Their first plan was to walk until they made it to an edge of the city. It had been Fulgora that had pointed out that this place was called the inner city and not just the city.

  It had been an eerie walk. This sky was always dark, but not in the same way the night was. It was like a layer that Ratface had never known was there was missing. Now that it was gone, she felt exposed.

  Fulgora could feel it too. The two of them kept close and kept glancing up at the sky.

  Part of that was avoiding the creatures from the sky. They still fell intermittently and the two of them kept hidden rather than fight them. In this, Ratface was the clear expert. Fulgora had to have the heaviest steps for someone trying to sneak.

  A part of her knew they were taking a long time but no one had ever established if the trial had a time limit. The main time they had to wait for was if the others found something that caught the Lady’s attention. Even that wasn’t the end of the world so long as they found something that she still found interesting.

  She could tell they were getting close to the edge when the runes began to change. It was no longer call but contain, far more complex and all designed to keep something in. Ratface could already feel a subtle tug keeping them in here and that was before they even got close to the edge.

  The buildings began to change as well, if the ones further in were bare housing, these ones here were cages. Some were nicer than others but what tipped them off was that the locks were on the outside.

  In some she could see half eaten meat or other types of food. One particularly small cage had bread in it, though whoever had been in it had left only crumbs. She paused. The crumbs led from different cages and in each more food had been taken. It was like someone who was used to scavenging had been there, and they’d left a trail. A trail that only someone like her would have noticed. Her heart raced and ached as it drew the only conclusion she could make. One filled as much by her hope as by the faint evidence she’d found.

  They’d been here. They were alive, and aware enough to keep provisions. She was finally going to find one of her people.

  She was so focused on that point of hope that she didn’t even notice the other cage in the area. It took Fulgora pulling against her to notice.

  A cage, much bigger than the rest of them had been ripped open. Water dripped from the sides of it. Whatever had been in it had been submerged in water until it had torn itself out.

  “The water serpent,” Ratface whispered. Fulgora looked at her in confusion.

  “They brought one from Waterviel?” she asked.

   thought Kryssa. Her thoughts sounded distorted to Ratface.

   she thought back.

  

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Ratface frowned. The glamour seemed snappish this evening. It must have been panic at not being able to get in.

   she thought. She ignored the anger that comment got and turned back to Fulgora.

  “We fought the serpents as our first trial, and a puppet dragon in the second. With needing a dragon now, it’s the creature that makes the most sense. No coincidences in a trial after all,” said Ratface.

  “Convenient that we found it before the rest though,” said Fulgora. She was eyeing the water around the cage critically. “Yet it had to break out rather than be let out like the rest. You can see where it’s ripped itself on the cage breaking free. What would make it do such a thing?”

  Ratface was more focused on the fact that bread was mixed in with the water. The creature had followed her goblin. She straightened and began marching in the direction it had gone, the thought of stealth far from her mind.

  “Ratface? Ratface wait,” called the other woman. There was a faint zap as she caught up with Ratface. A quick glance told her it hadn’t attracted a breach, so Ratface kept marching.

  “What are you doing? So far you’ve been little miss cautious in all of the trials, so why go after the giant serpent without worrying about the breaches?” Fulgora gestured back at the cage, “look at the size of that cage. It is bigger than us and I can’t use lightning to subdue it.”

  Ratface slowed. The woman had a point, but still her goblin was out there.

   said Kryssa. That more than anything stopped her. Kryssa would never recommend running headlong into danger. The fact that she was meant that they were both panicked. She took a deep breath.

  “You’re right,” she said.

  She pulled out her crossbow and began moving ahead slowly.

  “We need a way onto the buildings, but the runes on them are dangerous. The gargoyles wouldn’t touch them.”

  “Gargoyles?” Fulgora asked.

  “The protectors of this place.”

  “If they’re the protectors, maybe they don’t want to touch the runes for fear of breaking them?”

  That was actually… a very good point. They moved back into the city following the serpents trail. When they started to hear noises in the distance Ratface turned to the closest build. The way these buildings reached up meant they were covered in handholds at least. They all seemed to be connected at the upper levels as well.

  With hesitant fingers she touched the runes. Nothing happened other than the mana being slightly dampened.

  “Huh, I wouldn’t have thought it would be something so mundane,” she said.

  “Spoken like someone who doesn’t have many enchantments. My crafters always get annoyed when I lean against ours,” said Fulgora.

  Ratface climbed up onto the building and helped the other woman up. The two of them scaled up until they reached the third level. At this point the buildings were connected with faint terraces and little bridges. On each one was another stone that had more runes on them. It looked like they were recording something. A breach appeared relatively close to them and small writing appeared on the dark stone.

  “Coordinates,” Ratface whispered. They were trying to map the breaches.

  She filed that information away for when she had more time and kept climbing forward. She felt more comfortable up here in the sky. For all that everything came from up above her, it all seemed to land on the ground and even the creatures from beyond apparently struggled with looking up.

  They’d also been struggling in general. The paths below them were littered with torn up corpses where creatures had come in contact with the serpent and lost. One particularly gruesome one was bloated with water and had gone blue. The serpent must have drowned it.

  She was amazed it could push itself so harsh. Whatever had been in that potion had been potent.

  A few buildings later and they found their serpent. It was surrounded by dead breaches and was softly panting as it looked at another buildings terrace. Hate filled its eyes.

  Standing on the buildings terrace, was the elf. He looked back at the serpent with a tired expression, occasionally glancing at the coordinates stone next to him. The serpent could reach him so Ratface wondered why it wasn’t attacking.

  A closer inspection made that confusion disappear. Surrounding the elf was the eggs he’d taken. Ratface barely had time to take it in before she noticed who else was standing there.

  They looked a little different, skinnier for one, but still recognisable.

  There kneeling next to the elf was a goblin. It was one of the children from her village.