“What did you do to them?” demands James.
“Oh, nothing harmful I assure you,” he says.
James meets his gaze for a moment and then gets to his feet. “I should be going now,” he says.
“As you will,” says the Slavemaster. “I’ll have someone drop by sometime tomorrow with a diagram I’ll draw up to help you reach the teleportation dais.”
“Thank you,” he says. Now worried about what may have happened to his friends, James wants nothing more than to get out of there.
The young man makes his appearance and the Slavemaster says to him, “Escort him back out.”
Giving the Slavemaster a slight bow, the young man turns to James and says, “If you’ll follow me?”
James gives the Slavemaster a brief bow then turns to follow the young man from the room. They leave through the same doorway and are again in the darkened passage. They proceed for a ways then James feels the young man’s hand on his shoulder as he directs him to stop and enter a narrow opening. It’s on the opposite side of the passage than the one he trailed his hand along on the way in.
Moving through this new passage which is barely wide enough to accommodate them, they continue for a ways until the passage turns to the right. Then the young man takes him another hundred paces and brings him to a stop.
“Give me your hand,” the young man says.
James holds out his hand and feels the young man take it. Moving it to the side of the passage, he places James’ hand in a recess in the wall. “You must climb this until you get to the top,” the young man says. “There you’ll find a small wooden panel to your left. Push it open and crawl through.”
“What’s on the other side?” James asks.
“A chandler’s shop,” is the reply. “The shopkeeper has already left for the day. Do not touch anything and be careful when you leave not to let anyone see you.”
“Aren’t you coming with me?” he asks.
“No, you go by yourself from here,” he says. “Good luck.”
“Thanks,” replies James. Then he hears the footsteps of the young man moving away in the dark.
Turning back to the wall, he feels around and finds a series of recesses moving from the floor up the wall. Putting his hands in the ones at eye and chest level, he then finds two for his feet. Then very carefully, he lifts one of his hands above his head and feels around until he finds the next one. One by one, he slowly makes his way up the wall in the dark.
After what seems like twenty or more different recesses have taken him over ten feet from the floor of the passage beneath him, his hand touches the stone ceiling above him. Feeling around he realizes that he’s come as far up the wall as he can. Searching to his left, he finds the small wooden panel of which the young man told him. Pressing it outward, he feels it give. Pushing harder, he swings it wide. A small amount of light comes through from the other side.
The light reveals that the opening is going to be a tight squeeze for him. He then moves toward it and reaches a hand in and begins working his body through to the other side. Though it’s small, he manages to wriggle through and comes out beneath a table and finds himself on the floor of the chandler’s shop.
Turning back to the opening, he discovers the outside of the wooden panel has stone attached to it. When he swings the panel closed, it blends in perfectly with the stone of the wall. He then comes out from under the table and scans the shop for the way out. The door opening onto the street is to his right and he makes his way to it. Looking out, he sees the street passing in front of the shop still has people upon it. With it still being an hour until sundown, he’s sure to be spotted quickly if he were to leave that way.
He makes his way through the shop and finds the back door. Opening it slowly, he discovers an alley running behind the shop. He peers out cautiously only to find there’s no one in the vicinity. James then exits the building quickly and shuts the door behind him.
Once out in the alley, he turns down to the right and hurries to the end. Then, walking like he has a purpose, he enters the street and tries to figure out how to get back to the inn.
Chapter Thirty Six
“He’s not in there.”
Jiron quickly turns around from where he’s been watching the guards outside the narrow alley that James and the young man disappeared into some time ago. He and the others had followed them to here, but after James and the slave had passed into the alley, these guards showed up and have been hanging around the entrance to the alley ever since.
When he turns around, you could imagine his surprise when he finds the slave who escorted James into the alley standing there. “What did you say?” he asks.
“Your friend isn’t in there anymore,” the young man replies. “He’s probably back at the inn by now.” He gives them a grin and then makes to move onto the street.
Jiron grabs him by the arm and stops him.
“Take your hand off me or I will scream,” the young man says.
Removing his arm, Jiron asks, “Is he okay?”
“Yes,” he replies. “You really should get back there to him.”
“Why?” asks Miko.
The young man doesn’t reply, instead he steps quickly and is soon out on the street among the people passing by.
“Let’s go,” Jiron says. “Something’s up and we need to get back there fast.” With a last glance to the guards before the alley, he moves out onto the street. Beside him walks Reilin and together they lead the others back to the inn.
Jiron is cursing in his mind the decision of James to go with the young man. He knew there was going to be trouble. Setting a brisk pace, they work their way through the early evening crowd on the street and eventually the inn appears ahead of them.
As they move to the front door, they see James in his loincloth moving toward them from down the street. “What happened?” asks James and Jiron of each other at the same time when they come together.
They both pause a moment then James asks, “Is everyone alright?”
Jiron nods then begins to ask him a question in turn when Brother Willim steps forward and says, “Maybe we should discuss this inside?”
Glancing around them, they can see they have begun to draw the attention of the other people passing on the street. After all, they are a large group standing in the middle of the road.
Nodding to the inn James says, “When I tried to go up to my room, they kicked me out. I don’t know what they were saying, but it definitely wasn’t nice.”
“Could’ve been they didn’t recognize you,” suggests Stig.
James glances to him and says sarcastically, “You think so?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem now,” Shorty says. “Not with us here.”
“Hope you’re right,” replies James. He then indicates for Reilin to take the lead.
Moving to the inn, they pass through the front door and make a beeline for the stairs leading to their rooms. James sees one of the workers who had kicked him out take note of his presence. Their eyes lock for moment but the worker fails to make any move toward him.
Once at the top of the stairs, they go down to the room where they left Aleya and Aku. When Jiron cracks the door open, he finds them both lying on the bed asleep. Aleya has her arms around the boy. It’s such a tranquil picture that he closes the door and takes the others down to the next room so as not to disturb them.
After they are all in the room with the door closed, James fills them in on his meeting with the Slavemaster. When he gets to the end where the Slavemaster said that Jiron and the others won’t be bothering them, Jiron suggests that he probably meant the guards who had blocked the alley entrance.
“It’s a good thing they did too,” James tells them. “There’s no way you could have followed me through that courtyard where they were loading the wagons. You would have been seen for sure.”
