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Bone Diggers - Chapter Twenty Nine

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"Amilia?" he called, but only silence greeted him. Something was wrong. A fear he didn't understand knotted in his stomach.

Daniel searched his home without any luck. Amilia must have left. But where to? He nearly tripped over himself in his haste to get dressed. After yesterday, he couldn't just write this off. Maybe she had gone to the guild to look into the letter. Wherever she went, he needed to know she was safe.

He went straight for the guild hall, but once there, he realized the place was nearly empty. It was early, long before people usually met. A few people were around, but Amilia wasn't one of them. Maybe he could just snag the letter from yesterday and reread it for clues. He could break into the room where the eldest members keep such things.

Just as Daniel was plotting to bust the lock, Lance neared. "Is everything alright?"

"I need another look at that letter. If you help, together we can make quick work of it," Daniel said.

Lance's worry strengthened as he watched Daniel's restless motions. "Why do you need it now? What's wrong?"

"Amilia. She left without saying where she was going, and I have a bad feeling about it. I need the letter to see if it would have made her go look for her uncle." Daniel knew he sounded frantic by the look Lance was giving him.

"I still have the letter. I kept it so I could look into it myself." Lance retrieved it from his pocket. Daniel reached for it, but Lance pulled it back. "If I give you this, I'm going with you. I didn't hide it from the guild to be cute, I did it to protect Amilia. And you. You get reckless when you are scared."

"I'm focused." His friend didn't look convinced, but tipped the letter forward all the same. Daniel nabbed it out of Lance's hand. "And I wouldn't be scared if people started telling me things." He kept his eyes on Lance for a second longer before unfolding the letter. The first time he had only skimmed it, too drawn down to crest at the bottom. Now, he took his time with the scripted words. It slammed Dimitri for not watching his charge better. Even accused him of interfering with their plans. It didn't name Amilia, but together they ruined the knight's missions several times. The dinner, rescuing Lance, fleeing town, then fleeing yet again.

"The gallows." When Daniel read over the words his chest seized. It had been a vague, meaningless, threat without context. Now that Amilia was missing it held a suffocating weight.

If something were to happen, something to me.

"Merde," Lance swore. They'd been fools. "Let's go."

It started to rain as they hit the streets again. The light drizzle was as persistent as Daniel's dread. They climbed up rooftops so they could run over streets that would soon fill. Looming over the gallows as a reminder of who controlled life and death within the city's walls was the knights' headquarters.

They stormed the complex. Two men trying to change the tide, stealing lives at the edge of their blades and staining their path red. They tore through the halls. Guards readied their swords for the onslaught. Daniel sunk his dagger in the gap in the guard's armor. Such a small target between chest and spaulder that allowed him to slash down further.

As Daniel slammed the first man down, another guard tripped over his fallen comrade. A helmet might have saved him from Lance's quick sword.

They made it up two floors before every guard in the building became dedicated to stopping them. It was impossible to go about this with any haste. "Go," Lance ordered during a lull between waves. "I'll catch up."