So he ponderedhow he might defeat the guardian statues. Then the perfect plancame to him. Fire. They must have some evacuation procedure in caseof fire. All he had to do was create a lot of smoke and the statueswould sound the alarm. There would be chaos as everybody tried toflee the building and he could escape.
The ideal thing to setalight in the basement was the couch, but he had to find a way toset it alight, and that was more difficult. He didn’t know any firemagic. He thought for a minute or two and remembered that the lightballs hanging from the ceiling became quite hot. Perhaps one or twoin the couch might do the job. Unfortunately, try as he might hecouldn’t get the light balls off the wires that suspended them fromthe ceiling. In the end he ripped pieces of stuffing out of thecouch and tied them around the light balls. This substantiallyreduced the amount of light in the basement but eventually had thedesired effect, creating smoke, and lots of it.
He was deciding when tostart the panic when somebody came down the stairs to go to thelatrine, discovered the smoke and sounded the alarm. Smoke pouredup the stairwell, out into the hallways and up the stairs fromthere. Within a minute or two there were people everywhere,shouting and jostling each other in an effort to escape. Since manyof the priests slept naked, the hallway was full of naked peopleand Rob had no problem slipping out amongst them.
Outside was an oldpriest handing out cloaks to protect the priests’ modesty. This hadobviously happened before and they were fully prepared. Rob ofcourse gratefully accepted one of the cloaks and discretely slippedaway. He was overjoyed. He had escaped and was on his way home.
Three hours later hecautiously approached his grandfather’s estate, hugging closely toany cover he could find. He was tired, footsore and totally sick ofhiding at every sound in case it might be someone trailing him.
About two hundred pacesaway he stopped and waited for a few minutes. It looked clear, buthe could see Melanie and two of the mansion guards pacing nervouslynear the front gate. He wasn’t quite game to travel the finaldistance, so he looked around for some way to attract Melanie tohim. If he could get within ten to fifteen paces of his cousin hecould create a mindlink with her.
He looked around andnoticed two carriages waiting near the inn at the end of his road,and an idea came to him. He quickly but carefully moved back downthe road to the first carriage and told the driver that he wishedto meet his sweetheart Melanie, who was waiting for him at thegate. If he could pick her up and bring her to the inn, then hewould give him double the usual fare.
The driver accepted andset off for the mansion’s gate. About twenty paces before itarrived; several town guards and an archon raced out and stoppedthe coach. Melanie darted over to the carriage, expecting Rob to bein it. The guards held her back until they had searched itthoroughly and then let her talk to the driver, who relayed themessage that he was to pick up Melanie and take her to herlover.
Melanie immediatelyrealized that it must have come from Rob, but so did the archon. Heleft the town guards outside the gate and teleported himself andthree of the guards to the inn, while the carriage brought Melaniedown there as well. She paid the driver and walked around theoutside of the inn. She knew Rob wouldn’t be silly enough to goinside, but it was dangerous outside with the archon around. Shewalked up and down the street until at last he created a mindlinkwith her.
‘Are you all right Rob?We’ve all been worried sick. We knew that you escaped, as thearchon was back here ten minutes after you were captured. He’shopping mad about your escape and for another reason as well, butI’ll leave Granddad to tell you about that. We think there’s atleast another two archons around here somewhere out of sight andwaiting to swoop.’
‘I’m alright, just abit tired,’ Rob replied. ‘I’ve got no money and no clothes, only apriest’s robe that I stole.’
‘Granddad said that ifyou contacted me I should tell you to go to the vacant house nearthe sewer exchange spot. Do you know where that is?’
‘Yes Melanie, thanks.I’ll see you soon.’
Melanie casuallyentered the inn, bought a bottle of brew and walked all the wayback to the mansion’s front gate, then stood talking with theguards while drinking. The archon realised that something hadhappened, but not what, and angrily returned to his hidden positionnear the building’s entrance.
He settled down towait, wishing that he could search inside the old wizard’s mansionagain, but he had already done that twice today and there was onlyso much he could do without noisy claims of harassment from theSecretary of the Merchant Wizards’ Guild.
Rob carefully left thearea and travelled to the vacant house that was used by a varietyof people for black market exchanges. It was only about ten minutesaway and when he was within twenty paces of it Granddad appearedout of nowhere, placed his hand on Rob’s shoulder, and teleportedthem to a small room under the mansion used for clandestine entryand exit.
Granddad gave Rob ahug. ‘Good to see you safe Rob! I’ve all sorts of problemsresulting from you and Facit being caught here. Tell me how did thearchon recognise the difference between you and Facit?’
‘In the garden his eyesglowed a golden colour and he recognised Facit immediately. He didit again when they took us to the town lockup,’ Rob explained asthey made their way to the workshop.’
‘Damn, they’re gettingtricky. They’re using people’s spirit auras to identify them. Thegolden glow around the eyes is a magic effect called Aura Sight.Unfortunately, he’s probably seen your spirit aura and your normalface as well. You’re going to have to disappear for a few months.Tell me, how did you escape?’
Rob gave a quickrundown of his exploits. Granddad’s face turned grim when he heardabout the beheaded body, until Rob told him
