I held up a hand. Kelser and Kol stopped. I stuck close to the wall and peered over the corner. A couple of guards, armed with spears, stood in front of a large gate. The streets were deserted because it was late at night and only the richest people could afford things like oil lamps. Of course, this was the part of the city where all the rich people lived, since it was right next to the royal palace, so there were orange glows coming in through every window and doorway, but rich people weren’t about to go strolling through the street this late at night, anyway. Another group of guards walked up to the first pair, exchanged a couple of words, and switched out.

The tired guards were walking towards us, yawning and letting their spears droop down. I snuck a glance at the nearest window, which was throwing soft orange light on everything in front of us. I hid behind the wall again and looked at my companions. Kelser’s brows were furrowed. He was applying light magic on himself, making himself a lot harder to see but not completely invisible. Kol frowned as she looked at her own body. She was mostly invisible, but waves of color rippled over her body and face as the uneven light bounced all around her. My invisibility magic didn’t work very well under unstable light like that in this alleyway tonight. This was why Kol didn’t go out at night in the city, and also why I didn’t want us to go to the palace tonight. But considering what we had learned from the secret message, we had no choice.

The three of us pressed our bodies against the wall, trying to hide in the shadows away from all the lamplight. Only the moon spread its silver light over us, which was consistent enough for my magic to work. Still, all it would take is for some clouds to roll over the moon and we’d give ourselves away.

The guards rounded the corner, giving the darkness where we were standing a wide berth. It was very late. They were clearly tired. I held my breath. Kelser and Kol did the same. One step. Two. They were firmly out of sight of the gates. One guard’s eyes widened and he tried to yell, but something clamped on his mouth. He fainted. The other guard tried to ready his spear, but there was a sharp jab on his neck. He didn’t collapse to the ground, phantom limbs coming to prop him up and drag him over to the dark corner.

My motion detection magic was triggered. I pressed Kol and Kelser to the wall again with magic hands, and held my breath. Something came bounding across the street, making loud, aggressive noises, and knocking pebbles and stones all over the place. Somebody yelled after it. Another person came to the windows.

A large white monster barreled down the road at breakneck speed. The monster had a large, droopy snout, flickering ears, and beady little eyes that rolled around in their sockets like marbles. The monster’s four legs tapped on the stony streets as it raced down them and let out strange cat-like noises. A little boy was running after it, almost stumbling over his stodgy little feet. He couldn’t even keep his eyes open, and was breathing like crazy. The monster and boy would reach us soon. There were already a few people looking out of their windows at all the commotion.

The large white monster’s legs seemed to be caught on something on the ground. It gave a little yelp as it fell over itself and tumbled onto the ground. The monster’s eyes and ears flicked around, as if looking for something, but as the little boy approached, the monster started whimpering and wagging its leg in the air. The little boy ran up to the monster, hugged it, and started scolding it for running away. The monster’s ears drooped low and it diverted all of its attention back to the little boy.

The little boy picked up the monster and started walking back down the road. A group of adults, most of them wearing servants’ clothes, ran up to the little boy and began talking to him. They accompanied him back out of eyesight. Windows closed. Quiet mutterings continued. I let out a breath of relief.

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The guards hadn’t come over but I was sure they were watching this corner more vigilantly now. I used magic hands to grab a pebble and threw it in the alleyway on the other side. I heard some shuffling of iron and the tap of a spear. The guards were probably watching the other side now. I peered over the edge. They were. Alright. I signaled Kol and Kelser to follow carefully. We were hidden by invisibility, but couldn’t trust the spell under these conditions.

I’d wanted to sneak up from the walls instead of the gates, but Kol said there were more guards on the walls than on the gates. And since the palace was built far above the ground in the middle of the city, we would have to scale the walls while also trying to maintain our invisibility, which would be difficult since all of the walls were lit up with oil lamps at the top. Only this gate, which was mostly used by servants and guards, was dimly lit and loosely guarded. Presumably because the guards’ barracks was right behind it. Sneaking in from this side while making a commotion would be suicidal, since it would wake up an army of guards.

We snuck up to the wall right next to the guards. Our invisibility was holding just well enough. I used magic hands to throw some more pebbles in the other alley. One of the guards yelled out, asking who was there. I held my breath and cast earth magic, forcing a large rock formation to form in the other alleyway, making a small rumbling noise that barely traveled to the soldiers’ ears, but also cast a large shadow in the other alley. The guards stepped forward to get into an aggressive stance, and readied their spears. I could see the sweat on the back of their necks. I tapped Kelser and Kol on their shoulder with magic hands and started walking, passing right behind the guards and through the gate.

Once inside, I walked all the way through the courtyard and into the servants’ building. The guards’ barracks was on the right, with the lodging for the other servants on the other side. I kept walking forward, eventually dropping into what appeared to be a large, well-kept kitchen. I stepped to the side and dispelled my magic. Soon, Kelser and Kol appeared next to me. Kol had told us before that this place was the servants’ kitchen, which would lead to the royal kitchen and then into the palace proper. Once we left the servants’ area, every hallway would be lit with oil lamps and patrols of guards would cycle through them in an overlapping pattern.

And the palace itself was a maze. There were empty rooms, hallways that led to dead ends, and even a few deadly traps made by mad kings and queens of years gone by. The demon king’s private quarters were a closely guarded secret that only the king’s most trusted guards and his family would know about. Thankfully, Kol had already told us everything.

We could’ve tried to reveal Kol’s presence already and used her name to get an immediate audience with the king, but what if there were traitors among the guards? No, we would have to sneak all the way.

We walked into the palace after trying to use invisibility magic again. However, it was pretty much worthless in the lamplight. And so, I had to use a combination of motion detection magic and magic hands to avoid the guards, hide inside rooms and cupboards, and sometimes make small distractions that would hopefully be chalked down to the wind or something. I even broke a vase to get a pair of guards to run out of the way, but Kol gave me a deathly glare afterwards, so I didn’t break any more after that.

Kol held up a hand. I stopped. This was it. A door that looked as unassuming as any other. There weren’t even any guards around it, but Kol said that there would be two right inside it, and that the king’s actual quarters were actually behind the room behind this one. Unnecessarily complicated, if you asked me, but I suppose it was worth it if it made the demon king feel safer at night.

We quietly opened the door next to the one that led to the king’s quarters. This room was another empty dud, although Kol said every inch of it was trapped. Thankfully, we were able to disable or avoid the traps with magic, and came out to the other side. There was another door at the back, which led onto a small balcony. The three of us tiptoed onto the balcony, moonlight washing over our invisible bodies. There was a guard sitting behind the railings to our left. We knocked her out with magic and she slumped to the ground. We stepped onto the king’s balcony. Kelser and I stopped at the entrance.

Kol walked through the door.