Wings of Grace

Chapter 6

 "Who took Lara? Where did they take her?" Lyon felt a heaviness in the pit of his stomach. How had she come to mean so much to him in such a short time? "Sally.... Who took Lara?" he repeated slowly, softening his voice, as he could see Sally was still in shock. He needed her to focus.

 "Two of King Reardon's men. Somehow, they knew Lara was here. Lyon...they had a key to the house." Sally started to tremble from the thought of someone breaking in to her house.

"It's all right. We'll change the locks. How did they get out? It wasn't through the front door, or I would have seen them."

 "Trapdoor...  I heard one of them said something about the old trapdoor, being locked." Before Sally had finished the sentence, Lyon had already gone.

 Lyon knew of the old, tunnel systems, under the kingdom; a maze of underground passageways accessed by trapdoors, that he used to roam as a child.

What did Reardon want with Lara? How did they find out who she was?

  As he expected, on the ground floor, in the old storage room, he found the wooden trapdoor opened. Grabbing two old, wooden torches that were hanging on metal supports on the side wall and lighting them from the hot embers in the old reception room hearth across the hall, Lyon descended the ladder into the darkness.

Had the whole attack been a ruse?

 He was greeted by the heavy odour of earth and stale air. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the torches, he was just able to make out their footsteps in the dirt. One light and the other very heavy, dragging slightly from the excess weight of Lara.

Reardon did love to play games. Was Lara the prize?

He was able to slowly follow the tracks which led to a ladder against one of the dirt walls, leading up to another open trapdoor. Lyon had to shade his eyes from the intense sunlight as he climbed out of the darkness of the tunnel just in front of an old opened gate, adjoined to his kingdom's wall. All of the surrounding overgrown vegetation had been pushed aside. There was no sign of forced entry, so they had to have had a key. Thick greenery was covering any further tracks made by the men.

 Lara was nowhere to be seen.

Lyon, banged his fist against the rusty, metal gate. "LARA!!", the lonely sound of his voice echoed against the rugged rocky cliffs nearby. 

The unaccustomed rush of feelings that swept over him at the possibility of never seeing her again was tormenting the very depths of his soul. How was she able to have such power over him? He didn't want to feel this way and yet, at the same time, his body rejoiced in the release of emotions that had been locked away for so long.

Looking around, he couldn't remember this exit at all. How many other gates were there in his kingdom like this? He was going to talk to his security. No wonder Reardon had been able to waltz in as he pleased. He would ensure his men cleared all the bush-land along the wall. This was not going to happen again.

One thing he knew for certain: Lara was in great danger. 

 Reardon knew only one way to get answers, his liking for unorthodox torture methods was renowned, and the only ones who didn't talk were buried, dead or alive. And Lara, he knew, had no answers.

What a fool he was to have brought her here. 

But how could he have left her behind? 

She had no way of knowing how she arrived or, in fact, where she was. Everything had happened too fast. 

He had intended telling her everything today before all hell had broken loose. First Reardon, and then that unforgettable kiss, which had ignited a fire that he couldn't seem to quench, even now, that had interfered with his plans and Lara's ignorance was the price to pay.