Marco nodded, his usually solemn face granting me an approving smile. “Excellent idea, Credola. I will ensure this is done and monitored in every sector.”
“But if we intercept them now, we lose any chance of using this against them.” Tain paced around the diagram. “There must be some way of using this information, giving ourselves the advantage for once.”
Everyone fell silent. Jov and I had been raised to expect and prevent attacks on the Chancellor’s family, but we had never prepared for a disaster like this. Our expertise was defending attacks from the shadows. Open warfare had never featured as a scenario in our training.
“I mean no disrespect, Marco, but honor-down, I wish Aven were here,” Tain said, shaking his head in frustration. Though the longing in his tone still rankled, I couldn’t help but agree for once. She might be crude and unsubtle, but the Warrior-Guilder’s military mind would be invaluable, not to mention the thousand-strong army she commanded. And after dealing for weeks with polite evasiveness and condescension disguised as assistance from most of our peers, I better appreciated the appeal of her directness.
Marco appeared to take no offense. “I am a poor substitute,” he said. “I too wish for our commander. She would know what to do.”
Eliska cleared her throat. “For now, let’s try to get a clearer idea of where that tunnel might end up. Once we know, we can at least prepare for anyone who comes through, whether that means engaging or tracking them if they attempt to hide in the city. With Credo Jovan’s assistance, I’d like to take some of my engineers into these underground caverns to identify the best interception point.”
Jov stiffened beside me and I again wondered what he wasn’t telling us. This wasn’t the first time he had withheld information from me, but it was rarely so obvious. “We don’t know who or what is down there. Marco, perhaps you’d come with us?” We took several lamps between us, and I took Jov’s when it became obvious his injured shoulder couldn’t cope with its weight. Worried, I hovered close behind him as we moved through the secret passage and into the little opening space. Jovan led us through to an old ladder, where he had descended to the caverns, but Eliska paused, consulting her engineers and a compass.
“Not down,” Eliska said. “They’d hit rock if they tried to dig that deep.” She indicated the other passage. “This way.”
Some of the tension left my brother. Ahead, the engineers murmured to one another, touching walls and consulting their diagrams, explaining their observations to Tain and Marco. “How big is the system below?” I asked Jov.
“Huge.”
“Big enough to hide in.…” I mused. I looked back toward the cellar we’d come down through. “That house above us isn’t the only deserted one.”
He nodded. “There were signs that people might be living down there.”
“Do we need to tell the Council?”
He hesitated. “I guess? But I think it’s probably too big for us to properly monitor; if it connects to this cellar who knows how many others?”
I nodded. If the army outside could access the cave system already they’d have infiltrated the city, and most likely the siege would be over. The best thing to do was to concentrate on their tunneling activities and hope the people underground were not planning anything. “But there’s something else.”
“Yes.” He paused. “Someone was down there, someone who knew his way around. I couldn’t see him. But he had a knife, and he was following me. I don’t think he meant me well.”
“We’ve found it,” Eliska called back to us. Lit from below by the lamp, her face looked gaunt, her scraped-back hair exposing the shape of her skull and her sunken eyes lost in shadow. “Up ahead. Be silent.”
We followed her up the passage, mimicking her stealth. “Here,” she whispered, indicating a portion of the wall. “As best as we can tell, their tunnel will break through here. Listen.”
The chip chip sound crunched through the air here, much louder than before. “They’re right there,” I breathed, stepping away from the wall. Eliska nodded, then beckoned, and we followed her back down the passage.
We were back in the cellar before anyone spoke.
“They’re probably digging during the day, when the noise from the city would mask the sound, and taking the dirt out at night,” Eliska said. “They’ve dug well past the wall, so I’d guess they’re looking to get access, not to sabotage the structural integrity of the wall. Whether they intend to or not, they’re going to break into these tunnels soon—perhaps as early as tomorrow.”
“So no time for us to intercept,” Tain said. He looked at us, his indecision apparent. But we were going to have to decide, and soon.
* * *
Dark violet shadows spread across the street as we emerged from the empty house. We had waited there for what had felt like an age while Marco went off to the nearest sector to send us an Order Guard and several messengers to wait in the tunnel below to listen for further digging. Though Eliska had predicted work would cease overnight, the Guard had instructions to send the messenger immediately if there were any changes. The other messengers had been sent to alert the rest of the Council to an urgent meeting at first light.
Now we made our way through the streets, heading for the bridge. I was grateful for Eliska; the Stone-Guilder led the way with ease, where I would have struggled to find the right route. These homogenous residential areas were even harder to distinguish at night and the streets meandered and crisscrossed in a way that was totally confusing to most.
But not, apparently, to Eliska. Her straight, dark tail of hair swung against her strong back as she led us with confident steps. We walked through a residential area, out of the way of any of the main thoroughfares, far from the Builders’ Guildhall and the industry warehouses, in the dark. Yet Eliska led us back to the lake like she’d walked this route a hundred times. She wasn’t a Credola—I wondered suddenly if she’d grown up in a place more like this than the upper city. Yet of all the Guilders she seemed the least sympathetic to the rebellion, her attitude more like the Families’. Perhaps she believed that if she had built a successful lifestyle for herself despite starting with little, anyone could do so? Sometimes the least sympathetic to a plight was one who’d escaped it.
A cry sounded. Then laughter, but harsh rather than merry, came from an alley to our left. The four of us looked at each other and without speaking followed the sound, our pace quickening as a loud sob cut through the continuing jeering laughter. Jov glanced back at me, anxious, but I avoided eye contact. As we approached the alley, a dull grunting interspersed the laughs.
The sight that met us made me gasp. The grunts and cries came from a boy, perhaps in his late teens at most, with coltish long limbs and dark brown hair flopping over his face. Four men taunted him, pushing and kicking at him as they circled, predatory, driving him back toward the canal. One landed a heavy fist to the boy’s stomach; his whole body curled in on itself as he stumbled to the side, almost falling into the water.
I froze, but Tain sprang to action. “Hey!” he yelled. All four turned as he and Eliska charged toward them, Jov struggling behind awkwardly.