Guards around the corner coughed—wet, hacking barks that bounced off the narrow stone walls in panicked echo. Leather and steel clattered as they stumbled against stored crates, the men swiping at the irritant cloud that never made a sound. Their halberd tips banged and scraped, searching for an enemy they could no longer see.
Cerys pressed herself flat against the storeroom wall, heart hammering behind her ribs. She felt Lucien's pulse racing just under the bandage where her hand steadied him. The smoke, a soft gray sheet, poured low and wide. Within seconds it filled every lantern beam, turning torch-light to formless haze.
