Olivia led our group to the ground floor of the quiet building, into one of the reading rooms. Borin activated the silencing magic for the room as she went to a lamp in the corner, reached into the shade, and pressed something to make an odd "clunk" sound. She shimmied behind a fancy but uncomfortable-looking velvet armchair, then she lifted part of the floor to reveal a ladder down.

  "This is our way out. Borin, Virilus, Drifter, then me."

  Borin immediately slid down the ladder. I went to follow, but stalled when I heard banging at the front door. Olivia said "It's fine, go." and so I went down.

  The ladder took me surprisingly far down. Much farther down than a basement would normally sit. My feet touched the floor in total darkness, but the darkness was dispelled almost immediately as Borin found the light switch. It turned out that this was less of a basement and more of an escape tunnel.

  Rough-hewn stone surrounded us, strung with wires carrying magical signals to the magic stones providing light. The tunnel went off in the direction of Beorne's mid-city, and presumably beyond though it was hard to tell how far. Drifter touched down behind me, and we could hear Olivia climbing down from above.

  While we waited for her to arrive I decided to ask another question bugging me. "What's Olivia doing here, anyways?"

  Borin's mouth twisted into a smirk as he turned to face me. "Oh, our venerable scholar knows the leader of a bandit group already?"

  I shrugged. "We met. Only so many people willing to help break a man out of prison, you know."

  "True enough. Well, same for sneaking a pair of men out of a city." Borin rolled up the sleeve of his left arm to reveal a tattoo I failed to recognize. Seeing a new question on my face, he clarified: "I used to run with a gang in my youth. Still know a few people from that life, which helped us find someone with a way out of the inner city, who turned out to be the new leader of the Blood God Bandits."

  "And she..."

  "Yeah, didn't care a lick about the Varys situation."

  Olivia's feet hit the ground as we chatted. "I care plenty, in that I'm pretty sure the gang is going to fall apart outside the city and the city's probably going to fall apart too. Anyway, they shouldn't find the tunnel for a while unless they brought the undercover team along, so we can relax a bit."

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  A crash echoed from above. "Would that be the undercover team?" I asked, being only a bit facetious about it.

  Borin spun and started jogging down the hall. "Same marching order, let's hurry."

  The tunnel continued for a long way, clearly taking us to the outer slums of the city. The lamps were spaced quite far apart which left the tunnels dim and claustrophobic. I hoped we had little farther to go.

  A twang sounded behind us and a clatter sounded near my foot. Olivia called out "crossbows!" and swapped places with Drifter, who figured he was the best option to repel an attack. He drew a straight sword provided by Borin and ran with his head tilted over his shoulder, watching for projectiles from the dark.

  Ahead of us, Borin called out "we're here!" and started climbing a ladder in a hurry. I went after him, not able to hurry as well, and under me Olivia was telling Drifter to shut off the light when he came up. As I saw that Borin was widening the gap between us the shaft went dark, the lamps below extinguished.

  I felt like I was climbing in the dark for ages, but it was only a couple of minutes. Sounds of pursuit came from below, metal bolts contacting a metal blade, but even in the lightless shaft Drifter found some way to deflect the crossbow shots form below. A light appeared not too far ahead of me just as the sounds of pursuit from below were settling into a frustrated actual pursuit up the ladder.

  Borin was dragged out into the light. Was that our collaborators helping him out or were we trapped between two sets of guards? I didn't hear any instructions from above, and Olivia was just as unsure.

  I decided to keep climbing; it wasn't like going back was a valid option. As I approached the light my eyes adjusted, revealing a small shack with holes in the roof leaking light into our tunnel. I climbed out to find myself unsure whether we were any better off. Borin was restrained by guards, certainly, but those guards were led by Alex.

  We locked eyes as I stood up, each of us wary of the other. The tension only broke when Olivia crawled out, stood beside me, and helpfully asked, "Friend of yours?"

  "Basically. I think."

  Alex nodded. "I think we agree."

  "Can you release Borin, then?"

  The three of us looked to the guards holding Borin to the ground as he struggled to reach the knife at his hip. "Borin, is it? As long as he stops trying to murder us, I suppose."

  Borin stopped his struggle, and so he stopped being restrained. He stood up, brushing the dirt off his clothing while saying "I'd say that was self defense."

  Drifter finally emerged from the shaft and closed the opening behind himself. "Maybe a minute before they arrive." He looked at Alex and his guards, forming a fist at his hip.

  "Whoa, whoa, we're okay," I told him, but he replied with, "Doesn't matter, we need to overpower them so they look like they tried to stop us."

  Alex held up his hands. "You're right, I know, but just a second. Your merchant friend had to move south of the city already, he's at a village called Bloville just off the road. Do any of you know it?"

  "I'll get them there," Olivia offered.

  "Good. Thank you for exposing the previous Regent's crimes, we will use the information well. Please make it quick," Alex said while wincing against the pain he was about to experience.

  Drifter nodded. Borin smiled. Olivia smiled too much.