Alnwick Chronicles

Seven

Adalyn

We're screwed.

We're surrounded on both sides by approximately 25-30 people and I see no way out of the situation. There's an open door a few feet ahead on our right, but I doubt four beaten up teenagers can escape from right in front of a couple dozen trained assassins just like that.

"Not bad. Not bad at all," Elvira's wearing a mocking smirk. She motions with her hand for all her minions to stand down. "But you didn't actually think you'd get away, did you?"

On my left, I see Aerith shaking with frustration. "You can't just lock us up for no reason, you have no right." She sounds like a caged animal.

Elvira laughs outright. "Can't we?"

In a desperate attempt, Aerith snatches the blade still in Kelly's hands and throws it towards Elvira as forcefully as she can. It flies through the air for barely a few seconds before being deflected by another knife sent by one of the guards. But it manages to wipe the grin off Elvira's face.

"Seize them," she commands, before marching towards the door I'd seen earlier. Then, for the third time in the past 24 hours, our hands are tied up behind our backs and we're forced to walk through the same door, only this time we're flanked by way more people.

***

We're back in the room where we first spoke to Wren, except this time there's four of us plus six armed guards standing right behind. Not to mention we've been tied to the chairs.

Elvira disappeared somewhere when we got here. Now, she enters from the same back door she used last time. She's holding the backpacks we had with us when we were coming to Old Alnwick. I thought they had been left in the marketplace, just lying on the ground somewhere. They don't contain much: just the basic necessities. We'd brought food too, but we finished all of it. Honestly, I'm not surprised she has them.

She takes a seat in front of us, like last time, and plonks the three bags on the desk. Then she just observes us silently for a full minute.

"What. The. Hell?" she finally says. None of us bothers explaining ourselves, so she goes on. "You killed one of them?!" I get the feeling she only just found out. She wouldn't have been smirking earlier if she'd known. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Kelly become paler.

On getting no other reaction from us, El dumps all the contents of the bags in front of us and starts rifling through them. "What do we have here?" she says, holding up the Ashford pouch.

Sirens go off in my head as I realise I'd kept the letter in it. The one that says 'ailey lost vin'. I'd totally forgotten about it. It doesn't make any sense to us, but Elvira will probably be able to decipher it. And I don't trust her with the information.

She finds the letter and her brows furrow when she reads it. All of a sudden, she just gets up and leaves. "Lock em!" she calls behind her back, and the guards comply. Soon, the four of us find ourselves trapped yet again.

"Ughhhh!" Aerith voices all our thoughts.

I turn to say something, but stop when I notice Skyla smiling. "How are you happy right now?!" Incredulity colours my voice.

"She left the door open," she says simply.

"Uh, no she didn't."

"She means that door," Kelly tilts her head forward with a gleam in her eyes. Then it hits me. Elvira forgot about the door she herself came in from. As did I. In my defence, it looks exactly like the walls.

"Okay, how do we get out of these chairs?" I ask.

"I wish I hadn't thrown that blade," Aerith mumbles, looking down.

"It's fine, Aer." says Skyla. When Aerith doesn't reply or look up, Skyla continues, "Remember that pocket knife you gave me on my 17th birthday? I carry it with me to most places." At this, Aerith's head shoots up and she looks at Skyla with disbelief.

"Really?"

"Yep. And I brought here too."

"Where is it?"

"There."

We all look at the table and sure enough, near the edge, under one of Skyla's t-shirts is a sheathed pocket knife with a wooden handle.

I turn my gaze back to her. She leans forward and makes a small hop, successfully moving her chair a few inches forward. "Aerith and Kelly, get back to back. Adalyn, in-between."

I know what she means, and what she intends to do. Without questioning, the three of us start to lean-hop-drag our chairs too, till we get into position. The door must be soundproof, as no one from outside interrupts.

Skyla reaches the table and grips the knife between her teeth. Then she drops it onto my lap, which is right behind Aerith's back, where her hands are tied. Aerith takes the knife and gets to work on the ropes binding Kelly's hands, which are close to hers, as they're sitting back to back. Once her hands are free, Kelly unties the rest of the rope from around her and then cuts the rest of us loose.

Aerith goes over to Elvira's door and cracks it open an inch, just enough to look through without being seen herself. "It's clear," she whispers, stepping inside. We are quick to follow.

Aerith

We find ourselves in a narrow, dimly lit corridor stretching out on both sides with an extremely high ceiling and no doors or tunnels leading elsewhere.

"In which direction should we go?" asks Adalyn.

"We should probably go left, because that's in the general direction of the exit," answers Skyla. Running one hand along the wall, I take a few steps further into the left side of the corridor.

"No, you're off by at least 20 feet," responds Adalyn.

"Shhh! There could be someone in here." Kelly silences them both.

I stop walking when my hand comes across something on the wall. I squint to see it in the darkness. It looks like some sort of lever. It's made of iron and is barely bigger than my hand. I beckon the others to where I am, deep into the left wing of the corridor.

"Is that-" Skyla says when she sees it.

"Don't pull it!" Adalyn interrupts. "Who knows what it-" I pull it.

There's a soft grinding noise as the roof over our heads opens upward. A trapdoor in the roof, to be precise. And a rope ladder falls down from it. I can see a starry sky through the opening. I turn to the others with a triumphant grin.

Suddenly, we hear a loud thud from the room we were in, followed by heavy footsteps. There's no more time to celebrate.

"COME ON!" Skyla whisper-shouts and starts climbing up the ladder, with Kelly and Adalyn right behind. I bring up the rear. When I'm about halfway up, the door to the corridor bursts open and in come five guards. "THERE THEY ARE!" one of them shouts and they sprint towards us. I double my climbing speed, but one guard manages to catch hold of my ankle and starts to yank me down.

"ADALYN!" I yell as I struggle against the guard's grip. "A little help?!" Very heroic, I know. But I'm not going to say "Leave me and save yourselves!" with a dramatic gasp like in fairy tales.

His face appears in the opening and he hands me a big stick. Then, while I'm thrashing guards with it, he tries to pull the ladder up, and me with it. But the guard holding my foot has already started climbing, and it's too heavy for my brother. He grabs my arms instead.

"On the count of three, I'm going to pull you up. You need to somehow close this though, okay?" he tells me hurriedly.

This isn't a time to argue. I slip off the boot on my foot, and as it falls, the guard clutching it gets disbalanced. Only for a second, but it's enough.

Adalyn hauls me up with all his strength and I manage to kick the trapdoor shut on the way. We fall on the grass outside as Skyla and Kelly roll a giant boulder on top of the door, sealing in everyone inside.