Sunrise

Chapter Five: Delays

There was another rumble of heavy feet as Eilonwy neared Taran's cell, and she paused to listen, concerned. The guard should not be changing again so soon. Something was amiss; perhaps Achren had found her cell empty, or Fflewddur's...in which case the next logical cell to check would be the one above her head. There was no time to lose.

Fortunately Taran required very little prodding to get a move on, and in a few moments the stone had slid into place for the last time over their heads. He crouched next to her, looking uncomfortable in the cramped space.

"This way." She turned and led him into the darkness, her heart racing. Every slap of her foot on the earthen floor echoed with finality in her ears. Last steps...last time through these wretched tunnels...last few breaths of this stale air. A few moments more, and she would be free.

Passing several openings on either side, she sensed Taran slowing to glance around and called back, "Be sure you follow me. Don't go into any of those. Some of them branch off and some don't go anywhere at all. You'd get lost, and that would be a useless thing when you're trying to escape." Along with slowing us down considerably, she added to herself, not pleased at the thought of having to go back and find him if he strayed.

She heard him quicken his pace and picked up her own, spurred along by her eagerness to leave the castle, barely registering his labored breath as he struggled to keep up with her. Pebbles rattled from somewhere behind them and a there was a rumble of heavy feet above. She paused, holding her light up to illuminate the ceiling. It was trembling as the rumble continued, and tiny crumbs of earth rolled down the walls. Taran came up, panting, behind her.

"We're just below the guardroom," she whispered to him. "Something's happening up there. Achren doesn't usually turn out the guard in the middle of the night."

He was pale and perspiring, his expression anxious. "They must have gone to the cells and found us gone. There was a lot of commotion just before you came." He rubbed his hand across his damp forehead, and she smothered a laugh at the streak of grime it left behind.

"You must be a very important Assistant Pig-Keeper," she observed, amused. "Achren wouldn't go to so much trouble unless..."

He shot her an annoyed look and edged further down the tunnel. "Hurry! If she puts a guard around the castle we'll never get out."

She pursed her mouth in irritation as she pushed past him. "I wish you'd stop worrying. You sound like you're having your toes twisted. Achren can set out all the guards she wants. She doesn't know where the mouth of the tunnel is, and it's hidden so well an owl couldn't see it. You don't think I'd march you out the front gate, do you?"

In truth, his anxiety was making her nervous. Getting out the castle was only half the task, after all. A complete getaway would be far more difficult if Achren began sending search parties into the woods. Perhaps she would even employ the hounds.

Sensing her escape slipping away, Eilonwy doubled her pace, sliding around the familiar curves and twists of the tunnel carelessly, in her urgency giving no notice to Taran's puffing growing fainter behind her. But presently he gave a yelp, and then, to her alarm, there was a tremendous roar - the unmistakable sound of loose, falling earth and scattering pebbles. In an instant she was scrambling back toward the sound, visions of him broken and buried under a merciless mountain of stones clawing at her mind.

Heart in her throat, she rounded a corner and saw nothing but clouds of swirling dust, but heard him faintly calling her name, and fell into a crouch, her knees weak with relief. Burying her face in her skirt to keep out the dust, she took several deep breaths to steady her nerves before looking up again, and raised her bauble as high as she could, searching for him. "Yes, I'm here! Where are you?"