The Scarlet Assassin

Chapter Thirty-Seven

My boots hit mud, and I groaned with disgust as it squelched beneath my foot. That's what you get for coming down here alone.

The smell of being underground, the way the walls felt as though they would crush me, sent a shiver down my spine. Bile rose in my throat, but I swallowed it down and closed my eyes.

I began walking through the passage which, thankfully, was only one way. But after five minutes of walking, my path was blocked. A solid stone wall, built from the bottom to the top of the tunnel, made it impossible for me to continue. I pushed on it, then kicked it in frustration.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me. You send me on a wild goose chase, get my boots dirty, almost kill me with arrows, and you're sealed off? Fuck!" I turned and threw my hands up in frustration before making my way back to the ladder.

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It was beginning to grow dark by the time I finished scouting the next two possible tunnels. The first, supposedly South of the waterfall, was about a mile off, but it had been the easiest to find as it was being guarded by soldiers from the Nuxta palace. That one, I concluded, was probably the main access point.

I stayed there for over an hour, hidden in the bushes. The guards changed twice, roughly every twenty-five minutes, each new cluster arriving by horseback while the leaving cluster went on their horses. There were five, and they were all armed with guns, not swords.

Forty minutes into my wait, a carriage rolled up. A man and woman stepped out, flanked by more soldiers. They kissed, and the girl, dressed in commoners clothes, laughed.

"I have to go, Aria," the man said with a chuckle, his voice carrying to my hiding place. He kissed her hand, whispered something else, and was ushered into the small cave while the girl hopped back into her carriage and left.

Moving with the carriage, I kept up as long as I could. It was headed in the direction of town. I stopped and watched it bounce along the road. Then I turned and continued my hunt.

The fourth possible tunnel wasn't easy to find, but once I did and I opened the trapdoor, I saw it was sealed with the same thick, stone layer as before.

With a defeated sigh, I slammed it shut and crossed it off my map, walking back toward the village.

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"Where have you been?!" Rafe exclaimed as I waltzed through the front door of the townhouse to find everyone, spare Ace, lounging in the living room next to a fire.

"Drinking, partying. Killing random men, women, and children and lots and lots of dogs." I slipped off my mud caked boots and dropped my hood, pulling the cloth from my face.

Rafe wasn't amused. "I'm serious, Vera."

Carter was frowning. "You killed children and dogs?"

With a grimace, I said, "No." Then I turned to Rafe. "While you all were celebrating the defeat of some god, I was checking our possible entry points."

Sophie gasped. "You went to the tunnels?!"

"You could've been killed or hurt!" Rafe hissed.

"We aren't that lucky," Ace said, walking down the stairs and sinking onto the couch. "So, do we know what we're going to do or are we going into this blindly?" I took off my coat and set it on one of the chairs in the dining room on my way to the fire.

"The four I went to today aren't suitable. They're either guarded by Nuxta soldiers, arrows-"

"Arrows?!" Rafe exclaimed.