Chapter Eight

The guards distracted, Mageia limped to the

chimney with no smoke. She climbed into it

and sighed with relief seeing its built-in ladder

was still intact. Quickly, she descended into

the darkness hearing the guards pursuing

her above. She managed to make it to the

chimney's end and realized the rest of the

ladder was gone. Mageia pumped herself

with some encouragement before releasing

the ladder to fall the rest of the way down.

Her injured leg screamed when she landed

and buckled in an awkward angle. The

muscles stretched as she crashed into the

barred door and rolled out of the kitchen's

massive oven. She yelped, holding her leg

in an agonizing pain. Blood puddled the

cobblestone floor from the wound bleeding

like a water spring. Black splotches appeared

in her vision, and she shook some of them

away. The kitchen was closed for the night to

her relief, but she still had to find a way out of

the Taefo in one piece.

The door swung open, and an armed guard

ran in hearing the crash and her scream.

Adrenaline kicking in, she climbed to her feet,

unsheathed her sword, and locked blades

with the guard. He kneed her in the gut,

noticing she was weak and injured. Mageia

gagged but recuperated quick enough to

block his side strike. She stumbled away, to

regain her footing and her strength and forced

out her sword fighting skills. She maneuvered

around the kitchen counters,

blades scraping and clinging. The descending

guards were closer now, so she grabbed a

bag of flour and threw it into the man's face.

Blinded and vulnerable, she slammed her

body into him, and he crashed into a counter

and fell to the floor.

Mageia dashed into the hallway just as one

guard dropped into the oven. Wasting no

time, she ran pass office rooms and sitting

areas. Faebrin was right about the lack of

security. No other guard sprouted from the

many halls filled with cells of the condemned

who shouted for her help. She swallowed

the horror of not helping and turned a corner,

straight into two guards searching the halls.

They unsheathed their swords, but she

already had the advantage of hers being out.

She slashed at the first guard's chest and

kicked him in the groin. He stumbled back and

fell. She sidestepped out of the next guard's

hard stab, grabbed his extended arm and

bashed her forehead into his jaw. He fell into

the wall, holding his jaw, and slashing at the

air because she had managed to slip away.

Shouting guards mixed with condemned wails

rung her ears. Lungs near to leaping into her

mouth, she ran towards a side door, sliding

behind pillars from guards running down

halls. She glanced out one window and saw a

side gate was open as guards cleared out to

possibly pursue the escaped children beyond

the wall.

Her roof pursuers scrambled into the hall

finally catching up, anger festering their soot

covered eyes. They spotted her, and she had

no desire however to take a risk for the gate.

Gods have mercy, she prayed, recollections and

her future dreams flashing before her eyes.

Swallowing the pain in her leg, she sucked in

a lungful of air and sprinted for the gate with

only one defend looking at it.

"Get her," she heard anyone shout.

The guard unsheathed his sword preparing

to combat her to the death. Then two arrows

whizzed by way of her from the wall or the roof, she

didn't know. She solely kept going. Freedom

was solely a few footsteps away. Thoughts of

Dean and her household entreated her to keep moving

and to triumph over the mild limp in her run.

She raised her sword to strike at the guard

and to take his key. Then a new pain, sharp,

angry, and direct slid into her proper shoulder.

The influence of the arrow used to be nearly like

someone leaping onto her back. Her sword

swung from her grip, face slamming into

the ground, shoving dirt into her mouth. She

screamed however no longer out of pain, however of grief and

fustration.

The gate used to be simply a few steps away.

~*~*~

DEAN UNKNOWN

They had to break up up. It used to be the plan with so

many youngsters involved. They regathered

at the well notwithstanding the Taefo's horn and the

guards forming to do a pursuit.

"Where's Geia?" Jaice said as they lowered

eight of the adolescents able to run into the well.

Dean's coronary heart leaped into his throat as he

shook his head.

"She's fine. She can take care of herself."

"Gods be with her," Gavin said.

"Come on. We need to hurry before they lose the

dogs," Dean said.

Gavin, Boras, and Esa took their eight children

through the underway while he, Jaice, and

Gibby carried the ultimate 4 farther south

of the Napan. By the time they observed the

river and the forest to its end, puppies barked

in the distance in the back of them. They exited the

forest and entered the streets of Strana, wild

with celebration. No one paid them any mind

as they trailed the walls of the shops and

homes and slipped into an alley.

Dean sighed with relief seeing Trekon and his

barrowed wagon. The stench of cow manure

mixed and organized for fertilization reeked

the air. Jaice helped the three children, the blind girl, the boy with a crooked leg, and a

boy with a stout body of a deformed dwarf

into the back of the wagon. She held the

baby Mageia was determined to rescue close

to her bosom as tears streamed down her

cheeks.

"You've been spotted, I hear," Trekon said.

"We did, but we got away," Dean said.

"Where's Mageia?" he said. "Is she with the

others?"

"No. We left her behind," Gibby said patrolling

the corner.

"You what?" Trekon said. "What happened?"

"She got injured really bad. She made me

leave," Dean said.

"She's going to get caught," Trekon said.

"No. She's fast. She will not," Dean said

despite the twist in his gut.

"What is she to do? Hide in there somewhere

and find her way out?"

"Whatever needs be done," he said. "She'll be

fine. Now we need to leave, or we will not be

fine."

Trekon slipped into the driver's seat as they

climbed in the back of the wagon and covered

themselves with the blanket. The stench was deathly, but Dean knew this would put off

their scent from the dogs. About an hour ride

of Trekon weaving in and out of alleys and

neighborhoods and passing via a smaller

gate of the Mideri Wall, he finally stopped by

the alley close to his home.

Dean helped the teenagers off and sent Gavin

and Jaice on their way to their hidden grate.

"What are you doing?"

"Mageia used to be gonna remain with yuh when yuh

meet the others at the checkpoint," Dean said

wishing to cry, but had to continue to be strong. "She's

not here. So, I'm going instead."

Before the big man could rebuttal, he returned

to the back of the wagon. As they rode, he

peeked from under the cover and wished

he could kill anybody for assisting the

Ceremony. He knew there were other ways to

please the gods instead than blood sacrifices.

He prayed to the gods for Mageia, hoping she

was okay and wiped the tears that escaped

his eyes.

He wished he ought to kiss her again. He wished

she was once with him beneath this tarp for him to

hold close to his chest. He knew this was once a

bad idea. Mageia struggled against the guards carrying

her by the underarms. They crudely ignored

the arrow digging deeper upon every jerk.

"Ah! Let me go," she screamed and kicked.

The dusty outdoor ground turned into the dark

mucky floor of the Taefo. Instead of taking

her to a cell, they took her into the dungeons

and entered a room, furnished with only two

chairs and a stool. They slammed her into one

chair. Sucking up the voltages of pain warping

through her body, she jumped onto her feet

and tried to dash for the door to no avail.

"The gods curse you all," she said as they

forced her back into the chair and strapped

her wrists and body.

She spat at them and growled, helplessly

watching them exit and slam the door close.

"You demons! You all are demons! You can't

be the fairest with such wicked hearts!"

Mageia fell into pants, vision blurring and

thick globes of sweat dripping into her eyes.

The room possessed no windows, and the

only exit was possibly guarded. Images of

her mom crying and begging for them to

have mercy on her flashed before her eyes.

The guards had her tied too on the Dais, and

the cruel king was going to make her watch

them slice open her daughter's wrists before

chopping off her head.