With the map Eryx had drawn crushed in her pocket, Wisteria picked up her basket and opened the front door. She blinked in the sunlight, pausing on the threshold. It had been months—well, maybe not months, but a long time—since she’d last been outside. She took a deep breath to fill her lungs with fresh air, waiting for the smell of the salty ocean air to hit her. Instead, she got a lungful of smoke and sewage. Neither of which had ever been smells she associated with Nyrene. The once beautiful city had certainly seen some changes since Wisteria had last seen it, and those changes didn't appear to be for the better.

The formerly pristine cobblestone streets were littered with detritus, and the elves she observed walking by kept their heads down, not making eye contact with anyone around them. Wisteria mirrored them, ducking her own head as she stepped onto the street.

Eryx had wanted her to wait until nightfall, but she’d calmly pointed out that she could blend in better if there were other people around. Virelai may be able to slink around in the shadows, but Wisteria knew she was better at hiding amongst other elves. When she was around others, she was never the first elf someone would notice. With no striking features to boast of, she was plain looking, at best, and she’d never been more grateful for it than now.

Wisteria touched the map in her pocket to reassure herself it was still there.

Eryx's map had been a simple one, and it was unlikely she would need it. The hole was just far enough away from the main gate that she wouldn't draw attention from the guards for snooping around, but still in a populated enough area that if anyone found her, it wouldn't seem strange or suspicious for her to be wandering.

When she reached the end of the street Virelai's house was on, Wisteria took a right, heading down toward the base of the cliff and the massive stone dragons guarding the entrance to the city. From here, she could see the flames that met in the center, forming the arc over the opening.

She lowered her gaze to the road in front of her and spotted two of Gavaran's soldiers strolling up the street in the opposite direction she was headed. They may have looked relaxed, but Wisteria saw the way they scanned the elves passing them. They were looking for something—or perhaps someone.

A wave of panic overtook Wisteria as their eyes moved over her. They couldn’t possibly be looking for her. No one but the other servants knew her face. But what if something had happened and Virelai had sold them out? What if they took one look at her and knew that she was working against the new king? Maybe she’d doomed them all by insisting she go on this stupid mission.

"Overactive imagination, much?" Wisteria muttered under her breath. Virelai was right. She wasn’t cut out for this.

Instead of calling out for her to stop, the guards moved on without a second glance. Wisteria was tempted to check over her shoulder to see if they turned back—to see if they’d realized they’d made a mistake, and the traitor had been right there in front of them. It was only Virelai's words about how she looked suspicious when she kept glancing around that made her resist and keep walking forward.

The farther Wisteria went down the cliff, the thinner the crowd became. Another change from the time before the takeover. She suspected it was because no one was allowed out of the city, and therefore few had any business coming down here unless they lived here. Before she reached the gate, Wisteria turned off onto a narrow street that ran parallel to it.

It was a street that was both familiar and foreign to her. Either side was lined with buildings, several stories high and placed so close together that one could lean out of a window in one building and touch the wall of the other. These buildings housed multiple families on each floor. Wisteria would know. She’d called one such building home for the first seven years of her life.

Her memories from before moving to the castle to work as a servant were vague. She could picture the rooms, small but pleasant and always smelling of the lavender her mother loved so much. She also recalled how the walls had been thin, so you could hear your neighbors and the noise of traffic passing in and out of the gate, but she’d never minded. There had been something soothing about knowing life was going on around you.

As Wisteria hurried down the street, she passed a few younger elves outside the front of the buildings. They, like the rest of the elves she’d seen so far, looked worn and tired. Not at all like the happy faces she was used to seeing. It was doubtful they might recognize her, but she made sure to keep her face turned away from them all the same.

Readjusting the basket on her arm that was nothing more than a prop, she turned her attention to counting off the buildings.

After she reached building number six, Wisteria entered the alley next to it. The narrow space brushed her shoulders on either side. It wasn't meant for anyone to walk through, but younger children frequently came here to play away from the prying eyes of parents. Before the takeover, she wouldn't have been surprised to trip over a child hiding in the dark, but based on the faces of those she had seen in front of the buildings, Wisteria doubted she would find anyone playing here today.

It was dark and cool in the shadow of the buildings. All but a little sliver of blue sky had disappeared. It almost gave the sense that the walls were closing in. Wisteria kept moving forward until a minute later, she popped out next to the wall.

A quick glance in either direction confirmed there was no one around. To her right, Wisteria could faintly hear the noises of elves near the gate, but she couldn't quite see the gates themselves. The two large dragons that framed the entrance were just out of sight behind the building a few feet away.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Content that no one would see her, she rushed up to the wall.

She trailed her fingers along the smooth stone, searching for the imperfection. Eryx had said it wouldn't be visible, but she’d be able to feel it.

After searching several lengths of the wall on either side of the alleyway, Wisteria still hadn't found the hole, but her fingertips were raw from dragging them up and down the stone.

Could she have miscounted the buildings? It was possible someone else had found the imperfection and patched it, even though Virelai had been certain it wasn’t something her father would bother with.

Wisteria hoped that wasn’t the case. This hole was her only way out of the city. It had to be here.

She pulled the crumpled map out of her pocket and smoothed it against the wall. To anyone else, it would look like a child's scribble.

Wisteria traced her path along the route Eryx had drawn. According to this, the hole should be right here. She tapped the map with her finger, thinking.

It couldn’t hurt to try closer to the gate, she decided. Eryx may have misjudged the distance. Shoving the map back in her pocket, Wisteria resumed dragging her fingers along the surface of the wall. Each step brought her closer to the gate and discovery. Soon she’d have no choice but to turn around before the guards spotted her.

Then Wisteria felt it.

It was the slightest of indentations where the stone was a rougher than the rest of the surface around it.

Her heart lurched in her chest as she leaned forward to study the uneven spot. Could this be it? If it was, she was going to have a word with Eryx about his map drawing abilities.

Wisteria put both hands on the indentation as Eryx had instructed her and pushed. Because of the magic work that had been done to strengthen the wall against intruders, it didn't appear to be a hole to her, but to someone with an earth-related ability, it would be obvious. Eryx suspected since the magic did a good enough job covering it up, no one had wanted to bother physically patching the wall itself. Poor decision on their part, but great for her.

She pushed harder, and her hands went right through. To anyone watching, it would look like she didn't have hands anymore.

Now the trick was to find the edges of the hole and slide the rest of her body through it.

Wisteria felt around carefully, marking the outline. It was a small opening, as Eryx had said. She’d have to make herself as thin as possible and wiggle her way through.

Wisteria decided feet first would be best because she didn’t fancy landing on her head. She pushed her basket through the opening and then climbed up after it. Everything was fine until she reached her hips.

“You have to do it,” she murmured.

She gritted her teeth and pushed. The stone bit into her skin.

“Come on. Come on.”

She didn’t have time to waste. Wisteria braced her feet against the other side of the wall and pushed again, holding her breath.

She slid through, landing in a heap on top of her basket.

Wisteria groaned, gingerly touching the places where the stone had scraped her. It had definitely taken off the skin, but she didn’t think it was bleeding.

At least she had made it. She picked herself up off the ground and brushed off her skirt. There was no saving her crushed basket, so she left it where it lay.

Here on the other side, the air once again smelled like the briny sea she was familiar with, and the beach was just visible in the distance. Wisteria took a moment to breathe it in and felt a little part of herself settle. She’d always found the smell of the ocean to be a soothing one, and she didn't know how others lived so far away from it.

Virelai had said she’d seen the humans being herded down the beach away from Nyrene, so that was the direction Wisteria chose. She set out to the east, making sure to take special care to stick to the outcroppings of rocks for cover.

After several minutes of walking and no sign of any large mass of people, Wisteria started to worry again, her overactive imagination kicking into overdrive. What if she ran out of time and didn't find them today? She hadn't prepared to camp somewhere. She should have put supplies in her basket in case of an emergency. Her intention had been to find the location of the humans, take a quick look around and then head back to the city before the sunset. Now that it was summertime, the sun would set later in the day, giving her more hours to work with, but she hadn't counted on the possibility of the humans being any farther than a day's walk from Nyrene.

Wisteria looked back at the wall. If she ended up not finding anything today, she could always come back again tomorrow. It increased the risk of being caught, but she might not have a choice.

Two hours into her search, with Nyrene almost lost from sight, Wisteria still hadn't found any signs of life. Maybe she had gotten the direction wrong, and Virelai had meant they were headed to the west.

She debated if she should turn around. The sun hung directly above her in the sky, so she still had a few hours left before she needed to be back inside the walls. If she turned back now, it wouldn't be enough to get her very far in the other direction.

No, Wisteria decided, she would keep going this way.

It was only a few minutes later when she spotted her first clue.

The mix of soil and sand had been flattened down to create a path as though many people had passed over it, and frequently.

Wisteria traced the path with her eyes. It wound up from the beach and into the trees. From here, she couldn’t make out anything beneath their branches.

Might as well try, she decided.

When she reached the trees, she took a moment to stop and listen. A light breeze blew, rustling the leaves, but otherwise, it was quiet. Not even birds were chattering.

Wisteria took that as a good sign and hurried on. She must be close now.

It was the smell that greeted her first. It made the new stench of Nyrene seem like a delicate perfume. This was the scent of several hundred people living in close quarters with no proper sanitation. Wisteria clasped her hand over her nose and mouth, trying not to retch.

She crouched in the underbrush, crawling forward as close as she dared. She needed to note as much as she could to report back to Eryx and Virelai. Someone had cleared a large swatch of trees to set up the human camp. There were no tents or any sort of structures here to protect them from the elements. Instead, it looked like a raggedy bunch of blankets had been thrown down directly on the ground. Cook fires dotted the landscape here and there, the smoke curling lazily into the sky.

From what she could see, the camp appeared mostly deserted.

Wisteria inched forward, trying to get a better look at the people. There had to be some clue to indicate what they were doing here.

An unseen twig snapped beneath her palm, and the nearest soldier whipped around toward the sound. Wisteria froze as he advanced to where she hid in the bushes.

"Who's there?" he called out, a hand on his sword. He didn’t draw the weapon, so she could only hope he thought it was an animal and would turn away.

Please, gods, don't let him find me.