WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 57

Subsequent to realizing that Chapter 57 is way too long, I cut it in half. Chapter 58 will also be posted tonight.

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Mare

I make it to the top of the stairs, balancing myself precariously on the latter that joins the spiral stairs, climbing up the few rungs without my hands. However stiff my body is, my arms strain as I heave the rock hatch upward, adrenaline helping me most of the way. I don't lift it out of its place; just wide enough for me to slip out. 

I pull myself out backward, relying on the assumption that the rock won't crush me when I use both of my arms to make it the rest of the way. The cover presses against me as I straighten my bent arms, the roughness of it scraping on my pants. 

It falls against the enclosure when my boots are out, and I get to my feet. 

Attacking Cal was not meant to incapacitate him permanently. It was a head start. 

Doubt in myself makes me pause for a moment, looking at the hatch that hasn't begun to move yet. He knows these tunnels better than anybody, certainly better than me. If I hit a dead end... Stronger, too, though maybe not faster.  I think back to those days in Piedmont and ours runs. I don't like to think about those runs often, but I know that I could hold my own against him. With a head start... He has a cuff of Silent Stone, unless he had the keys right on him.

The hatch shifts, meaning that he's gotten to his feet. Seconds away from me. 

I run. 

The passage stretches both directions, and I chose to go left, though it's of no importance. Either way could end in my doom, and this section of the tunnels isn't familiar to me.

A moment later, halfway down the long hallway, the hatch's rock hitting rock cuts slashes through the air, but I don't look back. I can't look back, not when I've made these decisions and have to live with them. 

I grab onto the corner of the tunnel as I hit a bend, using my momentum to propel myself around it, turning right. 

Down in the safe house, he had to make two decisions. Whether he should take the extra time to grab the key to the manacle I stuck around his wrist, risking losing me, and whether or not he should go after me altogether. We might run into a legion of guards down here, but on the other hand... if I got to the guards, they'd know exactly where he is. He could always go and take refuge someplace else; wherever Iris and Evangeline are. 

But we both know this is about more than losing a prisoner. 

My heart beats erratically, my legs moving so fast I worry I'll trip, though I don't let up. Anything less, and I'll wind up in a situation I do not want to be in. With Cal again, though we won't be having another civil discussion. I don't...

A legion of dead guards lies in front of me, twenty feet. I don't look at their faces, fearful of who I might find. There are knives poking out from each of them, where their hearts should rest, undisturbed. Knowing he's not far behind, based on the tramplings of footsteps, I pull a knife from one of their chests to be a cautionary weapon. It's disrespectful to not spare the man a second glance, and I hope he understands. I'll come back down here later, ensure they all get fine and proper funerals. 

Evangeline. I grunt as I pass the rest of the fallen guards, my eyes zipping back and forth to take in the doorways passing me on my left and right. The Scarlet Guard took great care in destroying the tunnels leading out from the castle, but those right under Whitefire are still a tool for those living-or being kept-inside of it. There are too many passageways to count, too many courses that could be right or wrong.