Sitara grabbed the upper edge of the escape tunnel and clawed her way to the top. She didn't dare use the power of darkness here aboveground, and her Actinopathic gift had abandoned her after the cave-in.
She rolled onto her back in the grass at the edge of the vertical tunnel, trying to catch her breath. She glanced back down once and shuddered. She almost hadn't escaped. The cave-in that had destroyed that vengeful Stalwart hadn't spread to the area where she had fused the roof. It had cracked and groaned, but held.
At the far end, closest to the big room where the fighting had been, the passage had been sealed by fallen earth. She had driven feelers of power through and chanced upon a passage bored through the cave-in not far away. She'd used her powers to dig to it and found it supported by strange magical pillars. Whoever left it had saved her life. She never would have found her way out without it.
Dozens of people still moved toward a distant gate of the field. If she'd escaped the catacombs any earlier, she would have climbed right into their group.
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She rose to a crouch and trotted into the darkness to a remote section of fence, happy for the concealing cover of heavy clouds. Every muscle ached and lingering terror set her hands shaking.
What had gone wrong? Had Masego succeeded in taking Kevlin, or had Harafin killed him? What about Tanathos?
Before she could find answers, she had to get cleaned up and return to her rooms. The hour was late, well past midnight, and the brilliant lights that had lit the central palace were mostly dimmed. A few party-goers hurried away from the palace along the distant spokes now crowded with soldiers. Soon anyone moving around would draw attention.
It took an hour for Sitara to slip past patrols, enter the palace, steal a dress, and take a bath in an empty bath-house in one of the lower levels. She scrubbed her skin raw, but couldn't remove the lingering feeling of filth.
When she finally slipped into her own small room in the Keisara's Tower, she huddled under her blanket. While hugging herself, she sobbed while memories of defiling graves and committing murder played again and again through her mind.