As he carried on shimmying vertically, he went through what had just happened, as far as he could tell. The windows had blown in. As they were leaded lights, that would have required explosives. Then the White-Out had hit. He had decided that whoever had attacked would enter through the windows, and that any Trade reinforcements would come through the doors so he picked the only alternative.
The chute angled as he knew it would, which made things slightly easier and he slid on his belly, feeling his ribs bruise with each movement, using his feet and ankles to keep moving upwards.
If he survived this, Hilt thought to himself, in future he would always tip chimney sweeps handsomely.
After what felt like hours but was probably ten minutes, he reached the chimney stack. Using the blade nub,
