Disclaimer: I don't own Eldest.

OK…I'm the worst updater in the world, I know. Anyway, I wanted to get through this part. Yes I know it's climactic, but I wanted it over and done with. It probably doesn't make much sense though. Apologies for that.

We're nearing the end here, as you can see. It's going to be magnificent. Enjoy and I'll get back to you with the rest someday! Thank you for remaining loyal!

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Alycie did not remember going back to the palace. If the guards at the door or the jailkeeper at the front of the prison had said anything to object her swift departure, she had not acknowledged or even noticed it. In her mind the only thing she saw were her brother's flaming eyes and his sharp, cold voice.

When she'd walked all the way back to the palace, she found it was not where she wanted to be at all. A restlessness was emerging from her shock and she turned on her heel and ran off back down to the street, not slowing when she reached it. She instead kept running, practically blind to people passing, darting off into the alleys on the sides of busy streets.

Once there was no more breath left in her lungs and her legs threatened to collapse beneath her, she was forced to stop, staggering numbly to the wall of an alley and sinking to the ground. Without missing a beat, her hands went to her face and she broke down sobbing.

It was dusk by the time she'd calmed enough to return. Why she was returning, she didn't know. She couldn't think straight. The distraction was too much. She'd found her brother, for the first time in months. She'd finally found him. Why was she not happy to know he was at least safe?

"He's the enemy..." she muttered. This was an undeniable truth now. The way he'd looked at her...He was a high-ranking officer in the Emperor's army. He had killed innocents. He would kill more. Like tonight--

"Tonight," Alycie gasped, the present rushing back to her. This was bigger than just her now. They were sacrificing more slaves to Helgrind. And Meliana....

The kitchen door opened with a slam, bouncing against the wall it was hinged to as Alycie lurched inside, sprinting up the hallway with darting eyes. No Meliana was there to be seen. She quickened her run, sliding on the marble floor as she rounded a corner and took off down another hallway. The door to the servant's quarters was up ahead. She skidded to a stop and wrenched open the door, halting once she was inside.

A few of the beds were occupied, but Meliana was not present. Alycie walked to a bunk and shoved the unconscious body into a rude awakening.

"Where's Meliana?" she demanded.

"Are you out of your head? I've been up all night!" groaned the occupant. Alycie gave them another shove.

"Where is she!?"

"Hell if I know! I been sleepin!"

"Listen up! You tell me where she's gone or--"

"The governor called her aside to talk, wench, now let us in peace!" snapped an elderly slave from his bunk a ways away. Alycie let go of the unwilling servant and dashed once more out of the door.

None of the servants were in the hallway. Either they'd been in the kitchen, the quarters, or the dining hall where the governor and his most recent wife were holding supper. Alycie had glanced in there long enough to confirm the absence of whom she sought. So they must have already taken her...

As she quit the palace without a dubious thought as to duty, she noted Donnel's absence as well. And then she remembered the other part of the note....

"They are new, you see, and have too much rebellion in their blood for effective service."

The dark grounds fell away under her feet as she ran, already breathless from before, but fueled by determination. A rush of déjà vu flooded her, and she realized she'd traveled this path before. Once upon a time when she'd made the dash for freedom. She remembered the light of hope at the end of the tunnel, the joy of leaving with her brother, the absolute liberation of feeling the strings of attachment sever.

Now she felt nothing but panic.

The streets of Dras-Leona were, for the most part, empty since night had fully descended. A few torches in the doorways of inns and pubs were ignited, beckoning those late-night wanderers into the welcoming and inviting companies within.

The church was an exception. The worshippers of Helgrind never were ones for light, and they performed their eerie tasks in the shadows as gleefully as a child in the sun, chanting in their strange language in time to a suspiciously gut-wrenching hacking sound. Alycie passed their open door quickly, but could not stop herself from looking inside. She did not know where Helgrind sacrifices were brought, but the Church of Helgrind did seem like an appropriate place. She felt her insides sicken at the sight and wrenched her eyes away, crossing into the shadows of the other side of the street.

Just as he had said. Fourteen men at the gate. There they stood, two slaves bound and held between them, a third bound by loose rope and held to the side by a lesser guard than the two formers. Alycie watched them from the narrow alleyway, her anger and desperation accelerating her thought process as she tried to catch their words.

"--tain's orders. You lot take that spitfire once the other guards catch her and make sure she carries the load out to the mountain, and the five of us do the same with this'un. Then these two just take this'un here back up to headquarters."

"An' when did the Captain make you such a one as to be givin' us the orders?" asked another guard, skeptical. Alycie frowned. It wasn't normal for a single soldier to be given orders to command the rest.

"Let's just say I gave a bit of valuable information that brought me a nice reward," came the smug reply. Alycie felt a tug at her memory. The voice...the voice was familiar...

"You bastard!" shouted Meliana suddenly, almost shrieking. Alycie was surprised. She'd never heard Meliana swear before...or speak with such malice... "You would rat out a fellow rebel like yourself at the first sign of a sparkle, wouldn't you! She stuck out her neck for you and you repay her like this? You betray her for greed and cowardice!" A slap from the leading officer silenced her, and Alycie felt her anger mount.

Strategy forgotten, she looked around wildly for something, anything, to attack them with. No boards, just barrels...no metal, just hinges...no rocks, just pebbles and dust...

And then the flicker of flame caught her eye and she seized it without thinking, setting it to the first barrel she topped to the side and kicking it swiftly towards the group. She saw the leading officer turn in surprise as the heat met his legs, his eyes widen as the barrel made contact with the backs of his knees, his mouth widen in shock as he toppled backwards to the cobblestones. In the light of the fire, Alycie made out his face just before a sickening crack marked his head meeting the street.

It was Donnel.

And then the barrel exploded.

Fire rained down upon the street and rooftops as Alycie ducked out from the alley and ran forward to where the bodies lay sprawled. Taking care to run over Donnel's ribs, crushing them, she searched frantically amongst the fallen crowd for Meliana. A guard raised his head slowly and reached out a hand, grabbing her ankle. Alycie brough the torch down on his unguarded head, causing him to fall back unconscious. Meliana lay under the body of another soldier. Alycie kicked the dead weight off of her friend and dropped to her knees, pulling the girl up.

"Meliana...wake up...wake up!" She shook her frantically. The girl opened her eyes, coughing through blackened lips.

"What...what was that?"

"I'm sorry, it was the only thing I could think of...I didn't fully consider..." Alycie stopped her excuses, eyes hardening. "You need to get somewhere safe. Don't got back to the palace. The governor turned you over to the soldiers. Go to the lake, and find a boat. Any boat. I don't care if you have qualms about stealing, it's important! Cross the lake to Belatona and stay there. Don't tell them you're a slave. I know you hate lying, but...this is important!" She got to her feet and hauled Meliana up woozily, pushing her off into an alley. "Go...GO!"

"Alycie," said Meliana, stable now on her own two feet. The blast had not hit her badly, and she'd overcome the shock now with a seriousness Alycie would not have expected of her in a crisis. She held her friend's gaze until the impatience became all to much and Alycie shouted for her to leave once again. Meliana smiled once, turned on her heel, and disappeared into the alley.

This left Alycie alone with eight recovering soldiers, a dead Donnel, and injured slaves. The other soldiers were unconscious, but Alycie did not waste thoughts on them. Instead she set to work tracing the torch she still held in her hand across the huge gate set into the wall, dropping the flame to a few bodies and then turning to run back to the barrels for further ammunition.

A guard managed to get to his feet then, and he leapt at her from behind, sending her sprawling, the torch rolling out of reach. Alycie lifted herself on scraped palms, turned her head, and extended a hand, shouting.

"Jierda!" The man collapsed where he'd been getting back to his feet with a cry of agony, holding his center as blood began to froth from his mouth. Alycie scrambled to her feet, grabbing up the torch and running with it.

The dry wood of Dras-Leonan dwellings welcomed the flame and they were soon ablaze and spreading in their tight-knit formations until every roof was alight with the inferno.

People screamed as they fled their houses, rushing for the gates into the suburbs. The bodies lying there sent up more screams and people clawed at the wood of the gate to get the barrier open. Others ran to the lake, exiting the gate there, which had been opened at the first sign of flames, and people had gone so far as to leap into the water to escape the wildfire.

Alycie felt the smoke beginning to choke her now, but she kept about her mission, eventually tossing the burnt stub of the torch into a blazing inn and turning about to make her escape. A body stood there blocking it, however, and two blazing eyes met her own, filled with the same fire that destroyed the city around them.

"Have you gone mad!?" shouted the man.

"No more so than you, Captain!" retorted Alycie, attempting to stride past him. A gloved hand caught her arm in a steely grip and turned her to face him.

For a moment they stared at each other in defiance and anger, but then his eyes lost some of the shadow within them and he pulled her into his chest, holding her there in a crushing grip. Alycie put her own hands around him as well and cried again, her tears from both the smoke and her breaking heart dampening his shoulder. The strong grip forced their separation then after a moment and Alycie saw the pained, strained look back in her brother's face.

"I thought when I next saw you it would be as your executioner. But now I see that can never happen, no matter how loyal I am to the Empire. I made a promise to myself to keep you safe, long ago, and I'll not be forsaking it!"

"If you wish to help me then quickly, Garrick, tell me, What do you know of the upcoming battle?"

The houses around them burned incessantly, occasionally punctuated by an explosion. Garrick pulled Alycie aside into the shelter of the stone wall of the Helgrind church as he looked back at her in seriousness.

"It is my first mission as Captain, Alycie," he said, solemn. There was no regret in his words, but he spoke them with full knowledge of their seriousness. "We march south to Surda in the morning to take up arms against the Varden. They will fall, Alycie. At the points of our swords and at the expense of our magic, they will be crushed."

"Can you not call them off?" demanded Alycie. Garrick let out a high cold laugh.

"Do you think Galbatorix so easily swayed? Or that new toy of his? Loyal as I am to you, my allegiance is with the Empire, Alycie, and it is against my morals as well." Alycie felt a sinking dread at his words. He held her gaze. "But, if you were to want to warn them, I would ride out this night. The black armies travel fast over their homelands, but a lone scout may cover the distance in half the time it takes them. Do what you must, I'll not stop you, but if you should cross our path, I know there is nothing I could do to save you."

His intensity had longing in it now, and the hands he gripped on her shoulders were beginning to pain her. Alycie nodded at his words, and drew him close a last time. He shoved her away and threw out an arm towards a thin passage between two burning buildings in the row opposite.

"Go! The dry road will do you no good! Go by the lake and I can attempt to guard your path!"

Alycie broke her eyes from his and ran between the flaming walls, taking off down the street towards the western gate.

"Alycie!" came a low yell. She looked around for the source and saw a figure sprinting along the tops of the wall that enclosed the inner city. Her heart leapt as she recognized the dark skin against the orange glow of the fire.

"Elian!" she shouted back. The figure stopped running and lay down, extending down an arm. Alycie diverted her course towards him, spotting a few barrels as of yet unexploded lying where the wall met the street. She climbed on them precariously and seized his hand, pulling herself up as he lifted with all his strength, closing his other arm around her waist and hauling her up the last of the way.

Without setting her down, Elian leapt off of the wall with his arm still securely around her waist, carrying her off then through the surrounding suburbs until they hit the lake. The boats were all taken, but a small rowboat with a woman in it caught their eye and they wasted no time in hijacking it, leaving the woman treading water with the rest of the town while they rowed off into the darkness.

Alycie watched the firey glow on the horizon that had once been her home until it was just a distant orange smudge between the black of the water and sky. Elian watched it as well, rowing back with his strong arms in silence. Once the screams had faded out of earshot, he diverted his attention to Alycie.

"Back to Urû'baen then?" he asked. "We still haven't gotten the egg."

"No," said Alycie, tearing her gaze from the flaming city. "No, that will have to wait. We have to go South."

"Why?" asked Elian. Alycie coughed, the smoke lingering in her lungs, and looked at him.

"They're going to attack the Varden at Surda."