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Derras led the way, and Leopold stayed close behind. They made for a stairwell, through a door that Leopold had imagined was just a wall panel. But Derras tapped something to one side, pushed the wall, and it opened.
Derras tapped another part of the wall, and dots of lights appeared where the floor met the walls, allowing Leopold to see the steps that led down.
With the wall panel closed behind them, the sounds from outside became muffled, but they still crept through. Leopold could discern shouts, but there were other, more worrying sounds. There were sharp cracks that he took to be the retorts of weapons, and there were heavier crashes that may well have been the collapsing of masonry. He almost expected the walls around these stairs to burst open, and for stonework to sho
