The drop was less than three seconds, but to Ember it felt significantly longer. He had to bite his lip to keep himself silent as his stomach dropped and cold wind rushed up. Then there was a thump, and pain shot up Ember’s back, but it quickly faded as the breath was knocked out of him. Chris held him princess-style, then promptly dropped him onto the cold, hard ground.

  “See? No big deal.” Ember could hear the smile behind his voice. He stood, brushing himself off.

  “Now what?”

  Chris pointed to a rock not far away and moved toward it. Ember followed, making sure to be as quiet as possible. Once there, they both looked at the road. People in the white robes of the Church walked the road, back and forth. There was never a moment when the road wasn’t covered. On the other side was a small patch of woods that traveled the length of the valley, up into the mountains.

  “We’re going to need to make a distraction. If we can get to those woods, we should be fine. The good news is that I already made one beforehand.”

  Almost on cue, an explosion rocked the south wall. The road cleared almost immediately, several of the patrol members running past, and Chris dashed across it. Ember followed, eyes on the massive smoke cloud not far away. All the attention had gone to the explosion.

  Once they were in the woods, Ember whispered, “Your distraction was blowing up the wall?”

  He nodded. “I spent most of yesterday working on it. It’s pretty easy to get the materials. I had to set it up just before we left, though. The timing needed to be done right. You don’t want to know how long the fuse was. A miracle it wasn’t found.”

  Ember didn’t comment as they moved along the small path. The explosion hadn’t done much in the long term. The road was quickly returned to its heavily monitored state, but the damage was done. They stayed just outside the light’s range, moving from tree to tree slowly, just in case.

  As they sneaked by two men, Ember stumbled, and a rock skittered onto the path. Ember opened his mouth to gasp, but Chris quickly covered it and dragged him deep into the shadows as the two patrolmen walked into the forest. Ember’s heart beat so hard he was afraid the men would notice.

  The two escapees hid behind a tree. They couldn’t see the men, but they were close, Less than a dozen feet.

  “Damn rocks. Third time that’s happened tonight. We should just burn the whole forest down.”

  A second voice chimed up, annoyed, “The city would have our heads. We have to play by their rules until we’re large enough. That explosion will have rattled them. The heretics might have just done us a favor.”

  Their voices faded, and Chris and Ember let out quiet but verbal sighs. Ember made sure to watch his footing the rest of the way.

  By the time they reached the gate, an hour must have passed. Their progress slowed because Chris made sure they moved slowly enough not to arouse any suspicion. From there, the main lookout camp was visible. At least a dozen people milled about, many talking in low voices. A road cut in front of them and up the mountain.

  “We need to go up this road. The trees cut off about half a mile up, but there are plenty of rocks.”

  As Chris was whispering this, a man walked not five feet from their current hiding spot. Ember froze, holding his breath as Chris slid a knife out. The man was mumbling something to himself, and as he turned, Chris exploded up, jamming the knife into his head and covering his mouth. The man didn’t even have time to scream as he slumped and was dragged into the forest.

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  “We need to move. I imagine it won’t take long for them to notice one has gone missing.”

  Ember stepped around the dead man, his heart hammering. He winced as he recalled how it felt to stab a man and had to fight his stomach down.

  Using the tree line, they half-jogged, half-climbed their way up. Just as Chris had said, the trees thinned until there was nothing but rocks. The two went from rock to rock. Every now and then, they came across a patrolman, and Chris knocked them out if it wouldn’t attract attention, though Ember thought it was more for his sake.

  Finally, they crested the peak and began the walk down the new valley. No one was on that road, so the two were able to finally breathe.

  “We’re pretty much in the clear now.”

  Ember let out a deep breath. “I’m surprised how smooth that went. Usually in these situations, everything goes wrong immediately. Besides the...killing.”

  Chris shrugged, a torch in his hand. “I’ve got a lot of experience sneaking around. This was actually pretty easy compared to some situations I’ve been in. Running from monsters and small mercenary bands is a lot harder.”

  Ember could tell there was a story there, but decided not to press it. Instead, he took in the sights. The sky was clear, painted with stars. They looked a little strange to him, too many colors, and some seemed to blink in and out, some not returning. Around them, he could only make out the outline of the mountains.

  An hour went by until they reached the base of the valley, and a peculiar set of sticks in a cross formation leaned against a tree.

  “Here we are,” Chris said. He guided Ember past the tree onto a well-hidden path, one that eventually led to a small cabin with a horse stall and carriage. “This is our rendezvous point. Tomorrow, a pilgrim will meet us here and give us our route to the next city, so we should get some rest while we can.”

  Ember followed him into the cabin, where two beds were laid out. To his surprise, he fell asleep almost immediately, both terrified of the nightmares and relieved to escape his living one. As his mind faded, he couldn’t help but wonder who the hell Chris was, and how he was so strong.

  Two days later

  A man sat on his knees, head bowed, a mask with a silver sword engraved onto it. Around him, the Cathedral of the Cratered Sword lay in ruins — the roof caved in, most of the walls in tatters, and blood still stained the floor. In front of him stood Jeremiah, mask still damaged as he surveyed the rubble.

  “They escaped?” the leader asked quietly.

  “Yes, Your Holiness. We found several dead and knocked-out lookouts that led to the eastern valley. We found no trace of them.” The bowed man’s voice trembled.

  “Leave.”

  The silver-masked man quickly ran out, leaving only the rubble and Jeremiah remaining. He traced his hand over a destroyed piece of marble. The screams echoed in his head. He threw the marble block as he tore into the rubble. He beat the walls, tore the torches down, and ripped his mask off, throwing it onto the ground and stomping it repeatedly.

  “DIE! DIE! DIE! CHRIS, EMBER! I WILL FIND YOU AND END YOUR MISERABLE EXISTENCE! YOUR BLOOD WILL PAINT THESE WALLS!”

  By the time he was done, his breath came in pants. With Herculean effort, he tore the trapdoor that led to their artificial dungeon off its hinges and jumped down. He walked down the path, and as he opened the door to the cyclops' room, the monster lunged at him. Jeremiah ripped the creature’s throat out with his hands before continuing his trek, leaving the dead body where it lay.

  “Pitiful monster. Join the rest of your detestable kind in hell.”

  The goblin creature from before lay dead just ahead of the rotting pile, but the man paid the bodies no heed. The skeletons remained rigid as he walked through the doors into the room filled with the frozen bodies of past traversers and the shell.

  Immediately, he started tearing the frozen corpses to pieces, screaming and yelling, desecrating the sacred room. Limbs, frozen heads, and torsos flew across, shattering against the walls. The man turned to the shell and grabbed it, ready to tear it to pieces just like his people were, but froze. The shell was warm.

  It was not known what the shell said to him, but a wicked smile crossed the leader’s face. Tears streamed down his cheeks as the rock shell slowly built itself around him, creating a form of armor.

  “Yes. We will get back your missing part, and I will have my revenge. But it cannot be a quick death. We must break them. We must make them suffer.”

  He laughed maniacally as the rocky helm closed around his face, his voice cut off, bringing silence to the sacred hall once more.