The Trouble with Time, Part 2.23 - Hazard

It quickly becomes evident Alice doesn't need to remember the way out. Vanessa takes the lead as soon as they are out of her room and is leading her down a completely different set of corridors to the South-Western part of the castle. She clearly knows a different way out. Which is good, since they obviously wouldn't be able to just walk out the front door as easily as she had walked in. Based on the look of the corridors they have entered the servants' part of the castle, the spaces smaller, less grand, the corridors narrow, though still wide enough to carry supplies through.

The going is painfully slow. They both know they have to move fast, but they also have to move quiet. The longer they take, the more likely it is they will run into someone. But if they make too much noise, someone might hear them from afar and come investigate. In the quiet of the castle in the middle of the night their footsteps are loud in Alice's ears, even when they're trying their best to step quietly.

They're on the first floor when Vanessa stops in front of a door that, as far as Alice can tell, leads to the courtyard outside, half way between the main entrance and the gates.

"Where do we need to go?" Vanessa asks, almost too quiet to hear.

"In the village a little bit south from here there's a door that can take us back to the capital. From there it's a day and a half on foot to where we agreed to meet with Sam and Kevin."

"So you think they've found my heart already?"

"If they haven't run into too big problems."

Vanessa thinks for a moment.

"Is the place we're supposed to meet them safe?"

Alice nods.

"If Kevin's wards are good, no one should be able to find it if they don't know where it is."

"We can't get there on foot from Tirduchrainn. As soon as someone notices my heart has gone missing the guards will be searching all over the city, and once words gets to the King I'm gone too, the effort will double. By morning we won't  be able to get out of the city. Where's the place you've agreed to meet?"

"A few hours on foot east from where the solstice fair was."

Vanessa digs through her new pockets and pulls out a pale green stone, just small enough to fully hide in her closed hand. She starts tapping on one side of it.

"What are you doing?" Alice asks, curious.

"Calling for reinforcements," she simply says.

For a moment Alice simply marvels at the woman in front of her. Vanessa has been planning this, how to get them out of here and back home, for an entire year. She knows the place, she knows the people they're up against. She's competent, and focused (which is maybe easier if emotions don't get in her way without a heart), and thorough. She knows exactly what she's doing. This is the woman she first met. The woman she has since gotten to know as not only smart and competent, but also funny, and witty, and warm, and kind and caring. She makes her feel like everything is going to be okay because she's around. Alice loves her so much.

"Okay. Let's go," Vanessa pockets the stone and looks at Alice, who nods.

"Stay close to the walls," Vanessa says and flashes a smile.

"Stay close to the walls," Alice grins.

That's the moment noise reaches them from somewhere in the castle. It's coming from too far away to make any sense of it, other than it sounds urgent.

"They've noticed I'm gone. We need to go now," Vanessa says as she pulls the door open and them both through.

They move as quietly and as quickly along the wall in the courtyard towards the gates as they can. They're almost to the gate when they hear a shout behind them, clearly indicating they've been seen.

"Run," Vanessa tells her, and soon they're flying over the snow, running almost faster than heir legs allow.

And then they're through the gate, out of the castle, but they don't slow. There's people behind them.

Alice almost loses hope, then. They can't outrun all the guards, even if there aren't many of them that are awake this time of the night. Not all the way to the town, to the door, to Alsebah's place. For Vanessa, she would keep running until the end of the Earth, but she knows her body will betray her long before that. Her lungs are already hurting from the cold air, aching with every hard breath. Her boots are warm and heavy, ones that are a blessing if she don't want to lose her toes in the winter, but that will also slow her down as they flee.

But Vanessa keeps running, and so does she, because she believes Vanessa has a plan. It's been her plan all along they've been following, stumbling blindly after the crumbs she has left for them. Alice came here to save Vanessa, but now she simply has to believe Vanessa will save them both. And she does. And so she runs, not giving up until Vanessa does, because until then she knows this brilliant woman running beside her has a plan, even if the odds look impossible to her.

She can hear at least three pairs of footsteps after them, closing fast. She slips on the snow. Almost falls. Regains balance. Keeps running, now behind Vanessa, who doesn't so much as glance back. Good. She would have heard if Alice had fallen, so she knows she's right after her, and looking back would slow her or throw her slightly off balance. They can't afford to slow unless they have to.

Suddenly there's a flash fifty meters in front of them. A narrow door appears on the side of a huge tree, and a dark, hooded figure steps out.

"What now," Alice manages to groan through her heavy breathing.

"Reinforcements."

The figure waves at Vanessa and Alice, who almost without slowing slip through the door in the door, and instantly the sounds of their pursuers disappear.

They're in a small, dark room. Alice is too busy gasping her breath to take in much else about it.

"I can get you to a spot about an hour on foot East of the fair," says a male voice Alice has never heard before. He's drawing something on the wall.

"Excellent, thank you Damien," Vanessa answers.

The man, apparently called Damien, sets his hand on the wall, in the middle of whatever he was drawing, and a door appears where previously there was none. He opens it and motions for Vanessa and Alice to step through.

All three of them step out of another tree, into a snowy, clear and quiet landscape, stars twinkling in the sky. There isn't anyone in sight. The tree is on the side of a road, stretching empty as far as Alice can see. The sudden difference from being chased to standing in a quiet, calm winter landscape is almost disorienting to Alice.

"Will you be okay from here?" Damien is asking.

"We should be," Vanessa assures him. "If you're sure they can't trace us here."

"Not unless one of those guards after you is also unusually skillful and well-trained in magic," he answers, then turns to Alice. "You know where you're going?"

"I..." Alice begins, stops, then digs out a map from her backpack. "Can you show me where we are? I know where we're going, but I'm not sure where exactly we are."

Damien looks over the map for a moment, then points to a stretch of a road a little bit north of the one they traveled on their first day in the Fae Wilds.

"Okay," Alice hesitates for a moment. "I can't tell you where we're going, it's not my secret to tell, but I can find the way."

He nods.

"There's no reason they should be able to find you here, since there's no reason they would think you're here in particular, and we're far enough from Tirduchrainn they can't do a proper comprehensive search this fast. Assuming the King thinks you worth doing something like that anyway. The Heart is on its way?"

"We hope so. But maybe you could check up on them, just in case?"

He nods again.

"I can't thank you enough. None of this would have been possible without you. You're sure they can't trace anything back to you?"

Damien snorts, half amused, half insulted.

"No. I know my business," he says, then grins. "And even if they did, well, let's just call it an occupational hazard."

"Oh, I'm an occupation to you now?" Vanessa is smiling too.

"Lately you might just as well have been," Damien says, his voice kind. There's a short pause in the conversation.

"So," Vanessa breaks the silence. "I won't be coming back here ever again, unless Kevin and Sam haven't gotten my Heart and we're stuck here for all eternity, but if you're ever in my part of the world, don't hesitate to come find me."

"I won't," Damien says, gives a small bow, and disappears through an open door in the tree.

"Well," Vanessa says, turning to Alice. "We should get going. Shall we?"

She smiles and hold out her hand. Alice takes it, her heart having calmed down from the chase and beginning to soar. They spend the walk trading stories, catching up. Getting to know each other again. Alice can tell something about Vanessa is off. She isn't the kind of bright and excited and kind she usually is. She can't wait for her to get her heart back, to get her fully back.

But for right now it's enough that they are together for the first time in almost a year.

____________________________________________

Whoop.

The topic for tomorrow, the final topic, is Quote.

~matleena