“Show us your passports,” the officer demanded, and Eno inwardly flinched. They would want to see the entrance stamp in their passports, and it wasn’t there. They’d sneaked across the border since it was currently closed to all Erya citizens.
“Passports? I need a passport to travel in my own country?” Rayne squawked.
Now it was getting hard to keep a straight face. After this was over, he was buying Rayne some acting lessons. He wasn’t convincing at all. Yes, they might have looked the part of the average Ilon citizen, but their accents were off. They sounded like they were from Stormbreak; there was no missing it.
“Passports now!” one of the other officers shouted. Yep, they were getting nowhere fast.
“Drayce!” Eno suddenly snapped, his right hand already reaching for Rayne’s biceps.
“On it,” Drayce replied as his hand shot out, sending a pair of explosive smoke bombs speeding toward the ground right in front of the guards.
Eno’s fingers wrapped around Rayne’s arm, pulling him back as the bombs hit, sending a thick cloud of smoke into the air. The guards shouted, but the sound was cut off by harsh coughing. Rayne immediately moved into the front, his long legs eating up the sidewalk as they ran. People shouted and darted out of their way. Drayce was on Eno’s left, his expression serious.
“Where?” Rayne shouted.
Eno mentally ran through a list of options in his mind. The first and obvious choice was the Bazaar. The building was crowded and offered a lot of great hiding places, but with the curfew in effect, it was going to be clearing out soon. They needed off the fucking streets. Did they head to the Shrine District to try to meet up with Caelan and Adrian? Leave Brightspire completely? It would be easier to hide outside of the capital.
Without waiting for a response, Rayne took a left at the next corner. He was sticking to the busier thoroughfares in the hopes of getting lost in the crowds.
Unfortunately, as they neared the end of the street, another set of soldiers appeared, preparing to block their path. Eno glanced over his shoulder, his heart pounding hard, to find that the original guards were still in pursuit, though a good distance off, thanks to Drayce’s smoke bomb.
“Right!” Drayce shouted suddenly. He ducked behind Eno and darted across the street. A car slid to a screeching stop, missing Drayce by mere inches, but the man didn’t slow. He planted one hand on the hood and launched himself across the vehicle. Rayne followed a couple of steps behind him, and Eno brought up the rear.
Drayce cut down one narrow block and up another. He made turn after sharp turn, dragging them deeper and deeper into the district. The shops fell away and the houses grew more crowded, broken up only by old warehouses and what looked to be manufacturing facilities.
“We…we need…a new plan,” Drayce panted. He pressed one hand to his side as if a stitch were forming.
Eno couldn’t agree more. His daily routine of jogging in the mornings had become a thing of the past since they’d begun this journey. His stamina wasn’t quite what it used to be. But then, running through Brightspire was not a long-term solution. He glanced over his shoulder to find that the soldiers weren’t there, but he’d glimpsed them on the last block. They couldn’t be far behind.
“We could—” Rayne started to suggest something, but his words were interrupted by the squeal of tires as a windowless white van stopped at the end of the street. A second later the side door rumbled open, and a man with dark shaggy hair stood in the opening, waving for them to hurry.
“Get your asses in here!” the stranger called.
Before anyone could say anything, Drayce put on a burst of speed and launched himself into the opening while the other guy moved to the driver’s seat. Well, that took the decision right out of Eno’s hands. He climbed in after Rayne and pulled the door shut while the van roared down the street.
“Dude.” Drayce sighed heavily as he lay on the filthy floor. “You totally saved our asses.”
Eno glanced around to find that the rear of the van was completely empty except for a few cardboard boxes and some loose tools. Both he and Rayne were on their knees, hanging on to the backs of the front seats while the driver deftly maneuvered them through the city, heading even farther away from where they’d been discovered by the soldiers.
“Do you have any idea how hard it was to get ahead of you?” their savior snapped.
“How did you know to help us?” Rayne demanded.
Eno looked over at Drayce. “Who is this guy?”
Drayce lifted his head and shrugged his shoulders. “No idea.”
“You just jumped into a windowless van without knowing the guy?” Eno shouted. He was giving serious thought to never allowing Drayce anywhere near Caelan if these were the kinds of decisions he was going to make.
Drayce groaned and lifted a hand. “One. He wasn’t wearing an Ilon uniform so I thought he might be help. Two. I was pretty sure that I could be scarier than anything that might be waiting in the van. And three,” he paused and dragged in a deep breath. He’d been counting off each point on his fingers. “Don’t you think he resembles you?”
The first two items were pretty good reasons—maybe not great, though. And the last one was ridiculous.
“Who are you?” Rayne asked of the driver before Eno could tell Drayce what he thought of his decision-making skills.
“Davi. I was sent by the Gray Fox to get you.”
“Oh,” Rayne said simply, his shoulders completely relaxing. “In that case, thank you for your help.”