Shadow War: Book 3 of the Shadows Rising Trilogy (WIP Rough Draft)

11. Redtree

10th of Eylestre, Continued

Built in a hidden gap between the back end of a warehouse and the side wall of a weaver's mill, the inside of the Redtree Street access pressed in close, with barely enough room for a grown man to walk forward without angling his body to fit.

Cog ran a legitimate fuel and stove business from the warehouse, and the oily, mineral smell of raw coal mingled with the musty stale air of the wartime tunnels as Orrelian opened the hatch and stepped over the sill. Then he gave me a small smile before he set off for the door at the far end of the warehouse, where Cog was waiting.

I turned to the first group of refugees and launched into the instructions Orrelian had tasked me with. "Across the street there's a flatbottom barge at the end of the docks. It's red. Don't run. Wait for the signal. You have to walk down the street to the docks and get into the red boat. Then you have to get in the hold and hide under the rags behind the barrels at the back," I whispered in Tetton. "Understand?"

Six pairs of eyes blinked at me from the gloom of the tunnel, six heads nodding in unison.

"Good." I checked the warehouse door. Cog had his hand raised. I gave the teenage Tettian girl at the front of the line a light pat on the shoulder. "Alright. He's ready."

The girl knotted her fists in her skirts and stepped out of the tunnel, her bright red hair the only spot of color against dingy grey and absolute black as she started down the center aisle between cargo bins full of coal. After a few meters she glanced back over her shoulder, bright blue eyes large in her pale face. She was leaving behind warmth and safety, walking toward a door with nothing but danger and uncertainty waiting on the other side. I swallowed hard. I knew exactly what that felt like. All I could offer was a nod and hope it was reassuring.

She turned and kept going, leading the rest of her group toward Cog.

Little by little, by fives and sixes, the refugees filed out of the tunnel, through the warehouse, crossed Redtree Street, went down the boardwalk to the docks, and boarded the lowlsung flatbottom barge Orrelian had rented with the opal money. It took more than an hour. Every twenty minutes, Rugga gave the warning signal, bringing everything to a dead halt while we waited for a Magi patrol to walk down Redtree and turn left at the boatyard fence.

Licha Stongfal and the other two Carakis were the last to come up the tunnel, each of them shuffling sideways. They listened in silence as I gave them their directions in Caraki, then they ducked past me into the warehouse and strode down the aisle, looming comically large over Cog while he waited for Orrelian's all clear from the docks.

"That's it, there are no more," Songbird whispered from farther down the tunnel, where she had been sorting the refugees by languages. "I need to go back now... Best of luck, Miss Warring."

There was a bit of shuffling as she met Arramy coming out and the two of them squeezed past each other, but then the click of her heels echoed away toward the larger main tunnel, and he was there, materializing out of the dark.

It was time to go.

I stepped out into the warehouse and stood back while Arramy closed the tunnel access behind us, latching the metal panel into place.

He looked so normal, like any other dock worker, with a shapeless grey and green knitted cap pulled down low on his head and a baggy brown wool dockman's coat over a cotton shirt he had tucked into his usual grey denim pants. A dark green scarf was knotted around his throat. His studded leather vest was notably missing, but he probably still had his gauntlets full of knives up his sleeves. Or a pistol somewhere.

He lifted one inky eyebrow and the very normal stranger was gone, replaced by dry amusement hiding in familiar winter-steel eyes.

With a jerk, I whipped around, cheeks warm. My boots crunched loud in the layer of coal that littered the floor as I picked my way down the aisle and got into line with the Carakis.