XXX

Sorika followed as Dell led the way though the mist. But she could feel the morning was beginning to heat up. Even in the winter as it was, these desert mountains were a hot place.

Glancing back, she wondered after Yoreno, Mai and Lev.

“What’s wrong?” Dorrin asked.

“Nothing. Keep moving.”

“Quiet, you two,” Dell said and placed a finger over his lips. “Come on.”

Normally it would have been better for her to lead them. She was the party’s rogue member after all. But Yoreno had told Dell to look after them.

As if she needed looking after.

Dorrin, though. He certainly needed his hand held through all of this.

Finally Dell stopped and Sorika realized that they were relatively out in the open. “This isn’t good,” she said.

Dell said nothing, only pointed at the watch tower. There was an archer walking about as he did his sentry duty.

Sorika followed his finger as he pointed toward the hill.

“Oh no,” Sorika said.

“What’s wrong,” Dorrin asked. “Can we get out?”

“Not with that sentry watching,” Dell said. “The mist is lifting fast.”

“We need to take him out,” she said, knowing it would be her to sneak up there and do it. Gladly, she thought.

“How?” Dell asked. “He will hear you coming.”

It was true.

“No he won’t.”

“Yes he will,” Dell hissed. “I might be a blade wielding, armor wearing lug, but I know enough to know he’s going to hear you coming long before you can climb up there.”

Sorika grit her teeth. “We have no other choice, Dell.”

“Yes we do,” he said. “I will provide a distraction once you make it half way up the ladder.”

“What?” she hissed. “He’ll shoot you, Dell.”

The stupid loud lug, as he had called himself, grinned. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

“I hate knights,” she said.

“I know, but this is the only way. Sor…” he took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. “I know you think I’m reckless, but you need to trust me.”

She swallowed.

“Sor, please.”

Godsdammit.

“All right.”

“Go.”

She wasted no time—didn’t even glance back at them as she sprinted through the mist on cat-like feet, cutting through what little fog remained up here.

Once she made it to the ladder, she glanced back at Dell and he motioned for her to start climbing.

Heart beating so hard, Sorika thought she would retch. She wasn’t afraid of sneaking up on the sentry in the tower.

She was afraid for Dell.

If the sentry saw that a prisoner had escaped, he would either turn to sound the alarm, or he would try to shoot him with his bow.

Swallowing hard, she reached up to grab the first rung on the ladder and realized her hands were shaking. She had never been so afraid for any member in the Emblazoned Party before.

She climbed.

At first she went up quickly, as she was too far below to create enough noise to alert the sentry. As she made it to the halfway point, she slowed down, kept a fast pace, but remained as quiet as possible.

“Hey!” she heard someone call.

She knew that voice.

It was Dellwyn, standing bellow the tower and calling up to the sentry.

She heard the footsteps above stop, then the sentry shift his weight and move to the other side.

The moment she heard his feet stop moving, that meant he had caught sight of Dell.

“Hey!” the sentry barked.

She heard him knock an arrow.

She made her move.

With her acrobatic abilities, Mai pulled on the rung as she jumped, using the strength of her legs to launch herself into the air high enough to land on the main platform.

Once she was up, the Sentry loosed his shaft.

Sorika’s heart jumped into her throat as she lunged at the man, pulled out her lock pick and slammed it into his throat as she covered his mouth with her other hand.

The man moaned, struggled for a moment and then went slack. As soon as she laid him to rest on the wooden planks, she glanced over the side.

Dell was there, standing, but she could see that he was pressing his hand against his hip where the arrow had struck him.

Oh no, she thought as her eyes began stinging.

Picking up the bow and the sentry’s quiver of arrows, along with his dagger, she took hold of the ladder and slid down, forgetting to use her vantage point to look about the camp to see if she could spot Yoreno and the others.

As her boots hit the ground, she turned. “Dell? Dell—are you all right?”

“Shh!” he hissed. “Quiet. Do you want to wake the whole camp?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice almost breaking. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, you little fool,” he said with a smile. He lifted his hand. “It barely grazed me.”

“Just a scratch,” Dorrin echoed with a nod. His confirmation of Dell’s surface-level wound actually made her feel better.

Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she said, “Dagger’s mine. Dell, you get the bow.”

He took it. “Gladly,” he said. “At least now we have something to protect ourselves with. Now come on, we got to make it over that hill.”

“All right,” she said. “Lead the way.”