It didn’t take long to find an entrance free of fire and debris.

  “You want us to climb down that?” Ida asked, peering down the dark ladder.

  “Yes, and hurry up. We don’t want anyone seeing us, or we’ll have the entire city down there with us.”

  She grumbled but slid her feet down into the tight passageway, holding on to the ladder for dear life. Siv’s set jaw showed an uncharacteristic determination despite the worry in her eyes. A brave girl, that.

  Vidar searched the vicinity while the two girls descended but didn’t find anything he could use to make a kenaz rune. Without some light down there, Ida and Siv were liable to fall into the water. The same went for himself, he admitted. Light was an absolute necessity. Again, he cursed his bad luck with having all the runes on him taken and then those he kept in his room destroyed.

  Even thinking back, he did his utmost not to think of the many corpses in the jail. Of course, trying not to think about that scene utterly failed, and he imagined each guard broken, the light having gone out of their eyes. Most of all, he thought of the one he himself killed. In the end, it was an act of self-defense, but that fact did little to soothe his guilty conscience.

  Hundreds, if not thousands, of people in Halmstadt were dead or dying. Another one should not make much of a difference, but it did. To Vidar, it did. He held up his hands, looking at his palms. The blood on them was long gone, replaced by so much soot that he couldn’t even see his own pale skin.

  People still screamed and wept all around him as Rat Town burned, but he could do nothing for them. Their terrible cries cut off when he closed the hatch. The tips of the fingers he’d bitten to extract blood to write with back in the jail throbbed as he climbed down through darkness, the soot on his palms making it difficult to hold on to the rungs.

  “This smell is putrid,” Ida said once they were all down. She made a retching sound, but he thought it was feigned.

  “This is a water tunnel,” he said. “That’s the rushing sound you’re hearing. The other sort is much, much worse.”

  “Ew.”

  “We need light,” Vidar said.

  “Just wave your hands around and give us some magic light, then, witch.”

  He sighed. “You know well it does not work like that. Do any of you have anything to write with?”

  “Nope.”

  He really didn’t want to ruin more of his fingers. Thankfully, he thought the three of them might just have what he’d need.

  “Use your nails to scrape off as much soot off yourselves as you can manage, then give me the grime.”

  “Ew again.”

  “We can stay down here in the dark if you prefer it.”

  “No, no,” Ida grumbled.

  Siv let out an amused grunt.

  Accepting the small, greasy piles of dirt was rather disgusting, he had to admit, but it was a passable material to work with. A kenaz rune formed under his tired fingers. It was far from perfect and he almost ran out of soot before the circle finished, but smudging the rest around and around seemed to have done the trick.

  Vidar rejuvenated the rune and then triggered it, only allowing a trickle of essence to escape. His hand grew numb and the rest of his arm lost some heat, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. A glimmer of light appeared, and all three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

  He saw the rivulets their nails had done on their skin, pale lines on a black and gray backgrounds. Their faces were still covered in soot and Ida’s eye bandage was completely dark. That couldn’t be good.

  “It’s crowded here,” Ida complained.

  They’d stayed in the narrow pathway near the ladder rather than heading out to the water, where it was a little colder.

  “You’re complaining a lot,” Vidar grumbled.

  She shrugged. “You’re right. What reason do I have to complain, with everything going so well?”

  Siv grinned, then opened her mouth and made a gesture.

  “She’s thirsty,” Ida said. “Come to think of it, so am I. Parched.”

  Vidar pointed. “There is plenty of water out there. We should clean ourselves a little and you can drink from it too. This isn’t the first time I’ve been down in this very spot.”

  “Such a well-traveled dummy,” Ida said, betraying the mocking words with an uptilt at the corners of her mouth.

  Vidar triggered the rune again, increasing its brightness so it would reach out onto the walkway. They made it out next to the raging river that was the city’s water supply system.

  Siv’s eyes were wide open in what he read as amazement. She got down on her knees and submerged her hands, gasping from the cold.

  “So much water,” Ida said, joining her sister.

  They cleaned their faces as best they could, but then they both spluttered and winced.

  “What’s wrong?” Vidar asked.

  “The water. It tastes wrong! Was this a trick? Did you trick us into drinking poop water?”

  Siv grunted in disappointment.

  “No!” he said, going down to his knees. The smell only really struck him then. It smelled of the sea. Despite his better judgement, he tasted a small sip. Sea water.

  “It’s no trick,” Vidar said. “It must be broken.”

  “The water is broken?”

  He rinsed off his face anyway and cleaned his hands before standing. “No. The thing that cleans the water is broken.”

  “How come? Didn’t you say the water was fine? What changed?”

  He cleared his throat and looked away, unable to keep his face from flushing.

  “Did you break it?”

  Siv assumed a look of gentle disappointment, folding her arms and slowly shaking her head.

  “Not on purpose! Well, we didn’t realize what we were doing!”

  Ida raised an eyebrow. “We?”

  “Alvarn. His name is Alvarn. He’s a friend.”

  “Popular, are you?”

  Vidar shrugged.

  “So this means we don’t have any drinking water. We can’t stay down here.”

  “We’ll manage tonight, then return to street level early tomorrow morning. I have to go to the thieves’ guild, anyway.”

  A shocked expression broke out in Ida’s face. “You have to what?”

  “They’re paying me to teach rune craft to some of their people. A fellow named Yallander.”

  “Right,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “You spoke to that guard like you knew him.”

  Vidar shrugged again. “Need the money. Now more than ever. If the guild chapter house hasn’t gone up in flames, I figure that’s my best bet to get us back on our feet.”

  “Us?”

  He looked away, embarrassed. “Well, you saved me from those guards and took me to Embla. Figure I owe you.”

  “Hah!” she shouted, pointing at his face. “You don’t think you’ve repaid us enough? You saved me today already!”

  “Still,” he said.

  “Fine,” she said. “It’s your money. But listen, the thieves’ guild is bad news. You shouldn’t go near them. It’s not safe for you. Also, don’t you think they might be a little pissed at you after what happened today?”

  Siv looked like she wanted to know more, but Ida kept talking, ignoring her sister’s quizzical expression. “And Yallander? He’s no good.”

  “Why?” Vidar asked.

  “What kind of man do you think you have to be to run the guild chapter in Rat Town?”

  “A strong one?”

  Ida scoffed but didn’t press the issue.

  “Tomorrow, then. We’ll see if the dragon has razed the entire city or if the soldiers put it down. Either way, there’ll be much money to be found in people’s houses.”

  It was Vidar’s turn to scoff. “You’re telling me you’re going to return to breaking into homes? At a time like this? After what you’ve just been through?”

  Siv grabbed Ida’s arm and shook her head before flashing a bunch of signs with her hands. Ida put her hand over Siv’s and glared at them both. “I told you, I’m going to create my own thieves’ guild. It’ll be greater than Yallander’s rabble in no time. This is a perfect opportunity for us, Siv. We have to seize it.”

  “The opportunity to loot burned houses?”

  “You’re teaching the thieves’ guild. Don’t act all high and mighty with me, little scribe.”

  She’d used Lytir’s moniker for him, even copying the man’s floaty, almost dreamy way of speaking.

  “Fine, do what you want,” Vidar said. “Let’s just get some sleep and hope Halmstadt isn’t gone when we wake.”

  They were silent for a long while, then Vidar retreated into the smaller space near the light rune. He spoke as he walked. “A dragon.”

  “How is a dragon here?” Ida asked, following.

  He sat, leaning against the wall with his feet propped up uncomfortably against the opposite wall. “I don’t know. Don’t see how it’s possible. They’re monsters from out of religion. Dragons aren’t supposed to be real. I mean, they obviously are, since one is destroying Halmstadt as we speak, but I don’t know what to make of it.”

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  He caught the sight of Siv’s hands fluttering in the dark.

  “Siv wonders if the angels are real as well.”

  Vidar hadn’t thought of that implication.

  “You think they are?” he asked.

  “If the dragons are real, why not the angels?”

  “They all died,” Vidar said. “According to the religious texts, I mean.”

  “They fell,” Ida corrected.

  Vidar sighed. “Isn’t that the same thing?”

  “Who knows,” she replied.

  “Even if they were real, they’re not here now.”

  “But the dragon is,” Ida said.

  “Let’s just sleep,” Vidar said. He didn’t want to talk about any of it, not in his exhausted state. “I’ll dim the kenaz rune but keep it active. Tomorrow, we’ll make some coin and find out what’s going on up above. If the dragon is still alive, I’ll find a way to destroy it for wrecking all my things.”

  “Sure you will,” Ida said, sliding down along the wall next to her sister.

  The two of them held hands. Vidar closed his eyes and tried to sleep. He soon heard Ida’s shuddering breath turn into weeping, and she mumbled to her sister about what she’d been through. Again and again, she spoke of her lost eye, while Siv made soothing noises and stroked her sister’s hair.

  At some point, he drifted off to sleep.

  * * *

  “Hey, Vidar!”

  “Ow!” he said, blinking. “You kicked me!”

  “You wouldn’t wake up!” Ida barked.

  His eyelids were heavy and his head swam. It didn’t feel like he’d slept long.

  “What time is it?” he asked.

  “How should we know?” Ida asked. “It’s morning, I think! Time to get out of here, anyway. Can’t stand this place!”

  “Fine,” he grumbled, struggling to get to his feet. “Follow after me.”

  He left the kenaz rune as it was. It would run out of essence soon, in any case. Cold air rushed over the three of them as soon as he opened the hatch. It was still dark out. In fact, it was much darker than he’d ever seen before, even with a new layer of snow covering most of everything. Not a single window held a lantern.

  The fires were gone too, either put out by the citizens of Andersburg or smothered by the snow. Vidar saw no one, heard nothing except Ida and Siv climbing up to stand beside him.

  “It’s so quiet,” Ida said, her voice low, as if afraid someone would hear her.

  The snow was still falling, which meant they were neither able to see stars nor a flying monster.

  “You think they killed it?” Vidar asked.

  “Or it killed everyone and then left.”

  Usually, he didn’t mind the silence of the early morning, but today it weighed on him with an ominous quality.

  “They can’t all be dead,” he said, trying, and failing even to his own ears, to sound confident.

  “I’m going to look around.”

  “Inside people’s houses?” he asked.

  “Yes, Vidar, inside people’s houses. Come on, Siv,” Ida said, grabbing Siv’s hand.

  Siv shook her head and pulled her hand free.

  Ida grabbed it again. “I said, let’s go!”

  Siv stepped back from her sister and freed her hand to communicate in that strange language.

  “I won’t be taken again, Siv.”

  Siv gestured to Vidar and made more signs.

  “What’s she saying?” Vidar asked.

  Irritation flashed in Ida’s face, then sadness followed by determination. “Siv says she’s too much of a frightened little girl to come with me. She’s too good to be a thief and thinks my dream of running a thieves’ guild is too daring.”

  He looked from sister to sister. “What?”

  “Siv. Come with me now or I’m going without you,” Ida said, ignoring his question.

  Siv shook her head defiantly.

  “You want to go with him?” Ida asked.

  She watched Siv’s hands, then continued. “No, I’m not doing that. I’m going my way.”

  Siv stomped her foot in frustration and let out a gravelly, questioning sound.

  “Fine, go, then!” Ida shouted, her loud voice cutting through the silence. She stomped off, snow crunching under each step.

  “Hold on!” Vidar shouted. “What’s happening?”

  “Keep her!” Ida shouted back, briefly looking over her shoulder. Her one eye was brimming with tears.

  The cold was terrible. They’d need to get moving.

  “You want to come with me?” Vidar asked, his voice soft.

  Siv nodded, not bothering to wipe off the tears streaming down her face. Raising one finger, she drew two simple lines in the air, those of the kenaz rune.

  “You want to learn rune crafting?”

  A nod.

  “That’s great!” he said with as much enthusiasm as he was able to muster, in an attempt to chase away those sad eyes and trembling lower lip. “We’ll be business partners!”

  What a mess.

  Andersburg, it turned out, was not dead. People moved about, some with direction to their steps, while others just moved back and forth listlessly as Vidar and Siv walked down one of the main streets of Rat Town. Around a third of all houses had succumbed to the fiery attacks from above or the subsequent raging fires. Many of the displaced had taken refuge in other houses for the night and were now spilling out onto the street. Some went to work. Some cried. A stunned sort of silence reigned, like people still couldn’t believe what’d happened.

  Vidar was barely able to wrap his head around it himself. Like many of the people they crossed paths with, he, once again, was without a home.

  A guardsman suddenly ran up the street, going in the opposite direction in an obvious hurry. At first, Vidar thought he was coming to arrest him, but he breathed a sigh of relief when the man passed him and Siv without a second glance.

  Gathering courage, he yelled after the man. “What happened to the dragon?”

  The guard ignored his question and kept running, the leather in his armor creaking and the different bits of metal clanging together with each step.

  “Gone, it is.”

  Vidar spun and came face to face with Erik, the boy from Embla’s group who’d he’d gone grave digging with, and who’d assisted in rescuing Ida. He smiled at Siv and blushed.

  “Gone?” Vidar asked.

  Erik shrugged, then shivered. “It left. Some of us went up to the keep to get a better look. They’d shut the gates, but we climbed ol’ Hag Hill and got us a good look at the thing.”

  “Did the soldiers hurt it?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Erik said. His face was pale once his blushing subsided, and his voice took on a detached, monotone tone. “I think they fired a bunch of those big arrow things at it, you know? From those great big wagons.”

  “No, I don’t know,” Vidar said. Arrows? Wagons?

  A small smile broke through on his face, despite the obvious shock following the terrible night before. “I’ve seen one up close once. The arrows are this big,” he said, holding his palms out to indicate the width of a person’s thigh.

  “But they didn’t hurt the dragon?”

  “Not as far as we could tell. The fire came, so we had to run.” Erik fell silent and looked to the ground. When he spoke again, his voice trembled so much the words were barely discernible. “Nils. Nils wasn’t fast enough.”

  Siv strode up in front of Erik and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing. His head lowered to her shoulder and his entire body shook with tears. Vidar stood beside them, unsure of what he was supposed to be doing.

  He settled on awkwardly patting Erik’s shoulder. “What of Sven and the others?”

  “Sven was well last I saw him,” Erik said once he’d collected himself enough to raise his head from Siv’s shoulder. “The Rats’ Nest is gone. Embla’s house too. I don’t know what happened to any of the others. There was just so much fire everywhere.”

  The first glimmer of purple cast on the cloud-filled sky ahead whispered of dawn. Vidar was late.

  “I have to go. Siv, why don’t you stay with Erik for now and I’ll meet you later? Find out what’s happening in the city and meet me around noon by the church?”

  Siv nodded, her arms still around Erik.

  Alone, he could walk faster to get some warmth into his bones. The thieves’ guild stood untouched by the ravages of fire. They hadn’t reached the southernmost part of Andersburg and the street looked no worse for wear. He stood before the building, unsure if he should head in since he detected no signs of life.

  Rather than try his luck in there, he decided it would be in his best interest to continue teaching like nothing had happened, so he went to the nearby house and entered. None of the students waited for him. As far as he could tell, no one had been in there since he left. All the supplies remained in their neat piles. Vidar immediately dove for them and pocketed bottles of ink and brushes to go with them.

  Once satisfied with his haul, Vidar drew a sowilo rune and rejuvenated his creation by draining essence from his left foot and leg. He immediately triggered it and breathed a sigh of relief as warmth billowed from the piece of paper he drew on, before hurrying to put his sock and boot back on. The entire leg tingled, but he could still move his toes.

  He tore another piece of paper into pieces and was just finished crafting a few other runes when someone spoke behind him.

  “Vidar.”

  Vidar stood and spun, his left arm flopping, limp and useless at his side from the rejuvenation of the additional runes.

  “Y-yallander,” he stammered, hating how his voice sounded like he’d just been caught doing something he shouldn’t.

  The chapter leader was not alone. Ren stood at his side, a hulking mass of muscles and, by the look of him, anger. He wore the armor of a guardsman.

  “To think we spent the better part of a very tumultuous night searching, only for you to turn up on your own right here. Imagine my surprise when a spotter reported your presence in this building of mine.”

  Unable to form the cheerful expression he wanted, Vidar settled on a casual, nonchalant smile as he stood, keeping all the weight on the one leg that would support him. “A dragon won’t stop me from teaching.”

  Yallander stepped up close, towering over Vidar, more than a full head taller. The old brown robe he wore around his body suddenly looked ominous, like a death shroud.

  “S-speaking of which, where are the students?”

  The blank expression on Yallander’s face finally betrayed the feelings beneath the facade, and it showed rage, terrible rage. Vidar’s cheek sang with a flash of pain and his weight shifted to his numb leg. Vidar tumbled to the floor with a thud. The shock from being slapped was quickly eclipsed by hurt from old injuries, and he grunted and rose to his knees.

  Yallander put his boot against Vidar’s shoulder and shoved him back to the floor. “Do you know what your little stunt yesterday cost us? Can you even comprehend the work we’ve put into infiltrating the guardsmen? Years and years, only for them to start asking questions, investigating the guards.”

  “I didn’t know!” Vidar shouted, with anger rather than fear in his chest. “All I did was save my friend!”

  “Friend?” Yallander spat. “That bitch girl of a thief? Don’t you think I know of her? Of her ambitions? She’ll talk about her aspirations to anyone who would lend her an ear!”

  Hearing him speak like that only served to stoke the anger, and Vidar stood and shoved a finger in Yallander’s face. “Keep talking like that and we’ll see if you still have a teacher!”

  The anger displayed by Yallander turned cold in a flash, and he straightened, looking down his nose at him. “You think you’re in a position where your choice matters even a little?”

  “You think you can force me?”

  “You think I can’t?”

  Vidar glanced at Ren, who’d now positioned himself in front of the door. The windows were shut tight or barricaded where the glass was broken. A short sword hung by Ren’s side and who knew what sort of weapons Yallander might carry underneath those billowing robes.

  “It would be in both our best interests if we continue with our agreed-upon arrangement,” Vidar said, pushing down his anger and fear both. Neither would serve him in this situation. “You have no way of keeping me locked up. Even if you did, who’s to say I’d go along with teaching anyone?”

  “You’ll do as you’re told!” Ren barked.

  Yallander raised a hand to silence his henchman. “Now, now. It appears you have very little experience in dealing with the guild. I won’t need to keep you tied to me with shackles or rope. You’ll stay willingly.”

  It was getting tense now. Dangerous. Vidar reached under his coat and triggered one of the runes he’d just crafted, finally having the use of his arm again.

  “No, I won’t.”

  “Failure to comply will have dire consequences.”

  “You won’t hurt me,” Vidar said. “I’d still need the ability to teach.”

  Yallander sighed. “Since you are daft beyond my previous comprehension, let me spell it out for you. Do as I say or we’ll torture, then kill, everyone you know. The thief girl is already marked after yesterday’s catastrophe, but there are others. That student scribe who’s been teaching you? The mistress of that halfway house for poor hoodlums? Your dear little sister, even?”

  Vidar’s eyes widened.

  “Oh, yes. I know all about your family and friends. Information is our most valuable commodity, not silver, or even gold.”

  Pent-up energy surged through Vidar’s limbs as his head spun with possible ways of getting out of this trap they’d set for him. He had to get out of there, needed to stop whoever they’d set after Ida.

  “I won’t force you to kneel, Vidar, but know that the well-being of the rest of your friends rests on your behavior from this point on. This will still be a most lucrative arrangement for you. As long as you stay within the confines of the thieves’ guild, I will honor the fee promised to you.”

  Kneel. Yallander even mentioning the word was like a boot pushing his face down into the muck.

  “How long?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  “A year, perhaps. We’ll see how this fair city of ours settles down,” Yallander said, a self-satisfied grin on his pompous face.

  “Who is going after my friend?” Vidar asked, glancing at Ren. “Is it you?”

  “That is none of your concern,” Yallander said, but Vidar had seen the look on Ren’s face. It was, indeed, the one who’d brought him before the thieves’ guild in the first place who would do the deed.

  Vidar glanced down to the floor to make sure, then shook his head and spoke in a cool, detached voice that definitely wasn’t mirrored on his inside. “No. If you give me your word you won’t go after Ida or anyone else, I’ll agree to stay with our old arrangement. If not, I’m leaving.”

  “So be it,” Yallander said, assuming a look of what appeared to be genuine disappointment as he waved Ren forward. “Since you have no care for your loved ones, admirable in a way, we will see if Ren here can’t help provide you with some motivation that’ll allow you to see reason.”

  The imposing henchman stepped forward with surprising speed for someone with his bulk. He swung his fist just as Vidar threw himself to the side. Yallander leaned away from the brute to move out of his path. Neither of them was quick enough to react when Vidar pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, holding it forward in his palm, pointed at their feet.

  Vidar screamed in exhilarating anger and with a deep fear in his chest as he triggered the stakra rune, afraid his gambit would not save him. The thrusting force swept at Ren’s feet, but that was not its intended target. Thankfully, it brushed past and continued on to strike at the floor, to strike at the sowilo rune right beneath their feet. Trying to destroy the lock in the jail cells had taught him a new trick.

  The explosion that followed sent Vidar crashing into the wall with a thud that sent his ears ringing and his vision blurry. Even as the room caught on fire, the walls and ceiling, even the floor, spun around him.