The guards distracted, Mageia limped to the
chimney with no smoke. She climbed into it
and sighed with relief seeing its built-in ladder
was still intact. Quickly, she descended into
the darkness hearing the guards pursuing
her above. She managed to make it to the
chimney's end and realized the rest of the
ladder was gone. Mageia pumped herself
with some encouragement before releasing
the ladder to fall the rest of the way down.
Her injured leg screamed when she landed
and buckled in an awkward angle. The
muscles stretched as she crashed into the
barred door and rolled out of the kitchen's
massive oven. She yelped, holding her leg
in an agonizing pain. Blood puddled the
cobblestone floor from the wound bleeding
like a water spring. Black splotches appeared
in her vision, and she shook some of them
away. The kitchen was closed for the night to
her relief, but she still had to find a way out of
the Taefo in one piece.
The door swung open, and an armed guard
ran in hearing the crash and her scream.
Adrenaline kicking in, she climbed to her feet,
unsheathed her sword, and locked blades
with the guard. He kneed her in the gut,
noticing she was weak and injured. Mageia
gagged but recuperated quick enough to
block his side strike. She stumbled away, to
regain her footing and her strength and forced
out her sword fighting skills. She maneuvered
around the kitchen counters,
blades scraping and clinging. The descending
guards were closer now, so she grabbed a
bag of flour and threw it into the man's face.
Blinded and vulnerable, she slammed her
body into him, and he crashed into a counter
and fell to the floor.
Mageia dashed into the hallway just as one
guard dropped into the oven. Wasting no
time, she ran pass office rooms and sitting
areas. Faebrin was right about the lack of
security. No other guard sprouted from the
many halls filled with cells of the condemned
who shouted for her help. She swallowed
the horror of not helping and turned a corner,
straight into two guards searching the halls.
They unsheathed their swords, but she
already had the advantage of hers being out.
She slashed at the first guard's chest and
kicked him in the groin. He stumbled back and
fell. She sidestepped out of the next guard's
hard stab, grabbed his extended arm and
bashed her forehead into his jaw. He fell into
the wall, holding his jaw, and slashing at the
air because she had managed to slip away.
Shouting guards mixed with condemned wails
rung her ears. Lungs near to leaping into her
mouth, she ran towards a side door, sliding
behind pillars from guards running down
halls. She glanced out one window and saw a
side gate was open as guards cleared out to
possibly pursue the escaped children beyond
the wall.
Her roof pursuers scrambled into the hall
finally catching up, anger festering their soot
covered eyes. They spotted her, and she had
no desire however to take a risk for the gate.
Gods have mercy, she prayed, recollections and
her future dreams flashing before her eyes.
Swallowing the pain in her leg, she sucked in
a lungful of air and sprinted for the gate with
only one defend looking at it.
"Get her," she heard anyone shout.
The guard unsheathed his sword preparing
to combat her to the death. Then two arrows
whizzed by way of her from the wall or the roof, she
didn't know. She solely kept going. Freedom
was solely a few footsteps away. Thoughts of
Dean and her household entreated her to keep moving
and to triumph over the mild limp in her run.
She raised her sword to strike at the guard
and to take his key. Then a new pain, sharp,
angry, and direct slid into her proper shoulder.
The influence of the arrow used to be nearly like
someone leaping onto her back. Her sword
swung from her grip, face slamming into
the ground, shoving dirt into her mouth. She
screamed however no longer out of pain, however of grief and
fustration.
The gate used to be simply a few steps away.
~*~*~
DEAN UNKNOWN
They had to break up up. It used to be the plan with so
many youngsters involved. They regathered
at the well notwithstanding the Taefo's horn and the
guards forming to do a pursuit.
"Where's Geia?" Jaice said as they lowered
eight of the adolescents able to run into the well.
Dean's coronary heart leaped into his throat as he
shook his head.
"She's fine. She can take care of herself."
"Gods be with her," Gavin said.
"Come on. We need to hurry before they lose the
dogs," Dean said.
Gavin, Boras, and Esa took their eight children
through the underway while he, Jaice, and
Gibby carried the ultimate 4 farther south
of the Napan. By the time they observed the
river and the forest to its end, puppies barked
in the distance in the back of them. They exited the
forest and entered the streets of Strana, wild
with celebration. No one paid them any mind
as they trailed the walls of the shops and
homes and slipped into an alley.
Dean sighed with relief seeing Trekon and his
barrowed wagon. The stench of cow manure
mixed and organized for fertilization reeked
the air. Jaice helped the three children, the blind girl, the boy with a crooked leg, and a
boy with a stout body of a deformed dwarf
into the back of the wagon. She held the
baby Mageia was determined to rescue close
to her bosom as tears streamed down her
cheeks.
"You've been spotted, I hear," Trekon said.
"We did, but we got away," Dean said.
"Where's Mageia?" he said. "Is she with the
others?"
"No. We left her behind," Gibby said patrolling
the corner.
"You what?" Trekon said. "What happened?"
"She got injured really bad. She made me
leave," Dean said.
"She's going to get caught," Trekon said.
"No. She's fast. She will not," Dean said
despite the twist in his gut.
"What is she to do? Hide in there somewhere
and find her way out?"
"Whatever needs be done," he said. "She'll be
fine. Now we need to leave, or we will not be
fine."
Trekon slipped into the driver's seat as they
climbed in the back of the wagon and covered
themselves with the blanket. The stench was deathly, but Dean knew this would put off
their scent from the dogs. About an hour ride
of Trekon weaving in and out of alleys and
neighborhoods and passing via a smaller
gate of the Mideri Wall, he finally stopped by
the alley close to his home.
Dean helped the teenagers off and sent Gavin
and Jaice on their way to their hidden grate.
"What are you doing?"
"Mageia used to be gonna remain with yuh when yuh
meet the others at the checkpoint," Dean said
wishing to cry, but had to continue to be strong. "She's
not here. So, I'm going instead."
Before the big man could rebuttal, he returned
to the back of the wagon. As they rode, he
peeked from under the cover and wished
he could kill anybody for assisting the
Ceremony. He knew there were other ways to
please the gods instead than blood sacrifices.
He prayed to the gods for Mageia, hoping she
was okay and wiped the tears that escaped
his eyes.
He wished he ought to kiss her again. He wished
she was once with him beneath this tarp for him to
hold close to his chest. He knew this was once a
bad idea. Mageia struggled against the guards carrying
her by the underarms. They crudely ignored
the arrow digging deeper upon every jerk.
"Ah! Let me go," she screamed and kicked.
The dusty outdoor ground turned into the dark
mucky floor of the Taefo. Instead of taking
her to a cell, they took her into the dungeons
and entered a room, furnished with only two
chairs and a stool. They slammed her into one
chair. Sucking up the voltages of pain warping
through her body, she jumped onto her feet
and tried to dash for the door to no avail.
"The gods curse you all," she said as they
forced her back into the chair and strapped
her wrists and body.
She spat at them and growled, helplessly
watching them exit and slam the door close.
"You demons! You all are demons! You can't
be the fairest with such wicked hearts!"
Mageia fell into pants, vision blurring and
thick globes of sweat dripping into her eyes.
The room possessed no windows, and the
only exit was possibly guarded. Images of
her mom crying and begging for them to
have mercy on her flashed before her eyes.
The guards had her tied too on the Dais, and
the cruel king was going to make her watch
them slice open her daughter's wrists before
chopping off her head.