Page 145 of The Serpent’s Shadow

I raised my hand over the still, silent shadow-mirage, and amplified my power with my bloodrending. It took great concentration, but slowly I saw the fabric of the apparition close, thread together, and form a face.

My face.

With sweat pouring, going into overdrive from the exertion, I stared down at my handiwork.

The mirage in the chair replicated me perfectly. No longer was it a blackened, blank face. It was a reflection with my gaunt features staring up at me with unblinking eyes, like a manikin made of nothing but air.

The scientists wanted a medical dummy? Well, now they had one. Dressed just like me, no less.

The subterfuge would not last long. The dummy couldn’t speak or act. I was not that powerful of a bloodrender to mimic my bodywithmy actions as a clone. Trying to put a needle in its vein would work as well as trying to catch the sky in your hands. And then my scheme would be found out.

I turned and exited the curtain, staying low in a crouch. Two nurses had their backs turned to me, inspecting vials at tables, going over paperwork.

I easily slid behind them like a wraith, and made it to the door of the room.

For all the soldiers and security this place had on the outside, once you were in, it was less guarded and easier to navigate, because no one ever got in unless they were called for.

Such was the case now. I poked me head out into the hallway and saw no Huscarls. I traced my steps in my head, using my photographic memory to recall how I’d gotten here with the hood over my head.

Then I took off sprinting, no longer needing to use stealth—because the longer I dallied, the worse my punishment would be once I was caught.

My plan was half-baked. There was only so much I could do here. I knew I wouldn’t make it far. I didn’t expect to get out of here, but I needed the academy to know I wouldn’t put up with this shit forever.

Eventually they’d have to kill me or let me go. I was making the decision for them, showing them I could escape my prison if I so wanted.

And yet, some glimmer of hope still lived inside me. Deep in the furrows of my psyche, I wished to find Ravinica and wash this place of my memory. My childhood amnesia would go a long way right fucking now.

At the very least, I hoped to help her.

And that thought, at the precise right time, was what stopped my sprint as I made my way down the halls and cut left and right toward the entrance.

I pulled up short when I came to a large room with double doors, the dragonhead-and-shield emblem carved into iron handles.

One of them was slightly ajar.

“Freyr save me,” I muttered to myself, shaking my head.

And I pushed into the room—

Just as I heard raised voices filtering in from different directions outside. “He’s gone!” came one, and “Find him!” came another.

Boots now, pounding the halls, Huscarls coming together to spread out and try to find the escaped lab rat.

My time had abruptly become limited, with my decoy dummy discovered.

I shut the double doors behind me and took in the room, which was devoid of any people. It was large, ornate, domed with a high ceiling. Tapestries of battle and the Vikingrune banner lined the walls. In the center of the chamber was a square table, headless to denote equal power among whoever would sit there.

I was somewhere directly in the middle of Fort Woden, I figured. A ledge above me—the second level—circled the entire room.Perhaps where bystanders stand to watch the proceedings down here. Is this a courtroom? A presentation room?

A presenting board behind the table gave me a clue. As I stepped toward it, my head cocked when my eyes met the board, which was on wheels so it could be moved in and out of the room.

A map of the Isle hung from its surface; larger than me, with various circles and X marks lining the tattered picture.

I took in the most obvious red circles, which were dangerously close to where our battle with the Huscarls had been, near the elf encampment. The camp, too, was circled with an X over it.

This is the strategy room. This is the map used to denote conflicts near the academy. Hel, they know about their dead Huscarls? About our escape from the elf encampment?

I had to wonder if they also knew Corym E’tar was still alive, bunking with the Lepers Who Leapt.

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