Her Quest

Chapter eighteen

Penelope grunted in desperation as she tried to form a flame with her fingers. Nothing was working and she was sure that a couple of hours had already passed.                                                                                                                                     

She felt so useless and also very annoyed that Hecate’s magic still had an effect on her.
A few minutes ago, the royal guards came to pay her a little visit and took away the fake obols she was given by Nyctimus.                                              Penelope let out a sigh as she thought about him. Nyctimus was probably done being questioned by the head councillor by now.
And if he was done with the trial, where was he now?
Did she find him guilty and have him locked up? No, if he was to be locked up, he would’ve been here already.          Surely he was found to be innocent? She hoped that that was the case.
He didn’t deserve to be caught up in all this.
Not after all that he has gone through. Penelope slid down to the ground, her back resting against the cold bars of the cell.                                                                                                               

“Thinking about me?”. She whipped her body around and saw Nyctimus crouching down on the other side of the cell.                                                                  “Nyctimus, I’m so happy to see you!” She happily exclaimed and put her hands through the bars to grip his arms.                                                                “What happened at the trial?” She whispered.                                                      “I’m free, well, free from this dungeon, and so is Oswald and Heracles. Except that Oswald got demoted by the head chef. He’s not happy about that”.         “Were you very nervous?”.                                                                                          

“Very. Themis is quite intimidating” He said with a laugh. Then his face fell. “She declared tomorrow as the day for you to hang until death, Penelope. But don’t worry! We have a plan to get you out. Tonight, you will be out of this disgusting cell”.                                                                                                                             
Penelope smiled weakly at Nyctimus. If everything didn’t go smoothly with their plan, she would be hanged and that would be the end of her quest and life.                                                                   “Don’t stress, Hecate is on her way. She is the only other one that will be able to break you out of here. Heracles is too busy securing our way out of the castle. I will be here tonight with Hecate, ok?”. His voice was so soothing and positive, Penelope couldn’t help but smile.        “Ok”.

An unknown amount of time passed until Penelope picked up that something was different in the dungeon.
All the other cellmates were unusually quiet, her ears devoid from any taunts the prisoners spoke her way.
Penelope sat up from the mattress she was resting on and walked to the cell gate.                      
“Stand back!” Hecate warned, her eyes and hands glowing with power. Penelope jumped back as a powerful ray of what looked like sunshine shot out of Hecate’s hands and melted the metal cell gates.
Nyctimus walked in heroically and picked Penelope up.                                                                                   

“Nyctimus, I can walk” Penelope said awkwardly.                                                    “Oh” He said with a frown and put her down. Penelope walked out of the cell and stood in front of Hecate.                 “Thank you, Hecate, I…”.                            “Thank me later, we cannot spend any more time here”.
Penelope noticed that she wasn’t wearing her usual white flowy dresses. She was wearing a brown kilt like armour dress. One that symbolised war.                                                                    “I agree. The longer we take, the more dangerous it is” Nyctimus said and started to walk away. Hecate and Penelope followed behind.