"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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage leads on for a hundred feet before ending where another pa.s.sage 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, pa.s.sing 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 pa.s.sage. 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 pa.s.sage 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 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 circ.u.mstances 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage.

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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sed the last set of rungs going up. Jiron climbs them as the others wait below. Several minutes pa.s.s 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 pa.s.ses 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 bas.e.m.e.nt. 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 pa.s.ses 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 a gold piece from his pocket and places it on the counter. When he catches Lord Pytherian looking at him, he whispers, "I don't want to be counted a thief."

Nodding his approval, Lord Pytherian moves to a window overlooking the street. He ducks to the side as a patrol of ten soldiers pa.s.s by outside. Once they're gone, he looks out again and turns back to the others, "It looks like they have put extra patrols on the streets."

"That'll make things interesting," Jiron says as he looks out of another window. Seeing the street clear for the moment, he turns to the others and asks, "Ready?"

When he gets an affirmative from them, he moves to the door and opens it as he pa.s.ses out into the street.

Chapter Twenty.

Once out on the street, they keep to the shadows as they make their way to the eastern gate. Jiron remembers which way they'd come from the southern gate in relation to where the Keep stands and is able to maintain a general eastern heading.

They duck down alleys to avoid the patrols roaming the streets, none of which seem very concerned about finding anyone. They seem more in the 'patrol just to keep our presence visible' mode than actively searching for them. This just leads them to believe that the powers that be believe them to still be within the Keep.

As they move from street to alley and back again, they notice that only the soldiers are on the street. James figures there must be a curfew in effect while they're on the loose. So with the lackadaisical patrols the soldiers on the street are doing, it's fairly easy to make it all the way to the eastern gate unnoticed.

Jiron brings them to a halt at the end of an alley which looks out upon the gate area. Twenty soldiers stand guard there in the courtyard before the gate with a dozen or more crossbowmen lining the walls above.

James catches his breath when he sees a brown robe there with them. For a world that doesn't have many mages, the Empire sure seems to have more than their fair share! For a world that doesn't have many mages, the Empire sure seems to have more than their fair share!

Jiron notices the brown robe and glances to James who says, "I see him too."

"What do you plan?" Lord Pytherian asks.

"Another distraction?" asks Jiron.