little bit, but he feels better for having them. Once the pouch is bulging, he secures it to the belt around his waist.
They suddenly hear pounding as the soldiers out in the hallway try to beat their way in. But the door with iron bar firmly secured is strong enough to hold against them.
Jiron comes in from the only other doorway leading out of the room and says, “There’s just another room back there with shields and some armor.” He points to the door the soldiers are beating upon and continues, “That’s the only way out.”
Miko turns to James and asks, “Now what?”
A translucent bubble forms in front of James and Lord Pytherian asks, “What’s that?”
“It should show us a way out of here,” he replies. But the bubble floats around a moment and then goes over to the door leading out to the hallway and the soldiers. “Damn!” exclaims James.
“No other way out?” asks Jiron.
“Doesn’t look like it,” he says.
“What are we to do now?” he asks.
James looks from one to the other and says, “Give me a moment.” He then begins considering the situation as he starts to pace.
Suddenly, the sound from the door begins to change. A steady thumping sound starts to beat on the door. Lord Pytherian says, “It won’t be long now. It sounds like they’ve found a ram.”
James’ pacing leads him into the other room. There he finds the area where the blacksmith would’ve worked on fixing the broken or dulled weapons and armor. An anvil sits in the corner as does a bellows; a hole can be seen in the roof that would allow the smoke to escape from the forge.
A large bucket of water sits on the floor and next to it is a depression in the stone with a small drain that would allow the used water to drain away. Suddenly, an idea hits him and he sends out his senses beneath the floor and realizes that there’s an open space beneath them.
From the other room, Lord Pytherian hollers out, “That door’s not going to stand much more of this!”
“Got an idea!” James yells back to him. “I need a few minutes.”
“Better hurry,” Jiron says from the doorway.”
James glances over to him and nods. Then he begins tracing the creases around one large stone in the floor with his finger, letting the magic flow as he loosens the bonds holding it to the ones next to it.
When Jiron sees what he’s doing, he nods his head as he remembers how they’d escaped the jail back in Mountainside. He turns to the others and says, “Let’s move as much of this stuff before the door to slow them down once they’ve broken through.”
Everyone begins moving tables and pulling racks of weapons off the walls as they create a blockade in front of the door. By the time they’ve created a pile extending several yards away from the door, they hear James holler from the other room, “I need your help!”
Jiron is the first to enter the room and sees James standing there with a sledge hammer. “Grab a hammer or something and help me smash this block down,” James tells him.
James then begins slamming the sledge hammer down upon the stone block. The others see what he’s doing as they come into the room and move to help him. Pytherian holds back a moment, doubting the usefulness of this course of action. But then when he sees the block move down half an inch from the blows raining down upon it, he grabs a war hammer and adds his strength to the endeavor.
Inch by slow inch the slab moves down until it falls into the room beneath it. “What’s down there?” asks Miko as he looks into the black hole.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” Jiron says as he moves to the lip of the hole and begins to lower himself over the edge. James moves the orb over the opening and they see the floor of the room is about fifteen feet away.
“Be careful,” James warns him.
He swings over the edge and hangs by his hands a moment before letting go. James watches as he lands on the floor and then looks back up to him. “Come on!” he hears him holler out of the hole.
James looks to Lord Pytherian and says, “Your next milord.”
Lord Pytherian moves to the edge and just like Jiron, swings over the edge and lands next to him.
“Okay Miko,” James says as he indicates the hole. As Miko is lowering himself into the hole, James hears the door crash open. Smashing and clattering comes from the other room as the soldiers begin removing the haphazard barricade they’d erected before the door.
“What was that?” Jiron asks from below.
Nervously, James replies, “They’re in the armory.”
When Miko hits the floor, James moves to the edge and begins to swing down when from the doorway, he sees a soldier appear. Letting go, he falls and then feels hands grab him to slow his descent as he lands on the floor. “Thanks,” he says.
From above them, they see soldiers looking down at them and then another begins to swing over the edge. “This way!” Jiron hollers as he leads them from the room through a doorway.
Once everyone has exited the room, he slams the door and drops a bar across it that was built to hold the door secure.
In the light of the orb, James can see they’re in a passage and by the looks of it, one that hasn’t been used in a very long time. “This might be a part of the dungeons,” he guesses.
“If so then maybe we can get back to the sewers,” Jiron states.
From the other side of the door, they again hear pounding as the soldiers attempt to get through.
Jiron takes the lead with Lord Pytherian close behind. The passage leads on for a hundred feet before ending where another passage crosses from the left to right. Jiron looks back to James who says, “Left!”
Turning to the left, they race down the hallway for several hundred feet, passing openings into other rooms. After a brief examination, they discover each is just another storeroom with no other way out so they continue on down.
Moving along for several minutes, they come to a door at the end of the passage. As James comes up behind Jiron and Lord Pytherian, he sees Jiron take out his knife to begin working on the lock.
“I’m sorry I had my doubts about you,” Lord Pytherian says to James while they wait for Jiron to open the lock.
“We’re not out of here yet,” James tells him.
“You’ve done better than I could’ve expected or hoped for,” he continues. “Frankly, I’m surprised we’ve managed to make it this far.”
Click!
Jiron opens the door and turns to them, “If you guys are done, let’s go.”
“After you,” James says to him.
Turning back, Jiron moves through the doorway and pauses as they go past him. Then he shuts the door, locking it once more. Rushing to take the lead again, he follows the passage as it twists and turns three times before coming out into what looks to be a storage room.
It’s a large dark room with boxes stacked on all sides. To their right, a stairway extends up and on their left is a doorway. In the middle of the room are two bodies. As they move into the room, closer to the bodies, they discover they’re guards and by the fresh pool of blood they’re lying in, were killed recently.
“James, this is the room just above the cells,” Jiron suddenly says.
Looking around, James nods his head. Indicating the guards on the floor, he says, “These two must’ve been killed when the prisoners escaped.”
“That would make sense,” Jiron agrees.
“Then that’s the way out!” exclaims Miko, pointing to the opening opposite the stairs. “What’re we waiting for?” Moving quickly, he hurries through the doorway and begins to descend down the stairs.
James and the others move quickly to follow him, taking the stairs quickly.
They catch up with him at the bottom of the stairs where he’s stopped and peering around the corner. “Look,” he says, pointing down the hallway to the room of the holding cells.
Lights can be seen within and silhouettes moving around. “They must be investigating how the prisoners escaped,” guesses James.
Jiron’s knives leap to his hand at the same time as Lord Pytherian’s sword leaves its scabbard. Jiron turns to
