Nada's Escape

36- Paper Hunt.

I trail Darcell through the hedge-paths. He ducks through near invisible gaps in the shrubbery without a word, peeking back only every hundred breaths or so to make sure I'm still following. I have to strain to keep up, twisting paths shifting at the edges of my vision.

Every tiny gap in the hedges that Darcell leaps through reveals some new marvel. Greens and reds leer past every corner; lavender field and rose bed and ancient willow-ed creek whisk by too quickly to remember. I spend my breaths rushing after Darcell, hesitation fading away in the race to experience the next crazy garden path.

My speed is hampered by the long sleeves and shapeless ankle length skirt of the hideous nightgown I'd found myself in. On the first snag I am more than happy to tear through the cotton to remove these impediments, using it to pull my hair away from my face and the excess wrapped around my wrists on the fly.

Darcell at this moment glances back, offering me a challenging grin. My new outfit satisfies the ferocity of my spirit and I quicken my pace in response, almost catching Darcell before he squeezes through a bramble patch, onto the next adventure.

Finally I scramble over a trellis to drop into a tropical rainforest. The soaring trees cast cool, twilight shade and I wonder how I hadn't seen the canopy from Seven. Amongst the crowding bracken there is no discernible path, just slight gaps which I swish through to catch Darcell.

As a wall looms through the foliage ahead Darcell turns, "You coming?"

"How?" I ask, glaring at the smoothed granite walls; not as high as Seven's, but certainly an imposing barbarian fortress. Darcell rolls his eyes, ignoring me and vaults onto the bottom branch of the fig beside us. I pull myself up a little less gracefully and follow his lithe form as he climbs his way through the branches. I try to focus on the next step of the process as determination spurs me to not get left behind.

Another tree strangled by a fig offers the perfect ladder to a third tree with a branch draped lazily down over the wall. The inside of the wall I see is uneven, dotted with chunky hand holds. By the time I drop to the grass on the inside of the wall Darcell is nowhere to be seen.

There is only one plain brick building crouching in under the walls and I creep to it with trepidation. Surely, with walls this high there is something dangerous inside. The door hangs half open so I sneak into a room compartmentalised with filing cabinets. Not quite what I was expecting.

Frowning, I watch as Darcell traces a finger along the labels, clicking his tongue. Following him, I scan for useful labels. They are mundane gibberish, scrawled by a hand apparently unaware of sorting methods. Though my heart is pumping from the exercise and the thrill of the forbidden, I'm not sure this is exciting enough to have warranted the energy. Then I really take in masses of information that must be contained in this one tiny room. Just where to find the relevant pieces?

"Do they keep maps in here, do you think?" I broach as Darcell finally opens a cabinet. He doesn't respond, concerned only with flipping through folder labels. I shrug and open a random drawer with a label not yet yellowed with age. Postings, it says over a date. Only one of the hanging files is filled, and I flick through its contents. Just printed lists of names and times.

"Whatcha looking at?" Darcell asks, "Anything exciting?" I look over as he extracts a file from his drawer.

"Probably not." I reply casually, seizing the list- possibly a list of patrols.

"Come see this then." He says as he spread the folder open on the floor in front of his crossed legs. "You ought to be interested at the direction the New Life scheme has taken. You know the brochure I showed you the other day? Super top secret."

"So how do you know all this? And why are you telling me?"

"Plundering archive centres like this, and my father's desk. Tracing your files was difficult though... Anyway, I'm hoping you won't dob me in, but of course this is classified and I can't know it. But this way I get the full story and I don't have to pledge to keep it secret. The big people don't even know what I know." He pulls a thick folded booklet from the stack and holds it aloft in triumph.

"I've found you Seven Falls," he proclaims. I hear a scraping groan from outside. Darcell is absorbed in carefully unfolding his booklet into the wavy green lines of a topographic map.

"What was that?" I ask, shifting uncomfortably. Darcell pauses and we both listen at a sound like bricks scraping together. He meets my eyes, serious with worry.

"Someone's opening the gates. Let's get out of here."

I nod and slide the folded sheets of paper under the side of my underwear, cursing the impractical pocket-less nightgown the Huntsmen had dressed me in. Darcell bangs the outside of his drawer to re-lock the cabinet and we hurry for the door. He makes sure to flick the door shut behind us as we scurry out, just waiting to be caught.