“I don’t need to,” she tells me. “Ready to go?”
“No!” I hiss.
She rolls her eyes, looking entirely too calm about this. “Just don’t talk, and we’ll be fine. Now come on, or we’ll miss our chance.”
Grumbling a curse, I follow her as she pushes off the gazebo and heads down the swept stone walkway. We pass the last of the ice sculptures, then go past the bailey, and then all too soon, we’re nearing the castle gate.
Torches are braced high along the wall, like iron fingers jutting out from the stone with sharp fingernails of flames. I can see armored soldiers on the top parapet, their purple cloaks wagging in the cold wind.
There are some unhitched wagons and empty carriages on the ground off to the left, and a stone statue of whatever past king sits smack dab in the middle so that the first thing you see when you enter the gates is some long dead monarch with a saber held in his hand.
Lu stops us in the shadow of an alcove stacked with sandbags, probably to pour over the ground when they need to pack the snowfall down. Even in our current hiding spot, we’re way too out in the open for my liking.
“Lu...” I breathe. I don’t care how stealthy she is. There is no way we are sneaking out of those gates when they open.
She shoots me a sharp look, effectively silencing me. Slade trusted her implicitly to sneak me out, had absolutely zero doubt she could get me to the camp, and that, plus my own trust in her, makes me stay right where I am.
When two guards walk over to the gate and begin to lift the heavy beam stretched across it, Lu whispers, “Get ready, Gildy.”
Despite the cold temperature, I’m sweating with nervousness. The gate opens, and a line of guards come filing in, looking tired with slumped shoulders and dragged steps. Several of them head straight across the grounds, while some begin to talk with the other soldiers, not in any rush to put the beam back in place.
When Lu starts walking toward the gate, I grit my teeth and hurry forward. I stick to her like a noon shadow, my eyes darting every which way as I note the dozens of guards around, just waiting for one of them to spot us and raise the alarm.
My pulse pounds in my ears, but Lu continues to stride confidently forward, not a single step faltering. Her birdlike steps are silent, like she’s able to flit from one place to another, her body lithe and graceful in every movement, making me feel lumbering and noisy beside her. Even when we finally lose the last of the wall’s shadows and can only head straight down the middle toward the gate, she doesn’t slow.
The moment we’re out in the open, two guards on the wall turn their heads in our direction, and I brace myself. But as quickly as they looked down at us, they look away again.
What in the world?
I’m not sure how they didn’t see us, but I don’t have time to fully appreciate the close call, because we reach the gate just then. The group of guards several feet away begin to turn toward us too, and I tense up, ready to sprint through the gate.
But once again, they get distracted, their attention jerking away a second before their eyes land on us. The men all grumble and start kicking at the snow with their boots, pointing at something I can’t see. A nudge from Lu has me whipping my head back around, and then we’re slipping out the gate together.
I take a breath the moment we’re outside the castle walls, disbelief furrowing my brow.
We got out.
I can’t believe we actually just walked right out the front gate, right next to all those castle guards. I know Lu was critical of Ranhold’s security, and now, I can see why. And yet, something is off. No way we got that lucky.
As we walk quickly away, I feel like there’s a giant target on my gold-clad back, but...nothing happens.
Nothing at all.
I steal a look behind us, squinting through the dark at the guard towers that I know must be manned, but not a single shout rings out. When Lu and I reach the crest of a hill and are far enough away from the castle walls, new perimeter guards come filing out, and then the gate doors are closed again.
Lu nods in satisfaction. “We’re fine now,” she says briskly. “Good job not talking. That would’ve made things more difficult for me.”
“How the hell did we just pull that off?” I pant, trying to keep up with her as we hurry through the snow.
“We didn’t. I did,” Lu replies, brown eyes sweeping the landscape.
I send one of my ribbons to grip her by the arm and pull her to a stop. “Tell me what just happened. What was that?”
Lu frowns down at my ribbon and bats it away. “I have a little magic.”
My brows shoot up. “You have magic? What kind?”
“Nothing too extreme, I can’t rot people alive or turn a castle gold, but I can divert attention.”