The guard commander’s office contained a soldier’s cot, with a folded blanket and pillow, a wooden chest beside it, a stand for holding armour, a rack of weapons—mostly swords—and a desk with several neat stacks of paper. There was a side table with a bottle of wine and a goblet on a tray. There was no sign of Josh’s things, but he could feel the slight buzz that meant there were magic items nearby.

He glanced desperately around the room, and that was when he saw the second chest, hidden behind the commander’s desk, beside which were piled the bags from the pack horse. The chest was fastened, but not locked, and inside Josh found his bow, quiver, knife, and pack, all untouched. There was also a small pouch containing Lady Paleyne’s jewellery. Josh stuffed that into his pack.

Jann’s sword also lay in the chest, and Josh hesitated, but he decided to leave it, since one lesson didn’t qualify him to use it, and he didn’t think Lady Paleyne or Lady Alianne would be able to either.

There was one more thing tucked behind the chest—a long staff of polished wood, with elaborate carvings. Was it a wizard’s staff? He picked it up and felt the heft of it. It tingled in his hands, and he realised it was enchanted. He didn’t want to risk activating it, in case anyone noticed, and in any case it would be a really stupid idea to get distracted by a magic staff when he was supposed to be escaping from his captors.

Was this corner of the room piled with all the spoils the commander had taken from people she had detained on behalf of the Earl of Northcrag? If it had been the commander's own weapon, Josh felt sure it would have been on the rack with her swords. She seemed like more of a sword enthusiast than a staff-user.

Josh, however, would feel a lot happier wielding a staff compared to a sword. A quarterstaff would go with his Robin Hood hat. Also, he felt more confident with the idea of poking at someone from the other end of a long pole than waving a sword about. The staff would give him reach.

He decided to take it. The commander had probably stolen it from someone else anyway.

He rifled quickly through the bags from the pack horse, filling a sack with various supplies, and then redistributing the remainder so that it didn’t look like anything had been taken. Hoisting the sack over his shoulder, he opened the door cautiously, his heart pattering away like a hummingbird, but the commander was nowhere in sight. He hoped she was still standing with the guards.

He crept back to the cell, lifted the bar, and went in. Jann and the guard were still unconscious. So, unfortunately, was Lady Paleyne. Lady Alianne sat there with Lady Paleyne’s head on her lap. She had wrapped the gag around Lady Paleyne’s mouth, and the ropes around her wrists, so that it looked as if she was still secured, but loosely enough that Lady Paleyne could shake them off if she woke up, which was a good thought.

Josh piled the items he had retrieved behind the door, where they would be out of sight of anyone coming it.

“Do you know how long Jann and the guard will be out?” Josh asked Lady Alianne, who gave him a severe look. For a moment he wondered why, then remembered her insistence on protocol. “My lady,” he added, trying not to sound irritated.

“I’ve only ever seen Pally do it once before,” she said. “When Lord Booly was drunk and making a fool of himself. He was out for several hours, but I was the only one who realised what she’d done. Everyone else thought he was just sleeping it off.” She hesitated. “The healers always say the person has to consent to it. They normally make it into a sort of ritual where they tell them to go to sleep, and it’s several minutes before it takes effect. I didn’t know it could be done instantly like that.”

If Josh could render people instantly unconscious with just a touch, he would keep that secret too. Assuming Lady Paleyne could control the length of time she could put people under, she would likely have made it as long as possible for both Jann and the guard.

Maybe that was why she had collapsed.

“I’ll just be a minute,” Josh said, and slipped out of the door before Lady Alianne could demand that he address her properly.

The commander was still on the balcony. Josh could collect the two ladies and go now, before she returned to her office. Or he could wait until after she returned, and then they might have more time before their absence was noticed.

What if the commander decided to check on the prisoners? What if she came up and spoke to Josh while he was pretending to be the guard? The masks were useful from a distance, but he had to assume she would know her own men well enough to see through the deception up close. He stood in an agony of indecision as the minutes trickled by. Several times he nearly decided that, to hell with it, they should escape right now, but each time he forced himself to wait.

It felt like an hour, but was probably only ten or fifteen minutes before the commander returned to the corridor. Was Josh standing right? Would she notice anything off? Was he supposed to salute? He hadn’t before. What if she came to speak to him? He watched her out of the corner of his eyes, but once again she barely glanced at him and went back into her office.

He was so relieved he wanted to fall limply against the wall, but he stiffened his spine. Now was their chance. He opened the cell door and hissed, “Let’s go!”

He gave his bow and quiver and the sack of supplies to Lady Alianne to carry, and then, with her assistance, heaved Lady Paleyne onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Last of all he took the staff, and they shuffled out into the corridor. Lady Alianne barred their cell door again, locking Jann and the guard inside.

“The door opposite,” Josh whispered.

They wouldn’t be able to bar it behind them, but there was nothing they could do about that. Josh descended the stairs as rapidly as he dared, Lady Alianne on his heels. When they got onto the lower level, Josh laid Lady Paleyne carefully down on the shop’s countertop, hurriedly took out his invisibility cloak, and activated it. He then cast Hide on both women, using the spell papers, before lifting Lady Paleyne onto his shoulders again, a process that became a little more challenging now that he couldn’t see her properly.

They crept along the walkway leading further into the Cathedral, with Lady Alianne walking backwards and watching the guards, ready to warn Josh if they decided to glance in this direction.

They would never have made it without the cloak and the Hide spells. They couldn’t walk too fast, partly because of Josh’s burden, but mostly because they didn’t want the guards to catch any flash of movement out of the corner of their eyes. Twice, he felt Lady Alianne’s warning hand on his arm when a guard glanced idly at the walkway.

At any moment Josh was expecting the cry to go up. If the commander or any of the guards went into the corridor, they would immediately notice that the guard outside the cell door was missing, or that the stairwell door wasn’t barred, and raise the alarm.

They made it all the way down to the other end of the cavern, by which point Josh’s back and shoulders were aching, and he was sweating heavily under the cloak.

At the end of the walkway, the cavern narrowed, the walls pinching in on either side, leaving a channel for the pontoon, with a thin ledge beside it. Josh had to shuffle sideways along it, but at least the rock walls crowding in now hid them from the guards. There was another canal lock to allow vessels to pass from this cavern to the next, but this one had a stone staircase and a stone elf door at the top.

“What if the door is locked?” Alianne whispered nervously over his shoulder.

Josh glanced at the levers that would open the canal lock doors.

“It’s intended to be opened from this side,” he whispered back.

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“What about the guards on the other side? And you should address me properly.”

For fuck’s sake.

“Yes, well, luckily I’m dressed as a guard, my lady.”

Josh set Lady Paleyne carefully down on the top step, and leaned her against the wall, careful not to bang her head. Lady Alianne crouched beside her while Josh put his hand on the doorlatch and slowly eased it open.

Beyond the door was another fort, in the same square, blocky style of construction as the first, with the addition of an artificial canal running down to the lake, blocked off by an iron gate. The other main difference was that this fort was facing outwards, protecting the door they had just come through from the cavern ahead. The previous two guard posts had been protecting the entrance to the Azure Cathedral from the south, which made sense. They weren't that far in yet. This fort, however, was guarded against the Cathedral itself. Were there still monsters roaming about? What could the Earl of Northcrag’s men be so afraid of, that lived within the depths of caverns?

Maybe it had been a bad idea to escape in this direction, but it was the only route that had been open.

The fort had guards present, but they were standing on the walls of a wooden walkway, looking in the opposite direction.

Josh eased the door back until it was nearly shut, and asked Alianne what she thought the purpose of the fort might be. He couldn’t see her, but her whispered reply sounded as confused as he was. Josh debated taking off the cloak, and walking around in his solder disguise, but that meant Lady Alianne would have to be the one carrying Lady Paleyne.

He whispered quick instructions, then found Lady Paleyne by feel, trying not to put his hands anywhere she might object to, and hoisted her onto his shoulders. Then he very gently opened the door a crack. The guards were still looking the opposite way. Josh squeezed through, then closed the door again and watched them. He could feel his hands shaking with fear, and his stomach was just a hollow pit. There were two wooden towers at the outer corners of the fort, each with one guard, and a third guard pacing up and down the walkway that connected them.

Josh waited until they were all facing fully away, and then quickly opened the door for Alianne. Her blurred form slipped through, and then she vanished. Josh closed the door, his eyes still on the guards. It would only take a glance at the wrong moment, and they would be discovered.

Lady Paleyne’s weight was pressing down on him. She wasn’t a tall woman, but he’d been carrying her some distance already. If he’d been able to walk normally it might have been easier, but their slow progress made it harder.

He reached his hand out slowly until he felt Alianne’s arm. She started at his touch, but clung onto his sleeve. Josh started shuffling towards the left tower. If he moved slowly enough, the Hide spell and the cloak would compensate, and the invisibility effect would remain in place.

It took about twenty minutes for them to make their way across the inner courtyard, up the wooden steps, and onto the walkway next to the tower. Josh’s feet hurt, his back was in agony and his shoulders were screaming at him. By the time they reached the base of the tower, he wasn’t sure he would be able to make the next section. He put Lady Paleyne down, and crouched over her, feeling spent. Lady Alianne’s hand clutched urgently at his wrist, probably to ask why he was delaying. He didn’t dare even whisper, in case the guard in the tower directly above them heard it.

Their position meant they were out of the line of sight of all three guards. The one in the tower would have to peer over the edge and look directly down at them, and the tower blocked them from the two others.

Josh peered over the fort wall. This cavern was the biggest yet, but it was also the least well lit. He couldn’t see it, but he knew it consisted of a vast, shallow lake, with a path around the outside, and an island in the centre. The only natural illumination came from clusters of blue flowers which floated on the surface of the lake. The guards had compensated for the low light conditions by planting flaming torches in a radius around the fort. Beyond the ring of torches, the cavern fell into darkness.

Which was perfect. All Josh and Lady Alianne needed to do now was get past the torches, and they would be out of sight.

In Spiralia Online, this cavern had held a variety of crystalline creatures, but the worst had been the swarms of bats. Josh very much hoped that the bat problem had been dealt with.

Once he felt able to stand again, he propped the staff against the tower, whereupon it immediately became visible, but he couldn’t help that. He tapped Lady Alianne on the arm, and tied the rope he had taken from the pack horse supplies around the sharpened stakes that formed the fort’s outer wall. The rope was visible too, but it was a similar colour to the wood it was wrapped around. Josh helped Lady Alianne over the edge, and watched while she made her way down.

She didn’t do too badly, given that she had probably never climbed down a rope before. It was reassuring how little of her he could see—just a blurry outline, and a flash of hair or skin or clothing every now and again. Still, the movement would catch the guard’s eye if he happened to look down. Josh couldn’t see the top of the tower from his vantage point, so he just had to trust that the guard would be staring out over the water.

Once Lady Alianne reached the bottom, she stepped to the side, and Josh hauled the rope up.

He wrapped it around Lady Paleyne in a crude harness, and then lifted her with it, which was no picnic, and made something in his back twinge painfully. He lowered her over the side, and paid the rope out gradually. He hadn’t thought this through properly, because the rope burned the skin on his hands, and she still wasn’t all the way down when he heard a door slamming shut on the other side of the fort. He froze, and very slowly looked over his shoulder.

A guard captain was strolling through the courtyard, on his way to the very set of stairs that Josh had climbed up.

Josh’s muscles were already beginning to feel the strain. When he had carried Lady Paleyne in a fireman’s hold, her weight had been more distributed, but with this he was pulling on a rope, and the coarse texture of it was already pulling at the skin of his palms and burning his fingers.

The guard captain didn’t seem to be in any rush.

How far down was Lady Paleyne? Josh thought she must be about six feet from the base of the fort. His hands were hidden from the view of the guard captain and he continued letting her down. As the captain reached the top of the stairs, Josh let the rope slip through his fingers, which was excruciating. He hope that Lady Alianne would be able to catch her. drop the rope so that it wouldn’t look as if it was floating in mid-air. It still trailed on the walkway however. Should he throw it over the side? But how would he get down? And, oh shit, the staff was still visible where it leant against the tower. Would it go invisible again if he picked it up?

Before Josh could decide on a course of action, the guard captain had climbed the stairs and reached the walkway. He walked towards the tower, calling up to the guard there. Something about the evening run, whatever that meant. Maybe he wouldn’t see the rope and the staff, and he would just go back down the stairs, or walk straight past Josh and onto the middle section of the walkway…

Josh saw the moment it happened. The guard captain nodded, and his eyes fell to the side, and a little frown appeared between his brows, and then his eyes widened. He was drawing a breath to yell when Josh broke invisibility, threw himself forwards, and pushed the captain off the walkway.

The moment he had done it, he felt sick. What if the captain had been killed? Josh didn't want to hurt him badly. He couldn't stop to think about that. He needed to focus on escaping.

He turned back to the tower and realised that the rope had fallen from the wall. Had Lady Alianne pulled it down by accident? Shit! He grabbed the staff, which gave a little thrum in his hand, as if it knew that something was happening. He activated the magic, and feel deep, endless coils of spell work flare to life within it. It had a similar feel to the sword of Orlad, the green-eyed kidnapper. No, it felt deeper and more complicated than that.

A cry went up amongst the guards. Josh was so dizzy with panic that for a moment he didn’t understand what they were saying.

They were shouting: “Huldra! Huldra!”

They thought Josh was a huldra.

There was no time to puzzle over the magic in the staff. Even with an enchanted weapon, there was no way Josh could fight off three guards, and more were piling out of the fort’s inner buildings. He peeked over the outer wall, and saw only the rope and harness coiled on the ground. Where were Lady Alianne and Lady Paleyne?

The guard captain would have seen the blur before he was pushed. They would know there was an invisible person here. Josh was going to have to jump. He climbed over the wall, hung onto the base of one of the stakes with one hand while holding the staff in the other, then glanced down. That was a mistake. The ground seemed very far away. It was a much bigger drop on this side of the wall.

Josh prayed that Lady Alianne and Lady Paleyne weren’t directly under him, and let go.

Instead of the massive jolt he was expecting from landing on the ground, he felt the staff tugging violently away from him, nearly ripping itself from his grip. He grabbed hold of it instinctively with both hands as the cavern and the fort whirled unexpectedly upside-down—no, he was the one who was upside-down—and then he staggered, and realised he was on the ground. He was fine. It was as if he had only jumped a few feet.

What the hell? Was it some kind of magical acrobatic staff? He didn’t have time to process that, though, because he needed to find a place to hide.

There was still no sign of Alianne or Lady Paleyne. They were probably hiding nearby, but the guard might think to search the area by poking spears everywhere, or by swinging swords around, the way Orlad had done.

Should Josh run or hide? If he hid, he would inevitably be discovered sooner or later. But if he ran, the guards would be able to see him immediately. They would shoot arrows at him, or chase after him. The shore curved away ahead of Josh. The cavern wall ran to his left, with the lake to the right. An arrow thudded into the ground a few feet away. He stared at it stupidly, and then saw another one appear, about three feet closer.

The guard in the tower was peppering the ground with arrows, trying to find the invisible person.

Josh bolted.