Chapter 273 - 271: The Castle Guards Are Terrible.

Chapter 273: Chapter 271: The Castle Guards Are Terrible.

And for some reason, he just keeps leading him higher .

​Eventually, they wind up on the blessed flat of a tall turret, and Khobi’s honestly pretty relieved for the break.

He’s strong and he likes to think of himself as a pretty solid climber, but this is something else.

​As it turns out, so is the view from up this high.

​Doubled over, trying to catch his breath, he doesn’t notice it at first.

But then as the air starts to settle back into his lungs and the sweat on his brow starts to cool, he straightens up, and instantly has his breath snatched away once more.

​Wow .

​Beyond the distant parapets, the expanse of the world stretches on forever.

There’s the lights of the city beyond the castle walls, and the plains beyond that, and even further still Khobi can see where they turn to forest; where the mountains rise up as shadows against the night.

Clouds still scatter the sky, but in the patches that are clear thousands of stars wink out at the night; pricks of light against a mottled midnight blue.

​If it’s this beautiful now, Khobi wonders how it might look on a clear night; just how far he might be able to see.

Even with the moon partially obscured, it feels like he can see for miles and miles.

​"Wow," Khobi whispers, feet automatically carrying him towards the parapets.

They’re easily high enough that even if he leans over he won’t fall, so he cranes his neck in all directions, greedily drinking in the view. "It’s so nice up here."

​Quiet, too. He knows there’s life out there, but up here with nothing but the two of them and the wind, it somehow feels unimaginable.

​Peaceful , even.

​"Yeah," Loac says, nonplussed, "I like to nap up here."

​Khobi wonders distantly if this is where he comes when he disappears.

This isn’t quite the highest point of the castle, but as far as he can tell the only way up is to scale the walls, and it becomes clear as he circles the small rooftop, staring out, that there’s nowhere in sight that would give a good vantage point of this particular spot.

​If he were to come here –and the implication is that he does –no one would ever see him.

...

From there, they descend.

It doesn’t make much sense to Khobi, climbing so high only to climb back down, but it’s a different route from the one they took up and Loac seems to know exactly where he’s going.

They travel the whole way to the walls almost entirely by rooftop, picking their way across slate and stone and jumping gaps between buildings.

It’s both irritating and wildly impressive how effortlessly Loac picks his way, lightly navigating thin ledges and hauling himself up over walls without so much as a sound.

He looks oddly at ease, and where Khobi is minding his every step on account of how precarious these rooftops are, Loac just has his hands tucked in his pockets or behind his head when they’re not climbing; easily strolling along the narrow ledges like they’re not suspended dozens of feet in the air with nothing but a fatal drop to stone waiting beneath them should they fall.

It’s quite a sight, really.

And it’s odd for a castle this size, but they see no one.

Every now and then Khobi does catch the odd flickering glimpse of torchlight, but less than he would’ve thought for this time of night, and certainly not as many as he’s seen in other parts of the castle.

He instinctively ducks back against the stone every time the flames look to be bobbing towards them, but just when it seems like they’ll come upon them, they change direction and start slowing retreating away.

Unperturbed, Loac rolls his eyes at him each time.

"Like I said," he snorts, brushing past Khobi the eighth such time this happens. "...The castle guards are terrible."

The moon’s glow is still muted by thick clouds but a few, eager slivers of its light pierce through the veil, and when they catch on his eyes Khobi is suddenly reminded of those clear, winter nights back home, when it seems like the whole world has been swallowed up by snow and the sky has turned to midnight.

(He thinks if he were to look long enough, he might even see stars.)

...

Finally, they reach the wall.

​Or more accurately, they run out of rooftop, at which point Khobi wonders if Loac’s actually just been wasting his time, because even if they managed to clear the gap –which he seriously doubts –the castle walls are as ridiculously high here as they are everywhere else, not to mention clearly visible.

​"Don’t tell me we’re climbing the fucking wall," Khobi states flatly, because he’s pretty sure if he gets caught trying to scale the literal castle walls, no amount of Montrel’s pleading on his behalf is going to convince the king that he was doing anything other than trying to escape.

Loac gives him a stony expression.

​"Don’t be an idiot," he scoffs, and points down to the path below them, where if Khobi squints he can see a metal grate positioned at the base of the wall. "We’re going under."

​Oh.

​That makes more sense.

But first, they’ve got to get down; a problem which Loac solves by just... stepping off the ledge .

And then, when Khobi peers down over the edge, incredulous, he’s smirking up at him from an enormous pile of straw.

​Un- fucking -believable.

​It’s clear that he’s supposed to follow.

​Well, he’s fallen onto worse surfaces before, he supposes.

​So he jumps.

And while he’s grateful to the straw for having broken his fall, what he’s not grateful for is how much of it he gets showered in as Loac scrambles to disentangle himself from the pile.

​"Hey, you’re meant to wait for me to get out of the way!" Loac growls, tossing another handful at him for good measure.

It smells fresh, at least. Which is great, because now they’re both covered in the stuff.

Khobi obstinately spits out a mouthful and mutinously starts gathering himself to his feet.