Needing no more encouragement than that, Kre ducked under the stone mantle and stepped onto the now smoldering towel. The chimney was narrow enough that climbing it more involved pushing against the sides and using pressure to shimmy up. As his hand pushed against the wall, he could immediately feel the heat of the stone through the wet towel gloves he wore. He was immediately thankful that Kitalia had the foresight to equip him thusly.
He made it up about seven feet when he noticed that the chimney was a little bit brighter now. He paused his climb and looked down, noting that the fire had finally dried out and then burned through the towel, erasing the evidence that anything had been placed there.
“Clever,” he muttered to himself, admiring how well this plan was working out, considering how little time she had to come up with it.
He was just about to start climbing again when he felt something press against his head. “Stop,” Kitalia hissed from above him. She had her hand pushing gently on his forehead and from the quick glance that Kre spared, it seemed that she was hanging upside-down in the chimney just above him.
She made eye contact with him, her face barely visible in the flickering fire light. She moved her hand from his head, placing a finger across her lips and then pointing down out of the chimney.
Kre cocked his head to one side, trying to listen for what might have triggered her concern. A loud thud indicated that the door had just been kicked in. He could hear the tromping of boots and some muffled shouts. He glanced up quickly to confirm with Kitalia, but she wasn’t there anymore.
He looked back down and was thankful to see that the towel was pretty much completely gone. Of course, that meant that the fire was back to its normal state, which also meant that the chimney was staring to feel much warmer.
Logically, it wasn’t any hotter than it had been just a couple of minutes before, but logic fails when you’re stuck inside a hot chimney, pushing against the charred stone walls to keep from falling. As he thought more about it, his arms and legs started to feel like they were cramping up, and he wanted nothing more than to stretch them out. He also started to feel like the heat was making its way through his boots and his makeshift towel gloves.
The commotion from below was getting louder. “Room’s clear!”
“This one too.”
“Check everywhere!”
“You two, down the stairs!”
“Check the walls for any loose panels!”
The sounds of furniture being overturned made it up the chimney, along with bottles and glassed shattering on the floor. The sound of stomping got a bit louder, echoing up the stone walls of the chimney, and a steel blade poked into the flames, shifting the logs around.
“Got something!” came a shout from below.
Kre’s heart skipped a beat. Did they find the remnants of the towel in the fire? Did he kick down some ashes when he shifted his weight just a moment ago? Was he just a bit too noisy, despite Kitalia’s warning?