Miko and says, “You better stay here and look after James.”
“Alright,” he says.
Jiron glances to James who gives him a nod in understanding as they move to the room at the end of the hallway.
“Looks like there are just a couple,” Lord Pytherian whispers to Jiron as they get closer.
“That’ll just make it easier,” he says.
They’re able to come to the end of the hallway without being seen due to the preoccupation of those inside. Within the room they see two guards and a civilian.
Jiron glances to Lord Pytherian who gives a nod and they burst into the room. Pytherian strikes down one guard before he even knows they’re there.
The remaining guard moves to protect the civilian as he draws his sword. Jiron begins deflecting his attacks as Lord Pytherian joins him. Facing the two of them, the guard has no chance and is soon cut down.
The civilian makes for the door, but Lord Pytherian moves and blocks his exit. He places the point of his sword to the man’s chest and hollers back out to James and Miko, “It’s clear, come on down.”
Turning back to the civilian, Lord Pytherian says, “So, what brings the aide to Lord Hazi Makali down here?”
“My Lord Pytherian,” the man says. “You are certainly the last person I expected to meet here.”
“I would guess so,” he replies, laughing. “Considering the circumstances of our last meeting.”
James comes to the cell room and when he sees the man at sword point, he asks, “Who’s this guy?”
“He’s the aide to Lord Hazi Makali, the military governor in charge of this city,” he explains.
“What are you going to do to him?” James asks.
Pytherian gazes at the man and then motions with his sword to the nearest cell, “Get in.”
The man moves toward the cell and enters. As Lord Pytherian shuts the cell door, the man yells, “You’ll never make it out of the city!”
“I’d say the chances are fairly good,” he replies as he turns the key in the lock. Putting the key in his tunic, Lord Pytherian looks to the man and says, “Give my regards to your Lord and tell him I regret being unable to say goodbye in person.”
He turns to James and says, “Lead on.”
James nods to Jiron who moves toward the door leading to the torture chamber. James sees all the cell doors have been opened, proof that the fighters they’d seen from the tower window had in fact been those being held here. One of the dead guards they’d dragged in here had been pulled near one of the cells. There must’ve been a key or something on him that they’d used to open the doors.
In the torture chamber, the dead man still lies upon the table and the torturers upon the floor. “I see you have already been here,” remarks Lord Pytherian.
“Yeah,” replies James. “We came in this way.”
They exit the torture chamber and move down the hallway to the stairs at the end. Jiron doesn’t even hesitate as he begins to move down the stairs. Upon reaching the bottom, he waits for the others.
“Can you open it?” he asks James, gesturing to the wall.
“Open what?” Lord Pytherian asks.
“There’s a secret door here that we came through,” he replies as he begins to examine the wall. When he doesn’t find any sort of loose stone or anything, he says to Miko, “See if you can move that torch sconce there.”
Miko moves to the torch sconce on the wall across from the secret door and begins attempting to move it. He wiggles it first one way then the other. Suddenly, the sconce slides down and the wall begins to move to the side.
Once the opening is wide enough, they file through. A minute later, the door begins sliding closed once again, leaving the orb as the only source of light.
They descend the stairs to the next level and then down one more to the bottom level. Going through the doorway, they move down the passage until they come to an open door. Moving into the room, the smell of the sewer becomes strong.
Lord Pytherian sees the trapdoor there and asks, “The sewers?”
“If you don’t mind milord,” James says.
Smiling, he replies, “Not in the least. I prefer it over my last accommodations.”
Jiron moves past him and goes down the ladder first, with James taking the rear. He closes the door to the room before descending the rungs. Once he’s gone down far enough, he closes the trapdoor as well then climbs down the rest of the way.
At the bottom, the others are waiting for him and once he’s down, Jiron sets off the way they’d come. It doesn’t take too long before they’re once again at the thick iron bars blocking the passage.
James come to the fore and Lord Pytherian watches in amazement as the bars begin to move, making a hole large enough for them to squeeze through.
When they’ve all passed through to the other size, James again lets the magic flow as the bars move back to their original position.
“Hopefully they’ll spend hours looking for us in the Keep before realizing we are not there,” James says as he turns back to the others.
“If they do, it will give us enough time to get out of the city,” Jiron figures.
“I doubt if the city will be open,” Lord Pytherian states. “As a matter of course, they’ve most likely sealed the gates and put patrols on the streets, even if they believe we’re still in the Keep.”
“Then we’ll need to be most careful,” James says. “Let’s try to follow the sewer as close to the eastern gate as we can.”
“Why the eastern gate?” Lord Pytherian asks.
“There’s help there,” replies James. Then he looks to Jiron and says, “If they haven’t gotten impatient and done something stupid.”
“You never know,” adds Jiron.
As they move along the ledge next to the flow of the sewer, Lord Pytherian asks, “Who’s waiting?’
“Someone by the name of Miller,” replies James. “Do you know him?”
A smile comes to him as he nods and says, “Yeah, I know him and this is just the brash thing he’d try.”
They follow the sewer tunnel for several minutes before they come to where another large sewer tunnel joins the one they’re in. “Which way?” asks Jiron.
James looks to Lord Pytherian who shrugs, “I don’t know, I’m all turned around. Maybe we should move to the surface so we can be sure of heading to the eastern gate.”
“Alright,” agrees James. “That might be a good idea.”
They backtrack to where they passed the last set of rungs going up. Jiron climbs them as the others wait below. Several minutes pass before he climbs back down again. “We are still within the inner wall,” he tells them. “We need to continue further before we’ll be past.”
Lord Pytherian says, “Okay, then let’s go.”
Jiron leads them further down the sewer tunnel, and when they return to the branching tunnel, he passes it as he continues down the one they’ve been following. He moves past three sets of rungs before stopping before the fourth. “I think this should do it,” he says. “Wait here a moment.”
They watch him as he climbs up into the darkness above. A minute later they hear him call down, “Come on up, we’re past the wall.”
Lord Pytherian goes first with James again taking up the rear. As James climbs out of the sewer exit into the room, he can tell they’re in a building’s basement. Jiron is over at a doorway, fiddling with the lock.
As James gets closer to him, he returns his knife to his belt and slowly pushes the door open. On the other side, a short flight of stairs leads up to another door.
The others wait while Jiron moves up to the door where he puts his ear against it and listens for a moment. He waves the others to come on up as he slowly opens the door and peers around to the other side.
Opening it up further, he passes through and the others follow him, finding themselves in what looks to be a chandler’s shop. Upon various tables are goods for sale, one having cloaks and other travel gear.
They each take one of the cloaks and canteens, as well as other equipment they might need. James removes
