The Fallen World

Escape - Part 5

     Jerry and Diana returned to the reading room to find that Thomas had dropped off to sleep in one of the comfy armchairs. He jerked awake as they entered, and all three of them saw Lirenna sitting on the floor in the corner, staring blankly up at the ceiling.

     “Lenny!” cried Thomas in alarm, running over to sit beside her and put an arm around her shoulders. “Lenny, are you all right?”

     The demi shae turned her head to look at him, and he breathed a sigh of relief as she slowly came back to life. “I was just wondering,” she said softly, trying but failing to focus on his face. “I was just wondering how much rock there is between us and the surface. You said about a hundred yards, didn’t you Tom?”

     Thomas could have bitten his tongue off. He hugged her tighter and looked around to where the others were gathering around close. “I shouldn’t have fallen asleep,” he said, his voice heavy with guilt. “I was so tired… Everything that's happened… We mustn’t leave her alone again, not even for a moment.”

     “I’m all right,” replied Lirenna, however, getting back to her feet. “This isn’t my favourite place, but I’ll be all right. What’s that you’ve got there?”

     Diana and Jerry showed them the travel rations and the demi shae tried a bit, nibbling the corner of one of the biscuits. “It’s horrible!” she said, screwing her face up in disgust. “It’s like trying to eat ashes.”

     “Maybe so, but it’ll keep us alive in the caverns,” replied Thomas. “We were lucky to find it.”

     They then settled down to await Parkus’s return, Thomas sat next to Lirenna and chatted to her continually, keeping her cheered up, while Jerry and Diana played klann on a board they found in the corner of the room; a huge board two feet across with all the pieces made of silver and gold. They played half heartedly, neither of them having their minds fully on the game, and they were more relieved than disappointed when they heard the trundling of a laundry trolley coming down the corridor towards them. A moment later the door opened and Parkus entered, followed by a maid pushing the trolley.

     “I had a bit of luck,” he said, looking both ways down the corridor and closing the door behind him. “This is Willa. I found her collecting the laundry and managed to persuade her to help us."

     "My brother was tortured to death," said the maid, her eyes hard and angry. "Treason, they said. I've been looking for a way to get back at the Konnens for a long time."

     Parkus fished around among the dirty bedsheets and pillowcases and pulled out their backpacks one at a time. “I managed to get all your belongings, so you can decide for yourselves how much you think you can smuggle past the guards.”

     Thomas was delighted, and pulled out his spellbook, running his hands lovingly over it. This book was his life, and he wasn’t going to be parted from it ever again. “We can put all the important stuff in one backpack, and you can carry it for us,” he said. “Do you think the guards will be suspicious to see you carrying one of our backpacks?”

     “Possibly,” replied Parkus, “but I’ll think of something plausible. I’ll bluff it out. I brought something else as well.”

     He fished around in the trolley again, this time reaching all the way down to the bottom, and pulled out two swords. Beautiful weapons whose hilts and scabbards were covered with jewels and one of whose blades, when he drew it, was covered with a tracery of fine gold threads. That tracery wouldn’t survive five minutes on an ordinary sword used in an ordinary battle. It would get scratched off in no time, so the swords had to be either purely ornamental, perhaps ceremonial, not intended ever to be used in an actual battle, or...