The Immortal Blade Trilogy: Book #1: Fate's Destiny.

The Escape.

When I wake up, I find myself wrapped in Quinlan's arms. I had cried myself to sleep last night because of Cassandra's death. I looked up at Quinlan's face to find him looking down at me. I blush, and avoid his eyes. "Good morning." He says and smiles. "Good morning." I say and return the smile while looking into his eyes. "Ready to escape?" He asks, and I assume he's being sarcastic. "Pfft... yeah right..." I say. "What? I'm serious!" He says and sits up. "What?" I say as I sit up also. "We're escaping today. Just follow my lead." He says. I look at him confused. "Yes, sir." I say and salute. He laughs.

"She is definitely the one. I've been watching her, father! She fights like her, she looks like her, she acts like her-" "How do you know what she acts like?" The king says, angrily. "Because, I dined with her." The prince replies calmly. "She is good with a sword. She showed me that after our... talk. She is good with daggers. You watch the arena games, you know! She's good with a bow. She shoots in her underground forest back home, you know this too because you're the one who ordered the spies to spy on her! How could this not be her?" "Because she isn't supposed to want to sacrifice her life for her younger brother." The king replies, while leaning on his throne. "Well, maybe she's different that you expected." "She's not!" The king yells. "Yes, father." The prince replies after thinking for a minute, then bows and walks away.

"What about Bentley?" I ask Quinlan. "We have to walk with him to get into the starting room, right?" He answers me. I think for a minute, wondering if this plan might actually work. "It's worth a try." I say. "The worst punishment we could get is another whipping." I add. "Yes, and this time, I'll take your whips." He says, then frowns. "What is it?" I ask, noticing he looks a little troubled. "Why did you do that? I just can't stand the thought of you getting whipped like that! I can't believe they would actually dare to lay a hand on you, or... a whip in this case." "Why wouldn't they? I'm just a normal girl. Just another prisoner. And how did you know my name that first time we met?" I ask, confused. "It's complicated." Was his reply. "But... what-" I'm interrupted by our door opening and two guards escorting us out of the room. We walk and pick up another 10 children before we pick up Bentley. "Bentley!" I whisper to him. "What?" He whispers back. "Follow us!" I say quietly. He nods and I fall over as planned. We were in the middle of the pack, but we were being passed up by all the children so we were nearing the back. The two guards in the front didn't notice, and the two guards in the back would soon. Quinlan falls over and lays on his stomach and Bentley does also, just in the nick of time. The rest of the children pass us up without even noticing us, and the two guards are looking up, so they don't notice us either. Our plan was going as planned, so far. We stayed down until the children were out of sight, then we quietly got up and snuck back towards our cell. We had no idea where the exit was, so we would just have to look. Too bad we couldn't get our weapons from the starting room first, but if we did that we would get caught because of all the guards in that room. We would just have to steal some weapons, I guess. 

We snuck around for probably a half hour before we came to the armoury. It was a relatively big room, but not too big. It held the armour on the left side, and the weapons on the right. There were only two guards in the room right now, getting new weapons for some reason. They didn't hear us though, so that was good or we would be toast. We all snuck to the wall, right next to the door, and waited, for what? I don't know, but we waited for something. Quinlan was definitely the quietest of us all, and I don't know how, but he made me sound loud! And I am a very quiet person. Very light on my feet. Bentley, on the other hand, was always kicking the floor and tripping over his own feet. We waited right outside that room for what seemed like five minutes, until Quinlan slipped into the room without making a sound. Quieter than a mouse. It didn't even seem like he was touching the ground, because he was so quiet. I followed him, almost as quietly and motioned for Bentley to stay. We might be able to sneak a few weapons and kill these guards then have Bentley come in. He was just so loud! The guards didn't hear anything and the only thing they did was fall to the ground when they got a sword through their hearts. I went out and got Bentley. We then grabbed our weapons and dressed ourselves in armour. First the leather vests, gloves and pants, then either the chain-mail or scale-mail hauberks, Quinlan and I chose scale-mail and Bentley chose chain-mail. It didn't really matter anyways, we were just using them as a disguise. Right now, our outfits weighed about 100 lbs each, but don't worry, we still have more to put on! The plate armour was next. Plate armour breastplate, plate armour pauldrons, plate armour couters, tassets, poleyns, bracers, grieves, and sabatons. Then came the helmets. And the spears. Just for decoration. Now our armour weighed almost 250 lbs! I could barely walk, and Quinlan was afraid I would get crushed, but I was determined to wear it. Anyways, this was the only way, right?

We got out of the armoury, and heard the alarm bells ringing. We saw guards running everywhere and Quinlan stopped one of them and asked what happened. "You didn't hear? The prisoner. The special girl. She escaped!" He yelled and ran off. Quinlan looked at me and I looked back at him, very confused. "Get to your stations! Everybody! If your with the forest patrol, get outside now, their leaving!" One of the guards yelled. One of the guards next to us looked alarmed and started running towards the back of the building. I assumed he was part of the forest patrol and motioned for Bentley and Quinlan to follow. I was right, of course, and we were outside, joining the patrol in no time. The patrol had a 2 x 16 formation, so one of us had to go in the row ahead. Bentley volunteered to go in the row ahead, and Quinlan and I would be in the row right behind him. This armour was getting really heavy. It felt almost 300 lbs, but that was just because I was tiring. It was hot too! I was sweating like crazy. We got in formation and I was two rows from the back. We started marching off to the forest that looked to be about five miles away. I didn't know if I would be able to carry this weight much longer. We only got about 5 miles before I felt like I was going to faint. 'I have to keep going!' I kept telling myself. And when I felt like I was going to die, I would think of Timlin, Mavricks, and father back home. That is what pushed me the next mile. One more mile left. I couldn't do this. I can't! I smacked Quinlan with my right arm and whispered that I couldn't keep walking anymore. He looked at me with concern and then tripped me. 'What was that for?!' Was my first thought. Quinlan came over there and looked as if he was just about to punch me, when Bentley came up and stopped him. "What do you think your doing?!" Bentley yelled. "He kicked me!" Quinlan roared and pointed at me. 'What? I'm not a boy...' Was my second thought before I understood what he was doing. He was trying to give me some time to rest while arguing with Bentley. What I didn't understand was what he hoped to accomplish. I'm just going to have to get up and march again, in like, 30 seconds. The two guards behind us came over and broke up the fight between Bentley and Quinlan. The captain of the group, which just so happened to be the captain that broke Quinlan's arm, came over and pushed everyone back into line. "You!" He said as he pointed at Quinlan, "You have to carry him now! That is your punishment. I thought you'd know better by now." He said, talking to Quinlan, but talking about me when he said 'carry him'. Now I see what he was doing! He knew the captain would make him carry me! How did he know that...? The captain walked over to me and stopped right in front of my face. "Lucky you. You get to get robbed of your pride. Ha!" He said, then walked back to the front of the formation and ordered everyone to march again. I climbed onto Quinlan's back and felt so guilty, it hurt. Quinlan was carrying about 600 lbs right now. And he had to carry it for another mile! How were we going to sneak out of the group? I guess we'll just wait and see. I leaned my head down to Quinlan's ear and whispered "I'm sorry." He shook his head, and that was it. 

We finally got to the edge of the trees and Quinlan set me down. The guard behind us hit Quinlan and asked, "What are you doing? You're supposed to be carrying him!" "I got to go... you know..." Quinlan said, indicating that he had to use the facilities. I looked back at the guard then imitated Quinlan. "Uh... me too..." I smacked Bentley and nodded my head in Quinlan's direction. "Well, I might as well also then." The guard behind us said. We started walking until the forest concealed us, then started taking our armour off. Except for me, who just left it on, because otherwise he would see that I'm a girl. The guard took off his breastplate, pauldrons, and helmet before I decapitated him. I don't know why it bothered me so much, but I felt so guilty after that. I just looked down at the body and head, separated, and it bothered me. It really did! I looked at it for a while longer, then it started spinning, it turned sideways. Thump. Darkness.