A metal creak from down the hall sent Haki scattering back into his room, shutting the door. Erik went back to pacing around his cell. He’d have to leave and see exactly what the truth was. It was another forty nervous trips back and forth across the stone floor before he grabbed what he thought was just a wooden handle for the door. He twisted it to the side and heard a metal latch slide open, the door swinging free.
He’d wasted time and it hit him all at once. It was time he could have spent finding out whatever he could or attempting to get to Tove. Guilt was another distraction, one he couldn’t afford, so Erik pushed the thoughts out of his mind as best he could and took a step out of the cell. There was no sudden alarm, though he half expected one, and no wind of judgment came rushing down the nearby hall to greet him. Those things did very little to settle his stomach. He saw the room properly for the first time, through clear eyes. There was a small desk between Haki’s cell and the third at the far end of the room. It looked as though it was kept clean but there were no real signs of wear on it. Erik ignored the things in that direction, not wanting to deal with Haki unless it was entirely necessary.
The hallway was larger than Erik remembered. He stood at the edge of the room looking down it for a few seconds before taking a step into it, not sure if Haki was speaking truth when he said the valkyries would come for him. No one did. The two doors that Tove had mentioned were there, on the left side of the hallway as he moved north toward the exit. Erik pulled on the doors and found them to be exactly as the guard had described them. There was tightly pressed, clean wool sitting next to stone seats with holes. He poked his head over one and saw that it went down more than a few feet into what sounded to be the running water that ran under his cell.
Erik came to the fork in the hallway that had always been there. Looking down the fork they’d taken Tove through, he saw two guards standing in the hall. One tapped the other and pointed a silent hand in Erik’s direction. They chuckled and started a conversation that Erik was too far from to hear clearly. They didn’t care. A creeping anger began to rise in him. No one had found the time to tell him any of it, but they’d made sure to beat Tove. They likely hadn’t missed a session by even a few minutes. His jaw clenched and he felt his hand tighten to a fist. He could go get her now. He might make it past the two of them. But it wasn’t something he could count on. He had to know what would happen if he walked out the front. There may have been a dozen guards there or worse, Haki’s fear might have been based on more than a lost mind.
The small administrative room at the north end of the hallway held two guards. A younger guard with a short beard and an older guard who was one of the first clean-shaven men he’d seen in a while. He was fat and ill-suited to a face without hair on it, but the patchy spots that had grown stubble suggested that there were reasons for it. The two guards who normally did rounds weren’t in the cells as far as he could tell. He made sure to remember it. They may have been part of general grounds patrols, since he was a prisoner of the valkyries more than anyone else.
The fat guard snorted as Erik came into the room. “First run, eh? Hah. Hope you’ve got quick legs, boy. That courtyard’s made for them to cut you lot down.”
The younger looking of the two said nothing, only watched Erik with a sad expression, something like pity.
Both of the guards lost interest by the time he’d made the short walk across the room to the door.
Erik placed his hand on the door handle and took in a deep breath. He turned the handle, the hot, late-afternoon air flooded in, the men behind him groaning in annoyance. As soon as Erik’s eyes told him the way across the yard was clear he started running as fast as his legs would carry him. There was a wide gate that stood open, but it was a direct shot across from him. They would either come or they wouldn’t, so the only thing to be done was to run across the yard.
His eyes shot around. Guards took notice of him, pointing at the spectacle of his attempt to flee and then looking skyward. Erik ignored the sky above him, turning his focus back to the gate. He knew the sound well enough and there was nothing in the air that was of concern to him. He was nearly halfway across the yard when he heard the sound he’d been waiting for.
The hiss was directly behind him and his body tensed almost as if on instinct as soon as the sound hit his ears. He kept his eyes on the gate, waiting for the sound of their charge. The hissing noise grew and Erik stopped dead, forcing himself to
