Chapter 10:


    The two glared into each other’s face until Vilimont finally spoke. “Are you ready?”


    In reply, Helkin reached into the boat and drew out an ax. The damp steel glistened from the moonlight as shadows from the fire danced across the edges.


    Vilimont smiled then turned from the dock.


    “Foleri,” he said, “do you remember your orders?”


    “Of course, sir,” Foleri answered.


    “Make sure you don’t mess them up. We’re counting on you whether we should or not.”


    Foleri nodded his head. Vilimont tried to make everyone around him feel incompetent. He had experienced Vilimont’s leadership enough to know answering such a dig did no good. He would get revenge later.


    “Helkin and I are taking a group to talk with the boss,” Vilimont continued. “Make sure my army is ready when I’m done.”


    Foleri nodded again and watched them go. Real revenge. While he watched them go, he muttered, ‘All good things take time.’ He then turned back to face the water. From out of the mist a boat appeared. Then another. Then more. Foleri watched them come with an expressionless face.


    Chapter 11:


    “The villain! The scoundrel!” Luke paced indignantly back and forth in the dungeon. His heavy footfalls echoed dimly off the damp dungeon lit from high in the wall above by a square of sunlight broken by a metal grate.


    “The churl!” he continued before taking a deep breath. At that moment, Anthanasius, who previously sat quietly while watching Luke, started chuckling to himself. Luke ignored his friend as long as he could manage but wheeled about to face him when he broke into a full roaring laugh.


    “What ails you?” Luke demanded, “How can you laugh at a time like this?”


    Anthanasius slowly got control of himself and regained enough breath to answer. “Did you see how good I got him? I’ve been wanting to do that since I first met him!” He started laughing again and Luke couldn’t help but break into a large smile and chuckle along at the memory of Semias tumbling backward.


    Luke left his strangely affected friend and made another pass through their cell. He looked in vain for a weak point. Besides the high window, the heavy door stood as the only break in the slippery stone walls.


    He searched for another hour before giving up and sitting by his friend. The two talked until Anthanasius fell asleep early in the night. Luke stayed awake longer and looked around the perimeter another time for a weakness.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    “Anthanasius wake up,” Luke hissed to rouse his companion, “we’re leaving.”


    Anthanasius blinked the sleep from his eyes in dumb amazement. “Executed already?” he asked, not understanding at all.


    “What? Of course not. It appears we have a friend. Get up.”


    Anthanasius awoke fully, grasped what Luke said to him, and saw their jailor standing beside him with a bundle of his possessions. He jumped to his feet in bewilderment and addressed the jailor. “What’s this about?”


    “Sir, I’ve no great affection for Semias. I’ve been meaning to leave and this seems a good blow to that churl.” He smiled sidelong at Luke, who colored at having his loss of temper pointed out, but the darkness of the cell mostly hid his embarrassment.


    Though the jailor aided them, leaving the dungeon surreptitiously proved a difficult task. Few around the castle knew the man but he still tried to keep the three and their returned weapons hidden.


    To Luke, the familiar passages and corners seemed interminable before they came to the end of the final winding staircase and he breathed in the cool night air. He looked to the side and saw some score of sentires posted amongst the ramparts. From the distance no one paid them heed so the jailor produced a rope hidden about his person and secured it to the wall.


    “Can you swim?” he whispered as he played the rope slowly and silently out.


    “I can today,” Luke said, gathering his courage. Anthanasius nodded.


    Then the jailor slipped over the edge gingerly and Luke followed him closely. Anthanasius almost followed but stopped when a sentry turned a corner and headed straight for him. The sentry suspected nothing and walked casually up to Anthanasius with a casual greeting about the weather. Anthanasius strove to conceal the rope by leaning against the merlon and answered him in a rude tone, trying to get the man to pass him by.


    The sentry stopped, though, and asked for the challenge word to prove his position. Anthanasius saw his predicament and struck the man unconscious. He fell to the stone floor silently enough, but Anthanasius couldn’t stop his helmet from falling off and clattering loudly along the wall walk. He grabbed the rope in one hand in alarm and jumped from the wall amid loud shouts from the towers. He caught it with his other hand but nearly slid down the rope in his haste.


    He hit the ground with a sudden thud and could have laid there an hour in pain but slipped instantly into the moat which Luke and their rescuer had already nearly crossed.


    When he reached the other side they helped haul him out. Just then a man from the wall threw a torch which flickered sparingly for a second before it hit the water.


    The three took to their heels and ran for the nearest cover, knowing archers waited for another light.


    A clatter of missiles hissed about them in the dark as they ran. A crossbow bolt fired randomly in the darkness tore through Luke’s jerkin and grazed his arm. The three kept running and stumbled from time to time but the sounds of the arrows rapidly died away along with the angry shouts from the walls.


    Chapter 12:


    The first boat bumped into the dock and Foleri watched the men exit onto the dock. They carried weapons and supplies past him. Two men remained in the boat to guide it away and make room for the next.


    Foleri watched boat after boat come out from the darkness. Each brushed into the dock or crunched the gravel on the shore.


    When the boats stopped coming Foleri turned around and looked at the force spread out in the town. They had ventured deeper into the ruins while looking for shelter and firewood. More fires now dotted the open spaces between the buildings.


    Foleri walked toward the town. He looked around at the exhausted men he needed to form into a force capable of distracting the region of Bronlum for a few weeks.


    His heart beat lighter since the others left him alone. He knew he needed to let the men rest after their brutal journey under Helkin.