Chapter 16: Escape

When Ivria shrieked, Dana leapt to her feet. “What’s wrong?” she said. Darien and Ivria froze, eyes bulging. Then Darien spoke, rather shakily.
“Wh-where are you?”
Dana stared at him incredulously. “Right here!”
Ivria and Darien looked in her direction, but it seemed as though they stared through her. They both looked terrified.
Dana nervously laughed. “What is wrong? You both act like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“But…but…” Ivria stammered. “You’ve…disappeared.”
“WHAT?!” Dana nearly yelled. “But… that’s impossible! All I did was sit and rest my head…” Suddenly she remembered. “The tingling!” she said aloud.
“Huh?” Darien asked.
Dana walked back to the wall and sat down. She decided to repeat her actions. Slowly, she lowered her head into her hands. Once again, her finger touched behind her ear. The tingling came again. Ivria gasped and Darien clutched his cell bars tighter as the tingling subsided.
“You’re back,” Ivria breathed.
Dana stared at the two of them. “I’m going to try it again. Don’t freak.”
Ivria and Darien glanced at each other nervously. This time, all Dana did was touch the back of her ear and she tingled. “Am I gone?” she asked excitedly.
“Y-yes,” Ivria replied. Dana then laughed aloud, startling both Ivria and Darien. Then she touched the same place again. Once more, the tingling came and passed.
“Now I’m back, right?” she asked the nervous two. They quickly nodded. Dana grinned. “This is amazing!” She began laugh again.
Darien whispered to Ivria. “She’s going crazy.”
Dana stopped laughing and said, “No, don’t you two see what this means?” She stepped up to them. “I can get you both out.”

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Ned, the old prison guard woke up abruptly. Had he heard someone laugh? He scratched his stubbly chin and shifted in his wooden chair, causing the large ring of keys on his belt to clatter. But suddenly he froze. Were those footsteps?
“No,” Ned thought. “I imagined it.” But still, it really had sounded as if someone was walking up the dark stairway at his back, which led to the dungeon. “But there’s no one down there except the prisoners,” he whispered.
“And me,” a female voice said, quietly, but unmistakably. Ned sat up, stiff as a board. The speaker was right in this room, but when he looked around, no one was there. Ned was afraid.
“Wh-who are you?”
The voice answered. “I’m very sorry to do this, but I’m afraid it’s necessary.”
While listening to the voice, and looking round the dimly lit circular room, Ned failed to notice his walking stick seemingly float up. He leapt up and whirled around just as the stick crashed down on his head.

***************

Darien and Ivria heard footsteps come down the stairs and saw a ring of big keys float over and stop at Ivria’s cell door. “Dana?” Ivria said.
Dana reappeared and replied cheerfully, “Here!”
Then she began to fit the keys into the lock, one by one. Finally. There was a click, Ivria’s cell door swung inward on creaky hinges. Dana repeated the process for Darien’s cell, then got to work on their shackles. When Darien and Ivria were both free, they gathered underneath a torch.
There was a short silence, then Ivria spoke, “Now what?”
Dana looked at them. They were both staring at her. Oh yeah, this is my idea, she thought. “Um…” She hadn’t thought it out this far. “Well…”
“Yes?” Darien said. “Continue…”
“Well, the prison guard is out cold, but who knows how many other guards there are?
“True that,” Ivria muttered.
“So… now what?” Darien looked at Dana, somewhat exasperated.
“I guess,” Dana continued. “Just, um, ready your weapons, and… let’s go.”
She turned and began to lead the way up the stairs. Ivria and Darien, somewhat reluctantly followed. Out of the side of his mouth, Darien whispered to Ivria, “We are going to die.”
Ivria glared at him as they tip-toed up the stairs to the room Ned, the prison guard, was lying. As they passed by the elderly man, Ivria sighed. “Poor fellow,” she said. “Once his empress finds out that we’ve escaped, it will be certain death for him.”
“Tyri os var, tyri os ael,” Darien said gently.
Dana stopped. “What did you say?”
Darien looked at her. “It’s an old saying we have. It means, ‘Choose your path, choose your end.’”
So true, Dana thought, her mind going back to escaping. I need to keep thinking of a plan. Out loud, she said, “We probably should stop talking now.”
The three softly walked through the room and to another stairway that spiraled up. Where does this lead to? Dana thought. She soon found out. The stairs abruptly ended in a doorway that led out to a hallway. A long hallway with other hallways connected to it, similar to a labyrinth. Strangely, there was no one in sight. Still cautious, Dana stepped slowly out into the main hall, Darien and Ivria close behind.
Then they heard footsteps. Many of them. A voice commanded loudly, “Go bring the prisoners, her ladyship wishes to see them.” Footsteps grew closer.
Ivria gasped and whispered hurriedly, “They’re coming this way!” All of them pressed up against a wall, hardly daring to breathe. Darien spotted something. A door. Not caring where it led to, he darted over to it and opened it. He turned and beckoned to the girls.
“Come on!”
After a quick glance at each other, Dana and Ivria ran over to the doorway. Behind it, a stone spiral stairway spiraled up, seemingly forever. Bu before they had time to even think about where it led to, several Balorgran guards came around a corner and into the main hallway. “The prisoners!” one yelled.
A tall one with a red cape, obviously the leader, replied, “You fools! After them!”
Ivria darted up the stairs, followed closely by Dana, then Darien, who slammed the door shut behind them. On they ran. Up, up, and up. The stairs seemed to never end. The running footfalls of the guards were heard behind them. Still the stairs continued. Dana’s legs were burning. Her side hurt, she gasped for breath.
Finally, they reached the top to find… a dead end. The three were imprisoned in a round tower room, with no escape. The guards’ yells could be heard, growing closer.
“Oh, Great One, save us,” Ivria prayed aloud. As she spoke these words, Darien glanced up and saw…
“A trap door!” he leapt up and pushed open the square, wooden door on the roof of the tower. “Come!” he said, and lowering a hand, gave a doubtful Ivria a boost up and through the door. After he helped Dana through, he pulled himself through, and shut the door.
“Now what, genius?” Ivria asked Darien, staring down. They were now on the top of a pointed tower that was, to say the least, very high.
“We have to jump,” Dana stated.
“Jump?” Ivria asked.
They all looked down. A dark moat was below them, with who-knows-what evil living in it. “But-“ Ivria countered, but she was cut off when the trap door was flung open by the guards.
“Jump!” Darien yelled. He pushed Ivria, then, as one, he and Dana jumped.