Kingdom Fall (Ethereal #1)

-Chapter 9-

Escape

Sapphire

Sapphire had never felt so vulnerable. They had to escape a man whom she had never defeated in a duel accompanied by twelve lady assassins who by rumors didn't have much of a conscience. To make things were, she was weaponless. Her stump of candle wax pocked out of her trouser pocket while there was a crystal in the other. She glanced at Archestrian, hoping he might have better luck than it.

It seems he didn't.

Archestrian had a calculating look on his face before he lifted his arms and casually said, 'Fine, we surrender.'

Sapphire felt her jaws drop in amusement. The boy was more cowardly than she anticipated.

'You have brains, boy,' said Sir Cedric as he let go of the pommel of his sword. The maids, upon the knight's signal walked over to the girl and boy and surrounded them, forming a barrier around.

Sir Cedric turned over his heels and walked away while the escort of maids followed. There were three maids in front of them, three behind them, three to their left and three to their right. They walked silently. Sapphire, with not much of a choice, walked forward between the maids. She glanced up at Archestrian, who was walking with his eyes closed and in deep concentration.

She hoped he had a plan. She didn't like depending on others for help but at the moment, she felt utterly hopeless. Maybe she could make a run. But it was pointless if you simply end up lost in the underground maze. Maybe they would be able to plead with the queen not to brainwash them.

She decided not to depend on the queen's mercy too much. If there is one thing she knew, it was time for her to finally escape from the insanity of the royals. They turned to the right, then again the left as they walked along the corridor, following the kingdom's secondary.

Sapphire wondered how Sir Cedric got underground. Was it from her room? Or was there another entrance? Surely he didn't use the entrance form the queen's chamber. It was rather unlikely. Maybe there was a bigger entrance. They could not possibly drag unwilling people down narrow staircases. She felt like poking at Archestrian, to ask whether he had a plan.

The boy on the other hand was sleepwalking.

No hope there it seems.

The more they continued, the more Sapphire noticed that the corridors widened and the light brightened. Sapphire at least hoped that they might end up above ground, but she had a feeling they were going deeper into the shy-ship. She wondered if there was a way to get into the stone labyrinth above them. Sapphire had a good idea of the layers beneath the earth on which the capital city of Shokra sat upon. Below the palace were the obvious dungeons. Below that was the stone labyrinth in which Sapphire spent years practicing swordsmanship. Below that was the sky-ship in which they were trapped in. Maybe there was something below the sky-ship. A lost civilization perhaps. But Sapphire never found records of such. She never found records of the sky-ship either. But there were some information about the labyrinth.

Legends say that the labyrinth was built as a secret hideout in case of an attack to the capital. It was made so that whoever intruder enters inside will have a hard time finding its refugees.

Sapphire wondered if there was a way to enter the labyrinth from the sky-ship. She knew the maze like the back of her hands. Actually, she rarely looked at the back of her hands.

Just then, Archestrian came back to the land of the living. They were just passing a fork when Archestrian grabbed Sapphire by the hand and pushed his way through the maids. The maids were rather taken by surprise and it took a while for them to realize that prisoners were escaping.