Bart came to a quick halt. Behind him, the guards with the lord and magic user were approaching fast. He stood there and raised his hands. The gesture of surrender caused those at the head of the stairwell to relax slightly. But that was just what Bart was hoping they would do. With a quick leap to the side, he shouldered into one of the doors to the unused rooms he had inspected earlier. Knocking it open, he was soon to the other side and had the door shut and barred in the blink of an eye. The bolt keeping the door shut was rather simple and wasn’t designed to keep out determined men. It wouldn’t last long.
Casting a quick glance around the room, he spied a heavy chest sitting against the wall. Moving quickly, he pulled the chest over to in front of the door just as the first pounding came from the other side.
“Open this door!” a voice demanded.
“I don’t think so,” Bart said more to himself than them. As the pounding came with increased ferocity he moved to the room’s window, opened the shutter, and looked out. The drop to the ground below wasn’t beyond his capabilities to survive unharmed. But seeing as how the window opened up onto the courtyard where hundreds of men were drilling, it might not be the wisest route for him to take.
Bam! Bam!
The pounding on the door grew more intense then suddenly ceased. Knowing he had no other choice, Bart again looked out the window. He removed his Cloak and stuffed it quickly into his pack. That’s when he noticed that the Cloak was the only thing glowing blue. With it now in his pack, he no longer stood out quite so badly.
Outside the window was a narrow ledge running the length of the building. He began moving out onto it when…
Wham!
…a blow of incredible power struck the door. The bolt holding the door shattered as the door and the chest braced against it were blasted into the room.
Bart quickly made his way onto the ledge and began moving away from the window. He hadn’t made it very far when one of the guards appeared in the window behind him. “He’s on the ledge!” the guard cried.
Those down below heard the guard’s shout and looked up to see Bart moving along the ledge. Drills were abandoned as everyone turned to watch the unfolding drama.
“Archers!”
Bart glanced back and saw the guard was yelling to those who were practicing in the courtyard below. The guard then pointed to Bart, his meaning crystal clear.
Thwock!
An arrow struck the wall next to Bart. He knew he didn’t have much time. His mind raced for a course of action that would save him. Then he had it. If he could make it to where he was thinking before they took him, he might just be able to live another day.
Thwock! Thwock! Thwock!
With arrows beginning to strike the wall around him, as well as one embedding itself into his pack, he shuffled along the ledge to the next window. Behind him, guards were emerging from the window to follow him along the ledge.
Upon reaching the window, he kicked open the shutter and left the ledge with a leap. Three arrows sailed through the open window a split second after him.
“He went back inside!” a guard on the ledge yelled.
Racing for the door, Bart opened it just as guards began emerging into the hallway from the room he had originally entered. The lord and magic user were among them. “Stop where you are!” the lord commanded.
Bart paid him no heed as he raced down the hallway. Servants who had been attracted by the commotion were milling about until they saw Bart emerge and start racing toward them. With a scream, they fled at his approach.
He had to get to the hallway where he had smelled the jakes. If there was any way out of this, it was through them. His father had once joked about the time he had used them to escape a particularly tight situation. He said Bart’s mother hadn’t allowed him in the house for a week afterward. Bart hoped these were similar in nature to the ones his father had used.
Suddenly, a roaring sound came from behind him and he threw himself to the floor. A searing ball of flame flew through the space where his upper torso had been but a second ago. Its passing left his clothes and hair smoking.
Once it was past, he leaped back to his feet and raced forward. Just ahead lay the hallway down which were the jakes. Two servants emerged from the hallway and he bowled into them, knocking them down.
He somehow retained his balance and lurched into the converging hallway. The odor of the jakes was barely perceptible, but there. Moving down, he saw the door which hid the jakes from view. Behind him, guards had appeared at the mouth of the hallway and were charging in pursuit.
Bart ran the short distance to the door of the jakes and threw them open. Two wooden seats sat over an open pit that, if it was built similar to the one his father had used for an escape, would enable him to reach the bowels of the castle. If he hadn’t of been fleeing for his life, he might have enjoyed the pun more. He entered and shut the door behind him. Throwing the simple latch to give him a few more seconds, he threw up the seats and paused.
The nastiness of what he was about to do finally hit home. But when the guards started pounding on the door, he swallowed his gorge and moved to enter the jakes. They were six feet by two and a half, barely wide enough for him to enter. Descending away into darkness, he couldn’t tell how far below the bottom was.
Trying to ignore the slime that coated the interior of the stone shaft, at least he hoped it was slime, Bart gripped the side of the jakes and climbed into them. He lowered himself until he was hanging as far down as he could go. Breath came in gasps as the smell was nigh on overpowering.
There were no handholds in the sides of the shaft, most likely intentional to prevent anyone from gaining entry to the castle in this manner. He tried bracing himself against the sides, but the slime coating was too slick, and he couldn’t get a purchase.
Bam!
Above him, the door to the jakes burst open. Having no other recourse, he let go of the upper lip of the shaft and began sliding down. Bracing himself against the sides with his hands and feet, he was able to slow his descent. Funky gunk oozed between his fingers as he slowly descended, all the while, he kept his eyes riveted to what was transpiring at the top of the jakes.
“My lord!” a guard exclaimed. “He’s not here.”
“What?” the lord replied.
It didn’t take long before a light appeared at the top of the jakes and a guard’s face appeared. “He’s in there milord,” said the guard.
“Allow me, my lord,” the magic user said.
When Bart saw the magic user peer down the shaft, he knew he was in trouble. As soon as the first arcane word was spoken by the magic user, Bart stopped all attempts at slowing his fall. Letting go of the sides of the shaft, he plummeted into darkness.
Above him, the words of the magic user followed him down until an intense red light appeared. Bart saw death coming towards him as another fireball shot down the shaft. There was nowhere he could go.
Chapter Fourteen
Though it seemed like forever, he fell for only a few more seconds before emerging from the narrow shaft. A moment of freefalling then his feet connected with water. The momentum of his fall had him submerged in the blink of an eye. No sooner had his head gone under, than the fireball exploded upon the surface, an intensely bright blast that lasted for only a second.
The water was deep, about nine feet with a mild current that pulled at him. Kicking hard from the bottom, he broke the surface and took in a ragged breath. The air was oppressively hot and smelled of charred human waste, the stench was almost overpowering. He must be in an underground waterway that took the outfall from the jakes to the lake.
In the darkness of the sewer, he began to detect a very faint light coming from downstream, around a bend in the channel. Where there’s light, there may be a way out. Swimming with the current, he headed for it. With any luck, those in the castle above would believe the fireball had killed him. But he had long since learned that one couldn’t trust to such things. A man tended to make his own luck. He needed to get out of there before anyone thought to come see if he was in fact dead.