Chapter 8 - The Desperate Ride
Arthur stared at the blueprints, absolutely refusing to accept the grim reality of the sacrifice.
He slammed his fist against the wooden workbench, shattering an old clay pot.
He swore to Marianne that he would never let her die inside that glass machine.
Marianne quietly rolled up the blueprints and tucked them into her wet leather belt.
She told the prince that thousands of innocent lives in the capital depended on them.
They stole a horse from a nearby abandoned farm and rode furiously back toward the city.
The morning sun was just beginning to rise, casting a bloody red glow over the horizon.
When they reached the capital, the streets were completely overrun by Lord Sterling's brutal mercenary army.
They abandoned the horse and sneaked through the narrow, twisting alleyways to avoid the patrols.
They used the same filthy drainage pipe to crawl back into the palace catacombs.
The ticking of the mechanical bomb echoed loudly through the damp, dark stone corridors.
They reached the massive iron door and pushed it open, expecting the room to be empty.
Instead, Lady Eleanor was standing directly in front of the glowing glass core.
She was holding a heavy iron wrench, but her hands were shaking and her face was covered in tears.
She looked at Arthur and Marianne with an expression of pure, absolute terror.
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Eleanor dropped the wrench and confessed that Sterling had locked her down here.
She had just realized that her powerful ally fully intended for her to die in the explosion too.
