Amazingly, no one was on the other side of the prison door when they opened it, just an empty hall made of smoothly fitted brick like her cell but painted white, giving it a much more open feel. It also turned out that the cell room Tif had been kept in was in the lower portion of the palace, and so only a few stairwells and an old iron ladder later, she and Awt splashed down in the murky slop of the sewers.
“Can’t believe they have these up here, too,” Tif said, looking around at the shadowy confines. Awt had pulled a short torch out from behind his back and lit it, producing a small fist of orange and yellowish flame.
“What do you mean?” he said, starting on the descent. “This is where the pipes originate. It all flows down from here, just like everything else in Lercel.”
They walked in silence for a time after that but for the burble and squish of the ankle high water they disturbed. Tif imagined it was just mud squishing between her bare toes, and it mostly felt like that. There was definitely a stink to it, but not nearly as bad as what she remembered from the sewers that circulated through the lows. Here the smells tickled her nose and throat, barely burning her eyes and she didn’t even have the urge to gag.
“Can’t believe we didn’t see anyone on the way out,” Tif finally said. “How many people did you pay off?”
The torch illuminated Awt’s face enough for Tif to see him shoot her a sidelong look. “Trying to figure out if I have any flats left from your winnings? If so, there’s an easier way to ask.”
Tif didn’t like the tone he was taking with her one bit, acting as if she didn’t have a right to know about her money. Pep reminded her that he was probably just sore about how she had nearly made him pass out, but that didn’t change her reply any.
“I don’t need to ask because I already know you’re going to pay me back every flat.”
He raised his eyebrows at that. “Am I now?”
“You most certainly are,” Tif said. “And I’m asking my question because guards are supposed to guard things. Doesn’t make sense they were all gone.” So much didn’t make sense to Tif right now, from Rof’s death, to where Udaru was, to why the knights, and Jer, were trying to blame her when she hadn’t even been close enough to touch the Archon--and a pity that she hadn’t. Not to mention the beating the Archon’s brother had given here. It hadn’t been as bad as being stabbed by the spidra, but still, he was a knight, an arcknight. He shouldn’t be treating anyone like that.
With so much strange in so short a time, if even one thing could make more sense Tif would feel better.
Awt stepped on something in the sludge that crunched, and suddenly a biting stench filled the air. It still wasn’t too bad to Tif, but he put a hand over his face, which muffled his voice a bit. “Don’t know what to tell you. I had a contact who met me at the top of the ladder. I paid him and another guard who brought me to outside your door. They left me alone after that and probably returned to their posts soon after we were gone.”
Tif mulled his explanation over. It did make a sort of sense. If she was a guard who had just gotten a stack of flats, she’d rather a superior find her guarding the wrong place than catch her letting a prisoner stroll out of their cell. The important thing Tif supposed was that she was out now, and she’d get answers to the other questions as she could.
First though, she needed to save her parents.
They had passed maybe half a dozen ladders on their trip so far, and the sewer tunnel they were in was getting gradually wider. Also, beyond their squishing, Tif began to hear what sounded like running water in the distance, but the way sound carried in the round structure was strange, so she had no idea how far away it was.
Tif didn’t get to find out because at the next ladder Awt stopped, dumping his torch to the side, which thankfully kept burning where it stuck in the sludge, continuing to give them light. For half a moment Tif had been worried that it would catch what they were walking in aflame, as plenty of people in the lows, her family included, burned their poop during the colder months. When the slowly drifting river of brownish yellow didn’t, she realized that it was probably too wet.
Awt began to climb up the ten or so rungs to the top, but Tif held back.
“The knights we’ll be looking for me.” She hated saying it, especially since she had been so close to becoming one, but it was true.
Awt let go of one bar, so he could more easily face her. “We can’t walk the whole way down the mountain in the sewers, it would take forever. Not to mention there’s a drop off ahead. Don’t you hear it?”
Tif nodded to Pep, so that was the rushing sound they had heard. Tif found herself wishing she had Tears ris instead of Blood, so she could simply port to wherever Vak-Lav was hiding in a few moments. But that would have its problems tied to it, like what she had heard the division leaders say about rounding everyone up with Tears ris and having it overwritten. She hoped Bes and Yuu were doing okay and not being blamed for what happened with the Archon. Or her escape, Tif realized. She couldn’t imagine anyone, the Archon’s brother especially, would be happy to find her gone from her cell.
“You coming?” Awt asked, now at the top of the ladder and pushing the grating over it aside.
The torch was guttering out, and so in the remaining light, Tif quickly ascended the rungs, actually having to wait behind Awt a few moments for him to finish getting the grate moved aside. When it was done and they were both up on the street, Tif looked around while Awt replaced the metal grill. It was apparently too late in the evening for people to be using candles, but the stars provided just enough light to give the outlines of buildings, which was enough for Tif to determine that they were in the mids, likely on the edge of the highs, considering that the buildings up the slope looked bigger.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
As expected, Awt continued their trek down the mountain, but Tif hadn’t anticipated that he’d stop at the first lift platform they encountered. Before she could ask, he turned to her and said, “The sooner we get there, the better.”
She didn’t bother to argue. The lift didn’t run as much at night, but it did still have an hourly rotation, and Awt paid for both of their tickets. The woman in the lantern-lit booth who handed the slips over wrinkled her nose at them and shooed them away, telling them to wait on the far side of the ramp. They complied, and Tif did her best to wipe her feet off on the cobblestone street while Awt made no such effort. She knew she’d stink nonetheless, but after leaving the sewers, Tif felt uncomfortably exposed and found she could breathe better when she had something else to focus on. Speaking of…
“I thought you got rid of your ris,” Tif whispered to Awt. She hadn’t noticed before, but he had a tiny triangle of gold near his hairline. It didn’t look as good as the strip he used to have on his nose, but either way, Tif was happy to see he was a citizen again, even if she wasn’t. Tif froze. She wasn’t. She had completely forgotten that she was missing her Gold ris and even worse had some Death ris in its place. If that ticket woman hadn’t been put off by their smell or if Tif had been the one to pay, she surely would have noticed.
“Just some paint,” Awt answered, only stoking her worry. “Didn’t want the guards asking extra questions.”
When the lift finally descended from above, like an oval, shadowy cloud, Tif’s body was rigid with the nerves she was trying to keep in check. They fluttered up in her though as the lift slowed, and she became suddenly convinced that a group of knights was about to disembark, or an Aspect--even though she’d never seen an Aspect ride the lift--and the two of them would be found out. She needn’t have worried though as not a soul got off, and they were the only two who got on. Including them, there were only five people in the passenger area, two young women who appeared to be friends standing by the south railing, and old keshe sitting on the two sided bench in the middle.
Tif went straight to the northern end of the lift, as far away from everyone else as possible, and Awt followed her over. She couldn’t bear to put her back to the sparse group of strangers, so she sat on the outer bench and looked down at the floorboards to hopefully hide her face. Awt didn’t sit down beside her like he would have only a week ago. Whether it was because he no longer felt that was his place or they were getting off at the very next stop, Tif didn’t know, and she found she couldn’t make herself care. Not with her parents so close. Not when she was about to be able to right the wrong that had been hovering over her ever since she had learned at the end of the challenges that they were prisoners.
The laughter of the girls at the other end of the lift drifted toward her, and Tif couldn’t help but comment, “How can they be so carefree?”
“You mean, with the Archon dead?” Awt asked.
Tif’s head snapped up. “How do you know about that?” The last time there had been a change in Archon Tif had been five or six, and nearly every plaza had been transformed into a wonderland of colored lace, confetti, and matching stalls that gave out free candy. What’s more, according to her parents, that funeral had been tame compared to what had been done for the Archon before that. With all the pomp and planning required when such a change occurred, Tif was sure they wouldn’t have made the announcement yet, especially considering the circumstances surrounding it.
“The underground knows everything that happens in and out of Lercel,” Awt responded, “including when the Archon is murdered or when a person of interest returns home.”
Though Awt did a better job of selling the reach of the underground than the spy in Udaru’s tent had done, she doubted it was as connected as all that, not after what she had experienced in Sah’Sah firsthand. Tif had, however, been wondering how Awt had gotten to her so quickly and that answered it. Except it didn’t…
“But you don’t work for the underground anymore,” she said.
Awt’s return silence made her colder than the air that blew over the lift’s deck.
“Right?” she pressed.
“What do you care?” he said, crossing his arms and looking out over the dark city. “You left.”
Despite everything, Tif opened her mouth to tell Awt how much better he was than that collection of ticks who fed on Lercel’s underbelly, but that’s when a thought came to her, one that made her stand up so aggressively he took a quick and wary step away from her.
“Is that how they knew where my parents were? You told them?” Tif wasn’t sure what she’d do if he said yes, but the railing being so close at hand gave her some rather violent ideas.
The tension in Awt’s shoulders lessened slightly, though he still looked far from comfortable. “They didn’t need me for that Tif,” he said. “The underground has eyes all over, including the sewers.”
“But you knew,” Tif said. “How could you let it happen? They raised you.”
He stood up straight at the accusation, and with him in shoes and her not, they were actually the same height.
“I rejoined as soon as I knew they were taken,” Awt said, “to make sure that they were treated fairly. I brought them food, even extra blankets. I helped them.”
“But not to escape. You left them right where they were.”
In the starlight, Tif saw a flash of guilt on his face.
“I had a plan--”
The kerchunk of the lift settling into place stopped him from talking. He gave her a frustrated look and then turned, exiting the transport, and she followed. Down the steps of the raised landing platform and onto the streets, Tif thought he might list out other things he had done for her parents instead of the one thing he should have, but he didn’t. He marched down the pavement as if he could get away from the conversation, eventually angling toward a shop with what looked like a cheese wheel on its sign. There were no candles in the windows, the same as the rest of the nearby buildings, but Awt didn’t hesitate in his approach.
Reaching the door, however, he did stop. Tif paused beside him despite her eagerness to burst inside, thinking he maybe needed to speak a password or knock one out on the wood. She even thought he might attempt to convince her not to confront Vak-Lav, which he oddly hadn’t tried yet.
“I’m not going with you,” was what he said.
No apology, no sorry. After everything, Tif didn’t know why she had expected more. “Fine,” she said.
“You’re on your own.” And just like that, he was off down a side alley.
Tif watched him go, thinking that he couldn’t have been more wrong. She’d always have Pep and soon she’d have her family back--her real family. With a breath, Tif refocused on the door and pushed it open. As she did, she felt a wave of relief: first, because it hadn’t been locked, and second, because the two men standing inside clearly hadn’t gotten their muscles and scars from churning butter.
It seemed that at the least Awt had brought her to the right spot.
To their clear surprise, she gave them a smile. “Oh good, I was starting to feel a bit tired after that hike.”