Raven Girl

Chapter 30

Nadine tipped her head back to look at the wall above them. It had taken them a while to get to the island, and she'd hated it – every time a wave lapped too high, she'd been afraid of it sweeping her away. The rocks themselves had been slippery and treacherous. But somehow, they had made it.

Nadine felt like she was back in front of the Palace once again, grappling hook in hand, looking up at a supposedly impenetrable wall. She gave the fortress a fierce grin.

"I think Gylfi and Regina have already started the commotion," Elias said. "We need to get that sceptre."

"Right." Nadine stepped back and looked at the grappling hook. This one, supplied by Kostin when they first set out, was attached to a gun – all she had to do was fire it. No silly swinging around. "When we're done, I think I'm keeping this."

Elias snorted and fired his own. The spider-like piece of metal shot up, and stuck. Nadine followed suit.

"Let's go."

They began to scale the wall. Nadine was grateful for her rough fingerless gloves and sturdy boots, giving her purchase on the wall and the cord. Elias moved with lethal grace beside her, and she felt herself struggling to keep up. She gazed at the building, waiting for arrows or bullets to come firing out of the windows. There was nothing. No light bloomed suddenly around them. Surely the walls were manned, watched? Her skin prickled with disquiet. It felt wrong. Everything felt wrong. They're being distracted, that's all, she told herself, but she felt like the shrike Commander wouldn't be so easily fooled.

Nadine leaped through the window the grappling hook had caught on – and straight into the arms of a shrike. They closed around her, constricting. Nadine struggled, her skin shot through with panic – they mustn't let anyone raise the alarm – before bringing her head forward. Her forehead cracked against his nose and he was sent reeling backwards. She darted after him, striking pressure points swiftly, and laid him down on the floor.

"Hurry up," Elias hissed. He'd already dispatched another, more efficiently than she had.

They raced along the corridor. The important items must surely be being held deeper in the fortress, where more walls and doors could protect them. That was their reasoning when looking at the (sadly unlabelled) map, so they wound their way into the bowels of the fortress now.

Footsteps alerted them to more guards, and Nadine seized Elias's coat and dragged him sideways, into a shadowed stairwell that was so cramped he was pressed against her. They held their breath. With nothing but darkness to conceal them, they had to remain as still as possible as the guards trooped past. The sight of them, in their grey, insignia-stamped uniforms, in perfect formation, chilled her blood. Nadine forced herself not to think about Elias's closeness, or the hammering of his heart against hers.

They waited until all sound of the guards had vanished before continuing.

"It'll be a miracle if we get out of this alive," Elias muttered.

"Wasn't it always going to be a miracle?" They were deeper in now – there were no windows. Nadine spotted many thick steel doors, covered in intricate lock contraptions. "What do they even keep in this place?"

Elias scanned the doors. "It's not going to be in those. Keep going." A blast shook the fortress. Nadine gasped but Elias actually smiled. "Looks like Gylfi and Regina are doing good."

"Gods, what..." They watched a crowd of shrikes run down the corridor ahead of them, not even glancing their way.

They darted down a spiralling staircase and into the colder, grimmer chambers. They walked in to find a crowd of guards bristling around them. They filled the chamber, blocking whatever lay beyond it.