Page 125 of The Dragon Queen

“But it was just blasting powder…” The sound of more steps had Draven shaking his head. “No matter. Brom, lead everyone?—”

“To the old servant’s entrance to your uncle’s palace?” Brom replied. “Already what I had planned.” He turned to us. “Come on and stay close.”

With a quick look around the corner, he gestured us forward.Glimmer followed on his heels, obedient as a hound, so we did the same, streaking across a wide street, the light of the moon feeling like it left us terribly exposed. We were quickly swallowed up by another dark alleyway, leaving us to dodge around rubbish, broken boxes, and sacks of dubious origin, our feet having to move fast to keep up with Brom.

“How…?” Draven pulled up alongside me. “Why…?” We stopped abruptly when Brom raised a hand, plastering ourselves against the side of a wall as yet more guards ran past. “What on earth possessed you to try to infiltrate Blackreach, Pippin?”

“I…” My ribs ached, a stitch forming because I was terribly out of condition, but that wasn’t the pain that had me doubling up. “I needed…” Drathnor’s vision seemed to have stuck with me because it felt like my guts were convulsing, trying to expel dragon eggs that weren’t in there. “This fight needs to end.” I panted that out. “Your uncle needs to be stopped.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Draven replied before taking my hand and pulling me forward. “And I had the situation in hand.”

“You didn’t tell us that.”

We were in another dank alleyway, this time hiding around a corner as more guards streamed past.

“I don’t remember you sharing your plans with me either,” he said, but before I could reply, he pulled me close. Sure enough, another explosion went off and we were about to find out what it achieved.

“The wall’s been breached!” someone shouted. “It’s been breached!”

“Everyone to the wall now!” someone barked. “We need to keep those bastards out of our city!”

But we were already inside. Brom waved us forward, and we ran and ran. Down alleyways, the stink and condition of them improving the closer we got. The houses we walked past were tall, beautifully made, and had well prepared gardens that the owners emerged out into. People stared out at the now crumbling wall in their nightgowns, mouths open, but we couldn’t stop to explain. We ran until we reached another tall wall, this time cordoning off theduke’s residence from the rest of the city. Brom had us plastering ourselves against the wall as guards streamed out of the gate.

“No frontal assault,” Draven muttered with a frown. “Knowing my uncle, he’ll have kept his best guards with him.” He pulled a grappling hook from the bag he was carrying. “I had intended to scale the walls.”

“You think you can handle that, cadet?” Soren asked me in gruff tones.

I remembered my dismal showing in the training session at the keep, but in the end, that didn’t matter.

“Always doing things the hard way,” Brom said with a snort, running his hands along the wall before finding what he was looking for. A knife was pulled free and then he worked it into a slot, wiggling it until we heard something pop. I blinked as a door swung open, the hinges groaning far too loudly. “Inside, now, before they realise what’s making all the noise.”

“I remember this.” Draven ignored Brom’s order, staring at the door as if it appeared via magic. “We used to slip in and out of my uncle’s house, driving my guard detail mad.”

“So we did.” Brom shook his head. “Now, unless you want to meet another contingent of them, we need to get inside.”

“Another cave?” Ged groaned as he stared into the darkness.

“Not a cave.” Draven clapped him on the shoulder. “An old tunnel.”

“Should we be walking through tunnels of dubious construction as dragons bomb Blackreach?” Ged asked weakly.

“Scared of the dark, are we?” Flynn clapped him on the shoulder. “You stay out here then.”

“I’ll hold your hand,” I offered. Ged’s jaw flexed as his eyes narrowed, but he put his hand in mine anyway.

This way, Glimmer urged, running off, leaving the rest of us to follow along after her.

“Gods, we used to lurk in here all the time,” Draven whispered as we walked upstairs. The tunnels appeared to twist around the entire residence, allowing servants to enter and exit the rooms they were cleaning without disturbing the residents. Spy holes had beencut into the walls to let the servant know when it was safe to emerge. “Remember when we caught those two chamber maids going at it in my cousin’s bed?”

“Girls kissing girls?” Ged asked, his interest plain. “Nice.”

“We’re not here to spy on recalcitrant maids,” Flynn growled, climbing further. “Your uncle needs to answer for what he did.”

Draven’s smile faded as he nodded.

“That he does. This way.”

We climbed and climbed, our breath coming in noisy pants, but if I was worried the inhabitants might hear us, I needn’t have been. As we climbed onto one landing, we caught sight of our quarry.

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