A Whole New Mystery To...

Chapter 12

Here I am again!!!!! The cliffhanger has been... RESOLVED!!!!!! I'm updating this early because of previous cases where I was late to update, so sorry!!!! READ ON!!!!! :)

...A young boy maybe a year older than Will standing in a cell. He had shaggy, brown hair that looked like it needed a cut and hazel eyes. He was also about a head taller than Will.

"How did you get out?" he marveled. I glanced to Halt uncertainly, not sure what he would do. I hoped we would help the boy; he looked to be in bad shape, and was too skinny to be comfortable.

"Can you help me too?" he asked. He sounded so hopeful, he had probably been in here for a while. In response, Halt strode over to his cell, unlocked the door, and took off the restraints. He grinned at Halt gratefully.

"Thanks sir!" Halt nodded.

"What's your name boy? And how did you end up here?" The boy gave another wide smile and answered,

"My name's Tobias. I'm an apprentice guard and my company comander thought it would be a good idea for us to get some hands-on experience. We were guarding the fissure and I thought I heard something happening so I slipped away at nightfall to investigate." He grimaced. "Worst mistake ever that was! I saw a massive bridge in construction. It was huge! I got closer and some of the wargals saw me. I think they were about to kill me, but then Morgarath himself appeared! Said I might be able to answer some of his questions." he spread his hands and continued. "And now I'm here. Not for long though!" His smile reappeared on the last statement.

Halt asked a few more questions about where he lived (which happened to be Meric, Gilan's home fief) and then we were on our way again, Tobias tagging along next to Wil. They were talking animately before Halt glared at them to be quiet and gave them a lecture on staying unnoticed so that, and I quote directly here, 'quite possibly the people in Nihon-Ja might not hear them'. To which Will responded with the question about Nihon-Ja's whereabouts and a billion others. Halt sighed.

"Just be quiet okay." He told them, clearly annoyed with the delay.

"Okay!" They chorused happily. Halt glared at them and they nodded still grinning. Tobias pretended to zip his mouth shut and throw away the key. Halt waited silently at the corner and I wondered why he had stopped. Then I heard footsteps, only one pair of them, and I caught onto Halt's idea: he was going to knock the guard out.

He gestured for us to back up quietly, and I accidentally bumped into Evanlyn as I was back pedaling. She let out a small squeak of surprise before slapping a hand over her mouth. Luckily, it appeared that the lone guard hadn't heard the slight noise. Halt crouched and as the guard turned the corner, he punched him in the stomach, driving the air out of him, and slapped a hand over his mouth. The guard struggled for about a minute before he slumped forward, unconscious.

"Now what do we do with him?" Gilan asked. He looked around at the surrounding cells and pointed at one. "We could stick him in a cell so he can't get out." He suggested. Halt nodded thoughtfully.

"We also need to make sure he can't alert the other guards either if he starts yelling. I'll take care of it." He told Gilan quick instructions to get to the room where Morgarath had put their weapons and headed back down the hallway.
We all followed Gilan single file, Will bringing up the rear. Eventually we reached the room Halt had described and Gilan motioned for us to stay in the hallway while he snuck in. Apparently some careless guard had forgotten to close and lock the door because it was ajar and the dark room could be seen beyond.

Slowly and silently, Gilan slipped into the room and scanned the interior. Even from only a few feet away from him, Gilan was just an indistinct blob of darkness on a backdrop of lighter darkness. As he moved farther into the room I quickly lost sight of him. Until he popped up a foot away from the entrance, arms loaded with weapons.
He handed Tobias a sword, Evanlyn a small but sharp dagger, and Sophie and I each got a large knife and a slightly smaller one, while Gilan and Will had their ranger weapons, with Gilan carrying Halt's stuff as well. He gestured us into the room.

"Come on. There's some other stuff in there, some armor and some extra weapons if you want them." He turned around to go back in before he seemed to remember something. "Oh and Sophie, Abbey, if you don't want the daggers you can take a sword or something. Although there's only a couple of small swords, most of them are the heavy, unwieldy swords that the wargals use." Then he strode back into the dark storeroom. As my eyes adjusted I could make out racks upon racks of weapons that carried weapons from huge broadswords to small stabbing daggers, about the size of the ones Sophie and I had been given. As I looked around in awe a though occurred to me and I voiced it aloud to Gilan.

"Wait, how did Halt discover this room in the first place?" Gilan shrugged as he walked to the back.

"I don't know, but you can ask him when he gets back from." He shot a glance back at Tobias who was studying a rack of short stabbing swords. "And if you don't like that sword feel free to pick something else. I just figured since you were from Battleschool you would feel most comfortable with a sword." Tobias looked up at his name and nodded.

"Well you were right. This sword should do it. Although I would like a short sword or maybe a knife just in case." Gilan smiled.

"Always a good idea to have a back up." I noticed as this exchange was going on Evanlyn was looking through an odd assortment of daggers. I walked over to her and scanned through the rack. I pointed one out to her. It was small but sharp, and had a serrated edge on one side.

"That looks dangerous. It's small too so you'd probably be able to use easy. I know you don't have much experience with that kind of thing." Then I shrugged and whispered, "unless it's a sling." She looked at me confused.

"How did yo-"

"I know who you are. Sophie and I know lots about this world." Evanlyn looked surprised at this. "Although," I added as an afterthought, "this isn't how it happened when we read about it." Her eyes widened.

"Read about it? You read about us?" I smiled.

"Yep. But this didn't happen. You were in it. And you didn't tell Will you were really Cassandra until you were both sailing away to Skandia as slaves. Gilan and Will had already guessed you were more than a maid though." She looked crestfallen that she hadn't been able to uphold her disguise.

"Oh." Then her face lit up. "At least I have people that already know." She smiled at me warmly and picked the dagger I had pointed out for her. "And thanks for the recommendation. I do believe it's a good choice." I nodded in acknowledgement and walked over to Sophie. She was standing in from of a rack with armor. She heard me approaching and turned around nodding at the armor in front of her.

"This might be helpful." I nodded agreement and stepped up to the rack. I saw metal breastplates, chain mail, arm guards and comical helmets.

"Maybe if we had chain mail and arm guards? That would probably be the most helpful in a fight." I looked over to Gilan who was animator discussing weapons with Tobias. "Gilan!" I called across the intervening space. He looked around before his eyes lit in me.

"Yes?" I gestured to the armor rack.

"Should we get some armor? Chain mail and arm guards maybe?" Gilan shook his head.

"No chain mail. That'll make too much noise if we're trying to sneak out." He examined the arm guards. "Although the metal arm guards could come in handy if we get in a fight. You could use those." I smiled and grabbed some for Sophie, Evanlyn, Tobias, and myself. I turned back to Gilan.

"So you and Will need any?" Gilan hesitated before calling Will, who was at the opposite end of the room.

"Will! Do you want some metal arm guards? Or do you think they'll get in your way." Will shook his head.

"No. I'll just stick to what I'm used to." Gilan nodded assent.

"And I will too. So none for us. And I'd assume Halt would be the same. Speak of the devil here he is now." I instantly turned around to see Halt not a meter from us.

"We need to get going." He said gruffly.

Ok I'll just end it there. Otherwise I'll just keep going forever. Which I'm sure you guys would like, except it would take too long. Anyways, BYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!