After about a minute, three guards finally sauntered up to the cell. One of them banged their mace against the bars. “What’s all this racket?” “The new prisoner stopped breathing!” my friend said, pointing to the body on the ground. “Get back!” A second guard reached through the bars and shoved my friend while the third fumbled with a ring of keys. They opened the door and came in, two going to the figure on the floor, while the third stayed by the door, spear held at the ready. The two guards shooed the other prisoners away and turned the body over. As the person on the ground gave the guards a sheepish grin, I made my move. Clasping my hands together, I rushed forward and clobbered the guard closest to me on the back of the neck. He crumpled like an empty sack. Some of the other prisoners rushed forward and attacked the other kneeling guard. At the door, my new friend had grabbed the spear of the third guard and was trying to wrestle it away from him. I dashed in, fists flying. In a matter of seconds, all three guards were down and the door to freedom was open. “Come on!” I said, and dashed out of the cell. The others followed me. Our escape was swift, and we only had to deal with a few more guards before we were out into the cool night air. In front of us was a courtyard with a stone wall beyond it. Getting through a defensive wall from the inside is easy. Keeping to the shadows as much as we could, we found a side door kept shut with a wooden bar. I let everyone else run through before replacing the bar and scaling the wall. It was a ten-foot drop to the ground, and a rolling slope beyond. Taking a deep breath, I jumped, going into a roll as I landed. Several of my joints objected. I hadn’t done anything this exciting for several years. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to get caught again so soon after escaping. Ignoring the pain of the impact, I got back to my feet and started running after the others toward the nearby forest. I chanced a look back as I reached the trees. Behind me was an imposing keep with multiple towers and turrets. Soldiers with torches were starting to run along the top of the wall, no doubt looking for us. But with no obvious signs of escape, like open doors that were supposed to be closed, I highly doubted our trail would be picked up until we were long gone. *** We traveled through the night, trying to put as much distance between us and Dragon King’s keep as we could. Even after the sun began to rise, we kept going. The young man who had helped me finally introduced himself as Liam. He was familiar with the area we were traveling through and took the lead, claiming he knew a place we would be safe. I stayed at the back of the group, helping stragglers and watching for pursuing soldiers. As the shadows began to lengthen again, Liam called a halt. There was a stream nearby and everyone drank greedily. I was tired after being on the run all day, but several of the people with us were far worse off than I was. We couldn’t have convinced them to go any farther even if the Dragon King’s soldiers had been right behind us.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTIxNjAyMw==