Book 3 Chapter 38

Silk followed along behind Maria, her eyes following the younger girl curiously as she led the way deeper into the “School”. The kids stuck close to Maria and the wolf next to her, giving off a sense of trust that stood in stark contrast to the suspicious glances that they sent her own way. Not that she cared about how the children thought about her…

Still… She thought looking back towards where they had come and the blood that still gently pooled on the ground. Hard to see herself as the scary one after seeing what the two had done back there. Especially after what the younger girl had been willing to do to her… She glanced at her again once more, inspecting the young lady before her.

After leaving behind that cute little God and her Mother’s collaborators, Silk had come down into the fort. It wasn’t hard to appear normal, as she’d been tasked with harder performances before, though her heart did race the first time she had been asked where she’d been.

Thankfully, she had been able to avoid most of the other council members, and none of the assassins had the guts to question her, not with Jena at her side. What she hadn’t expected though was to almost die right as she got to the people she was supposed to help rescue… By one of them of all things as well.

Even now Jena stuck closer to her than usual. Most might find it hard to read the emotions behind those white masks, but Silk could read Jena like a book. Her guard was scared. Scared of that young woman who so calmly led the way while comforting the children.

Silk had never seen Jena scared of anything. But Silk could tell her guard was glad had managed to calm her down. Though that was more to do with the impact apparently cause by the younger girl’s god. And all of that was not even mentioning the large wolf that walked beside her… What was even more strange was the fact that apparently, she hadn’t been trapped here with the children, but had come in through a passage no one in the Confederation knew about to rescue them herself.

Now here she was guiding them all through a building that Silk practically owned. It really was Interesting… Silk thought to herself as they walked past the empty rooms.

Maria led the Children down the long hallways she had just come from. Leaving Garm to keep his ears open in case anyone happened to be around. She glanced back at the two other women who accompanied them. Both of whom seemed to be looking at her as well. The one without a mask smiled pleasantly in response, leaving Maria to feel embarrassed.

Maria wasn’t sure she should trust either of them, but she didn’t sense any hostility from the two young women, and that noise earlier could only have been from Tirr. She had felt the remnants of his Blessing even down here. From what the woman had said, the best thing would be to just get the children out just as she had planned. That way she could send Garm to help Tirr deal with the rest.

They reached the room with the grate quickly and Maria shepherded the children inside, closing the door behind them. When she turned around the young woman was at the tunnel entrance with a look of appreciation on her face…

“So there really is a tunnel down here… I wonder was it the original creators of this place that put it in and just happened to forget? Or did someone dig it afterward to get away…”

Maria ignored her, putting on a smile for the children as she gathers them around, “Alright everybody we’re going to be going through here. I know it’s a bit scary but we’ll go in one at a time so everyone can fit, Older children try to go in between groups of the younger ones to guide everyone okay?” She turned to Sera, patting the young girl on the head once more

“Sera you go first okay, if there’s any danger on the other side try your best to keep everyone safe…”

The teenager nodded once again, helping organize the children before taking off into the dark tunnel. The tunnel got so tight at times, that even the children wouldn’t be able to go through more than one at a time. Combined with the coaxing some of the younger children needed to go forward to begin with, it ended up being a long process.

Occasionally shakes could be heard from above, as more and more of the children passed through. Suddenly a long low growl came grown Garm, His hackles rising as he faced the door. A red light started to shine from under the door before bursting open, thrown from its hinges in an explosion of flame and smoke.

There standing on the other side of it, a twisted grin on his face, was Reynolds. Flanked by a white-masked guard and two other assassins. He let out a chuckle, “I thought I might find rats scurrying around down here…”