Escape from Whitestone Hold

Moving Out- Chapter 4

"Hey!" An urgent whisper brought Sapphira to her senses again, and she jolted awake, looking around. The light from the window was dimmer and differently angled from before, and there were three figures in front of her cell door. She squinted, blinking to make out their faces. Maltheus stood in the hall outside her cell, with 2 human men standing on either side of him, looking nervous. They were in ragged clothes and each held a Magistrate sword by their side, despite having no belts or scabbards.

"Maltheus!?" Sapphira gasped in shock, leaning forward to stand. Maltheus put his finger to his lips, looking around quickly for guards. Sapphira stood and tried to walk to the door, Rowan still cradled in her arms, but her aching foot immediately erupted in pain as she attempted to take her first step. As she lifted it, it clung to the floor for a moment, stuck in place by whatever semblance of a scab had formed in her sleep. But it was too late-- She had already leaned forward, and her momentum forced her to rip her foot off the stone floor, engulfing the entire sole of her foot in a fire-like agony.  She yelped, stumbling and nearly losing her balance as she hobbled the rest of the way to the door without putting any weight on her injured foot. She clenched her teeth, determinedly refusing to look back at the cobblestone from which she'd peeled the raw bottom of her foot. Sapphira slammed her shoulder into the door to support herself, ending up right in front of Maltheus. "What are you doing here!? How did you get out?" She hissed quietly at him.

"Long story, lets get you out first." He responded, motioning for the two men with him to grab her cell door as he pulled out a metal spike from his pocket and a large stone hammer from his belt.

"Short version then." Sapphira insisted, shuffling back a step while the two men grabbed the iron door, as through preparing to lift it. Maltheus had been reaching towards the hinges of her cage, but he slowed for a moment, turning to give her a tired chuckle. His wrists were still shackled in two halves of a pair of handcuffs, each with a short length of chain dangling off of it. It also seemed like his wrists and hands were raw, as though burned or badly scraped. His face, however, had been cleaned up from the bloody mess it had been last time she'd laid eyes on him. Now, he had four neat scabs across his head, and most of the other dried blood was gone.

"Well, the Magistrate expected me to lead them right to the people I've been working hard to evacuate safely... Naturally, it seemed a bit counterproductive to undo my efforts, so I led them into a resistance ambush instead. A little chaos here, a little sneaking there, and boom, I slip away unharmed." Maltheus responded casually as he knelt down and carefully placed the end of his metal spike on the hinge, and then swung his hammer. The hinge immediately snapped free with a clank, and Maltheus calmly caught a severed iron pin before it hit the ground. He then moved on to the next hinge with surgical precision, executing the same motion to accomplish the same destruction. The two humans grunted, as though suddenly feeling some weight of the door.

"Do you... Do this often?" Sapphira marveled, watching Maltheus stand to knock out the third and final hinge.

"Blacksmith." He shrugged, giving the third hinge a hard whack. This time, there was a loud metal clang, followed by the screeching of bending metal as the door fell, rotating around the final hinge, which had been weakened, but not fully severed. Everyone recoiled, the sound offending their ears as the humans grunted again, dropping one end of the door to the ground with a loud, clanging thud. Maltheus cringed, giving an apologetic look to the humans. That had been loud... Not quite as loud as Sapphira's lightning from earlier, but loud enough to attract any nearby guards for sure. "....It doesn't always go according to plan." Maltheus admitted after a moment of tense silence. Rowan stirred but somehow remained asleep, thankfully. The door was now crooked, hanging onto only one hinge, which was badly bent. Maltheus brought the hammer down once more on it, and the entire hinge broke off of the door, hitting the ground with a metallic clunk, which echoed throughout the halls. The door, now completely unsupported, began to fall outwards, onto the two humans, but Maltheus and the two humans managed to catch it and balance it upright so it wouldn't crush anyone. They easily pivoted it around to lean against the wall of the hall, no longer blocking Sapphira's cell doorway. "M'lady." Maltheus beamed, bowing deeply and gesturing for her to step through. Sapphira rolled her eyes with a small smile and limped out of the cell, still holding Rowan in her arms.