THE SECRET OF THE MEDALLION(published)

Chapter 5

Walking through the endless number of hallways in the maze of a medieval fortress, Daphne encountered many guards. By their bewildered looks, each time she would think the same thing: the likelihood of them seeing her as a potential thief of valuable treasures was high.

She would always have to refer to Edward, the man dressed like them, and when she mentioned how they knew each other and that she had just come from him, which they could verify whenever they wanted, she could see strange smiles on their faces, smiles that were testifying to the fact that they all thought she and Edward were definitely in an intimate relationship. At that moment, she couldn’t help but think how annoying this whole male collective of actors was.

However, the misconceptions they held didn’t bother her much because all she wanted was to get out of these dark and cold dungeons as soon as possible, to feel the radiant and warm rays of the sun on her skin again, and to find Karen. She also noticed that there weren’t too many actors dressed as guards in the heart of the fortress. She assumed they were all upstairs, on the surface, bathed in sunlight, which now seemed so elusive to her because it seemed like this labyrinth in the fortress had no beginning or end.

She politely asked the next group of actors she encountered to show her the way out and continued down another hallway before beginning to ascend the spiral stone stairs she came across, hoping this hallway would lead to an exit. The inaccessibility of the stone stairs did not surprise her, as life in that era was challenging by any means.

I would reach a blazing star before I got upstairs, she thought. Then she tried to skip two stairs at a time to get there faster, but on her first attempt, she slipped and barely managed to restore balance by leaning her back against the wall.

“What an adventure!” she scolded herself when she finally regained her balance and continued climbing, carefully, one step at a time.

“I’ll be happy if I can even keep my head on my shoulders and not break my neck,” she continued to mutter, holding her palm over her chest to calm her racing heart, which had been pounding with fear since she thought she could fall.

After a few more curves and hallways, she finally caught sight of the end of the staircase, and her eyes were enriched by the sight of the light coming from the top. She exerted twice as much effort and finally left behind that last stone stair. When she reached the very top of the stairs, she hunched over at the waist, holding onto her knees and breathing as if she had just run a marathon.

“Girl! Why on earth are you dressed like that?!” screamed a woman in front of Daphne, and Daphne lifted her head to look at her.

A petite, chubby woman with rosy cheeks and blonde hair peeking out from a little funny white cap stood before her, dressed as a maid, angrily observing her with raised eyebrows and hands on her hips. Although Daphne was quite irritated by the woman’s reprimand, she decided to be polite because, according to her calculations, the lady was surely at least sixty years old. Besides, the rules of good manners dictate that elder people should be respected.

“I apologize, I… I am just coming… from Edward… the guard… and…” Daphne was explaining, trying to catch her breath.

“I understand,” the woman waved her hand to dismiss Daphne’s unnecessary rambling of excuses.

She seemed to be in a hurry, and besides, it wasn’t the first time she had seen scantily dressed young maids visiting the guards, helping them alleviate their boredom while they languished in the half-light and stench, guarding prisoners who anyway had nowhere to go.

“Next time, tell Edward to wait until his shift is over, or I’ll tell him myself. We have too much work today. I’ll give you some clothes to change into. We all need to be properly dressed,” she informed Daphne in a softer tone.