Whilst the first tendrils of smoke from the kitchen were tentatively fingering the various routes into the main thoroughfares of the chateau, the first alarm went up and the sounds of doors opening, and the clatter of shod feet began to wake the silence. The two guards at the gate who had been told to look out for a covered wagon with an escort, who had been looking out into the dark, awaiting the first sight or sound of the approaching arrivals, turned and looked into the inner courtyard, and saw, in the light of the torches kept alight there, that smoke was beginning to issue from several places along the lower levels of the walls.
There was no need to shout any warnings as the sounds already coming from inside the chateau spoke eloquently of a chaos of activity and doors and windows were already being flung open. The two guards immediately dashed off towards the storeroom where the leather buckets were kept, in a space nigh the well room wherein all the water was supplied.
As soon as the guards turned into the courtyard, two figures, probably women, one slightly taller than the other, swathed in dark hooded cloaks, moved quickly into the courtyard and disappeared through the now open door at which the supplicants had queued the previous day.
Once inside, the two women covered their mouths with damp cloths, quickly retraced the steps that Chloe had taken not so long ago, through the smoke-filled air, to find the cell wherein the Scholar was being held. Chloe, for it was she who inhabited the less tall of the two figures, drew out the key that she had caused to be made this last day and opened the cell door without delay. They quickly slipped inside.
The Flaming Scholar
‘Do as I say and save questions for later,’ said Chloe helping the young woman to her feet. The taller of the two figures who had entered produced a voluminous cloak and with a practiced throw, covered the girl’s glowing form in an instant. Having secured the covering with ties down the front, all three women pulled their hoods forwards so that their faces were in shadow, and marshalled themselves by the door. Chloe held up one hand for quiet and listened intently. ‘Let’s go now’, she said quietly, ‘Keep close.’ They opened the door and started down the corridor in single file.
This high in the castle the ceilings were lower, and the corridors were only wide enough to allow two people to pass each other by one passee standing back against the wall. They moved down the corridor and came within ten metres of the head of the spiral staircase which they must use, when, spilling out into the corridor, came four soldiers in a hurry, not armed with swords but with buckets. The soldiers and the women stopped dead. For a moment Chloe hesitated and then turning to the tall woman at her back said quietly ‘We must pass this way, there is no other, can you make this happen?’ The taller woman, Violette, looked at the soldiers for an instant and then, pushing past Chloe, replied, ‘Anyone who passes me is yours.’ With that she moved towards the soldiers who were looking on in bewilderment. As she approached the soldier at the front of the queue he held his bucket out in front of him and said ‘Now you look here, you are not sanctioned to be here in this corridor, turn around and..’ At that moment Violette, her cloak billowing out behind, aimed a round house kick at his bucket which in turn whacked him squarely in the midriff. He was sent flying backwards into the next soldier in the line who took a nasty blow to the nose from the back of the head of the first soldier and they both collapsed in a heap, not looking as if either of them had any intention of trying to rise again in the near future. The third soldier, a light of panic beginning to dawn in his eyes, dropped his bucket and brought his hands around as if to draw a sword from a scabbard at his belt. When his hands encountered nothing but thin air he looked down in surprise and only looked up again in time to see a gloved hand flying unerringly towards his jaw.
The fourth soldier was in the act of turning tail when a large leather bucket caught him square on the back of his head, this appeared to assist him in the direction that he had decided to take, only now he was travelling that way in a kind of swallow dive rather than the sprinting run that he had hoped for.
Having got clear of the moaning soldiers, the group of three descended the stairs without further encounters and now, so close to escaping the way that two of them had entered, they would have to pass out through the main entrance corridor. But when Chloe quickly put her head around the corner to scout the way forwards, she pulled back and motioned the other two to retreat into a shadowed corner. The smoke in the lower corridors was thick in places and their eyes were streaming with tears, but this corner seemed to have escaped the worst. ‘As we guessed,’ she said, breathing hard, ‘That way is blocked, we must go through the thick smoke in the kitchen. Let us take a deep breath now while we may and then move quickly and without stopping. I have studied the route and will not fail. Hold onto my cloak and close your eyes both of you, for where we are going there will be nought but smoke to see.’
With that and the other women in tow she turned away from the corridor and made for the stairs which led down into the kitchens from which a river of smoke was issuing. Moving quickly down the stairs, guiding herself along the wall with her hands, Chloe also closed her eyes and imagined moving through the map of the chateau that they had studied so carefully not 48 hours ago. Once, her mind tried to take her to another place and time, when, in the sweet air of an evening, not so long ago, she had danced with Danial and life had seemed so clear. But she closed those thoughts and focused on the touch of the rough stone walls, as she knew that their lives depended on her.
Once in the great kitchen room she skirted around the wall to the left feeling the tugging at her cloak more keenly than ever and after what seemed an age, found the opening that would take them down another stairway and out of the smoke. She turned into it only to find her way blocked by a door. With her lungs aching for air and her eyes burning she reached for the handle and pulled, but with a sickening feeling in her stomach, felt it come loose in her hand. She scrabbled at the place where the door handle had been in a vain attempt to find purchase enough to open the door, then felt herself moved aside by strong hands on her shoulders. The figure now facing the door, dimly seen through the smoke, stood back and then placed an athletic kick at the place where the handle had been, the door crashed open and the three women fell through and down the steps into the clean air below.
They landed in a coughing, gasping heap a few steps down the flight. Slowly they picked themselves apart and resolved into three separate women and in the near dark, they made their way to the bottom of the stairs. ‘Let us stand and breathe for a moment,’ said the scholar between gasps, ’My eyes have stopped working and my lungs are burning.’ ‘Upon my word,’ said Chloe, leaning over with her hands on her hips ‘I agree, that was harder than I expected, let us right ourselves so that we may find our way through this next route.’ ‘Good’ said Violette after a pause, ‘I am mostly recovered, let me find a lamp to light our way.’ And with that she moved off into the near pitch black. After some moments and some sounds of searching, a faint glow, which soon burgeoned, was seen at the distance of a few metres which then came towards them, to reveal three smoke streaked faces which made them laugh. ‘Now,’ said Chloe, ‘I must guide us carefully. Let me start as it sits in my mind.’ With that said she stood with her back to the stairs which they had descended. She closed her eyes for a moment and then set off down a corridor leading away into the dark. Several minutes and several twists and turns later they came to the cellar from which the hatchway opened into the street. Chloe lifted the heavy hatch slightly and was rewarded with sight of a forest of horse’s hooves and some wheels coming swiftly towards her. She dropped the hatch back into place quickly and the thunder of hooves quickly passed over with a deafening noise which died away as quickly as it had come.
‘Now is the time.’ She said to herself, ‘let us be gone from this place.’ And with that they heaved at the hatchway. Just as they lifted it high enough to get free there came a pair of hands on the edge of the hatch and the face of Davide Sandor peered over the edge. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘soon all hell will be let loose, the cart has been taken.’ They climbed out onto the road and disappeared into the shadows of the side streets.
The Guardians of the Cave 