Page 86 of Storm to Victory
Jayna paused by one of the homes, giving the street such a casual glance that it didn’t seem unusual, and strolled up the drive. Pip hurried to keep up, resisting the urge to glance around.
At the end of the drive, Jayna darted around a hedge until they were next to a door to the carriage house. Jayna motioned to the door. “The lord who lives in this townhouse is currently staying at his country estate with his family. There is only a small staff keeping the house running. We can hide in here until it gets dark.”
Pip unlocked the door with her magic, and the two of them slipped inside.
The carriage house was dim and dusty, the middle empty except for the muddy tracks of a motorcar left on the concrete floor. A few stalls lined one wall, but all of them were devoid of horses.
Jayna led the way to one of the stalls that was half-filled with miscellaneous junk, from a broken end table to what appeared to be parts for the motorcar. She settled into a seat on the old straw. “Now we wait.”
Pip sat next to her, placing her back to the wooden wall of the stall. Perhaps while they waited, she could get her thundering heartbeat under control.
Darkness cloakedtheir movements as Pip and Jayna crept out of the carriage house and into the townhouse’s back garden. They were now dressed in dark gray trousers and gray shirts that Jayna had stashed in the bushes sometime earlier in the week. To complete the look, they had their hair pinned up out of sight beneath knit caps and dark kerchiefs pulled up over their noses and mouths so that only their eyes were visible.
They had a couple of hours until the moon rose, and the clouds overhead hid the stars, giving them a window to sneak into the government buildings in near pitch blackness.
Pip’s breath was hot against her face beneath the kerchief, and her hands shook as she and Jayna neared the back wall. Could she do this?
Someone had to. Fieran and Prince Farrendel were coming. They’d end the war. And this information would be necessary to ensure that the Alliance didn’t leave a problem in the Mongavarian Empire that they’d have to solve with yet another war down the road.
Jayna pressed her back to the wall. She motioned upward before whispering, “I can get us up and over the wall, but there are glass shards and barbed wire at the top. Can you get us over that?”
Pip nodded, realized how dark it was, and swallowed to clear her throat. “Yes, I can.”
Jayna reached out and pressed a hand to the ivy twining over a lattice arbor. A hint of green glowed around her fingers and vanished into the plant.
The ivy on the nearby arbor moved, slithering over the ground until it twined up first Jayna’s legs, then Pip’s.
Pip resisted the urge to shiver or move as the vine wrapped itself securely around her waist.
Moments later, the vine climbed the wall, inching upward over the cracks and crevices and taking Pip and Jayna with it. Jayna’s face was twisted, her eyes focused, as she gripped a part of the vine, still pouring her magic into it.
As they reached the top of the wall, Jayna halted the vine’s growth and glanced at Pip.
Pip took in the jagged pieces of glass embedded into the concrete at the top, along with the rolls of barbed wire. With a deep breath, she reached out and touched the wire, pouring her magic into it. Within minutes, she had changed the coils of wire so that they formed a smooth arch instead of running along the top in sharp spikes.
Jayna grew the vines so that they ran over the wires and hoisted both herself and Pip up and over the top. Pip lifted her feet so that they didn’t drag on the sharp glass.
On the other side, Jayna lowered them back to the ground.
Pip exhaled a sigh as her feet touched the solid ground once again, bracing herself against the beautifully solid wall behind her.
The vines retracted from around her waist, but Jayna left them still dangling over the wall. She pointed at it, breathing slightly more heavily as if using all that magic was tiring. “This will be our primary escape route.”
“Are you all right?” Pip eyed her.
Jayna shrugged. “I have plant magic, but I’m not that strong. I can get us back out, but using too much magic will exhaust me.”
Pip nodded. If they got into trouble and had to fight their way out, magical protection would be her job. “Do you need a moment to rest?”
“No, I’m all set.” Jayna flashed a grin. “Now for the fun part.”
None of this was the fun part, but Pip didn’t waste the breath to comment. She crept after Jayna as she led the way across the stretch of lawn and toward the shadows behind one of the stone edifices looming against the darkness.
Even at this time of night, many of the windows remained lit. Government never truly slept.
Jayna padded from one shadow to the next, glancing at the various buildings until she reached one near the center of the complex. Halting beneath a dark window, she gestured upward at it. “Can you give us a boost?”
Pip created a shield beneath their feet, lifting them upward the three feet they needed for Jayna to reach the bottom of the window.
