To Hunt A Magick

Chapter Nine: Jack's Jailbreak

Jack sat staring at the tall walls of the pound, his heart in his throat, she was in there, he could feel it. They just had to wait until nightfall before they could even try to rescue her. As he sat waiting Jack thought about the past few days, all the planning they had done, all the arguing, and his final talk with Lady Alethea.

Jack shook his head, he could feel the small vial she had given him in his pocket, her words echoing in his ears, "Use this to reveal the truth of the past but take care, you have to use it at the right time."

Jack was not sure when the right time would be, but he was sure of one thing, he was about to set Rainie free. Jack looked over at Caleb, who was whispering softly with Saffron, and then his eyes fell on Dawn, who was sleeping peacefully a few feet away.

Jack had fought hard against Saffron and Dawn coming with them, but they both had insisted on it. Saffron, said she may need to heal Rainie, and Dawn said that Rainie would be more likely to come with them if she was there because she would do anything for her, and Jack sadly could not argue against either statement, but he feared what would happen if they got caught.

Both Saffron and Dawn would probably be killed or sold, and Jack and Caleb would definitely be killed, but they all agreed, Rainie needed to be saved. At long last, the sun went down, and with a nod from Caleb, Jack quietly woke Dawn.

After Dawn was awake, they all quietly edged down the hillside from their hiding spot, and quietly approached the great walls, their plan was simple, find the spot where the water cut through the walls, break the bars, and sneak in. The tough part was that they had to be quick and quiet and avoid being seen by the night guards. After circling the wall twice, they finally found the spot they were looking for. A little arched hole big enough for two small people to squeeze through at a time, with metal bars, was set in at the base of the wall, on the backside facing some trees, opposite where they had been hiding.

Caleb kneeled down in the stream of water and started trying to cut the bars, but he was having no luck, the metal would not even scratch. Jack, kneeled, grabbed a bar, and tried to jerk it lose, but it would not budge at all. Jack shook his head, and stood up, what were they going to do?

Caleb, Jack, and Saffron all stood together quietly discussing the issue of getting inside when suddenly, the cold night turned very warm. Looking around for what was causing the heat, Jack spotted Dawn kneeling in the water, her hands on the metal bars, a small red glow was coming from her hands.

His mouth falling open, Jack stared in amazement, as one by one, Dawn managed to melt the bars, and before long, she had made a hole big enough for them to squeeze through. Jack looked at her, "How did you?"

Dawn shrugged, "I create light, and light creates heat. How do you think we stayed warm even with such a little fire? Come on, we need to find Rainie."

Jack nodded, "Right, hopefully, we will find her quickly."

One by one they squeezed through the little hole, and they emerged into the pound yard. The place looked creepy in the cool moonlight. There were hundreds of little buildings with heavy locks on them, all in rows, at the far end he could see a stable, there were random poles scattered throughout the yard, there were small metal cages, stacked near the wall, each of the cages were big enough for a small dog to fit in. Looking around Jack tried to figure out where they should look. How would they ever find her?

Trembling Dawn whispered, "She will be in one of the buildings, they tend to shove people of the same type into a building, and the buildings are marked with a symbol for what type is in it."

Saffron shook her head, "That is wrong. What if they do not have a type? And what are those poles for?"

Dawn sadly whispered, "Then they cage you, in one of those metal cages, and they leave you in it until you show them what you can do or until they kill you for not being a good dog. The poles are part of the training, they put a muzzle on you and tie your muzzle to a point on the pole, so your feet do not touch the ground and then they spend the day flogging you or dousing you in cold water or even hitting you with sticks.