The Keep is a vast castle, ringing the rise of the Citadel above it. It’s a fortress in its own right. Getting in should be nearly impossible. Instead, it’s one of the easiest parts of the night. A kitchen maid peeks her head out of a door in the wall, glances around, and beckons them sharply over before vanishing off to wherever she spends her nights. They slip through easily enough, turning away from the kitchens and heading downwards toward the dungeons. The makeshift map holds true, and it’s not long before they’re all staring down a long, dark stairwell lit with flickering torches.

It’s almost like they’re trying for cliche nightmare status.

Kirin grits his teeth and heads downward, Lyria at his heels and Lexon guarding the rear. Lyria carries a bag nearly as big as she is--they’d tried to help her with it, but she’d waved them off. They’re the fighters, she was the explosives expert, so they were damn well going to let her carry her own weight.

Wisely, the two boys had shut up and got on with it. Leader Kirin might be, but he knows better than to cross any of his girls when they’re like that.

It’s only once their on the dungeon level that things get difficult. There’s no way to conceal their presence here entirely, but they have to keep the guards from making it up to alert anyone else while they’re yet here. The two standing by the entrance go down quickly and quietly, nary a noise made between them, and Lexon grimaces.

“You two go on ahead. I’ll make sure no one gets past me. We’ve got two hours until the shift change. Hurry.”

They bind and disarm the guards, and then Kirin and Lyria are hurrying on, only stopping long enough for Lyria to set one of the little bricks in her bag down against the outer wall. They’re right under the heart of the Keep, so if they aren’t careful, they’ll bring half the mountain down on their heads. Literally. On the other hand, once the charges are set and they’re all clear, they’ll be able to bring half the mountain down on the heads of their pursuers.

It’s a worthy trade-off, they think.

They have no map for the dungeons; none of their sources had been down there. From what a quick look around tells them, though, is that the cells are arranged along a wide hallway in a rectangular format; the center is used for the guards--probably an interrogation room, a barracks, and somewhere to hole up in case of a prison riot.

The good news is, most of the guards are in the center of the rectangle and easily locked in. The bad news is, they’re going to have to check every cell for Nathan and the others. Or, well, Kirin is. Lyria is busy--laying charges, he thinks, but he’s no expert and she’d waved him off distractedly when he’d tried to ask.

Kirin makes short work of the guard at each corner, stalking quietly past their unconscious forms. He finds the group easily enough; they’re all in the same hallway, and he can hear them talking to each other about meaningless things. No doubt, they’re trying to keep their spirits up.

Corin notices him first, from the cell he’s sharing with Lark, and he bolts upright silently. Kirin picks the lock and hands Lark his tools, letting the other boy go rescue the others along with Kirin. A quick headcount reveals everyone except Nathan. Kirin grimaces. He was afraid of that.

Corin volunteers,

“The guards took him to question him. He’s been in there for about two hours now. I tried to distract them, Kirin, I’m sorry.”

Gods, the boy looks so young, and the dark bruise blooming across his cheekbone stands out starkly.

Kirin is going to kill all of them. He’s not even going to wait for Lyria to blow them up, he’s just going to massacre them.