Escape

Sapphire

Sapphire had never felt so vulnerable. They had to escape a man whom she had never defeated in a duel accompanied by twelve lady assassins who by rumors didn't have much of a conscience. To make things were, she was weaponless. Her stump of candle wax pocked out of her trouser pocket while there was a crystal in the other. She glanced at Archestrian, hoping he might have better luck than it.

It seems he didn't.

Archestrian had a calculating look on his face before he lifted his arms and casually said, 'Fine, we surrender.'

Sapphire felt her jaws drop in amusement. The boy was more cowardly than she anticipated.

'You have brains, boy,' said Sir Cedric as he let go of the pommel of his sword. The maids, upon the knight's signal walked over to the girl and boy and surrounded them, forming a barrier around.

Sir Cedric turned over his heels and walked away while the escort of maids followed. There were three maids in front of them, three behind them, three to their left and three to their right. They walked silently. Sapphire, with not much of a choice, walked forward between the maids. She glanced up at Archestrian, who was walking with his eyes closed and in deep concentration.

She hoped he had a plan. She didn't like depending on others for help but at the moment, she felt utterly hopeless. Maybe she could make a run. But it was pointless if you simply end up lost in the underground maze. Maybe they would be able to plead with the queen not to brainwash them.

She decided not to depend on the queen's mercy too much. If there is one thing she knew, it was time for her to finally escape from the insanity of the royals. They turned to the right, then again the left as they walked along the corridor, following the kingdom's secondary.

Sapphire wondered how Sir Cedric got underground. Was it from her room? Or was there another entrance? Surely he didn't use the entrance form the queen's chamber. It was rather unlikely. Maybe there was a bigger entrance. They could not possibly drag unwilling people down narrow staircases. She felt like poking at Archestrian, to ask whether he had a plan.

The boy on the other hand was sleepwalking.

No hope there it seems.

The more they continued, the more Sapphire noticed that the corridors widened and the light brightened. Sapphire at least hoped that they might end up above ground, but she had a feeling they were going deeper into the shy-ship. She wondered if there was a way to get into the stone labyrinth above them. Sapphire had a good idea of the layers beneath the earth on which the capital city of Shokra sat upon. Below the palace were the obvious dungeons. Below that was the stone labyrinth in which Sapphire spent years practicing swordsmanship. Below that was the sky-ship in which they were trapped in. Maybe there was something below the sky-ship. A lost civilization perhaps. But Sapphire never found records of such. She never found records of the sky-ship either. But there were some information about the labyrinth.

Legends say that the labyrinth was built as a secret hideout in case of an attack to the capital. It was made so that whoever intruder enters inside will have a hard time finding its refugees.

Sapphire wondered if there was a way to enter the labyrinth from the sky-ship. She knew the maze like the back of her hands. Actually, she rarely looked at the back of her hands.

Just then, Archestrian came back to the land of the living. They were just passing a fork when Archestrian grabbed Sapphire by the hand and pushed his way through the maids. The maids were rather taken by surprise and it took a while for them to realize that prisoners were escaping.

'Do you know where you are going!' screamed Sapphire. She yanked her wrist away from the boy and picked up speed.

'Yes,' yelled the back the boy who took a sharp left turn. From behind, they could near the sound of tapping flippers and the sound was reaching them fast.

'How can they run so well in skirts?' Sapphire cried.

Archestrian ignored her and took another left turn. Then he took a right. Sapphire wondered how he knew the way. But once she heard the sound of high voices of men speaking out of boredom, she realized.

People... Or more likely, guards. And where else do you place guards but in front of the main entrance. Sapphire was starting to appreciate Archestrian's heightened sense of hearing.

The boy stopped, panting as he turned to another passage, clearly away from the entrance and ran inside. Sapphire followed. He then turned a corner and waited. A dozen maids in black ran past them, expecting the children to head straight towards the entrance.

After that, they waited. They waited and waited and waited. The voiced of the men outside heightened. They were all clearly confused. Then it silenced. They waited for maybe an hour of so before Archestrian peeked out of the corridor.

Everything seemed silent.

'It is... safe?' asked Sapphire.

Archestrian took a deep breath. 'I think so.... Yes. They are spreading all throughout whatever is up there, searching for us.'

Then they continued down the path. The lights of the corridor gradually dimmed and it opened up to an entrance. But it was unlike any entrance Sapphire had ever seen. It was like something tore a piece out of the hull of the sky-ship and a staircase was built from the stone and earth surrounding it. The staircase was wide with narrow steps and a faded blue glow emitted form above. Sapphire was well acquainted with the familiar glow.

'It's a labyrinth!' Sapphire gasped.

'The... labyrinth?'

'I know a way out of the city from here,' she said. They cautiously walked up the stairs and stepped into a stone tunnel with crystals studded on the walls.

'Wow,' said Archestrian. 'You know the way out from here?'

'Not here,' said Sapphire. 'But I will once I find a familiar place.'

They left before anyone could return back to the entrance.

What Sapphire felt back then was the most terrifying thing she had ever experiences ever since the fire of her home village. The passages were dark, even though there was a tiny glow on the walls. You could not tell when someone might leap out of the shadows and tackle them. Archestrian kept his senses on high alert. Sapphire felt air flow back into her lungs when then stumbled onto a familiar passage.

'Do you know this path?'

Sapphire nodded, 'This way.'

The journey felt like an eternity. Sapphire knew that it will not take long for her mentor to find her once she joins the hunt. She was surprised he wasn't after her yet. The two of them stopped whenever they heard sign of footsteps or whenever a shadow moved. Sometimes the alarm was false and their terror turned out to be the shadow of a large crawler. They took turns to turns to the left and right, they went around in circles and they went dead straight. Sapphire wondered at her own memory. It seemed to remember the path no matter how scattered her mind was.

Finally, she pointed at the spot behind a pile of rubble where the ceiling had fallen in.

'There!'

She had to climb over the stone and earth to reach the faint light at the end of the passage. Archestrian followed from behind. Faint pink light welcomed them when they stepped over the entrance. But they were welcomes by a horrifying sight.

Ahead of them was a sheer drop which meant death in they fell.

'You said you knew a way out!' Archestrian yelled over the sound of the wind that blew over the edge of the valley in which they stop upon.

'I-I didn't think_' But Sapphire could not complete her sentence.

The undergrowth of the valley floor spread below them with lush greenery while a silver river snaked through in the middle. On the other far side of the valley was a sheer climb as well with sparse vegetation and cascades of flowing water that fell into the river below. To her right was the stone bridge which connected the two sides of the canyon valley with high arches underneath to support the structure.

From away, the sun was peeking out of the horizon, coloring the sky in shades of gray and pink. To their left was a pair of long arm thick rock dangling over the rock face. About fifty feet above was the wooden platform and the wooden barrel that the border patrol used to descend down to the bottom of the valley.

But that was not what was horrifying; it was the specks of black silhouettes that dotted the rock face under the protrusions and rocks that jutted out.

'Blood-birds,' gulped Sapphire. She felt the blood drain out of her face. She didn't think of the possibility that they might encounter the blood thirsty vermins.

Archestrian reached for the roped and pulled, 'Come-on, before the morning shifts begin. There is enough light for the blood-birds not to steer from their perches.'

No one was mad enough to spend the night in the undergrowth. Also, no one dared to climb down the plateau without broad daylight. Blood-birds were only active during the night. They never stirred during the day.

'But they might if they are hungry enough,' said Sapphire,

'Let's hope they are not,' said the boy next to her as he hauled the ropes. Sapphire, with a sigh, also helped him as they used the pulley system above to bring the barrel basket towards their platform. It bumped over the rocks and swayed for the wind. Sapphire was glad that at least they had some rope to hold on to before the wind whipped them over the valley.

By the time they were done, the sun was spreading its warmth and the children were sweating. Their hands were blistering from the constant hauling of the rough rope and their muscles burned from the continuous effort. Sapphire was the first to get in, since she was the least heavy and once she confined the basket was safe, Archestrian hopped in. Then again, they used their brute strength to lower the basket slowly without plummeting down to their death. By the time they reached the bottom, the sun was completely out. Probably the eight hour of the morning.

Sapphire and Archestrian had no time to pull the basket back up. It was better to flea than to make their escape less obvious since it was the time the border patrol usually descended down the pulley systems. They ran long the valley floor, rested under the shade of the trees and ran some more. They also met the winding river that flowed across the valley and her waterfalls that fed water to it.

Even if the children were outside the city, the two rising walls besides them made them feel rather restricted and trapped.

'The only way out of here if through the bridge,' said Sapphire. 'But we can't use it. We will be safe if we reached the other side of the valley.'

Archestrian looked at the other rock face in front of them. 'That's highly unlikely.'

'Then we follow the river to wherever it leads.'

'That sounds... safe.'

'But they might easily find us.'

'If they have war-cats they can easily find us. According to my knowledge, the border patrol cannot deliver war-cats to the undergrowth. Following the river is safer than crossing the valley were war-cats can easily roam.'

And so it was decided.

The children faithfully followed the river south. The both knew there the rover took them. They did not like the impending result, but it seemed that anywhere was better than being forced to serve an Etherean hell bent on taking over the kingdom, and maybe the world. Sapphire was not sure about the latter. She was still certain the queen had good intensions. But if the intensions meant her turning mindless like the Chamber Maids, she'd rather not part take in the queen's great plan. But then again, Sir Cedric didn't seem mindless; in fact he was the opposite. Maybe the process didn't take away your entire identity. But, this was Sir Cedric we were considering, and he by any standards was not a normal human.

Sapphire wondered if he too was an Etherean. You could never be sure.

For most of the journey, they two children remained silent. They spent quite some time trying to cool down the sprouting blisters from their palms. After a long walk under the humid heat, they even had to worry about their feet getting blistered from their boots.

Things didn't seem to be going so well for them. Yet, they kept on going. Eventually, Shirmaya left out of sight, the sun began to drop down the western horizon. Sapphire felt her stomach grumble as they walked. There were quite a few fish in the river but they could not afford to fish just then. When darkness started to spread throughout the winding valley, walking along the edge of the river didn't seem like a good idea, especially not with awakening of the roosting blood-birds.

'We'll camp for tonight,' said Archie.

'Here?'

'Where else?'

Sapphire looked around. There was nothing habitable about the environment around them. The sound of the flowing river was loud enough and the vegetation was thick.

'We'll... need to make a fire,' said Archestrian. He then stared at the fish, barely visible beneath the water surface, 'and hunt something.'

'Using what?' Sapphire demanded as the squinted her eyes at him.

She found Archestrian's fishing methods amusing, and rather unexpected. For two hours. The boy simply stood at the river band, knees bent as he stalked for fish like a long-beak. He didn't move a muscle as he did, but once the fish got close enough her swooped his hands him to shove the fish onto shore. It was tiresome and not too effective either. But he managed to catch at least three arm sized fish. Meanwhile, Sapphire busied herself with the fire. She went around, trying to find any dry branches and if she was lucky, something to make a fire.

Finding dry branches was easy. So was finding tinder. But making a spark was the hard part. She lost so much patience she balled the tinder in her hands and gave out an exasperated sigh.

The tinder started to smoke.

The cause was unknown but Sapphire was grateful for it.

Soon, the children were eating skewered roasted fish out of a stick. The flesh was warm and juicy. There wasn't much flavor, but they could hardly complain. While they ate under the foliage of a nearby tree, blood-birds swooped down into the river to fish. Sir Cedric always argued the blood-birds weren't birds. They didn't have feathers, only membrane stretched wings with a backward curved horn on their foreheads. They might not be taller than a foot but if caught in the middle of a swarm, the consequences are never pretty to look at.

'Where will we go? If they stopped searching for us...'

'I don't know.'

'Well... goodnight then.'

Sapphire slept with her eyes facing the stars.