No one noticed Ingram slip down the stairs. The guards were focused entirely on Thazel. All that kept them from killing her was her grip on the prince, but she hadn't killed him yet. Indeed, she appeared to be reluctant to do so. She had gone to quite a bit of trouble to tie him up and drag him up the stairs, trouble that could have been avoided by running him through before the guards ever knew something was amiss.<br/><br/>Ingram reached the lower room and peered out the window just in time to see Aereze fall past. Thazel followed a moment later, and the two of them streaked toward the cobbled stone below. She had leaped from the highest tower in the city, and the fall was sure to kill them both if they ever reached the ground.<br/><br/>It seemed Thazel had other ideas. As she fell, the scales of her armor melted into feathers. She grew and shifted, taking on the form of a magnificent giant eagle. In one graceful movement she snatched the falling prince out of the sky, and with a beat of her wings she began to ascend, swiftly flying away from the palace.