Chapter 14
- Strategic Retreat
The
guards rushed in through the open doors.
They quickly ransacked the room, overturning all of the furniture in
search of the intruders. Their reckless
search quickly revealed the trapdoor that Damien and Cloak had escaped through. The squad commander ordered, "Into that
tunnel! They must have escaped
there!" The guards quickly
descended down the ladder and ran down the tunnel.
Back
in the hall, Allendrie emerged from behind one of the large doors. Heaving a sigh of relief, he drug the limp
bodies of his companions out from behind the doors. Allendrie knelt by Toriban and Zara and
thought. "Unless I wake one of
them, I'm in serious trouble. "I'll
only be able to carry one of them."
Allendrie looked over at Zara.
"And it would likely have to be the lighter of the two."
Allendrie
moved Toriban's body behind the door once more.
"I really hate to do this, Toriban. I'll try to come back as soon
as I get Zara to safety." Allendrie
retrieved Crimson from across the room and sheathed it at Toriban's belt. Then he lifted Zara over his good shoulder
and exited the room. He stopped in the
hall and picked up a replacement sword from the corpse of one of the soldiers
Toriban had killed earlier, then walked down the hall, praying he didn't meet
any guards.
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The
guards travelled on through the dark tunnel for over a mile. Finally, they saw a figure ahead, leaning on
the wall with one hand, panting.
"There's one of them, men!
Attack!" The guards rushed
at the shadowy figure.
The
figure spun and drew a sword. "No,
you fools!" The first of the guards
reached him and his sword flashed out too quickly for the guard to react. The guard's head rolled across the ground
towards the shocked guards. The figure
flicked the blood of his blade, then drew a dagger from under his coat. Flames flickered to life around the small
weapon, casting light throughout the tunnel.
Damien slowly sheathed the Sword of Drakmord. "The intruders defeated us. If you did not come across them on your way
here, then they must still be back in the main palace. Go now!"
After the guards had left, Damien continued slowly down the tunnel
towards his rooms, where he could rest and recover.
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Toriban
awoke to the sounds of large numbers of footsteps fading away. He staggered to his feet, still only
semi-conscious, and got his bearings. He
looked around, then stumbled into the hall, nearly tripping over a corpse. Toriban walked a few steps down the hall,
then leaned against the wall, panting.
"You'll pay for this, brat."
Toriban drew upon the dark energy of his anger and shaped it into a
cloak of shadows to hide him as he escaped.
The cloak flickered a few times, then dissappeard. Toriban collapsed to the ground, exhausted. "You will definitely pay,
Allendrie." Toriban began to crawl,
unsure and uncaring of where he was going.
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Allendrie
spent the next hour dodging guards, hiding in rooms, and occasionally using Zara as a
decoy to ambush soldiers. He finally
made it to his own room. He slid Zara
under the bed and through the trapdoor, then followed. Making his way back through the tunnels, he
arrived at where he and Toriban had entered.
He pushed up on the hinged tree and climbed the ladder carved into the
wall. He had Zara halfway pulled up when
a deep red blade appeared at his throat.
Allendrie
shifted his eyes and saw Toriban, eyes full of rage, standing beside him. "You left me to die." Crimson let off a few black sparks.
Allendrie
tried to pull Zara the rest of the way up, but the katana began to press more
firmly on his neck. "I had to get
Zara out. It was either you or
her."
The
hatred in Toriban's eyes flared brighter.
"And how long did it take you to decide between us?! How dispensible am I to you?!" More sparks ran through Crimson into
Allendrie, causing him to lose his grip on Zara. Her body fell back into the tunnel and lay
sprawled out at the bottom.
Allendrie
tried to maintain his composure.
"You seemed as if you would wake soon. I retrieved your weapon for you and left you
in the safest place possible. And Zara
seemed to be hurt more."
Toriban
stared at him for what seemed like an eternity.
Finally, he lowered his blade.
"Get her, and let's get out of here." The two of them made a run for the woods,
with Allendrie carrying Zara over his shoulder and Toriban limping along
behind. They didn't stop until they were
deep in the forest surrounding the Capital and the palace.
The
assault had failed.