Making our way towards the castle undetected was deceptively easy. For there to have been a recent assassination of a monarch, the guards seemed to be incredibly at ease. I supposed that they really did feel that the case had been closed and the correct person had been found guilty so there was no threat to be protected against. That or they were just really terrible at their jobs or I didn’t understand how their jobs were supposed to work, but neither of those felt quite right. From the sound of what the guard had told us when we gave our names to the front gate and by the lazy way they were conducting their rounds, it was fairly obvious that they all believed that it was so obviously solved that they all thought the increased presence was silly and overkill. That made me really worried that perhaps we were being sent on a wild goose chase or into some kind of trap and the ex court wizard was not to be trusted. Why would we be tempted into running some sort of an investigation if the case was so clear cut? If the people put in charge of discovering and naming the killer were all so sure of their decision, who were we to try to step in and disprove them? Something was off and I wanted to protest harder against this whole idea, but at the same time Mable had given me suggestions of the kinds of things an “almost wish” could grant from a wizard and I had to admit if there was even a tiny chance I could have a shot at having one granted, it was probably worth the risk.

After debating on a strategy at the inn while we packed bags of supplies we might need, Garret had stepped from the room to run back to his bachelor flat to get changed into adventure appropriate clothing and left us alone to do the same. I was nervous and running through all these doubts like word vomit to Mable. She had nodded along for a while, but then explained that a wizard, at least a skilled wizard, could do fantastic things like permanently change your appearance, grant you your own magic powers beyond your normal limits, make you unfathomably rich, or even open up gateways to different realms of existence or anything in between. Perhaps we did not know a whole lot about the wizard, but we did know that he was powerful enough to teleport himself away on a whim without trace so that led her to believe he was at least moderately powerful and could do some fantastic feats that she intended to cash in on. I suspected she wanted the extra magical powers or something along those lines, every time she talked about what a wizard could do she got a distant and wistful look in her eyes. Maybe it was greedy of me, but hearing all the things that some wizards could do made all the doubts and risks seem worth it. Sure maybe this would all go horribly and we might end up executed, but if not, we could live as kings and queens for the rest of our lives. That was a huge, beaming temptation that I was not immune to, especially as someone who grew up with nothing and always wanted to know what it was like to have something.

Still the fact that I figured we were probably being left in the dark about something vitally important weighed heavy on my mind and nagged at me as we started off on our mission. I was doing my best to press those doubts to the back of my mind considering both Mable and Garret seemed to be fine with at least trying to see if the girl was truly guilty or not. Still thinking of possible traps we might be falling into, I had brought up that perhaps this was some kind of loyalty test to weed out any potential dissent before a new leader takes over, but they had dismissed it as unlikely. I supposed that should have been enough for me since they were generally more aware of the political aspects of the kingdom than I, but something still did not sit quite right with me. I felt like there might be a trap waiting somewhere and that maybe we could avoid falling into it if we stayed sharp and aware. That is what I was occupying my mind with as we left the inn and started off towards the castle walls, keeping my eyes peeled and my ears alert for anything that seemed out of place. Considering the only bit of my powers I knew how to use right now were the passive heightened senses, it was the most I could do.

I severely wished that we had been able to have had more time to have talked to the wizard and press him for information about what this was all about. It seemed a bit too convenient for him to have picked up seemingly two random girls on the street and given us vague offerings of rewarding us with our wildest dreams, even if the price of being caught could be equally as extreme. My mother, always the one of the wisest in the commune, had often warned of the outside world and to always be skeptical of situations that seemed too good to be true, because often they were indeed not true at all. Something about this scenario begged for me to find which part of it was too good to be true. Why wouldn’t an incredibly talented wizard do all this work himself? Were there not other, much more powerful mages around who could do the task safer and easier? No, something didn’t quite add up. If only there was time to work anything out and the execution didn’t make for a hard deadline. It would be pointless to prove the girl’s innocence if her head was no longer attached to her shoulders.

Rounding the corner towards the eastern edge of the castle walls, a patrol of guards came into view, the two of them leisurely chatting as they walked the perimeter of the castle grounds. The three of us stepped back into the shadow of the building where the colorful overhead awning of a flower shop prevented the flickering street lamp from penetrating the darkness. They were in no hurry on their route, forcing us to stand silent and still. I wished that we were already using the invisibility cloak, but Garret had decided that it was too risky since we were already on low uses left on the garment. Apparently if any one of us stepped out or tripped out of the cloak and were revealed it would break the spell for all of us and we would need to use up another cast. It was much smarter to save it for parts of our plan that absolutely required us to go unseen and have extra casts just in case something went wrong..

“Dumber than a door nail,” one of the guards said to the other. “I mean that’s obvious since she killed her meal ticket for becoming a princess, but I mean on top of that.”

“She can’t be as empty headed as they make her out to be,” the other one scoffed as he lightly dragged the pole arm along the ground that he was carrying. “I have seen her in the distance before when she would take her walks around the castle gardens, she is absolutely stunning, truly a wonder of this world. It would be a cruel joke for her to be all looks and no substance.”

“I thought that too, but I promise it’s astounding how stupid she is. Whether it is nature or the gods, one of them decided to make her the sweetest flower in the garden, but that flower grows upside down and inside out.”

“You make her seem like she can barely walk and talk.” The guard seemed suddenly bothered by the sound his dragging halberd was making on the ground and picked it up, hiking it up to rest more on his shoulder. “Surely the prince, the smart man he is, would find himself not drawn to someone who is a complete dunce.”

“Independently? No, she can both walk and talk, though together might be a little difficult,” the first guard said with a gruff laugh that signaled he was only partially joking. “I wonder if the nobles were partially all up in arms about her intellect, or lack thereof, just as much as they were about her being a commoner. Maybe they would have been a bit more open to the idea if it was someone more refined and put together, but a commoner and stupid, was bound to fail.”

The pair had made it out of our line of sight behind the last shop before the start of the castle walls and their voices were fading away, though with my newly tuned ears I found I could still hear them much clearer than I should.”

“Then tell me, if she is so stupid how did-”

“I think they’re gone,” Mable whispered next to me, though with how hard I was concentrating to overhear the conversation it felt like a slap in the face.

I held up my hand to let her know to keep quiet a bit longer and strained my hearing once more.

“-father sells potions down the way, the pink shop.”

I listened for a moment more but then it all just because vague sounds on the breeze and I could not make out any actual words. Still, even if I did not quite know what the question or answer had been, I did have an interesting bit of information about the girl if we ended up needing it. That had been the first instance of my newly enhanced senses being effective and having a distinct purpose and it made me wonder if the wizard had seen the potential within me and simply mistaken that I had known about them already.

Garret pushed me forward and pointed towards the wall. “Discuss later, we can’t linger here, if they’re doing their job there won’t be an overly long period before the next set comes around the corner and we need to go up and over slowly and carefully, not scramble and make noise,” he said in a low whisper.

Up against the weathered granite stones, I pressed my hands to the pattern the stacked stones made in front of me and I tried to feel for any hand holds that would make the climb up easier. I was acutely aware that I had experienced a childhood full of climbing anything I got near partially out of the childhood urge to be up high and terrify my parents and the other half out of being so bored that it was something to do. My fingers and toes still had the muscle memory necessary to probably scale a nearly flat and smooth wall, but Mable at the very least had been raised a noble and had all the toys in the kingdom at her disposal, I was guessing that she had never much thought about climbing anything. The stones were set well and meant to stand the test of time and the weather, but they must have also been set long ago because there were noticeable divots where the mortar had been slowly dissolving and chipping away leaving just enough space between each of the stones for me to get my fingertips into up to almost the first knuckle. Some of the spaces were not quite so forgiving, but if we picked a good part of the wall perhaps it wouldn’t be too much of a struggle for Mable.

A weight pressed gently on my back as my fingers searched carefully over the stone and soft lips grazed the back of my ear. “Does not have to be an ideal section, just get yourself over and give me your pack,” Garret whispered warmly into my ear.

Feeling pinpricks of delight all over my body I did as he asked and took off my pack and handed it to him. It was not overly full, just some items like matches, a length of rope, a small sewing kit, and any other little odds and ends from my travel pack that seemed like they might be useful and didn’t weigh much. He slung the bag over his shoulder and pointed up the wall indicating that he wanted me to go first. I found a spot where my fingers sunk reasonably far into the cracks and then hoisted myself up, found my first reasonably stable foothold, then used it to lever my body up to find the next. I glanced back at Mable and saw that she looked nervous. I was probably right in my assumption that it had at least been at least since the early days of her childhood since she had last climbed a tree or anything else.

It was not overly difficult to get to the top of the wall and once I could lean over to the other side, I swung one of my legs up to straddle the wall, then pressed my body low to the stone to keep myself more hidden and looked down at the pair waiting at the bottom. I had only climbed perhaps thirty or forty feet so I could still make out their facial expressions well. Garret motioned for her to step closer to him and for a moment I thought maybe he was going to whisper pointers to her about how the tackle the climb, but instead as soon as she closed the gap between them he leaned down, pressed his shoulder to her abdomen and slung her over his shoulder with ease, carrying her like a baker would a large sack of flour. She gasped, but quickly clamped her hand over her mouth to stop any further sound and he started climbing up the wall like he was carrying nothing at all. As soon as he was close enough for me to start being in the way from him cresting, I swung my leg over and started descending the other side. This was trickier since I did not have the foreknowledge of being able to see ahead of time where a foothold might be, so I worked on faith and luck until I safely made it down to the ground. We seemed to have picked a spot behind some bushes where I could crouch low and avoid any passing guards. None of us were very knowledgeable about any of the patrol patterns so we were working on the assumption that at every turn we could run into one.

Just a minute or so after I had made the climb down, Garret carefully stepped down next to me and bent over to let Mable’s feet touch the ground again. They both crouched down next to me and Garret laid his arm over my shoulders and gave me a squeeze as if to assure me that he was still thinking of me. I could see where someone might have taken offense to him being that close with a girl like Mable pressed to him, but I was not jealous and instead relieved that she had not either taken forever to climb the wall and gotten us caught or slipped near the top and broken her skull open. I reached up and wrapped my hand around his and gave it a squeeze to tell him all was well and he nodded in response, then handed me my pack back. It was a sweet gesture that he had still taken my pack so I could climb easier even though he was planning on already making it much harder on himself.

After a while waiting to see if anyone would come by, there had not even been a hint of guards on the inside mulling around and once there were footsteps on guards on the other side of the wall and they walked past and faded away, Garret took the lead and walked us along the wall until we could figure out exactly where we were. Our agreed upon plan had been that once we got into the castle grounds to circle them using the wall to keep our bearing and any foliage as cover until we could figure out where exactly the paddock outside the stables was. It seemed like it should not have been too difficult to find given how large of an area they would need seeing as the royal family owned quite a large herd of horses and much to our luck it appeared we had picked a very lucky spot as our entrance because after just a couple hundred feet we came across the start of a wooden fence at about the right height to mark the edge of the paddock. The horizontal bars of the fence were big enough for all three of us to easily slip through and once on the other side, Mable reached into her pack and dug out the magical cloak. We weren’t planning on necessarily using it just yet, but if anyone happened to be out around the stables we would quickly throw it over us and lay on the ground pretending to just be one of the clods of dirt the horses had gouged up with their hooves. Worst case scenario we would activate it and hope that we did not need any more than the allotted emergency activation later.

Running with the assumption that the old emergency access tunnel would have to be at least somewhat out of place, we slowly plodded towards the stables far in the distance. The area was relatively flat, as to be expected for an area meant for the horses to run around and graze, but curiously as we approached the pond, the ground started to slope up more. It seemed a little out of place given the low elevation of everywhere else around us and we looked between ourselves and gave silent agreement that we needed to carefully search the area to see if the entrance was nearby. We began dragging our feet lightly as we walked, hoping to catch a lip of a trap door or some odd bump in the ground that might give away that something man made was buried underneath. By the time we made it to the edge of the water the ground was a good few feet higher than the rest of the paddock and the corner of my boot thunked against something very solid in the dirt. I did not need to say anything, both of them trotted over to me and began to help me dig away the soil from whatever I had found. Together we uncovered an old wooden hatch with metal pulls and hinges so rusty that I was certain they would break the moment we applied any pressure to them.

As soon as we uncovered the entire hatch, Garret motioned for us to clear the area, then squatted low, grabbed the pull for the hatched and gently, but firmly began to pull up. It was stubborn from having been closed and buried for so long and his heels dug deep into the moist soil, but eventually there was a groan of the metal giving way and grinding against itself as it started pulling open. Mable and I looked around nervously, certain that anyone without earshot was going to come investigate such a strange sound in the middle of what should have been an empty field, but despite the noises the hinges were making, no one had decided to come check yet if we had been heard. Thankfully, with a last big heave the hatch fully swung open and we quickly climbed in, Garret first, then Mable, then finally I was the last into the tunnel.

It was inky black in the tunnel, even the moonlight streaming in from the hatch above did nothing to really help and as soon as Garret reached up to close the door it became completely impossible to see anything. I was very glad that I had thought to bring matches and I shifted my pack around on my shoulder to rummage blindly to find them. Before I could even locate the opening to my pack to start feeling around for them, a light flared to life next to me. My eyes snapped to a perfect sphere of faintly yellow light, glowing from Garret’s cupped hand. He held it out in front of him, giving gentle illumination to the area around us, though the only thing I could focus on was how he was managing to create the light. From what I could see there was no actual source for the light to be emanating from, it was just there, coming into existence from no fuel or ignition source. He met my eyes and gave a little smile like he would explain later, though I was pretty sure the explanation was just going to be that it was magic of some kind. Mable looked a little surprised, but not overly and was soon pressing ahead of us, looking around at the walls that surrounded us.

The tunnel had very obviously been forgotten and left to return to nature. The stones that had once made up smooth walls were now mostly scattered on the crumbling floor. Roots had poked between the stone until they had been dislodged, cracking many in half and letting moisture flow through and further erode the integrity of the walls. As a result, probably due to the location of the pond nearby, there was about half an inch of standing, stagnant water on the floor of the tunnel that made me very grateful my travel boots were fairly watertight. The space was not overly cramped and two of us were able to walk side by side at a time, though Garret found it necessary to duck slightly to keep his head from brushing the roots and debris that dangled from the ceiling.

With Garret leading the way with the light in his hands, we made slow work traveling down the tunnel, stepping carefully so as to not stumble over the debris or kick anything and make too much noise. Any little noise would echo down the tunnel and since we did not know where the exit would be, we had no way to know if there would be anyone posted around the area or not. It was best to tread as if people were actively looking for intruders and err on the side of potentially being overly cautious. After we had walked perhaps a couple hundred feet or so there was a strange rumbling and rustling sound that arose next to us that sounded like it was coming from within the wall itself. We all paused and waited, unsure of what exactly was happening. Swinging the light closer to the wall, every time the rumbling sound happened the dirt on the wall crumbled a little more, little bits of dirt and stone tumbling to the ground. Whatever was happening it was right next to us and seemed dangerously close to breaking through what was left of the wall. Garret raised his hand and motioned us to carefully move past and get away from whatever was happening, but it was too late and as soon as I stepped directly in front of where the wall was being disturbed, something burst through the wall, flinging dirt and stone in a waterfall over me and I was roughly grabbed around the waist by something disgustingly slimy and leathery.

Figuring we were beyond helping being quiet anymore I let out a scream as I felt myself being roughly lifted off my feet and flung to the ground, knocking the air from my lungs and cutting my scream short. Pain flared in my back as I landed and radiated out from the base of my spine and I had a moment of panic of what would happen if I ended up severely injured and could not move under my own power. I would have to convince them to leave me behind and I didn’t think that Garret would be willing to do that even if it meant he would get caught as well. With a jerky movement that gave away whatever had me did not think I weighed much at all, I was lifted up to the ceiling and the front of my body slapped against the ceiling, smushing my nose painfully and I could feel blood start to gush down my face. Shocked into reaction, my free arms flailed around me, punching and pounding at whatever had me, between all the dirt that had been flung into my eyes and the blood coating my face I couldn’t see whatever I was battling. My attacker didn’t seem to notice my pitiful attempts at damaging it by impact, so I turned to gripping the leathery skin tightly and digging in my nails, trying to get purchase to slice and gouge in to cause it enough pain to think twice about holding onto me. In my desperate clawing, I felt my nails get purchase and I stabbed them sharply into the skin and the creature reacted in pain, jerking and narrowly smashing my head into the other side of the wall. I pressed harder, my fingers crying out in pain as I stretched their strength to the limit and I felt a popping sensation under my fingertips and warm, wet fluid began to stream over my hand. I let out a cry of triumph as I felt jerking movements of the creature stop and I plummeted to the floor, the strange appendage around me thankfully cushioning me as I fell to the floor and landed with a hard, went thump.

“Rose are you okay?!” Garret asked with clear panic, his voice was close to me and his hands began tugging frantically at whatever was still holding onto my waist tightly.

“I think,” I managed to eke out through the crusted blood and dirt on my lips, “I might be okay.”

“Stay still,” he commanded sharply when I tried to lift myself up onto my elbows to help him untangle the oozing mass, “you might just be in shock. Don’t move until we’re sure you’re not seriously injured.”

Another set of hands joined his, tugging and unraveling the thick appendage and their combined work finally set me free though a thick layer of something slimy still glued my blouse and trousers to my skin along with a copious amount of debris from the feel of it. I gingerly reached up and used the back of my hands to try to clear my vision, but the blood or whatever I had gotten all over my hands only made things worse.

“Stop Rose, you’re just making it worse. I brought some water,” Mable said and then there was the sound of her rummaging in her pack and then of a cork being popped from a bottle.

Water splashed across my eyes then a cloth wiped gingerly over my face, followed by more water. I let out a gasp of pain as the cloth was pressed to my injured nose and I turned my head to try to get away from the pain.

“Oh no I thought that was blood from the thing not from you,” Mable said in alarm.

“Let me see,” Garret demanded and I felt him raise his head into his lap.

Another gentle stream of water rinsed my eyes clear enough for me to be able to open them and I was looking up at Garret as he arranged a bit of cloth in his hand to go in to try to clean my nose again. Strangely, he was now shirtless, something must have happened in all the chaos that I missed how that happened. In a less painful and terrifying moment that would have really excited me, still I was very grateful to have something nice to look at while he dealt with the painful task of seeing how bad off I was.

With a touch so gentle that I wasn’t sure he was going to make any progress in actually washing anything off, he pressed the cloth and made slow wiping motions while using his other hand to pour a bit more water. Even just the natural weight of the water made my swelling flesh ache and I let out a moan of pain, but then smiled softly to assure him that it was okay and he could continue. After several slow moments the cloth became a more and more alarming shade of red and my face felt much cleaner, though I could still feel blood trickling down both sides of my nose in thin streams.

“Is definitely broken,” he said with a sigh. He set aside the blood soaked cloth and there was a tearing sound beside my head and another piece appeared which he gently set against my nostrils. “Would you please wash her hand so she can apply the pressure herself. I don’t know what will be too much and I don’t want to hurt her trying to stop the bleeding.”

“Of course,” Mable replied and the bottle of water was passed over.

“Sure you’re feeling alright?” Garret asked again, looking down at me with a concerned expression as he stroked my hair. He was keeping an ultra delicate touch on my nose, so much so it wasn’t doing much to actually stop the bleeding and instead he had to move the cloth to soak up the escaping blood every few seconds.

“I think so,” I answered and realized just how stuffed up and nasally I sounded. “My nose hurts of course and my lower back a bit, but it’s nothing I can’t tolerate.”

“You can wiggle your toes just fine?” He asked.

I did him one better and lifted both of my legs off the ground slightly one at a time.

“Good,” he said with obvious relief in his voice, “healing something currently outside of my abilities.

“Mine too unfortunately, just don’t have the knack for it,” Mable said as she finished cleaning my hand. “All done.”

I raised my arm up and took the already half-soaked cloth from his hand and applied my own pressure.

“Can I sit up?”

Garret helped me to slowly sit up and though my back twinged and complained about moving, there was nothing so terrible that I felt like I needed to stop. I would definitely feel tonight for a long while, but I did not think I would end up with any lasting effects as long as my nose was set well. That was a very distant afterthought of a worry though, I was just glad to be alive.

“Oh gods, what is that?” I asked in horror as my eyes fell on the creature that had had me in its clutches.

Whatever it was, it was as thick as my waist was around only very flexible, the part that I had assumed had been pulled off of me was still half-curled and contracting back on itself as it died. The leathery skin of the creature was a disconcerting shade of fleshy pink that was covered in a very thick slime that made it nauseatingly moist and glistening in the light that was hovering just off Garret’s right shoulder. I had actually made an impressive wound on it with my fingers that were very slowly oozing still from deep puncture wounds where my fingers had punched through its hide. A puddle of blood was gathering along the floor that connected the severed end from another identical bit of the creature that was still protruding from the wall. It was still gushing dark red blood out from the severed end like somewhere a heart was still pumping and I fought the urge to stumble back and run away in fear that maybe it will rise up again and take revenge.

“Giant earthworm,” Garret said soothingly and returned his hands to stroking my hair to keep me calm. “Rare but not unheard of, they tunnel through graveyards looking for the freshly buried as they find those tasty snacks. There is a graveyard not too far from here, it probably just strayed a bit too far from where it normally roams and got a little too curious about what it was sensing, this tunnel probably hasn’t had anyone in it for decades.”

“I have never heard anything like that before,” I said as I breathed deeply trying to calm down my thundering heart. “You would think that I would know practically every animal given my background.”

“Like I said most people will never see one, you’ve just won the prize of being supremely lucky or unlucky depending on how you look at it.”

“I’m going to go with very unlucky,” I said, pulling myself to my feet. “I can walk through, so that’s nice.”

“I’m so glad, I thought for sure my carelessness had gotten you severely injured or worse,” Garret said barely above a whisper, then leaned in and enveloped me in a hug. “I promise I won’t be so careless again.”

“Why would you blame yourself? Like you said they’re incredibly rare, it’s not your fault.”

“I knew something was happening and it made me uneasy,” he said stubbornly with a shake of his head. “I should have walked between you and the wall so it would have grabbed me instead.” He kissed the top of my head despite all the dirt and blood caked into my hair.

“You’re being silly,” I protested. I had more to argue, but when I pulled the cloth away from my nose briefly to find a dry spot I found there wasn’t one left.

“Let me get a new one,” he said and reached down at his feet and tugged at the tatters of the shirt he had been wearing, ripping off one of the sleeves and handing it to me.

“You destroyed your shirt for me?” Despite all the pain in my back and head my heart just skipped a beat.

“It was the least I could do, the least any man would have done for someone in peril,” he replied with a shrug.

“Look, okay, I’ve been over here patient enough letting you have your whole ‘oh no I almost lost you never leave me,’ love fest,” Mable said with a strangely bewildered look on her face. “No hate, really, it’s very cute and I’m happy for you both, but I have to interrupt and get some answers real fast.”

Garret let out a long sigh and murmured softly, “Can’t it wait?”

“Oh no, no, it can't, I'm afraid,” Mable said with a light laugh. She looked to the severed end of the worm and nudged it with her blood stained boots. “Can’t help but notice you don’t have a blade on you to have done that and my eyes were trained on trying to figure out how to get Rose down and not focused on what you were doing, but I do vividly recall a bright flash of light and then she was suddenly freed and tumbling to the ground. That paired with the ball of light you just so nonchalantly have been carrying around with you…” She trailed off and looked at him with a serious and meaningful expression. “Fill in the missing pieces here for me.”

“Yes, as I’m sure you’re alluding to, I used to be an apprentice of sorts to some powerful magic wielders,” he admitted.

“What kind?” she asked impatiently.

“My master was a cleric and I was trained to eventually become one of them,” he answered flatly.

“So you’ve taken vows to a god?” she said with a groan. “Why didn’t you say this outright? Everything you do has to be in alignment with that god or bad things happen to you and the people around you. You don’t just hide this kind of thing from people.”

He stood looking at her, a pained expression on his face and after a moment he nodded like he understood everything about her frustration. He took a deep breath in, held it, then let it out slowly.

“It is more complicated than being just a normal cleric, usually I would readily agree with you. Ten years ago I wouldn’t dream of living the life I do now and you’re right, I would have worn my devotion on my sleeve, but then things changed.” He paused and a pained look washed over his features that spoke of anguish and grief. “It is complicated trying to explain to people you just meet how you can be a cleric to a dead god.”

“Gods can die?” I asked, thoroughly confused. That seemed to go against what I thought the definition of a god is.

“They can,” he said with an obviously heavy heart, “I know that fact painfully all too well. Sometimes gods get into fights and hold grudges, they fester and then some gods conspire to kill others. Like your attack, very rare but all too possible.”

“Sorry I pressed,” Mable said with a sigh, “had I thought it could be something like that I would have kept my mouth shut.”

He shrugged and leaned down to gather the packs and items that had been flung from them in the struggle. “It is something I don’t like to talk about for obvious reasons, but I think the two of you should hear the story once we are done here. So let’s press on and see if we can talk with the girl and get some answers.”

“Agreed, let’s keep going.” She looked all too ready to put the awkward moment behind us. “Are you going to be okay Rose? We can wait a little longer if you need.”

I shook my head at the idea of lingering any longer than necessary around the dying beast, my bleeding was slowing and though I felt stiff and woosey I could walk and keep up. We continued our journey down the tunnel, though much more careful to keep a close ear on any movements in the dirt around us. Not too much farther in, perhaps another four or five hundred feet from where I had been attacked, the air had grown much less stale and a bit cooler. There was fresher air entering in from somewhere. A door, heavily grown over by roots and covered in cobwebs sat as the entrance to the emergency tunnel.

Garret looked to us for permission to continue and pry it open, he wanted us to be sure we both wanted to take this step. It was one thing to break into castle grounds, it was another much more illegal step to break into the castle itself. At this point I felt we were past the point of no return anyway and I nodded my consent and Mable did the same. Wasting no time he gripped the roots through the cobwebs and began to rip the roots away until he could get a hold on the rotting handle of the door. Pressing his feet into the ground and placing his free hand on the wall next to the door, he pulled with all his strength and with a great ripping sound the door swung free, its hinges having long rusted away. We were left staring at the back of some kind of shelf that had been moved in front of the door and long forgotten.