~ For Argaland ~

Chapter VII

I sat up and groaned, my stomach growled for food and my back ached from the long night spent on the hard stone floor. I glanced around for Essie and saw her staring out of the window, the sun lighting up her pretty features.

"How much longer do you think we will be trapped here?" I asked her.

"Not long I hope," she replied, pointing to the back wall, "do you see that crack in the wall over there?"

"I still have my dagger," I declared, pulling it from my clothes, "I think I could pry the rocks loose with it."

"I was hoping you would say that," Essie answered with a smile, and watched as I began to dig the end of the blade into the crack in the wall. It was more difficult than I had expected, and Essie and I took turns every few minutes or so, but it was taking a long time.

Many hours later, when the sun was started to set, I gave out a little yell of excitement as a large rock came loose, causing part of the wall to crumble.

"Essie! Look here," I called to her, "I can see the outside, there is only one more rock to move. I believe, if I sit at a certain angle, I could kick it out."

My friend's eyes suddenly showed fear as the sound of footsteps echoed outside our cell. We scrambled to push some of the rocks back into the hole in the wall, but our escape attempt was still obvious.

"Amirah lay in front of the hole," Essie ordered, and I obeyed, putting my back to the hole and laying down as if I were sleeping.

Just then the cell door opened and a prison guard stepped in, "move you two!" He demanded, "we need this cell for another prisoner."

"No please don't move her!" Essie suddenly cried, shocking me with her emotion, "she is ill, very sick indeed!"

"Nonsense woman," the guard declared, walking over to me, "she was fine yesterday!"

"Please don't move her!" Essie protested, standing over me, her shoulders shaking from sobs, "I fear for her life! Please you must bring her some water!"

The guard sighed, "fine, I shall bring her some water, but then you must move to another cell."

"Thank you," Essie cried in relief as the guard slammed our door and marched down the corridor.

I turned to her in amazement, "what was that?" I asked.

She smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes, "it's called a convincing performance my friend. Now hurry, we don't have much time!"

I joined Essie in pulling out the loose rocks from the wall before lining up my leg through the hole and kicking at the stubborn last rock as hard as I could. It only took a few times before it fell forwards on to the soft grass of the forest beyond.

"Let's go," I urged, crawling through the small hole.

Once on the other side, I helped Essie through, took one more glance at the prison and ran as fast as I could away from it. We made it back to the campsite and found our two horses still tied to the tree along with our belongings.

Adar's horse was gone, which filled my heart with hope that he may have gotten away undetected.

"Amirah!" Essie called, jolting me out of my thoughts, "hurry and pack up your things! We must fly!"

I clambered to throw my belongings into a saddlebag before kicking dirt over the glowing embers of the fire and mounting my horse. Seeing that Essie was already ontop her horse I spurred mine into a full gallop away from the site.

                                                                            ~~~~~~

We rode hard for over two hours before stopping outside the gates of a small town.