Escape

Kothar and Simon crept up the walkway, while Kothar had managed to evade the guards on the way down, Simon demonstrated the difference between a sneaky individual and a true Thief.

Simon's steps were completely silent, Kothar, who was only a few steps ahead, couldn't even hear him, and at one point looked back, concerned that Simon had been left behind. But he was still there, barely visible in the shadows along the edge of the walkway, giving Kothar a cheeky grin.

They retraced the route Kothar had taken, and Simon admired how far his nephew had come, quickly creating portals from one level to the next.

"Looks like you got your friend free, boy. Why not help out another struggling soul?" Berge leered at them from behind his bars, calling out to them as soon as they stepped out from Kothar's portal.

"Ok. But I need you to wait five minutes before you make any kind of disturbance, can you do that?" Kothar asked Berge, standing outside of the range of the huge man's long apeish arms.

"Anything for my freedom, get me out of here and I'll even do a little dance for you." Berge growled, pacing around his cell in anticipation.

"Just take this portal out of your cell in five minutes." Kothar dispelled the portal below them, and began channelling to open another inside of Berge's cell, intending to link it with the one they had just exited from.

"That won't cut it, all I need is for you to come in here and get this out of me." Berge shrugged off his ragged clothing, and turned around. Nestled in the center of his massive back was a nub of steel, it was swarming with strange runes and gave off a sickly yellow glow.

"Alright, but he's coming in with me." Kothar jerked his head toward Simon, who procured a thin blade, seemingly out of thin air, and returned Berge's cruel smile with one of his own.

"The more the better." Berge's smile only grew wider, revealing that his jagged teeth extended throughout his mouth, making him look like the human counterpart of a shark.

Kothar and Simon stepped through the portal, both of them with their blades out, Kothar with his buzzing lightning blade and Simon with his shiv.

Berge turned around and hunched over, so Kothar could easily reach the nub in his back.

He gripped it tightly and pulled, with a loud squelch, the nub pulled out, revealing a tapered needle, with strange runes swimming all across its surface.

A trickle of black, foul smelling liquid trickled out of the hole left behind, and then it began to close, right in front of Kothar's eyes. Feeling that something was very wrong, Kothar's eye's widened and he rushed toward the portal, seeing Simon doing the same.

The pair fell to the ground next to the portal, a clenching sensation in their throats and a sinking feeling in their stomachs, an invisible force had fallen over them and they had both become paralyzed.

Berge towered over them, cracking all of his joints with his eyes shut.

"Oh, excuse me." Berge peered down, noticing the two of them cowering on the ground. The force immediately dissipated and the pair of them stood up, and backed up through Kothar's portal.

"The clock's ticking now, five minutes, boy." Berge gave Kothar another grin, before sitting down cross legged in his cell and closing his eyes. Simon and Kothar eagerly continued up the walkway, thankful that they hadn't lost their lives.

"I can't believe we thought we'd have a chance with our blades." Kothar murmured to Simon, as they waited for a guard above to walk back from where he was yelling at an inmate.

"We got lucky, nephew, there's all kinds of monsters out there, and he won't be the last you'll encounter." Simon murmured back, squinting up at the corridor that led out of the dungeon.

Now that the guard had returned to his post, Kothar nodded to Simon, who stepped through the portal and up toward the entrance to the dungeons. Kothar followed him, and they headed toward the door.

"I'll take the one on my side." Simon said to Kothar, who nodded in assent and drew his humming lightning blade.

The pair of them stood to either side of the door, back flat against the sandstone of the walls.

"Hey, I need you to open up a cell? One these ******** is giving me cheek. The foreigner, down in the hole." Simon said in an eerie imitation of the voice of the guard who had often beaten him.

"What! Thought you were off duty Guff!" The gruff voiced guard answered and a key rattled in the lock of the enchanted door.

The door swung open and the bigger guard stepped through, looking around in confusion. He spotted a glint of steel in the corner of his eye, and his eyes widened in surprise, he tried to yell but only a gurgle escaped from his mouth. Kothar had been far too quick for him.

"You guys trying to play a trick on me again?" The reedy voiced guard called out, Kothar who had grabbed the guard to stop him from falling to the ground, looked to Simon.

He was nowhere to be seen, another faint gurgle indicated that the other guard had met a similar fate.

"I'll meet you on the fork in the east road toward Balin." Kothar took the ring of keys from the first guards waist.

"Alright, see you soon nephew, thanks for the help." With that, Simon dissolved into the darkness, taking the smaller guard's sword with them.

Kothar headed back down into the dungeon, quietly turning the keys in the locks of the prisoner's cells. He had gotten past the first two floors, when a bloodcurdling scream echoed through the dungeon.

"Sorry! I just couldn't wait, with all this fresh meat around!" Berge's voice called out from the depths of the dungeon. The guards all began to yell, and the stomping of boots filled the air.

Kothar ducked into the cell he had just unlocked, hunching next to the slowly rocking inmate.

The man stared at him wide eyed.

"Here, take these keys and free as many of the others as you can." Kothar handed the man the keys. The man's eyes slowly came alive, as he realized the magnitude of what Kothar had said. He nodded vigorously to Kothar, then clasped Kothar's hands in his wons and bowed repeatedly.

Seeing Kothar's confused face, he opened his mouth, pointing to the stump that remained of his tongue, and bowed again.

"You're welcome, I've unlocked the upper cells." Kothar shook the man's one last time and left the cells, heading for the exit. All the while, screams and wails echoed through the dungeon, Kothar peered over the edge of the Walkway, and saw the carnage that Berge had wreaked.

Berge was laughing maniacally and guards lay strewn around him like broken dolls.

"Come, come and beat me now you dogs!" Berge yelled at the guards, who surrounded him in a loose circle.

[He really threw a spanner in the works of your fine plan, didn't he Kothar?] Silane piped up, after being silent for so long.

[That he did.] Kothar answered her, speeding up to jog, on his way out of the dungeon and back into the tunnels.