What surprised Kim the most about the servants was the fact that aside from letting them know that the servant's entrance was a complete waste of ti, that one had left a window open when she was busy cleaning it earlier. She'd left it open because the call for them to assemble before the party by the chamberlain ca and she had planned on closing it when it was over.
Kim wasn't sure what was important about the window being left open exactly. After all, couldn't they open one themselves and escape through that thod? It wasn't like it would be a secret entrance or anything. Maybe it would be difficult from the outside if the windows had locks on them, but from the inside it should be good enough.
She was also happy to learn that one of the servants had so healing skills, though not enough to completely heal all of them. Though, she was happy to have that ability to put her entire weight on her leg again. Although, she couldn't help but calculate how much of her allies she'd need to use to protect these servants. She didn't want their deaths to be on her conscience any more than she had wanted the n who died in that killing field when they'd had to rule out the possibility of getting through the front gate.
"Couldn't we just open any window?" Kim asked as they started to follow the maid through the hallways, navigating a complex route that left Kim feeling a little lost. Maybe if she had a floor plan of the building she wouldn't feel so lost, but that wasn't important to her.
"You could, but the chamberlain would be alerted," the maid answered. "Only those who had the crests of the duke's family would be able to open them without him being notified."
Kim thought about that for a minute as they turned another corner. "Do you still have yours?" she asked, conflicted on if she expected the maid to have it still or not.
The maid shook her head. "No, we were all told to give ours to him before he had us tied up," she said, sounding like she felt like it had been a personal betrayal.
"Pity," Kim remarked. Those crests would have been useful, but she couldn't say she was surprised. After all, she had the feeling that they wanted to limit the possible places they could escape from, which would an those crests would have been problematic.
"Guy," Kim said suddenly. "What do you know of this estate? Is there any place that we might be able to get out and move around to attack those blocking the main entrance?"
Guy shook his head. "There's really only three gates to the walls of this place. The main one, the servants gate, and the rear gate that hasn't been used for a long ti. However, that leads ot the outside of the city. We wouldn't be able to make it back in to the city until dawn unless we had the king with us. But even then, I doubt the guards at the gate would believe the king himself would have left that way," Guy answered.
Kim shook her head in annoyance. Why this had to be so convolutedly complicated she couldn't say why. Their chances of getting out of this alive were getting smaller, although she wondered if they shouldn't just cut and run at this ti. If they couldn't win, then they needed to change their objective so they could. Not that she expected her allies to look at things the sa way she did.
For Kim, as long as she completed her objective, then she considered that to be a win. Yet, right now she wasn't willing to consider it a win if she didn't survive herself. While she'd allowed herself to be an optional sacrifice in the past, her life hadn't been in danger at those tis. She had no interest in dying, as such, she wanted to figure out an objective that she could manage without getting any of them killed.
When they neared the room, Kim had the maid let her allies go first. Kim thought of going first herself, but pushed that idea aside. She had a feeling sothing wasn't right. She couldn't tell if it was the maid herself, if it was sothing about their destination, or if there might be others that were part of whatever was going on still in the building. As far as she knew, there was sothing else other than the three options she'd already co up with.
She looked around as the two she'd sent ahead to check the room moved out of sight. She kept her ears open for any sounds that she couldn't identify or explain. While she couldn't identify the source of whatever it was that was making her feel uneasy, she looked at the maid and sothing ca to her mind.
"The lock on the door to the room where you were bound," Kim said. "Was that also tied to whatever it is about the windows that the chamberlain would be alerted to if the were opened by soone without the crest you ntioned?"
"Yes," the maid said simply. "He would be notified about it, but what would that have to do with anything?"
Kim nodded. So the chamberlain knew that they'd rescued the servants. Though, she wasn't sure if that was significant or not. The feeling kept getting closer and she was about to scream at the sensation when the two who'd gone on ahead returned.
"The window is still open," one of them said. "Though it looks like the guests from earlier had left through it."
Kim nodded. She suspected that Jonas had probably entered through that window, which would be how he'd known about it in the first place. Which would an that they were outside of the manor and safe for the mont. Which is what Kim would like herself to be, but she hesitated to give the direction for all of them to head to the window. The feeling she had was so close as to be almost maddening. Especially since she couldn't say for sure what it was.
Then she head footsteps coming from a direction none of them should have gone in, so she knew that the feeling had to be from whoever or whatever it was that was approaching from that direction. She couldn't say what the threat was, but she was confident that it wouldn't be too much of a threat given the narrow confines of the hallways they were currently in. It almost felt cozy to her, with how there was barely enough room for her to walk just by herself along these halls.
"You two lead the way," Kim told the two who had inspected the room with the open window, her focus centering on the direction of the footsteps. "Make sure all the servants get to the rear gate. Do whatever it takes to get them there safely. I'll follow along as soon as I'm able to."
"What're you going to do?" one of the asked, sounding scared, though Kim couldn't be sure if he was scared in general of if it was the thought of not having her along with them.
"Sothing's coming from that direction," Kim said. "I'm going to make sure it's not a threat to us."
She had no doubt that it was a threat to us, but once she had killed whatever it was, then it wouldn't be a threat anymore. Just like the goblins earlier. The dead ones weren't a threat to them. Just the primary problem was that the goblins were a lot more easy to deal with than the ard n she'd fought so far this night. She couldn't be sure that she'd be up to this task.
"We'll fight with you," they said in unison.
Kim sighed. "I appreciate the thought, but first, there's not much room for all of us to fight in these halls," she told them firmly. "Second, we don't know what this threat might be. You guys migh be more of a hindrance to than a help right now. And third, what we've done up to now won't an anything if we can't get these servants out of here. It's not like they agreed to be part of this or anything."
"But they're just servants!" one of her allies said.
Kim glanced at the maid and didn't see any reaction to that statent. She couldn't help but wonder if that was a common sentint in this world. If it was, then she wasn't sure if they'd really understand what she intended to do here. Especially since she never looked at anyone as 'just' anything.
Well, aside from most n.
"They may be servants, but who's to say what knowledge they have?" Kim asked. "They can alone act as evidence that the chamberlain here was part of this. If we die here and the king survives, I'm sure the chamberlain will try again..." Kim trailed off as she just realized sothing. Sothing that twisted her stomach more than just the thought of letting people die for no reason. "Where is Lord Lance's father?"
If the duke was in on this, then what did that say about him that he was willing to let his own children be in danger? Kim was sure if he was part of this she would end him, even if she had to sohow co back from the grave in order to do so.
"Duke Ander?" the maid asked. "He was called away on important business about lunchti. They found a patrol of his n who had been killed just south of here. About half a day's ride. He went to investigate personally."
Kim had a feeling that the n who'd been found dead were the ones that she and her group had killed. She hoped she was wrong, but she doubted she'd be that lucky. Not that it gave evidence either way on if the duke was part of this or not. It just made the whole situation here more of a pain to her.
"Anyway, get them out of here and keep them safe," Kim ordered.
The n slapped their palms to the center of their chests in what Kim assud was a salute. "Understood!" the said before they moved to start moving everyone else along.
Kim sighed. She hoped this wasn't another mistake, but she knew one of her limits was that she couldn't be in multiple places at the sa ti. In fact, she worried that what approached would be worse than what she'd faced before. Especially since while she could hear its footsteps and feel its presence sohow, she still couldn't see it and she felt like she was barely hanging on to herself.
She allowed the sounds of the servants and her allies moving behind her to beco background noise as she waited as calmly as she could for whatever was coming her way. She forced herself to keep her sword sheathed at her hip. She had a plan for whatever was coming. Maybe it wouldn't work, but it also might give her an edge in whatever combat they had with each other.
When it finally ca around the corner, Kim was taken aback for a mont. It wasn't just one, but two. Two doppelgangers, although these felt stronger than the one she'd barely defeated before. Her only consolation was the fact that they couldn't fight her together. Which ant that she'd have a better ti dealing with them as a one-on-one fight at the mont, rather than having to deal with both of them at once.
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