Aric led them around turns and corners, passing chamber rooms and drawing rooms, other ballrooms and dining rooms, until he reached a staircase that led down to a small kitchen. The far wall was open to reveal a small barn closed off by a wooden half-wall. Straw and dirt covered the stone floor, and herbs hung from fraying strings across the wall, covering the smell of wet fur and shit with the tinge of herbs. A lone chicken pecked at the floor next to the large table.

  ‘Over here.’ Aric pulled at a latch in the corner, revealing a hidden door in the floor. Mala stepped down first, disappearing beneath the floor.

  ‘Where does this go?’ Wil asked. Tseren stood next to him, watching Aric, unblinking.

  ‘Under the palace,’ Aric said. ‘To the moat. We use it for the bathhouse but it can go the other way.’

  Footsteps and shouting echoed at the top of the stairs, and Wil cursed again. He tore towards the stairs, taking them two at a time as the guards approached the stairs.

  The new staircase fell away before Wil saw the drop, and his stomach dropped as water crashed upwards around him. Grit and muck filled his mouth as he sank into the warm, murky water, only for his feet to hit solid ground and push him back up. He’d landed in a dark, dim tunnel with a domed roof, the water still except for his thrashing attempts to stay afloat, his mouth still full of the taste of thick, grimy water. He coughed and gagged, but the taste remained.

  Mala crouched on the side path of the channel, illuminated by a single grated window near her boots. Up close she was more lithe than he first thought, small with a broad bone structure – wide shoulders and wide hips – but her shape suggested she dropped and put on weight drastically. Considering the tribes were nomadic, that didn’t surprise him.

  ‘I nearly missed it too,’ Mala said. She hauled him out of the water. ‘The hole in the steps.’

  Wil glanced up just as Tseren leapt over the gap in question. He had landed at the end of the tunnel, the wall next to them carved out of the side of the wall, with a large eroded gap in the middle.

  ‘You left before it got bad,’ Mala added.

  Wil raised an eyebrow. ‘Bad? You mean it got worse?’

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  Mala nodded. ‘You and the Bulartuug girl, they’re saying both of you are part of it. That you were here to instigate the disappearances. That you’re working for the Wild Folk. King Bukidai all but said his knight was a Mysic, that she’s always been an agent of those creatures.’

  ‘My name is Tseren,’ Tseren said. ‘And I’m not his knight.’

  ‘You’re literally wearing the armour,’ Wil pointed out.

  Tseren’s eyes narrowed. ‘I was hired. I’m not his.’

  There was bite to the words that made Wil flinch, but now wasn’t the time. They had to get out of here, but what next? How did he deny he had anything to do with it? If this was because Heddwyn had run to him instead of his parents, Wil would see himself hanging for regicide before the night was out.

  ‘What about you?’ Wil asked. ‘Why are you running?’

  Mala rolled her eyes as Aric dropped down onto the pathway next to them. ‘Because I’m the only one that didn’t go missing. It’s not fair that I’m the only one left.’

  ‘I thought you weren’t related to the tribe like that?’ Wil asked.

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘Neither were the twins,’ Tseren mumbled.

  Before Wil could ask what that meant, an explosion sounded above them, rippling the water and raining little rocks down. Aric pumped his fists into the air.

  ‘Brought some time, but not much time. Gotta go now.’

  He spun on his heel and bolted down the length of the channel. Wil pinched the bridge of his nose, then motioned for the others to follow. With one last glance up to make sure the trap door had closed behind him, he broke into a sprint.

  The moat that surrounded the palace was still, reflecting the large moon above and hissing with the sound of a thousand bugs. The opening to the tunnel was on the palace side, with the main drawbridge down and crawling with people a little way away. Luckily, this part of the river was cleaner than whatever he had splashed through, and still enough that when Aric started splashing and thrashing, Wil could hook the kid over his shoulder and swim them both across easily. The cliffs were steep on both sides, but Aric led them a little way down around the side of the palace, where a natural break turned to a path onto the hill.

  Open field separated them from the city of Calwaeln further down the hill, only a shadow dotted with the flickering torches still lit. Behind them was only the massive palace with its dark, pointed structure, it’s dozens of towers and twisting aches. The cliff-face beneath was concave, giving no hint of the ocean beyond it except for the hiss of waves and the black line against a black sky. The Split sat to their left, a black stretch of shadow darker than humanly possible.

  ‘We keep moving,’ Aric said. ‘They’re still looking.’

  He turned and darted down the hill, scampering towards the blinking lights of the city, then fell, disappearing amongst the blades of grass. Wil swore and rushed after him, the others following as Aric didn’t stand.