I'd found it three weeks ago.
The royal palace of Azure Drakon was ancient, centuries of construction and reconstruction layered on top of each other like sediment. The original fortress still formed the core, but generations of kings had added wings, towers, gardens, and walls until the whole complex sprawled across a hilltop like a stone giant that had fallen asleep mid-expansion.
Most of the outer walls were forty feet high and patrolled by guards who took their jobs seriously. But the servants' quarter in the northeastern corner connected to an old garden that nobody used anymore. The garden's wall was only fifteen feet high, and a section of it had crumbled just enough to create handholds. Better still, the guard rotation had a four-minute gap between patrols. Just enough time to climb.
I knew because I'd timed it. Seven nights of watching from my window with Azurene counting the seconds through our bond.
Tonight, I told her as the third course arrived. Roasted duck in plum sauce.
Her tail tightened around my wrist. The guards.
I've mapped them. I have clothes hidden. I have a plan.
She sent me an image through our bond. Me falling off the wall and landing in a heap. It came with a flavor of concern wrapped in dry amusement.
I won't fall.
You fell out of bed last week.
That was different. I was dreaming.
Across the table, Caelum was saying something to a visiting dignitary that made the man laugh nervously. His serpent Verdina flickered her tongue at me, that strange creature always seeming to watch. Seeing things she shouldn't.
I looked away.
The dinner dragged on. Course after course. Speeches and toasts and polite laughter that sounded like wind chimes made of glass, pretty and hollow. I ate enough to avoid notice, responded to direct questions with appropriate courtesy, and counted the minutes until I could reasonably excuse myself.
When the sixth course was cleared and Father rose to signal the end of the formal dinner, I was already planning my escape.
The commoner clothes were hidden in an old trunk in a storage room three corridors from my chambers. I'd stolen them from the laundry two weeks ago: simple brown trousers, a linen shirt that had seen better days, a wool cloak with a hood large enough to hide Azurene.
I changed quickly, my heart pounding against my ribs like a bird trying to escape a cage. The silk robes went into the trunk. I pulled on the rough-spun clothes and felt immediately lighter.
How do I look?
Azurene studied me with her silver eyes. She sent an image of a young merchant's son: unremarkable, forgettable, exactly what I needed to be.
Perfect.
The route to the servants' quarter took me through back corridors I'd memorized over the past month. Most servants were still cleaning up after the dinner, so the halls were nearly empty. I passed a cook carrying dirty linens and pressed against the wall, letting her pass without seeing my face.
Breathe, Azurene reminded me.
I breathed.
The old garden was overgrown and wild, full of plants that nobody had tended in decades. Moonlight filtered through the branches of an ancient oak tree, casting silver patterns across the untamed grass. I crossed it quickly, my bare feet (I'd abandoned the palace slippers for simple cloth wrappings) silent on the soft earth.
The wall loomed ahead. Fifteen feet of old stone, crumbled just enough in one spot to provide a ladder of sorts.
I pressed my back against it and looked up. Checked the stars. Counted backwards from sixty.
The guard patrol passed on the other side. I heard the steady footsteps, the clink of armor, a guard saying something to his partner about a tavern in the city.
Then they were gone. The four-minute window had begun.
Now.
I climbed.
The handholds were exactly where I remembered them. My fingers found cracks in the stone, my toes pressed into worn gaps. Azurene clung to my shoulder, her claws digging in just enough to anchor herself without breaking skin. Three feet. Six feet. Ten feet.
My arm trembled. The stone was rougher than I expected, scraping my palms. Somewhere below, a night bird called.
Don't look down, Azurene advised.
I looked down.
The garden floor seemed very far away. The fall wouldn't kill me, probably, but it would certainly hurt. And the noise would bring guards.
I said don't look down.
You know I was going to look down.
I hoped you'd surprise me for once.
I reached the top of the wall. Pulled myself up, belly scraping against stone, and lay there for a moment catching my breath. The other side was a narrow alley between the palace wall and a row of buildings. Shops, I thought. Storage houses.
I dropped.
The landing sent shocks up through my legs, but I stayed upright. Azurene hissed in my ear, her version of applause.
We did it.
We're outside the wall. That's not the same as doing it.
It's a start.
I pulled the hood of my cloak up, tucking Azurene underneath where she would be hidden from casual observation. She grumbled through our bond, she didn't like being stuffed under cloth like cargo, but she understood the necessity.
A dragon Anima in the commoner district would draw attention. Questions. The wrong kind of curiosity.
I took my first step into the city.