head height.
“C-can I climb onto your back?”
His head darted to the woman, who nodded, and he lowered himself for her. Once she was firmly on his back, she cringed. Crap. I forgot to put my jacket back on. It would have been perfect to sit on to protect her pubic bone from being annihilated by his lizard spikes.
She placed her bag there instead, hoping it was enough.
She gripped the rope around his neck. “Okay. Now don’t forget I’m up here and cut my head off going through a doorway.”
She let out the tiniest squeal when she jolted side to side as he stood properly. He absolutely did not feel like riding a horse.
“I’ll take the lead and clear the way,” the woman said, moving to open the dungeon door. “Let’s go.”
Emerie laid down the moment Ingram was in motion but kept her face firmly up to guide them. She struggled to keep her bearings on their location with how fast he sprinted, her hair whipping behind her from the chilly air streaking past them.
His paws and hands slapped and thudded against the stone ground, echoing in the hallways.
“Left,” she shouted. They turned down a short hallway that came to an intersection. “Left again. Then straight.”
At the end of the hall was the stairway to the ground level.
The woman opened the door, frightening the shit out of the guard before Emerie and Ingram emerged right behind her. Emerie glanced at them, and their bewildered eyes met her own determined ones.
“Go right!”
She yanked on the rope around his neck when a handful of guildmembers passing through the wide and tall hallway noticed them. Hard not to notice a giant Duskwalker, if she was being honest!
Ingram turned in that direction, and they were immediately followed.
“The door on the right,” she instructed, trying to keep her voice low.
A small staircase took them to the entrance of the lower south tower. She didn’t know if Ingram was panicked, but his breaths snorted from his nose holes, and his motions were more jolted. His body was hot against her knees and torso, and his muscles working beneath her brought attention to how... unbelievably strong he felt.
The alarm rang, and Emerie’s pulse thundered in her ears. Shit! I was hoping we’d have more time.
They sped down the hallway that would lead them to the northern lower tower, and as they were coming up to a staircase that lead to the top, a guildmember appeared in the entryway.