Help! I Got Parasitized by a Slime

“This is crazy,” Galine hissed quietly, trying not to draw attention in the crowded grand hall. “Absolutely not.”

I shook my head, glancing around nervously. “Galine, please,” I groaned. “Just think about it.”

“I am thinking about it.” Galine laughed with disbelief. “We are not going to… tiptoe through a war zone, Pamela.”

I grimaced. “My money,” I muttered. “It’s still in the outpost. Plus a bunch of supplies. Tonight we could just sneak out, stop by, and go and be free from this,” I said, waving my hands towards our surroundings. “Do you really want to spend the next… who the fuck knows how long under siege? What happens when they start hammering us with trebuchets, or disease starts killing us off, or ballistas start impaling people? If we stay here, we are all going to starve. You really want to be here for all of that?”

Galine sighed. “I don’t see that we have much of a choice. We can’t exactly just ask them to let us out the front gate. And even if we could, I’m injured; I can barely hobble. I’m supposed to be resting.”

“I know.” I nodded. “But I’d rather take my chances with you out there than be sitting ducks in here. We can go slow; it’s not a race.”

“It kinda is,” Galine groaned. “You want to outrun an army.”

“No,” I huffed. “The army is currently coming to us. I just don’t want to be here when they arrive. We just need to… to make it to Appleby, then we can stay there until you’re all better.”

Galine shook her head. “Appleby is probably gone, or-or at least ransacked. They won’t want to risk anyone supplying the castle with… supplies.”

“Fuck,” I frowned. “I… wait, I know somewhere else we could go. Goblins. I know where there is a goblin camp, and they were very hospitable the last time I was there.”

“Goblins,” Galine repeated flatly.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Nice fellows, lots of big muscular women,” I offered, wincing at my choice of words.

She snorted. “This is still a terrible idea.”

“Maybe,” I couldn’t help but agree. “But I’m scared and… this isn’t our fight. This isn’t any of our fights, and maybe it’s cowardly but… I won’t be killed for some stupid political squabble. The Tavern Crew is far away from this, so… keeping you safe is my only priority. And we’re not safe here.”

Galine smiled. “You don’t need to keep me safe, Pamela. I can take care of myself.”

“I know you’re way stronger than I am; that's for sure,” I chuckled. “But I will still do whatever I can. You’re one of the very few things I have to care about in this world. I’ve already lost so much; I’m not losing more because of some stupid war,” I added, my voice steady despite the emotion in my chest.

Galine leaned forward to kiss me. “Okay,” she whispered against my lips. “Fine, okay. As you would say, let’s get the hell out of here.”

I nodded. “Okay, thank you. Now we just need to figure out how to actually… get out,” I grimaced.

“There's a postern gate,” Galine sighed after a minute.

“What's a postern?” I frowned.

“Like a secondary hidden gate. It’s back by the other well, and it leads out to the academy,” Galine explained.

I nodded. “Uh, okay, perfect,” I snorted. “How do you know about it?”

Galine motioned to a gaggle of children, now all sitting underneath one of the windows. “They were running around, exploring the place until they got caught. But… they're kids; they can’t help but brag,” Galine shrugged. “I’ve not had much to do beyond lie about and listen.”

I didn’t laugh despite the brief moment of humour. There were kids here. That was really sinking in now. There were people, families, and children here. In a castle that was going to be under siege. They were about to be in the middle of a prolonged war.

“Could we… take people with us?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “Just… the noncombatants, get them away from all of this.”

Galine just gave me a look.

“I know,” I sighed. “I know.”

“Do you?” Galine asked, placing a hand on my arm. “You can’t have it both ways. Either these are your people, and you do whatever you can, or they're not… and you leave. Because they’re Lord Grosswin’s people. He had a duty to provide for them.”

I worried my lip. “Are they your people?” I asked.

“No,” Galine shook her head.

“What about the-the farmers,” I said. “The ones you stayed with.”

“I worked for them.” Galine shrugged. “I’m friendly with them, but they're not mine. I haven't seen them in… I don’t know. I really don’t know now.”

“They’re not kin.” I nodded. “I get it.” I looked back over at the group of children, blooming people who had full lives ahead of them… if all went well. A strange guilt clawed at me at the notion of leaving all these people to die.

Except that wasn't what I was doing. I was looking out for myself and Galine, because… we were kin in a sense. The rest of them had the city, had their lord. Sometimes lines needed to be drawn. I wasn’t strong enough to save myself, let alone everyone. These people were not my responsibility. I just hoped Lord Grosswin was a decent lord, all things considered, or at least as decent as an aristocrat could be.

“Okay,” I let out a sigh. “Once it gets dark, let's go.”

Galine nodded. “And if we get caught? If there are guards? Because there will be.”

I ran my hands over my face. “I… knock 'em out?” I offered vaguely.

“Pamea, if you hit someone hard enough to knock them out, they don’t tend to get back up, ever,” Galine offered dryly.

I grimaced. “Okay well… I have 45 pence to bribe a guard with.”

Galine blew out a breath. “This is going to go terribly.”

“Maybe,” I agreed sadly. “But we have to try.”

In preparation, we had a nap. Mostly because it was one thing to, in theory, be up at night, but a whole other thing to actually be. I wasn’t exactly used to staying up all night. Of course, my other fear was light. Given the smoke, there were still fires burning, but that wouldn’t remotely help us see. The stars were definitely brighter in this world due to the lack of light pollution. But given it was a hazy, cloudy day, I wasn’t particularly hopeful.

Candy didn’t have any issues seeing in the dark, but we couldn’t entirely rely on Candy’s directions. Especially since we had no idea exactly what we would be walking into.

I could only hope the outpost was still standing, and noon had found my small fortune. Fuckkkk.

“Ready?” Galine asked me as we later lay there in the darkness illuminated only by the flickering lanterns. It was so quiet we could have heard a pin drop.

“Yeah,” I exhaled quietly, shuffling to my feet.

Galine stood, hooves loud enough against the hard floor to make me wince. I held my breath for a moment. No one made a fuss.

We tiptoed through a nearby doorway, down a hall, out into the courtyard, back past the stables, the kitchen, the dovecote.

“Around here somewhere,” Galine muttered.

I strained my eyes in the darkness, running my hand over the stone of the well. “Maybe there?” I suggested, motioning to a small little carved hole in the wall. I could just make out the shadows of decent, some kind of structure, steps going down.

“Good eye,” Galine hummed, leading the way. She stopped at the top of the stone steps, illuminated by a light somewhere deep inside.

“Well, it certainly looks promising,” I offered.

Galine didn’t seem thrilled at the prospect of going down a narrow staircase into the castle wall.

“It’s okay,” I told her, taking her hand. “I’ll go first, okay?”

Galine nodded.

Heart quietly pounding in my ears, I led us down into the faintly lit space. The stairs just kept going down, winding in a large horseshoe shape. Galine was breathing fast, loudly so, her fear audible. I squeezed her hand tighter.

“There’s no room to turn around,” she hissed, a hair trigger away from panic as she limped down behind me.

“I know,” I said calmly, though I did not feel much better. “Think about me. Think about what comes after. Let me worry about getting us through this.”

Galine said nothing.

“Just keep breathing,” I continued, willing my voice to be reassuring. “Look, I can already see that it opens up ahead.”

It did, widening into a shallow stone room. A lantern hung on the wall, the source of the glow. I turned around to focus on Galine, helping her into the space. The ceiling was too low; she had to crouch. But the space was bigger. She’d be able to turn around in here.

I gave her a smile. “See? We made it.”

Galine smiled, craning her neck to fit in the space as she hunched. Her smile fell as she looked past me. I turned around.

“You two better have a damn good explanation for this,” one of the guards said, taking a draw from his pipe.

“Oh fuck,” I muttered as we met four scowling faces.