And now we get to real action.  Any thoughts on the fight scene are welcome.
                                -Tempestt

“What do I say to the guard at the gate?” Ariana asked as they entered the shadow of the hulking fortress.
        “Tell him you’re family of one of the prisoners, and you are here to visit him,” Kandar answered.
        They walked on in silence toward the flickering torchlight by the gate.  Their footsteps rang on the newly laid cobblestones.
        “What business have you in the palace tonight?”  the guard called out in a voice that made Ariana jump.
        “I am family of one of the prisoners, and I would like to visit him,” Ariana replied with a firm voice.
        “And you?” the guard called, implying Kandar.
        “I am her escort, sir.  It is not safe for a lady to walk alone in the city at night.”
        “Your name, sir?” the guard called back, slightly suspicious.
        “Alern, sir.  I work for the Lady’s father, sir,” Kandar replied smoothly.
The guard seemed satisfied by his answer.  He wasn’t really interested in asking any further. “Sef,” the guard called, “see these two down to the dungeon.”
        “Yes, sir.”
        Sef stepped out of the gatehouse, and Ariana watched him approach them.
        “Follow me,” he said, and turned to walk into the castle.
        He looks nice enough, Ariana thought to herself.   How can he be doing something this awful.
        Ariana smiled at the guard.
        He returned the smile, “Good evening, m’lady.”
        “Good evening, sir,” she returned gracefully.
        They entered the palace proper, and Ariana couldn’t keep from gaping.  The walls were white stone, and torchlight bounced off them highlighting tapestries and crystal.
        “Not a bad place to work,” Sef said to Ariana with a grin, noticing her glances.
        “I should say not.”
        The followed the long twisting corridors, and as they neared the dungeon, the stone became darker, the halls became narrower, and the tapestries became more moth-eaten.
        “This part, of course, isn’t quite as nice,” Sef explained as they rounded a corner.
        A guard stood half at attention, half-leaning against the wall.  There was a ring of keys on the wall.  The guard snapped to attention as soon as he saw them approaching.
        “Calad, these two are here to see a prisoner.  She,” he continued looking appraisingly at Ariana, “is apparently a relative of one of these riff-raff.”
        “I’m here to see Vaneth.  He is my brother.”  Ariana said with calm confidence.
        Calad looked at her, and then turned back to Sef.  “Wait here Sef; you will be escorting them out later.  I’ll show them to the cell.”
        Ariana looked at Calad with wide eyes and said as breathlessly as she could manage, “Oh thank you, I was so afraid to come here.”  She glanced down demurely, “I should have known there would be someone like you here.”
        Calad smiled self-assuredly and walked a little closer to Ariana, looking down at her.  “That’s what I am here for.  I’ll keep the riff-raff at bay.”
        Ariana glanced up at him with a thankful look.  Meanwhile Sef was leaning against the wall, eyes half closed, not noticing as Kandar nonchalantly lifted the key ring from the wall hook and followed Ariana.
        “I’m afraid I can only let you talk to him through the grating in the door,” Calad said apologetically.
        “Just seeing him is enough.  I am so glad I got the courage to come here.”  Ariana continued to look at him with wide innocent eyes.
        They walked down a narrow hallway lit with guttering torches, which was only relieved by the cell doors alternating along each side.
        “Vaneth, you have a visitor,” Calad said flatly.
        “Vaneth?”  Ariana said peering into the darkness of the cell. “It’s me, Ariana.”
        “Ariana?”  Came a voice, much raspier than she remembered.  Vaneth was at his cell door almost instantly.  “It really is you.”
        “And me,” Kandar added with a grin.
        “You rascal!”  Vaneth laughed, “How did you get in here?”
        “I am escorting your lovely sister,” Kandar replied with a flourish and a bow toward Ariana.
        “I go to prison, and you start going after my sister,” Vaneth quipped.  “She’s too smart to fall for you, aren’t you Ariana.”
        “Yes, much too smart,” Ariana said eyes twinkling at Kandar.
        “Don’t I feel loved,” Kandar said with mock sourness.
        Calad had just disappeared around the corner when they heard heavy footsteps coming toward them.  Calad and Sef came back around the corner, eyes stormy and weapons half-drawn.
        Kandar tossed the keys to Ariana, “Get Vaneth out, I’ll handle these two.”  He drew his long knife.  It was less than half the length of the two now fully drawn short swords that faced him.
        “You go for him, I’m going to try and get the girl,” Sef said.
        Kandar ran forward and desperately dove for Sef’s knee, as Calad realizing what had happened turned to get a shot a Kandar’s exposed back.  Kandar’s knife found Sef’s knee, and Sef fell to the ground with a grunt, losing his grip on his sword as he landed on his hands and injured knee.  Kandar looked up just in time to block Calad’s strike at his head, the blow ringing through his knife hand, registering on his face.  He jumped back and was on his feet again.  Calad advanced feinting with strokes that Kandar barely dodged.  The strikes got closer and closer to nicking Kandar, as Ariana tried to turn the key in the lock.  The keys jangled and wouldn’t turn.
        Kandar gasped in pain, as his last dodge was a split second too slow, and a line of crimson appeared on his shoulder.  Ariana dropped the keys, galvanized into action, and grabbed her knife.  Kandar, now backed up against the dungeon wall, struggled to hold back Calad.
        Just when it looked like he had won, Calad staggered and groaned.  Ariana’s knife was buried to its hilt in his neck.  She pulled her knife out, and Calad fell backwards.  Kandar lurched past Ariana, and plunged his knife into Sef’s back as he tried to get up.  He fell with a groan, and then was silent.
        “Are you okay, Kandar,” Ariana looked at him with concern as he held his shoulder.
        “I’ll be fine.  Had you been a few seconds later I wouldn’t have.  Thanks.  Next time you don’t need to make it so close, though, huh,” Kandar said with a weak smile.
        “Sorry,” Ariana said, looking with some surprise at the blood on her knife.
        “Don’t worry.  You did fine. Why don’t you wipe that off on his uniform, and I’ll get Vaneth out of that cell.”
        “Right,” Ariana replied looking almost dazed.
        She wiped off the knife, tucked it back in her boot.   Kandar walked over to where she had dropped the keys.  He picked them up and opened the lock with one hand, holding his shoulder with the other.  The door swung open, and Vaneth, with tears in his eyes, stepped out of the cell and gave Ariana a big hug.
        “I knew you would figure out why I gave you that ring at the right time,” Vaneth said, a gentle smile looking out of place in his hardened eyes.  He fingered the ring that still hung around her neck.  “I knew you would.”
        “You can have your reunion later.  Right now we need to get out of here,” Kandar noted blandly.
        Vaneth held Ariana at arms length for a second, looking into her eyes.  “He’s right.”
        “What’s the plan for getting out, Kandar,” Vaneth replied.
        “You are going to put on this soldier’s uniform and lead us out the main gate.”
        “There isn’t a better plan than that?”
        “The friendly little skirmish we just had prevents the original plan.  Do you have a better idea?”
        “I guess not.”
        Vaneth walked over to Sef’s corpse, took off the helm, and worked at the chain mail shirt.  He put on the scabbard, and slid the sword home.
        Ariana just watched him as he did this, not quite believing she was really seeing her brother.
        “Let’s go.  I don’t need to be put back in that cell ten minutes from now.”
        Ariana and Kandar fell in behind Vaneth.  Vaneth grabbed Sef’s cloak from around the corner, and threw it around himself, looking every inch the soldier.  They walked through the palace quickly.  Ignoring the milling servants, and the approaching guards.
        “Where are you going,” the head guard of the group asked Vaneth.
        “What right do you have to question me?” Vaneth replied gruffly.  “I am escorting these riff-raff out of the castle.”
   Chastised, the guard replied with only a nod.
        They were approaching the front gate; Ariana was still shaking from the run in with the other guards.
        “This is going to be the tough part,” Vaneth whispered as the crossed the distance to the outer gate.  “They are going to ask why we are leaving.  I’m going to reply that I have my orders, and that should keep them until we’re out of range of the bows.  Once they realize it’s a ruse run for the forest.  The night should cover us.”
        They reached the gate, and the same elf they dealt with on the way in called down for them to halt.
        “I have my orders,” Vaneth replied as they marched through the gate.
        Near the edge of bow range they heard the first ‘twang’ of a loosed arrow.  They ran for the woods, and the night covered their path.