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We follow him out of the shadows, while Priya and Izod stay back. They’ll help Inara and Damen get back to Elin’s house if they no longer can walk.

Across the bridge and through a break in the rocks, we stop next to what once was an entrance, but has since been covered with stones. Yet it’s the only weak point in the impenetrable fortress. The only place where metal doesn’t run through the stones.

A clank of armor echoes through the empty street and makes us all turn toward the city spreading below us.

“I thought you said there would be no patrols,” I say through gritted teeth.

“This ain’t a patrol. Someone will be going inside the palace.”

“We have to be out of here, right now,” Valdus says.

Numair chances one last look toward the city and puts his hand on Valdus’s shoulder while I grab his hand. “Remember, no deep breaths.” It’s the last thing I hear before he tugs us toward the wall.

I fight to stay calm as the stones caress my skin and force the last breath to leave my lungs as they part to swallow us. The only sound rolling through the wall is the guards’ armor clanking as they stomp toward the entrance, and then it’s gone too, and it’s only darkness.

Oppressing.

Breath-stealing.

Eternal.

Numair’s gentle tug on my hand guides us further forward as he keeps binding the stones. Still, our passage is tedious, sluggish, hindered by the lot of us crossing the wall at once. Soon, my lungs crave for air. Even if I open and close my mouth, there is only darkness lapping on my throat.

We emerge from the stones with a burst of colors. Numair drops our arms, but we don’t dare to make a sound, grappling for breath in a silent battle.

“On the list of things I hate to do, this one must be high above anything else,” I mutter when my breaths calm to a ragged rasp.

“I can’t say I appreciate your praise.”

“Who said anything about praise?”

“Stop it, you two,” Valdus grumbles and pulls us through what once was a door and into an abandoned room just as a squad of guards appears at the end of the hall.

Valdus’s hand on my mouth is the only thing keeping me from screaming, when they walk right past us.

“Which way?” Valdus asks when their steps fade around the corner and he’s sure they can no longer hear us.

I untangle myself from his arms and start walking.

“Are you sure it’s the right way?” Numair asks.

“I’m not following them. So, it will have to be,” I say. “You have a better idea?”

A glare from Valdus is enough to shut Numair up.

We creep deeper into the palace with lamps fueled by oil as our silent companions. Numair was right. This is not the fastest way to the dungeons, but I wouldn’t chance a meeting with the guards if they ever decided to turn around.

A good half an hour later, we reach the outer walls of the dungeons. Spreading for ten floors under our feet, there is only one entrance with soldiers armed to their teeth. I’ve never ventured deeper than that. I hadn’t found a way past the soldiers, but I didn’t have a stone binder with me.

“We’ll have to go through the walls again, so we can get to this small pocket of space between the stairs and those guards,” I whisper, pointing around the corner and using the last bit of information I have. “We’ll be able to slip past them and into the dungeons. As long as we don’t make any sound.”

Numair offers us his hands, and we dip into the wall again. In less than a minute, we get to the other side. Just behind the soldiers.

I pray to Livith to shelter us in shadows, but the guards are too deep in a discussion to notice us as we creep away.

“Do you think they’ll hang?” asks the one with a high-pitched voice of youth and a semblance of a mustache growing over his lip.

“They always do,” answers another one with a chuckle. He combs his thick beard with his fingers as his smile spreads wider. “Or maybe they’ll be flogged.”