XXIX

The mage member of the Emblazoned Party, still wearing all of her armor, pulled her hands out of the cauldron of warm and steaming water.

“My hands are still stiff,” she said, “but the water is too hot now.”

“It’s now or never,” Yoreno said. Then he went back to the window and jumped, taking hold of the ledge as he had earlier and pulled himself up. The light had increased, but the fog still hung thickly in the air.

The color of the morning light had gone from blue to yellow, forewarning him that the hot sun would soon burn away the mist—and with it, their cover.

“It’s still thick,” he said in way of answer to the questioning looks he got. “I don’t think it will remain that way for long.”

There was a click as Sorika picked the lock on her ankle manacle. She moved to Yoreno next and set to work.

Mai could do it much faster, but with her powers, she could literally melt the lock in half. Right now it was best that Mai didn’t overuse her powers.

Sorika finished with his manacle.

“Come here,” Mai said.

Yoreno did as she bid. She touched him then, putting her warm hands on his neck and moving them around under his shirt next.

“We don’t’ have time for that,” Lev said. “Besides, Dantera will be furious once she finds out that—“

“He has a cracked sternum,” Mai said.

Lev blinked dumbly. “A cracked what?”

Her eyes lit with yellow magic and a hot yet cold feeling travelled through Yoreno before his chest suddenly flared up.

“Hnngh!”

“I’m sorry,” Mai said. “That’s the bones knitting back together.”

“Feels like I’m getting run over by a wagon.”

The pain subsided. “That’s normal. Don’t act like you’ve never been healed before, you big baby.”

Yoreno rubbed his chest. He did feel better now. “I’m well enough to cut down twenty of these warriors.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Dell said. “Yoreno, when we get out, we need to find the weapons.”

“Yeah,” he said.

After picking all of their shackles, Mai melted the lock on the door. Yoreno opened it far enough to first look through the opening, and then to stick his head out so he could peer about for any signs of their guards.

Nothing.

He went outside into the yard. This area was off limits to them because of the lock on the door, but even here a metal grating surrounded the prison building with a gate at the front.

Mai came out after him and hissed something to Yoreno. Turning, she shrugged as if to say, “Well?”

He beckoned her forth. She came, followed by Lev, Dell, Sorika and Dorrin. As Mai came closer, Yoreno leaned in to catch her ear. “Do you sense anyone nearby?”

“Of course I do,” she said. “But it’s not like that. Auras are—“

“Later,” he said. “Break this lock so we can get out of here.”

She nodded, then whispered an incantation as she danced her hands about in the open air. The lock reddened, then melted, leaving a dried bit of hay on the ground left to spoke as Yoreno opened the gate.

It squeaked slightly, the sound making him so nervous he clenched the muscles in his jaw tight enough to make his teeth hurt.

They were supposed to move up through the camp and over the hill in the back to search for an exit. The front gate, they had observed independently, had far too many guards and watch towers.

Yoreno crouched out of the gate and glanced about as if a shaft would cut through the fog and pierce his heart any moment.

He wasn’t afraid of that happening. He was afraid of failing to escape, of failing to make sure everyone got out alive. And he was afraid of failing Dantera.

He moved swiftly, trying to keep his boots as quiet as possibly against the ground. Because of the heavy rains the day before, the ground was rather soft and kept their footfalls quiet.

They came to a building, it’s edge visible through the mist. Yoreno turned around. “Up the hill—everyone. Mai and I will find our things.”

“But you might need someone to help carry them,” Lev protested.

Yoreno thought about that for a moment. That made sense. “All right, you come with us. Dell?”

Dell nodded. “Yeah?”

“Keep the others safe.”

“Of course,” he said with a nod. “Go on. We’ll meet you up there.”

“All right.”

Yoreno turned and stalked to the building and put his back to the wall. They were under the eve and in the mist, were invisible to any of the guards who might have been awake in the camp.

“Mai,” Yoreno said.

“I’m on it,” she said, closing her eyes. “Now shush. I need to concentrate.”

Yoreno nodded, saying nothing as he glanced over at Lev. The archer, though he had made jokes, some of a rather dark nature, he had a look of fear deep in his eyes that he probably wasn’t even aware of.

He had said nothing about Lev’s jokes. He needed to make them. That was his way of coping. Yoreno slapped him on the shoulder and nodded his reassurance to the other man.

Lev returned the nod, a look of confidence returning to his face.

“Okay,” Mai said.

“Do you know where our gear is?” Lev asked.

She nodded. “I think so.”

In her mages robes slashed in blue and gold with her hood thrown back, she was more prepared than any of them, though still without her staff, she wasn’t nearly as powerful as she could be.

Hopefully they would all get their weapons back.

Finally she pointed a finger. “I think they’re in that general direction.”

“How do you know those auras don’t belong to other weapons?”

“All auras have distinctness about them,” she said. “Like the way flowers smell different from one another.”

“You can smell magic?” Lev asked with wide eyes.

But Mai’s expression went to that of patient suffering and sarcasm. “Of course not. What do you take me for, a magic sucking vampire, Lev?”

“Bicker later,” Yoreno interjected into the conversation. “Now follow me.”

Moving from out of cover, Yoreno lead the way while Mai and Lev stayed close behind him. They moved swiftly, but not recklessly.

“One more,” a man said through the fog.

Yoreno stopped, his heart jumping into his throat and Mai slammed into his back. He ducked down low as he put out an arm as if he could shield them from view of the man in the mist.

“No,” another voice said. “You go and get it.”

“Fine,” the first man said. “I don’t know why I have to always be the one to do everything.” Then, as he walked back to the structure on their left on the other side of the path, he muttered, “Thought we were supposed to toss for these things. Damn swine.”

Yoreno kept low and moved to the right, passed the building and went around it as he made his way up the trail toward the area where their weapons were.

“Too close!” Mai hissed.

Saying nothing, Yoreno continued until he came to a wall of stones with a door. He glanced up, then the other way, but he couldn’t see anything. He went right, leading the other two behind him until that wall stopped at a sheer face of wet mountain rocks.

“Damn,” he whispered. “Not this way.”

“Then the other way,” Lev said.

“He knows,” Mai hissed.

“Shh!” Yoreno noised. “Come on.”

He lead them the other way, until he came to another sheer face of mountain rocks, except this one was a ledge of sorts. He climbed up it, grunting somewhat as he did so.

This was all taking too long. The mist could start to fade away before they even got to wherever their weapons were being held. He went up another ledge to level terrain. There was an outbuilding here with noise coming from within.

Gods help them.

The camp was beginning to awaken!