Brand's hiding place was just a hollowed-out rock inside a light shaft. The Fortress was crisscrossed by those shafts, meant to bring in light from outside. But it also brought rain once in a while and that had eroded the shafts in some places where the water would pool. He had seen that shaft once and heard a trickle of water. That's how the idea came to him to hide there when he had escaped his room and found himself with nowhere to go. He hadn't been able to get into Rill's room because they had backed up a bed against the hole in the door. So he had stayed in the corridor for what seemed an eternity, paralyzed at the thought of being found there and realizing the punishment that would befall him. Now, sitting in a puddle and shivering, he wished he had never escaped his room.

He heard the comings and goings of the Chainkeepers below him. There was a lot of it. He had never heard so much agitation, but he had never been paying attention to it. He didn't know what was the normal level of activity in the Fortress. Maybe they were looking for him and turning over every table and looking in every crevice, in which case they would find him and flog him, or worse. Or maybe he wasn't that important and they knew he would eventually show up and they would punish him then. In that case, all the activity he heard wouldn't be about him. It certainly shouldn't be. But he had never heard of anyone escaping, either.

He had waited the entire day like that. He thought he would go crazy if he had to stay another day. He hoped the tumult would die down by nightfall and that then he could get down and look for Rill again. But then what? He hadn't made any real plan to escape. He didn't know the way outside. He had only seen the courtyard but not the corridors leading outside the Fortress. He knew the direction they were in, but not how many guards or defenses were there. He was free but effectively as locked in as he had always been. And in a much more dangerous position. His hopes were diminishing fast, so a few lashes wouldn't even sound as bad as the alternatives.

"Are you stupid?"

Brand bumped his head against the shaft when he heard the voice, much closer than he expected anyone passing below him. He looked below in fear and then relaxed a bit when he saw it was another child. Then he grew afraid again. Another child would be just as eager to turn him in as a Chainkeeper.

"What are you doing up there?" asked the child. Brand didn't remember him, but there were a lot of children there. He thought he would remember one with such bright blue eyes, but he was used to keeping his eyes down so it was not uncommon that he wouldn't notice a detail in someone he was used to seeing around.

"I'm hiding, go away before you lead them to me," said Brand, hoping the other kid wouldn't want to get involved in whatever he was doing. Sometimes anonymity worked better than being singled out, even if you could get something out of it. The Chainkeepers were fickle and as prone to punish as to mete out a reward.

"Come down. There's no one here."

"How can I be sure? They probably sent all of you to find me and lure me out."

"Yeah, they could have done that."

Brand waited for the other kid to continue but the blue eyes just kept staring at him, making him uncomfortable.

"So… how are you going to convince me to trust you?" he asked.

"I'm not," said the kid, shrugging with an exaggerated movement of his shoulders. "You can stay there and freeze or die of hunger, or you can come down and take your chances I'm telling you the truth."

"That doesn't sound so enticing."

"Then stay up there, but I'm not going to help you then. You have to take the leap and trust me."

Brand moved slowly out of his crevice and massaged his cramped legs before turning around, grabbing the edge, and letting his legs dangle.

"I'm going to regret this, I know for sure."

He landed with a thud and his legs buckled, making him fall on his hip. He started to yelp but caught himself. He bit his lip to stifle the pain.

"Come on, this way," said the other child.

Brand followed him, massaging his sore hip.

"How do you know where we're going?" he asked after a few seconds. "And how did you get away?"

The blue-eyed child looked back over his shoulder but kept moving.

"Everyone's occupied. It seems something happened in the Hub so everyone's going there. Well, almost everyone."

"What happened in the Hub?"

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"I don't know. But they're going out with weapons and very angry. They're going to a fight, I guess."

Brand didn't remember the Hub but he couldn't even fathom something going awry in the Chainkeepers' plans. They were always in control. There was no way of beating them at their own game. Except that this time maybe someone had. If that was true, if others were escaping or if there was a fight going on, it would be unthinkable. And it would also be the perfect time to escape.

They stopped at a junction. The blue-eyed kid leaned out of a corner and glanced toward the other corridor. Brand stayed back. He was about to ask something when the other kid put his finger over his lip to indicate to Brand that he should be quiet. Chainkeepers. He heard the footsteps after that. But they were going the other way and in a hurry. When they couldn't hear it anymore, Blue Eyes motioned for Brand to follow.

They tiptoed across a length of the corridor but then they heard another set of steps. Blue Eyes pointed to a door and Brand opened it just enough to slip inside and then closed it after the other child.

"Whew… let's wait for this one to go away too," said Blue Eyes. "They're leaving some behind so they must be spread thin, but we have to be careful anyway."

Brand sat against the wall but then remembered something and stood up.

"Do you know where the other kids are? I need to find someone."

Blue Eyes stared at him as if he couldn't make up his mind about something. He finally spoke but in a whisper.

"They're on the other side. We can't get to them. They have guards with them."

"How did you get away, then?"

"Same way you did, I guess. But…"

They heard something outside in the corridor. Like another set of steps approaching fast but carefully. Then some other noise, short and loud, and then silence. Brand held his breath and looked for somewhere to hide inside the room, but it was just a storage place with some baskets holding what seemed to be weapons and bars of kingsmetal. Maybe they could hide under a basket or something.

The door opened and something jumped through it before Brand could react. And then he saw it was a person and he hadn't jumped through as much as he had been flung through. The body of the Chainkeeper was now lying against the wall opposite the door. And someone else was entering.

Brand hid behind a basket and fumbled for something, any weapon. He wouldn't know how to use it, but he thought he should. He caught hold of a hook, one of those that went at the end of a length of chain. He grabbed onto it and held it in front of him. Then he took a peek at the man in the doorway.

It was a middle-aged man, not bald like most of the older Chainkeepers but with unruly hair and a fledgling beard. He stood there surveying the room for a second, then stepped aside and motioned for someone else to come in after him. A woman came into view and then another man, this one younger than the first one. He closed the door behind him.

Just then, Brand remembered Blue Eyes, but he didn't see him. He must have hidden, too. He felt ashamed of forgetting about the other kid, who had helped him so much. But he was focused on his survival. That's how things were.

"How many more do you think will be here?" asked the younger man, breaking the silence.

"Not too many," said the woman. "Probably one every few corridors, to make sure no servant gets out during the confusion."

"We haven't seen any servants either."

"They must have them locked up in their rooms, down below. They won't let them out with only a skeleton crew to hold the Fortress."

"Then most of the guards should be down there too," said the older man. "Meaning this should be doable."

"What? Finding our child or killing a God?" asked the woman, somewhat angry, or so it seemed to Brand. "Those seem to be two things with different degrees of difficulty."

"Both."

The answer didn't seem to make the woman happy. But it made Brand happy. These people were opposing the Chainkeepers. And they had come to rescue someone. That meant they were on the same side. He had to risk it. He would have no other chance. He forced his legs to stand, slowly so as not to scare the others.

"Um… hello," he said.

The younger man jumped at him with something in his hand. Brand jumped back and dropped the hook he had been holding, putting his hands over his face. But no blow came. The man had stopped a few steps from him.

"You're just a kid," said the man and sighed. "Don't scare us like that. We're a little jumpy, given we're on an enemy fortress and all that."

"Come forward, child," said the older man. "It's all right. We're not going to hurt you."

Brand lowered his arms and moved forward. He heard a gasp and saw it come from the woman, who was covering her mouth now.

"What is it?" asked the older man.

The woman looked at the old man and Brand alternatively, until she managed to speak.

"It's him."

The old man turned his head toward Brand with a frown. Then his frown lessened and his face transformed completely. Where Brand had seen a stern, frightening man he now saw something completely different. As if all the man's muscles had relaxed for the first time in his life and were revealing another person hidden beneath an armor of clenched fists and jaw.

"Are…" the man started saying but choked for a second before continuing, "are you sure, Naial?"

"Yes," said the woman as she moved forward slowly toward Brand. "It's him. I think I saw all the kids here and he's the only one with the brand. They did that to him when…"

Brand didn't understand what they were talking about. There was something strange in the woman's eyes, apart from the tears. He took a step backward.

"When they took him from me," she said.

Brand put a hand in front of him to keep everyone away. He expected Blue Eyes to intervene and help him, but he was still hiding somewhere or vanished. He didn't like how the woman's eyes made him feel something. The younger man's gaze was moving back and forth toward the woman, the older man, and Brand, as if looking for something. Then he smiled.

"I see it," he said.

Brand's eyes started to tear up, but he didn't know why. He was angry, not sad.

"What are you people talking about?" he asked.

"The resemblance," said the young man. "Kid, these are your parents."

Brand's eyes were so blurry now he didn't see the woman approach him. He just felt her warm body envelop him. He pushed her back but with no real strength. He couldn't talk, either. It felt like being with Rill. As if something was just right and uncomplicated. It was the first hug in his life. The first time someone had come to him to tell him those words.

"It's going to be all right now," she said.

Brand could only bury his face in the woman's chest and cry.