The dagger rested comfortably in his left hand. After running down the corridor, the magister jumped out onto the stairs and without stopping put the weapon into the neck of the first soldier on his way. The short fight had the desired result. Shouts and commotion rose up. After killing two more guardsmen and drinking all the blood from the first, Rudolph skidded back into the corridor from which he had recently escaped.
Those who had taken the fight on the fourth floor were already being rushed by their comrades from the lower floors. Having quickly overcome the whole corridor, the ghoul jumped out on another landing and repeated his fight with screams, victims and blood. Just when the lower posts realized what was going on and started climbing the stairs, Rudolph left the battlefield again.
But this time he did not hide in the familiar corridor, but went to the opposite door. This one had to be the female half, as it was customary to alternate them. Literally kicking the door, the magister found himself in a corridor almost identical to the one he had recently left. The fugitive continued his movement along it, intending to jump out on the next staircase. In this way he intended to reach the edge of the palace and then jump out onto the roof.
The jacket and the sheet he had brought with him were to protect his head from the rays of the demur. Rudolph planned to return to the fourth floor, where he had been hiding lately, except that the noise he made would draw the guards to a different part of the palace, so he could expect a few minutes of almost free movement around the palace. Demur's position in the sky gave a chance for a safe execution of his plan, especially if he was careful.
Running down a corridor, Rudolph braked sharply. Where there had been a small pantry in the next wing, there was a door here, too. Except it smelled like a kitchen. The elevator! Opening the door, the man was convinced that his assumption was correct. A small platform, for feeding food from the kitchen to the upper floors, a through shaft through the entire palace! It couldn't be better!
Freezing, the ghoul looked to the end of the corridor from which he had started his run. There appeared the first guard and when he saw the fugitive he froze in fear. It was one thing to run after a fugitive and quite another to look a predator in the eye, playing a game of stare and expecting a blow. As soon as there were enough soldiers in the corridor, they became bolder and went forward, putting forward their pikes, which were not useless in such a situation.
Without waiting for the enemy to approach, Rudolph jumped into the elevator shaft. The main thing he wanted to accomplish by standing in the corridor had been accomplished - the Guardsmen had created a crowd that would be difficult for the paladins to get through, who were no doubt already rushing to the place where the fugitive had been discovered.
After running through the kitchen and scaring away the cooks, Rudolph intended to jump out into the inner courtyard of the palace. But that exit was guarded. One paladin and four guards. A combination he'd seen before today. The number of paladins in the palace guard was very small and barely enough to protect the king, so now the crown prince, who was about to be crowned, was hardly guarded at all.
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