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AMY SANK LOW INTO Arundel’s fur and feathers as he glided over the trees towards the dark castle that loomed ahead. The sky was cloudy, and a fog helped to hide their approach. It reminded her of the mists surrounding the End Chasm. While it had only been a few days since climbing in and out of the chasm, it now seemed a lifetime ago in comparison with the events on the other side of it.
Amy and Airdella were quite upset when Arundel and Uncle told them that a rescue mission would have to wait a day or two. There was no way they would be able to find and convince an owl griffin to go on such a mission in a matter of hours, and they also needed time to scout out the castle and determine whether the White Cougar was home or not. They needed to wait for the White Cougar to leave with most of his men, off to whatever place they planned to attack next. Aaron had been the mediator between the two parties, calmly talking patience and reason into one side and urgency into the other.
Now at long last, the night of the mission had arrived. Amy shivered, half with excitement, half with the cold. The stone wall of the castle rushed towards them out of the darkness. The dark alcove of the window was not visible to Amy until they were right on top of it, but Arundel’s owl eyes could easily distinguish it from the wall in the darkness. He landed silently on the windowsill, just long enough for Amy to slide off his back, and then he was gone again, vanishing silently into the night.
Amy turned to find Aaron right behind her and could not help but jump, even though she had known he would be there waiting for her after his griffin had dropped him off first.
“You alright? Bit chilly, isn’t it?” Aaron asked, helping her down.
“I’m fine,” she nodded. “Just a bit jumpy.”
“Exhale and count to ten,” he suggested as he lit one of the torches he had brought along. “Slows your heart rate down.” He took her hand and squeezed it as they turned to the hallways behind them.
They stood in a main hallway that followed an outside wall of the castle tower. Three smaller hallways branched off it, leading to the prison cells. To their far right at the end of the main hallway was a flight of stairs. All was silent and dark, with not a soul in sight.
“Which one?” Amy wondered aloud.
“You take the doors on the left, I’ll take the ones on the right,” Aaron said.
“I can’t see anything,” she whispered, looking into the first cell.
Aaron lit a second torch for her. “Try calling to him but do it quietly.”
She called Walter’s name into each cell softly but did not receive an answer for a long time. She had to stand on her tippy toes to look through the little barred window in each of the doors. Each one was pitch black inside. She received no response from most of them. Occasionally there was a noise inside of movement, but then all would be still.
She tried not to think of the other prisoners probably locked into those cells. We have to get Walter, find the cure, and then we can free them, she told herself. She was beginning to lose hope but determinedly called into another cell. “Walter!”
There was a shifting movement inside the darkness, but this time a voice followed it. “Amy!”
“Walter! Hold on!” she cried softly, and turned to call for Aaron, but he was already beside her.
Aaron held his torch up to the door for a closer inspection. There was a rusty bolt and a keyhole. The hammer and chisel he had borrowed from Erkun would never give him enough leverage to pry the door open. The barred window was barely big enough for a fist to fit through. The hinges, though, might present a weakness.
“Someone’s coming,” Amy whispered.
Aaron cocked his head. There were indeed approaching footsteps and the faint jangling of metal. He set their torches down and ground them under his shoe to smother the fire. Pushing Amy into a dark corner across the hall, Aaron waited in the shadows at the end of the hallway and gripped his extinguished torch tightly.
As the unsuspecting person approached the corner, the light they carried grew brighter and brighter. Aaron flattened himself against the wall and waited until the guard had passed before darting out and swinging the torch as hard as he could at the man’s head. The guard staggered and swayed, and a second swing of the torch brought him to the floor. A quick search of the unconscious body did not reveal what Aaron had been hoping for.
“Drat,” he groaned.
“What’s wrong?” Amy asked, sliding out of the shadows.
“No keys,” Aaron threw up his hands in frustration. “So, back to where we were.”
The man’s candle had sputtered and gone out when he dropped it, so Aaron and Amy lit their torches again. They turned once more to the door of Walter’s cell. While Amy held the torch, Aaron made a closer inspection of the lock. He could have used the chisel to remove the pins from the hinges, but he would not be able to close the door again. And he had an idea that would require the door to close.
“Let me try picking it,” Amy said. Peering into the keyhole, she could see that it was not a complicated mechanism.
“You what? Alright.” Aaron surrendered the hammer and chisel as she took them from him.
Jamming the chisel up against the mechanism inside, Amy gave it a forceful blow with the hammer and was rewarded with a satisfying chink and rattling of metal.
Amy rushed inside as soon as Aaron pulled the door open. Walter was waiting for her, and she rushed straight into him.
“Amy, what are you doing here?” he hissed. He did not know whether to be angry or relieved that she was here in this forsaken stone fortress.
“We’re here to rescue you!” Amy was almost crying as she squeezed her big brother.
Aaron stepped inside. “You alright, prince? No shackles or anything?”
“No,” Walter shook his head.
“You think you could give us a hand?”
The three of them managed to drag the guard’s limp body inside the cell.
“Do you know how to put all this stuff on?” Aaron asked, gesturing to the guard’s armor.
“Too big for me,” Walter said.
“I mean, could you put it on me?”
When they stepped out into the hall again, Aaron wore the guard’s mail shirt, cap, and tabard.
“Decent enough,” Walter nodded approval. “You should be able to pass.”
They had cut off a part of the rope that Aaron had brought to tie up the guard, while the guard’s own handkerchief had served as a gag.
Aaron shoved the bolt home behind them. “And now, time to get out of here.”
They hurried back to the window on the main hallway.
Untying the red kerchief from around her neck, Amy hung it out the window. It was small, but Arundel had assured her that his eyesight was good enough to spot it from quite a good distance.
“Now what?” Walter wanted to know, still unsure of exactly what was going on. Everything was happening so fast and was so surreal that it could not possibly be happening. Just another disappointing dream.
“We wait for our ride,” Amy replied, peering through the darkness outside the window. What she would not give to have eyes like Arundel at this moment.
The flash was like a bolt of lightning. The green orb of light hung in the night air high above the castle, illuminating it with a sickly pale green glow as it slowly sank through the air and drifted downwards. Shouts of alarm echoed throughout the courtyard and along the walls and battlements.
“What does that mean?” Walter felt his heart hammer in his chest.
“It means we’re not riding the griffins out of here,” Aaron gritted his teeth and tried to remember what he had told Amy about slowing down heartrates. “I really hope that sister of yours is down there in time.”
Amy snatched the red kerchief away from the window. All they knew was that Arundel or one of the other griffins had been spotted, but it did not mean that Aaron and Amy had been given away.
“Let’s move.”
Aaron led the way towards the staircase at the end of the hall. Erkun’s directions had been a bit haphazard with only a few specific locations within the castle that he had been able to tell them about. If they were spotted, it could mean complete failure for the escape plan. All they knew was that they needed to get to the underground harbor. They went through more hallways and down more staircases than Walter’s tired, weak legs would have liked. But it was always in a downward direction. A few times they had to hide around corners or in rooms when they heard soldiers, but they managed to get through without being seen.
––––––––
Airdella heard the soft pop and fizzle from above. A green glowing orb hung in the night sky, illuminating the battlements above and the river below. Shouts echoed off the stones of the castle walls high above her. Silhouetted against the green light, Arundel and his friend were now chased by arrows as they wheeled away from the unforgiving light around the castle and flew desperately for the shelter of the dark forest. So much for Plan A.
That was her cue. She rubbed her hands together, popped a few knuckles, and grabbed hold of the oars. The answer to Aaron’s question about boats was “yes”. Airdella, Walter, and Amy had spent many days sailing on the lake just outside Thornhurst Castle with their mother and father since before they could remember. It had been one of their mother’s favorite pastimes. The small boat she was in lay hidden next to the riverbank under a willow tree. Now, she guided it out closer to midstream and let the current carry her towards the dark gaping mouth of the harbor beneath the castle.
There had been much argument and debate about who would be the one to go inside the castle and who would be the one to pilot the boat. Aaron had insisted that there was far less risk involved if he was captured, and besides, he did not know anything about boats. Amy did, but she was not strong enough to row the boat against the current.
And then despite all arguments to the contrary, Amy had insisted on going inside the castle with Aaron. As the others pointed out all the risks and dangers, it had felt like Airdella’s heart was going to come out of her mouth at the idea of her little sister being caught and imprisoned like Walter. But Amy had somehow managed to convince them all that she had to go. The usually quiet princess had shown herself to be just as stubborn as her older sister, and perhaps more convincing. Airdella wasn’t sure how she felt about this new Amy...
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The twists and turns of the castle’s hallways were getting rather annoying. They had been able to recognize a few key doorways or hallways from Erkun’s descriptions of what stood out to him or what he remembered. But all in all, they could not help but feel completely lost.
“Do we know where we’re headed?” Walter dared to ask after watching the anxious expressions on Aaron’s and Amy’s faces.
“Of course,” Aaron nodded.
“Do we know how to get there?”
“Not at all.”
They burst through a curtain onto what looked like a large drawing room. Two soldiers were there, reclining at a table, and they looked up as the children entered the room.
“Soldier!” one of them barked.
Aaron drew himself upright and saluted with one hand but kept his other hand ready. He doubted they would be able to fool them.
“What are you doing with the lord’s prisoners?”
“Hold on,” the other soldier rose from his seat, staring at Amy and Walter in recognition. “Isn’t that one of the girls we’ve been told to be looking for? And that prince? When was she captured?”
“Just this night, sir,” Aaron said.
“So, where are you taking them now?”
“Transferring them to another part of the castle. The lord’s orders.”
“I would have been notified,” the first soldier frowned, also rising from his seat. “And as the lord’s been gone since yesterday, it’s unlikely he would have been unable to give you such an order just now. So, I’m going to ask you again, what are you doing with the lord’s prisoners?”
Walter grabbed Amy’s hand and darted to the right down another hallway. Aaron leaped after them, drawing his sword as he ran. The two soldiers were right after him. Walter led the way down the hall into a larger dining hall, then doubled backward up a staircase. Aaron paused on the landing to tip over a large wooden cabinet and send it crashing down the stairs towards their pursuers. Hopefully, that would at least slow them down.
But it was a short-lived gain. A locked door blocked the children’s way at the top of the stairs.
“Give me the sword,” Walter demanded.
“I’m the one wearing armor –” Aaron started to protest.
“And I’m the one who’s been trained to use a sword! Give it here!” Walter grabbed at Aaron’s fist.
Aaron relinquished the sword just in time. One of the soldiers had dodged the fallen cabinet, clambered past it, and was now right behind them. Walter was just in time to block the swing of the soldier’s sword. The soldier had the advantage of size and protective armor, but Walter had the advantage of unhampered speed and higher ground. After a few strokes and parries, Walter used his position on the staircase to his advantage, swinging wide to sweep the soldier’s blade to the side, and kicked at the soldier’s chest, knocking him off balance. Walter lunged forward, catching the soldier squarely in the throat and sending him tumbling backwards down the stairs.
After a moment’s pause, Walter stumbled down the stairs as well and turned towards the other soldier, whose body was underneath the remains of the cabinet. Walter lifted up a few boards and found that the soldier beneath them was dead as well.
The threat eliminated, Walter now paused, breathing heavily, and sagged against the wall for support as the adrenaline rush wore off. His stomach churned as the gravity of the fact that he had just killed a man for the first time in his life entered his head. He had been trained to use a sword since he could walk, but seeing the lifeless faces of men who had died by his hand was something no teacher could have prepared him for. If he had not still been in circumstances where his life was in danger, he would have found himself paralyzed with the shock and grief of the moment. As it was, Walter forced the feelings down and focused on the problem at hand.
“You two alright?” he asked, looking up at Aaron and Amy.
Aaron had hidden Amy behind him protectively with one hand, and the other hand, although weaponless, was still ready to defend them if needed.
Now, sliding out from behind Aaron cautiously, Amy’s pale face nodded wordlessly.
Aaron nodded as well. “You alright, prince?”
“Yeah,” Walter panted. “Here.” He picked one of the soldier’s swords up off the stairs where it had fallen and held it out to Aaron. “You’re going to need this.”
Aaron accepted the sword with a nod of agreement. They returned down the hallway, back to the room where they had met the soldiers, jumping at every little sound and echo for fear of running into more soldiers, fear that the commotion had been heard and that the alarm had been raised.
Amy stopped when they reentered the drawing room. “I know this room. Isn’t this one of the rooms that Erkun mentioned?”
“I don’t know anymore,” Aaron confessed. “It’s all so muddling and confusing.”
“Who’s Erkun?” Walter asked.
“We went too far,” Amy realized excitedly. “The hallway’s back there!”
She hurried back through the curtain into the main hallway on the other side of it. Amy led them back down the hallway, turning off onto one of the side passages they had not tried yet. And there it was. The hallway ended at the large circular intersection of a staircase leading up, two other hallways, and the large arched doorway with three stars and a ship carved into the doorframe.
Remembering all the arguments against Amy coming, Aaron truly appreciated for the first time having her with them. This was the door they had been looking for. The door to the harbor. It led them down a wide staircase until they stumbled into a small circular room. From the looks of it, it served as a storage room and a guard’s room.
The staircase on the other side of it led to the harbor, but it was blocked by a door and a very startled looking guard drinking from a tankard of ale. Although surprised, he was still quick enough to react and came charging forward ready to meet them.
Two swords were better than one. As the soldier directed his attention first to Aaron, Walter circled behind the soldier and swung hard at the back of his helmet. The blow was enough to stun him, and with Aaron’s help, he tumbled to the floor.
Amy ran up to the door to the harbor and tried to open it. But it was locked, and a search of the guard’s body turned up no set of keys.
“They’re not here,” Aaron said, frantically running his hands over the body again. “Can you pick it?”
But no amount of picking by either Amy or Walter could open it. The lock here was much better constructed than the one on Walter’s prison cell.
“It’s no use,” Amy said, beating her hands on the door in frustration.
“Quiet,” Walter shushed them. “Someone’s coming.”
A faint sound of many footsteps echoed down the staircase from the hallways above. Regardless of whoever was coming, the children would soon be discovered and overpowered.
Walter shifted his sword to his left hand and extended his right to Aaron. “I wanted to say thank you for coming to rescue me,” he said, giving a sad but friendly smile. “You may end up losing your life for it, but I would rather die fighting here with you than in a dungeon.”
Aaron accepted the hand and clasped it tightly. “I’m sorry it didn’t work out.”
Walter shook his head. “It was a noble effort, a deed braver than any soldier I’ve ever known.” He turned to his sister, who hugged him tightly. He kissed her golden plaited hair, wishing that she were not there to die with him.
They all turned to face their foes, waiting for the soldiers to appear.
Amy felt her cheeks grow wet with tears of frustration. She was not as overwhelmed with fear that she might die in the next few moments as she was frustrated that all their efforts had been for nothing. The footsteps came closer and closer. In a moment, their enemies would be on top of them.
And then Amy heard a voice calling her name. She recognized it immediately as the voice she had heard in the forest when she had seen the statue. It came from the door behind her, and spinning around, she saw it quietly slide open.
“Come on!” She grabbed the two boys without hesitation, nearly yanking the other two off their feet.
“Wait!” Walter doubled back and grabbed for the guard’s body.
Aaron helped him drag the body with them into the staircase and close the door behind them. If they were not being pursued, the soldiers may not follow them down to the harbor, but a body was certain to raise eyebrows.
“I’m sick of winding staircases,” Walter groaned as they descended.
“Not far now,” Amy replied, panting.
Finally, they reached the end, tumbling through another doorway onto a stone platform on the river’s edge.
Aaron swung around and slammed the door shut. There was no way to lock it or bolt it, but there was a long heavy wooden bench sitting close by. Between the two of them, Walter and Aaron were able to prop it up against the door and brace it against the stone floor. Amy put her ear to the door. There was no sound of footsteps behind it.
There were however running footsteps from the docks behind them.
“Hey! Look out!” someone shouted.
Three soldiers were running at them from different parts of the dock. Walter and Aaron met them with a clash of swords.
A small boat appeared out of the darkness over the river, steered into the light of the torches set along the platform by another soldier. The boat bumped into one of the wooden docks jutting out from the stone platform, and the soldier clumsily clambered onto the dock and rushed towards the fight. But to Walter’s surprise, instead of attacking the escapees, he attacked his fellow soldiers from behind.
It was enough of a surprise to the soldiers for Walter to be able to shove one of them off the dock. The soldier quickly sank beneath the weight of his armor and never arose.
Now, he turned to help Aaron, who was fighting the second soldier. The third one was kept busy fighting the boat soldier until Aaron and Walter were both able to step in and help. In a few moments, two soldiers lay prostrate on the dock.
“Hurry up!” the boat soldier growled
Walter jumped as he realized that this soldier was Airdella, impatient as always, wearing a soldier’s suit of armor.
“To the boat, you ninnies! Get in!”
Amy had already made sure to secure the boat from drifting off after Airdella abandoned it. The others hurried to join her.
“Look, I wasn’t kidding when I said I really don’t know anything about boats,” Aaron hesitated before climbing into the boat. “I don’t know a thing.”
“Sit in the bow,” Airdella commanded. “You’ll be out of the way, and the weight will help.”
“The bow?”
“She means the front,” Walter told him. “Give us a shove off when you’re there. Amy, you can release the painter now.”
Aaron hastened to comply, and Airdella pulled heavily on the oars, maneuvering the boat farther away from the dock. Walter lifted the mast from the floor of the boat, getting ready to drop it into its slot behind Airdella’s seat.
“Wait,” Airdella grunted against the heave of the oars. “We may be able to slip out unnoticed and use the tree branches for cover. The mast will make us too tall.”
“Then let me take the oars,” Walter offered.
“You and Amy need to get down before you’re seen,” Aaron pointed out. “They’ll probably not question two soldiers, but you two will draw attention. And if they do start shooting at us, Airdella and I are the ones wearing armor.”
Walter and Amy both curled up on the floor of the boat, and Aaron covered them in Airdella’s cloak.
“Allow me, princess,” Aaron tapped Airdella on the shoulder. “I may not know much about boats, but rowing should be simple enough.”
Airdella wordlessly gave up her place and moved to the stern, where she took up the tiller and steered the boat towards the middle of the river. Aaron’s strong arms and shoulders propelled them with renewed vigor upriver, giving Airdella’s tired arms a chance to rest. He did his best to keep any splashing to a minimum, and the oarlocks were muffled with burlap sacks to keep any metal bits from squeaking.
The harbor was dark out in the middle of the river, and having no lights on the boat gave them an advantage. They glided towards the dark opening of the portcullis, its large mouth yawning high above them, the posts on the bottom of the portcullis gleaming like teeth. But they passed through unnoticed, and Airdella guided them into the shadows along the edge of the river beneath the overhanging tree branches.
“We’re good to unfurl the sail now,” Airdella told Walter quietly after a little while.
Walter rose from beneath the cloak and shivered in the night air. But he moved swiftly to step the mast again and made ready to unfurl the sail. He noticed that it had been dyed black to be less noticeable. Airdella steered them back into the middle of the river, and Aaron gratefully rested on the oars as the wind caught the sail, taking them upriver to the north.