Chapter 3: Escape

She blinked and her surroundings changed. One moment she was sitting in the dungeon, where that monster seemed to be trying to dissect her, and now she’s sitting in a rather posh chair in front of a roaring fireplace. Bound like a sloppy mummy, but still sitting here. Straining against her bonds, she cranes her neck, trying to see the rest of the room. A high vaulted ceiling rose above her, and the floor was littered with fancy furniture around tables bending under the weight of tomes and manuscripts. Off to her left she could see a door, presumably leading back down to the dungeons, going by how drab it is. On her right, she could see another door, this one of ornate wood with gold detailing, heading off to who knows where.

Oh, she couldn’t forget the zombies, could she?

Everywhere she looked she could see those abominations shambling about, some of the older ones groaning, but the newer ones speaking through decaying lips and throats, occasionally losing bits of flesh. Not that that deters them, she shudders. She’d been here for 2 months now and it seemed that whenever he wasn’t around, they were, and she couldn’t figure out which is worse. Right now he’s off somewhere else in the Region, collecting “supplies.” The perfect time for someone to break in and get her out, not that that was likely to happen, especially based on the last 200 times. At least I have a fire this time.

Just as she’s about to doze off, hoping to get a bit of sleep in before that bastard comes back, something catches her ear, almost like a scratching sound, except not. Craning her neck, she determines it’s coming  from a wall a few feet off from the door on the left. A slight spark of hope lights in her chest for a moment, some desperate hope still left in her that someone might find her, before she squashes it. Even if it is someone to rescue me, the unlucky sod will likely just get themselves caught, there’s no way we could get past the zombies. Unless… Her breath stops for a moment and she focuses, feeling deep within herself. Yes, just a bit, hopefully just enough.

At that moment, a hand appears through the wall, a few feet from the door on her left, scooping stone out of the wall and dropping it somewhere behind where it came from. After a few moments, there was a hole big enough for a couple of people to get through. Miraculously, they managed not to draw the attention of any of the zombies.

The two boys flop to the ground, breathing heavily, and one of them whispered rather harshly  “We did it!”, looking at the ceiling. The other boy was smarter.

“Uh, Sars? You might want to get up…we’ve got company.”

Sars suddenly curses and pulls himself upright, looking at the room, and the gathering crowd of zombies. “Of course there are zombies. Why wouldn’t there be zombies?” He sounds vaguely hysterical. Then again, I probably would be too if I wasn’t used to it by now.

Suddenly she starts. Help! She tries to speak, but can’t find her voice. She coughs a few times, making the boys jump, then manages to force her out-of-practice voice to make the words she was looking for. “Over here, quick!” She’s surprised by the gravelly sound of her voice, but dismisses it. That’ll fix with time.

Sars pulls a knife off his belt and hurries towards her as the zombies continue to encroach on them. That’s the thing about them, however many there might be, they’re still slow. Sars and the other boy race to her chair.  As Sars cuts her ropes, the other boy does some Magyk, making a runed circle appear on the ground around them. He sways a little bit, then pulls a similar knife out of his belt, grimly facing the zombies. Surprisingly, no one seemed to be talking much.

She coughs again, “The knife won’t be much help, you need fire to put them down.”

The boys look at each other, then both laugh a little bit. Sars speaks first, “That’s one of my forbidden schools, and Tulm here isn’t much for violence. Frankly, if we were in different circumstances, I’d probably faint at the sight of him pointing a knife.”

Sars severs the last rope and Alda stands up, or at least tries to, before falling backward. Tulm drops his knife and lurches forward to catch her. After she’s stabilized a bit, she smiles, “Thanks.”

Suddenly the doors at the other end of the room start to creak open, and a voice drifts through, his voice. “Oh Aaaaaaldaaaaa, I’m hooooome!” The sickly-sweet words lilting mockingly through the air, “And you’ll never guess what I—.” He cuts off when he spots the three of them, his expression changing fast as lightning . He went from positively cheerful to murderous in the blink of an eye as he raises his hand, dark Magyk gathering in it. “I see,” he hisses, “So you thought that while Bukh was gone you could have a party, did you?”

Alda grabs her rescuers hands. “Jump!” She focuses, draining her last reserves. The last thing she feels before she goes unconscious is the splash of them hitting water. I think I overshot.

~~\/~/\~~

Sars just about wets himself when the man starts gathering Magyk in his hand. This is it. I’m dead. Sars Al’Kodrid, Magyk Apprentice, rescuer of young ladies, and loser of memory, dead in some no-longer-ruins, rotted in an instant to nothing but bone-jelly. Suddenly he feels Alda’s hand grab his, and hears her shout “Jump!” Without thinking “why,” truly without thinking at all, he really doesn’t have much capacity for thought right now, he jumps. As he does so, he feels a strange twisting in the air around them, centered on the girl beside him, and suddenly they’re landing in the ocean. When he bobs back up to the surface, he sees a coastline way off in the distance.

He feels her hand slump in his as she goes unconscious and concentrates, making the water churn around them so she doesn’t sink. “Ok, so we’re out of there, but we’re in the middle of the ocean and Alda’s unconscious. Did I miss anything, Tulm?”

“Yeah, you missed the ship that’s so conveniently blocking out the sun for us.”

“Wait what?” Sars spins around, mentally slapping his forehead for not noticing that they were in shadow, and gapes at the monstrosity of a ship behind them.

“Ahoy, there!” A voice drifts down from the railing above them, faint from distance. “I dunno where y’all came from, but ya look like ya need a rope!”

“Ahoy!” Sars calls back, “Yeah, that’d be helpful.”

Sars can faintly see the man chuckling, then hears him call out “Watch your heads” before a massive knotted rope splashes into the water beside them. “Jus’ all o’ ya hang on and we’ll pull ya up, now.”

Sars nods and grabs the rope, hoisting himself up a little way and pulling Alda with him, before sagging suddenly. “Help me out, Tulm, I’m exhausted.”

The younger boy nods, “Same here, but I’ll do my best.” Together, the two of them manage to hoist Alda up far enough that Tulm could get a good grip on the rope, and a moment later the rope started bumping its way upward.

A couple minutes later, they flop over the railing onto the deck lay there breathing heavily, with Alda still out cold.

“What were you doing down there?”

Sars groans and opens his eyes again, squinting towards the man who’d initially hollered down at them. “Oh, you know... just going for a swim.” Tulm coughs beside him and Sars hears a slight splatter.

“Seawater tastes horrid.”

“Just going swimming, eh?” The man looks at Tulm for a moment, “Interesting place to go for a swim. ‘Specially with a sleepin’ doll.”

Sars scowls, “I was being sarcastic. I have no clue where we are, or even really how we got here. Is there any way you could get us back to Telqar?”

The sailor looks back at Sars for a little longer, then chuckles. “You’re in luck, lad, that’s our next stop. Why don’t the two of you boys carry the doll below deck and find some hammocks. You all look like you need some shut eye.”

Special Thanks to my wonderful editor, Hailey!