Whispers of Dragons

Chapter 7

We ran for what felt like hours. The passage twisted and turned until I no longer knew if we were still heading in the same direction. My lungs worked overtime to take in breaths and my heart pounded so loud I felt like it was giving away our location. After who knows how long, I stopped running and let go of Will's hand to put my hands on my knees to catch my breath. "Will," I gasped. "Can we just... take a break... please?" I begged. Will skidded to a stop beside me and breathed heavily.

"Ok, fine, but only for a little while." He consented. He went to lean against the wall of the passage as he also tried to catch his breath, though he seemed less winded than I was. Once I could breathe again, I straightened up to stare at Will. He had his eyes closed and I hated to break the peaceful expression on his face, but I needed answers.

"How long did you say you've been at the palace?" I questioned. Will's eyes flashed open and his face looked guarded.

"I didn't, but it's probably been about two weeks or so." He responded carefully. I walked away from Will and with my back to him, I stated my observation.

"You say you've only been in the palace a couple of weeks, but this passage would have taken much longer to build so that means it must have been here before you came. So if that's true, then how did you know about it?" I heard noises and turned around to face Will again. He straightened up from leaning against the wall and started slowly pacing. After he had been pacing for a couple of minutes, I demanded, "Well?" He stopped pacing but still wouldn't meet my eyes as he shifted from foot to foot.

I growled and shoved him against the wall before putting my knife against his throat. The end of his mouth twitched up before settling back into a neutral expression. As I watched, Will tried to suppress a another smile but failed and started chuckling before wincing as the edge of the knife dug into his skin. I sighed in annoyance and pulled the knife away. "What?" I demanded, annoyed. Will grinned.

"This seems to be becoming a common trend for you and I isn't it?" he asked, amused. When he saw my confused expression, he elaborated. "The knife? You really do love that knife you know." He joked. I glared and he sighed in response. "Look Clara, I've already told you that I'm not a spy. Believe me or don't, that's your choice but at one point or another you're going to have to start trusting someone and considering you don't know where you are in this tunnel, I might be a pretty good place to start." he reasoned. I thought that over and realized he was right so I stepped away.

"Lead the way," I said sassily, making overly large gestures for him to keep walking.

We walked in silence for a couple of minutes before he started talking again. "You're right though, I do owe you an explanation. I found out about the passage by a reliable source. I can't tell you who that is yet because I can't trust you yet." As I started to protest, he cut me off again, "You ARE the one who just held a knife to my throat. Again." I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, when will you tell me who this 'source' is?" I asked.

"Well, you weren't supposed to know about them until later on but considering the circumstances, I think it'd be better if you met them now. I'm taking you to their meeting location." I stared hard at him.

"You're telling me there's a passage in the castle that leads directly to their meeting place?" I questioned in disbelief.

"No, but once we get to the end of the passage it's not too far away by foot. Wait a minute, yeah, here's the exit." Will tapped lightly on a couple of different bricks in the wall and eventually, he hit one that gave off a deep sound. After that, he stepped back and motioned for me to do the same. Backing away, I watched as he used the heel of his foot to kick the brick, leaving a hole in the wall. Will reached his arm down the hole and suddenly a large portion of the wall swung inwards and exposed a street bathed in low light. He gestured for me to step through and I took my first leap of faith, passing through the passage into the unknown, again.