Jenever's Archives

Archives

Home

Credits

Preparing for Flight

Lynx took Seth's hand a little nervously, and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

"Simon," she said. "Where's Simon?"

She was looking around the Cavern almost nervously - when a sound made her look to the roof of the Cage.

She gave a little gasp at his blood-boltered appearance, then ran for the ladder to begin to climb up to him ...

moving," urged Lazarus. His attack on the Sergeant had obviously taken a lot out of him, but he moved to help lift the stone if need be.

"And, who knows the way out?" he asked, looking up at Simon.

Lynx had reached the roof now, but she turned and looked back at Lazarus, troubled.

"I only know the way we came - which leads through the heart of the Castle." She was silent for a moment, clearing thinking.

"There is a well on this level too - as well as the dungeons and the guard quarters. It's fed by an underground spring, I think."

She turned back ad made her way to where Simon was still crouched over his prey, and crouched down beside. him.

"My Lord?" she said softly. " Lord Simon?"

He made a little mewling noise, but looked up into her eyes, and, slowly, the red glow faded from his own, to be replaced by the familiar black deadness. "I," he began, but was then distracted as he looked down at the gore slowly dripping from his hands. "I - I - yes, Lynx?" Simon said finally, looking at her with recognition. He followed her shocked gaze then, looking back over his shoulder to the crossbow bolt that stuck like a grisly emblem out of the upper part of his back.

"The Tomb," Simon continued, absently wiping his hands on the body of the man below him and standing, appearing oblivious to his wounds, a few more of which were becoming apparent as he stood. "You will not open it that way, Master Morgan," he called down from the walkway, his voice coming more and more under control with each word. "Pass the crowbar through the ring and lift with one person on each end of the bar. And take care, lest you snap the ring off."

At first, Morgan seemed not to hear, his fingers questing along the cracks of the stone, as if expecting the thin line to accept his hands. Then he scowled. "It would take too long."

Taking the crowbar, he slipped it into the ring, and handed the other end to one of the others nearby. "On three, smoothly. One, two, three."

Jenever grabbed up a pair of discarded manacles with a speculative expression on her face, then began to roughly remove the shoes from the guards.

"Most of us ought to be able to find something to fit," she said, watching the work being done to get Opal from her Tomb, "and then we'd best fly to our unknown benefactors.

There were shoes to fit everyone - even Dot. Morgan was straining at the crowbar; it would clearly be easier (and safer for the ring) if someone took the other end. There were three doors ro the Cavern - the one to the upper levels, the one to the barracks, and the one to the courtyard. All were open. For the moment, everything was still quiet ...

Tobias wandered over to the laboring Morgan, studying the slab and ring with a sigh. With a careful dip, he placed his sword on the ground, then took up the other end of the pole, and, grunting and straining, he attempted to help.

The heavy stone slab creaked and shifted ... slowly. Both Morgan and Tobias were panting - the fact that the two guards had earlier been able to shift it so easily suggested that the Hunter had had an influence.

But, with Morgan's strength, added by a somewhat unexpected strength from the more willowy figure of Tobias, the stone was lifting, slowly ... dragging across the floor (now aided by others who, as it lifted clear, had something to push).

And so the sealed Tomb that had held Opal for long hours was revealed.

It was quite empty.

Simon watched the unveiling of the empty tomb with the slightest of shudders that ran through his bloodied frame, though there was nary a flicker of expression on his face. Quietly, he looked at Lynx and whispered, "Did you give her your Plantaxy such that she might escape?"

Lynx, her eyes on the Tomb, gave a barely perceptible nod, but then said, in a low, panicked voice, "Not to escape, Sir! I didn't know ... they could be used like that! I thought ... she might use it for light ... or warmth. But not to escape! I never heard of anyone who could do that!"

Her voice was rising a little, and her sincerity was plain.

Simon brought a finger to his lips, motioning for her to be silent. Carefully, having lost none of his elegance despite his wounds, he stepped to the ladder, gesturing for Lynx to precede him downwards.

"Well, now, my lords and ladies," he said dryly as he completed a rather slower traverse of the ladder than the one he had only recently done, "I believe that the time for escape is now. I ask only that you take Lynx with you; her life is forfeit now, and she may well be able to assist you to get to your escape route."

"No, I will not be accompanying you," Simon continued, his eyes blank. "Not yet. Go, now."

Morgan looked at Lynx, his eyes cold and filled with the desire for blood, but he held himself still and simply scoffed.

"I would advise against it. Whether a simulacrum, twin or other manifestation, Anaka was obviously tied to Lynx. Where one would betray, I can easily see the other doing the same. But I will not argue the point. If the rest of you - who actually managed the mechanics of this escape when I could not - desire to trust her, I will not dissuade you."

"You appear to know her," Seth said, loading a crossbow, "but it seems to me that the issue is clouded with Lynx as opposed to your traitor, whomever she is. I would be inclined to keep her with us, so that we can keep an eye on her."

His head swiveled towards Simon. "The issue is just as murky with you. If you suddenly can't leave with us, and have an excellent chance of being captured, or even betraying us, then do you care to at least let us know where you're going?"

"Not especially, Master Seth," Simon answered with a slight smile, his features especially wan in the torchlight. "Suffice to say that Mistress Opal may well still be within the castle. Please, you must hurry." He glanced at Lynx. "Will you take them to where they have to go? You must go with them; it is no longer safe for you here."

Lynx looked at him, blinking back tears.

"If it is your wish," she said softly. "But ... your wounds. You must .... bind them. At the least ... the sword wound should be treated now."

She looked at the others. "What he says is tue. If I am found without my plantaxy, I will die. I meant it to give her light - nothing more - it was a tiny stone, not like the ones they took from you.

"I do not know the way - truly. But I have some knowledge - and I will help as best I can."

"As much as I wish to suggest we get out of here now," Lazarus emphasized, "I'm wondering if anyone knows where our Plantaxy may be?" He looked at Simon and Lynx, expecting some reply.

Lynx shook her head.

"They will be somewhere well defended in the Castle until you are all dead," she said. "Then they will be broken and the shards dispersed to those who serve the Rulers best. The Plantaxies you wore - I heard them spoken of. They are the source of enormous power."

Seth frowned at this. "In the castle?" He looked at Lazarus. "Opal knew...but she pointed a place outside the walls."

Lazarus frowned. "Blast it, I wish she could have gotten a message to us somehow... it would sure be easier to plan something." He was too tired to pace, but it was obvious he was getting stressed out. "We've got to get outside, and I'm not in favor of letting anyone split up. I say we go now? Any objections?"

Simon had pulled off his cloak, the fabric tearing wetly as it ripped around the bolt in his shoulder. His actions and haste of movement belied the calm in his eyes as he bent over one of the corpses, removing the man's tunic and using a knife to cut his cloak into long strips. Deftly, he wrapped a few around his more severe wounds, trying to staunch the blood more than anything else. Apparently satisfied, he began dragging one of the bleeding corpses, but stopped, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to him. "Which way are you going?" he asked.

Lynx ran to him, and began to adjust the bandages, giving better coverage. She hesitated over the bolt that stuck from his shoulder and then said quietly, "Sir - this must come out - and I am not strong enough to pull it."

For a moment, he looked like he might ignore her, but eventually, with the slightest of sighs, he reached back over his shoulder, grasping the bolt firmly with one hand and pulling it out with an ugly tearing sound.

"There," he said softly, allowing it to drop the floor with a clatter.

Lynx stooped. picked it up, and use it to cut strips from the tunic of the guard Simon had been attempting to manoeuvre. One she folded into a pad which she pressed to the new wound - the other she wound around to fashion a crude bandage.

"That should hold," she said.

Then she glanced around at the others, her expression nervous, as though awaiting their decision.

"It's the height of foolishness to rely on someone- injured at that- to sneak in and find Opal and get her out, not against what's stacked against us," Seth said. "Those are long odds. But all eight of us can't do better, not without plantaxy. Where eight can't, maybe one can. And I haven't the foggiest idea where to start to look." He looked at Lazarus. "I think you're right. Let's go. If he can find her and get out, that's great. If he can't, she obviously knows how to hide herself. Let's get out of here. Dot, you said you thought the barracks were...well, that way. Let's find that. You can help, Lynx?"

Lynx, finishing bandaging Simon, and helping him to pull his black jerkin back over the bandages, nodded.

Copyrights & Credits

Designed by Aethereality.net
Images © Index Stock
Textures © The Blooming Effect and Hybrid Genesis
Brushes © Relished.net and Cirratus.org and Roshiweb.com