Rage and Rebellion (Histories of Havenhearth)

8.2 Andri

The lid of the box scraped open, and they stood as if they were mummified corpses, eyes closed, completely still. They heard a small chuckle and a shout, then a shout back, and the lid of the box scraped back closed again. It was difficult to ascertain and interpret the different noises. It seemed an interminable time until all the sound died down. But they waited until it did, and the courtyard was quiet again.
Andri was feeling a strange sensation of being let down, or anti-climax. Nothing seemed to be happening, and he was worked up over the idea of breaking out, he felt that he could never manage another hour in the box. And especially not deep and absolute silence with an air of finality about it. Andri gave it a little while longer, forcing himself to count to one hundred slowly. Then rather than give in to helplessness, he made the call.
"It's time Gwin." Andri whispered, "Careful with your back." He heard a long exhale.
"Give me your hand," he offered her his arm and Gwinael groped around until she found it, giving his hand a little squeeze before pulling down hard as she managed to slide her body down a few inches. Presumably finding her footing she went to another few until she must have been on her knees. It was working. She kept wriggling down, gasping as she did from the pain in her back, as every move against her clothing sent fresh pain through her body. "I can feel blood all over my back," she said quietly. But then she was on her hands and knees. The hole was big enough- he had done a good job. She stopped, remaining motionless and Andri held his breath. Nothing seemed to move. Nothing seemed to make any sounds, but nobody seemed to have heard anything. Sweat dripped off of Andri- nervous sweat that mixed with the dust and dirt of the small box they were in. "You're out?" He whispered, the exhaustion and claustrophobia and dehydration he felt seemed to disappear in an instant as the adrenaline kicked in.
"I'm out." She confirmed in a voice so quiet it was nearly imperceptible, "and hidden too, there's a pile of hay here,"
"Then what?" Gwinael pulled herself to her feet. "An empty alleyway."
"No guards from upper windows?"
"Can't tell, it's dark,"
"And how much space behind the hay?"
"Should be enough for all of us." Andri spoke to the combattant beside him. "We're going to move out, one by one, you'll have to work your way over here, drop to your knees and back your way out. We wait until we are outside before deciding what's next." Gwinael waited patiently for the others, one by one, to come out, and they all managed to do so, after what felt like an absolute age. Each one of them breathed a sigh of relief and stretched their legs, and arms, looking up into the rainy sky, feeling the drops on their faces. It was a miracle they could do this and still be hidden by hay.
"If I may-" one of the combattants offered, a young, quiet girl with curly hair and large teeth. "Yes, Pendlewick?"
"Our uniforms... if we cover ourselves in mud, I bet if we are spotted we wouldn't necessarily be recognised,"
"Great idea, let's do it," two at a time dropped to the ground and rolled, muddying themselves. "What about our faces?"
"A little mud on the face probably wouldn't be a bad thing," Gwinael offered, taking a large scoop and spreading it over her cheeks. The others did the same. Andri spoke as they did.
"Ok, we're going out together now, and we are going to head out of the city, to the lee of the walls. We will circle around until we get to the port. If we are lucky, the guards and anyone who is still in the city will be watching for the supply column, and out towards Tainish lines rather than at us. On the other hand, if anyone does happen to see us, I don't think we look like much covered in this mud, we probably look like beggars, if they do recognize us, we scatter and aim to make for the port ourselves, got it?" Nods all around.
"quietly, no sound at all. We move out...now!"
They went out from behind the hay together, Andri out front and Longstream, Gwinael, Pendlewick and the two others, running lightly in the shadows down the alleyways, unsure of where they were going. After several minutes Andri stopped them for a rest- they had not been seen but they were not sure where they were or where they were going. It was too easy, Andri thought, soon something must go wrong and someone would find the box empty. But that hadn't happened yet.
They continued through at a run and somehow reached the gatehouse out of the old walls, and still they had not been seen. Or if they had, nothing had seemed to come of it. They came out and kept to the wall, circling away from the sounds of battle being fought on the plains and beyond in the hills. They got around to the point where they could see the Tainish ships in the river when finally, their luck ran out, and arrows started being fired at them. Arrows whipped by Andri's face as he dropped to the ground - they were coming from the ships- it seems the Tainish had mistaken them for Cassioni rebels? "Pendlewick's been hit!" Andri heard Gwinael call out, still alive and breathing. But then she was gone, running towards the river away from the town walls screaming "hold your fire! I'm Tainish! We are Tainish!!" Andri picked up Pendlewick, whose left thigh was pierced by an arrow, threw the girl over her shoulder and followed her friend. In spite of hand to hand combat at the river's edge, no other arrows came towards them and then they were nearly at the riverbank when Andri saw that Gwinael was about to be mowed down by a rider in a horse, the sword held high, ready to swing.
"Gwin!" he screamed out.
It was the second in command, bearing down on his friend, a look of fury in her eyes.
She heard the scream and turned to face the rider, apparently frozen in fear since she wasn't moving. But as the rider's sword started to come down on her, she threw her body to the ground, crashing down hard. Her body then seemed to jolt up into the air before coming down again, along with that of the rider, who crashed down beside her with a thud. The pounding hooves of the horse continued towards the river. Gwinael sprang to her feet as Andri reached her, unwinding something around her wrist. How did you-?" He trailed off.
Somehow she had fashioned a sling, managed to get it to hook around the sword arm of her attacker, and drag her off of her horse: this girl was the most amazing girl Andri she ever met- one who wasn't sure of herself as a combattant, but had shown, on several occasions now, to be the bravest, cleverest combattant in the protectorate, Andri was sure of it. Then they heard cheering from ahead on the ship as five of them hurried to the riverbank. Andri with a gash in his forehead that he wasn't even sure where he had gotten it from, blinded with blood so that he could barely see where he was going.