Chapter 18 — The Flight

The tunnels spat us out into the night. Cold air hit my face sharp as ice, but there was no relief in it. Behind us, horns sounded again—higher this time, urgent, calling hounds to chase.

I ran. Merlin hung heavy across my shoulders, his weight near breaking me, but I didn't dare stop. His breaths came ragged, shallow, but they came. That was enough.

Boots thundered in the halls behind. Shouts echoed. They were coming fast.

The path sloped steeply down the mountainside, narrow and treacherous. Loose scree slid underfoot, stone cutting through my boots, but my body remembered old climbs, old runs. I leaned low, kept moving, every step a prayer not to fall.

A shout rang closer. I glanced back—shadows, torches, steel glinting. Too close.

I forced my legs harder, lungs burning, until the path bent into a cleft between two ridges. I darted through, heart hammering, and nearly stumbled as the ground dropped into a ravine.

No time. I skidded down the slope, half-running, half-falling, stones clattering in my wake. Pain lanced through my side, but I clung to Merlin and kept moving.

Above, torches flickered at the rim. One man shouted. Another hurled a spear—it struck the rocks and shattered.

But none followed.

Their lights lingered a moment, then pulled back, swallowed by the night. The horn blasts ceased. Only silence pressed down now, heavy and absolute.

I dropped to my knees, Merlin sliding gently into the grass beside me. My chest heaved, each breath tearing. The ravine was dark, shielded by stone, a shallow stream trickling through its floor.

I waited for pursuit. None came.

Merlin stirred faintly, his chest glowing once, then fading to dull embers. I touched his fur, hand trembling. "Stay with me, buddy. Just stay with me."

The ravine stretched ahead, narrow and twisting. We were hidden here. Safe? No. Not safe. But unseen, for now.

I slumped against the rock wall, the weight of exhaustion crashing down. The Caller's laughter still echoed in my skull, bright and certain.

We'd escaped, but only because he had let us.

— Seventh day, night, hiding in the wilderness —

And I had seen too much to believe it would end here.