Dusk of the Realm

35

It had become routine by now.

Serena threw on her hooded black cloak and pushed the window open. Calling up her magic, she stepped into the open air, knowing that her spell would support her as she closed the panes behind her. Then she killed the spell, and dropped towards the ground; she enjoyed the rush of adrenaline, and she only needed to expend the small amount of magic energy required to catch her before she hit the ground and splattered like a squash.

She knew where all the guards were posted, and expertly avoided their scanning of the area. Tarin was very open with her, and told her whatever she wished to know. He trusted her, after all.

She had taken this path enough times by now to traverse it quickly. She had known since the first time that going directly through the castle gates would not be an option; she could surely charm her way through, but there was no way for her to be sure the sentry of the tower would not report her movements to Tarin - and that was the last thing she needed.

As usual, her skin soon began to itch relentlessly, and she tried so hard to resist scratching, but it was no use. It provided the only relief she could find.

Reaching the eastern wall that blocked the castle off from the city itself, she ducked onto her hands and knees and crawled along until she found the spot, knowing that sentries were posted on the wall nearby. She had loosened the bars of the grate herself, and so long as she was not afraid of dunking into some cold, dirty water in the middle of the night to swim under the wall, she had no problem getting through it.

Upon surfacing on the other side, she climbed out of the water and dried herself with her magic, though that did nothing to clean the mud from her cloak, gown, and hair. By now, however, she figured Stacia was used to the constant laundering Serena assigned her.

It was much easier to leave the city than the walls of the castle, as she was hardly ever the only one departing, even at such an hour. She always kept her face hidden anyway, but the Fae warriors were always more likely to be interested in who was entering their city than who was seeking to leave it.

From there, it was just a matter of running. She threw herself into the task with a single-minded ferocity, scratching at her arms, her stomach, her face as she went. As always, her insides were churning, starting to burn up, and she knew that after the itching would come the pain. She had grown accustomed to pain.

She did not slow down upon reaching the edge of Lymeryth; in fact, if anything, she sped up. She was almost to her destination. She could sense that they were nearby, and the knowledge sent a thrill through the part of her mind that she had never recognized until recently.

She heard their voices before she could see them.

"Are you sure we're on our own?"

"Yes. You helped me cast the spell yourself. I still think we should just kill all the nymphs--"

"It would be fairly noticeable if we killed all the nymphs, Cade. And you can't exactly kill a whole region of the forest off without expecting the others to draw the castle's attention to the act."

"I thought we were done caring about the castle. We already killed off the old hag."

"The old hag was never our real target," was the hissed response, but it quickly morphed into a gleeful laugh. "The royal brat is here."

Knowing that was her cue, Serena gave her chest one hard, final scratch and stepped into clearing they had found for this meeting.

Then she dropped to her knees, casting her eyes to the ground in reverence to her superiors.