"Are you sure we should be doing this?"

Nol glanced around, his fingers twisting together.

Miroslav shrugged.

"Maude said that if someone saw you, you'd never find the Sorgina. Aren't you even a little worried about that?" Nol squaked, his tall vowels cut off by increasingly crisp consonants that weren't usually there.

Miroslav didn't say anything.

"What if the gels get back ehly? And if we Ahnt theh...." Nol pushed.

Miroslav turned around and faced the boy.

"Isn't it a little late to be worried about that? If we focus on getting this done, it won't be a problem." Miroslav pointed out, voice low.

The two of them had already snuck into the castle through a servants door that Miroslav knew about as a kid. They had made it up several floors, and found a room that Miroslav suspected was the study.

Nol dove into the papers around him like his life depended on it.

"Wait. What am I even looking for?" Nol questioned.

Miroslav kept thumbing through files and papers.

"Anything about recent business plans. Or where she is right now. Anything important that we can use later."

The only sound in the room was the shifting of paper and Nol's shallow breathing.

Miroslav scanned the papers. Cloaked with eloquent wording, each one was important for something, but only some of them related to the Sorgina.

He scanned the paper.

Agriculture taxes.

He moved on to the next one.

He stopped.

"What is she doing with this?" Miroslav murmured, then he rolled that one up and put it inside the bag he'd brought.

"Are maps important?" Nol piped.

"Depends. What's it a map of?" Miroslav asked.

"Um....B- b." Nol started, slowly.

"What?" Miroslav growled impatiently.

"Would now be a good time to mention that I can't actually read?" Nol asked. "I mean, I can read....but it takes a lot of focus, and I dunno, sometimes the lettehs look like otheh lettehs-"

Miroslav walked across the room and grabbed the map.

"Bahari. Nolako, where'd you get this?" Miroslav grunted.

Nol pointed to a pile.

Miroslav picked it up, right as the door to the study slammed open.

A man crept into the study. Stalking. Searching.

He knew they were there.

Nol was hyperventilating against Miroslav's hand that covered his mouth.

They were in the dark, behind a large bookshelf.

The man slid closer.

Nol's breath caught, and Miroslav could feel the pulse in his neck pounding, short and fast.

If the man turned on the light, there would be a shadow on the floor as a dead giveaway of their position.

Miroslav could technically extinguish the flame, but he wasn't sure if that would give him away.

And he needed his identity to stay a secret.

He also needed those maps, which were still laying in a pile, only a few feet away.

The man reached over to the light on the desk.

It was fire glow bulb.

Miro could do this.

And then Nol breathed softly against his palm and he took in another factor that changed his previous method of thought entirely.

He didn't have time to consider though, because several things happened at once.

The light burst on in a fiery glow, providing a shadow on the floor that gave away their position.

Miro broke into a cold sweat, his mind freezing.

The man turned around, his face illuminated, and he dove towards where Miro was hiding Nol.

The harsh face was hauntingly familiar.

Miro shook himself out of his freeze and shoved Nol towards the door with one hand, his other hand slamming out as a wave of ice slammed into the lamp, crushing and smothering the flame, plunging the room into darkness.

Miroslav couldn't see, but he'd been in this position before.

Miroslav didn't move, focusing his mind.

There. He could feel the soft creak in the floor.

Miroslav flicked up his hand and threw his power, a soft whistle of air and then a harsh intake of breath.

Hit.

Something slid in the darkness.

Miroslav didn't take the chance of getting caught of guard. He knew that he'd already used his power, so he grew an ice wall from floor to ceiling, spinning and running out the door.

Something pulled on his shirt.

Miroslav spun around, icicle in hand.

Nol put his hands up in surrender, his whole body shaking, his lungs heaving.

"Why are you still here?" Miroslav hissed.

Nol grabbed a bag off the floor, papers shoved into it and sticking out the top.

"You almost forgot this." Nol responded.

Miroslav let the icicle disintegrate.

A pounding noise sounded from the room.

Then the crackling of ice.

He was breaking through.

Miroslav slung the bag over his shoulder, grabbed the arm of the boy and ran, dragging a stumbling Nol behind him.

He didn't turn around at the bottom of the stairs when the crash sounded from above. Just picked up speed and ran like his life depended on it.

Memories and training pushed his feet forward, sliding around corridors and down halls, through the servant door and into the cold outside air.

Miroslav picked up Nol by the waist and lifted him onto one of the two horses they had tied outside.

Miroslav whacked Nols horse, sending it bolting before climbing onto his own and making it down the mountain.

Miroslav's heart calmed as he climbed off and into the house.

Nol looked exhausted.

He was still panting a little.

Miroslav shoved the boy into a chair and poured him a cup of water.

"Don't ever do that again! The next time I push you out a door, I want you to run. Don't look back." Miroslav bellowed.

Nol's shaking hands grabbed the cup and he guzzled down the water.

"We have all the maps. I grabbed all of them." Nol breathed, more reassuring himself than Miroslav.

Miroslav stared at Nol before he pushed out a huge gust of air.

"Yeah. Yeah. We do."

"Did we get caught?" Nol squeaked.

"No." Miroslav said firmly.

But that wasn't true.

The man hadn't seen Nol, but Miroslav had seen the man. And regardless of whether they got away, only Miroslav had a Gift for ice. Now they knew he was here.

How'd the man know they were there?

Hey guys, thank you for looking at my novel. It means the world to me!

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See you soon,

SinkingLemon