A Whisper to the North

Chapter LXIV ✠ The Escape

Una woke up feeling a slight pain growing stronger with each passing moment. She rose, staring at the fuzzy foreground. She could hear a great clatter and looked down at her arms, bound with shackles and chains again. In her focus were her hands, bloody and bruised. She touched the area on her head that felt the most painful. On the back of her head was a raised knot that was tender to the touch.

"Ouch!" Una hissed as her fingers touched the bulging bruise on her head.

"I'm glad you woke up. I was scared you wouldn't." Una heard a very faint male voice laugh in the distance.

Her eyes focused across where she was sitting. There lay a man with his coppery hair in front of his eyes, but he had a soft smile on his face. She recognized him instantly by his gorgeous laugh.

"Laurel?" Una exclaimed.

"Hi, Una." He smiled.

Una tried to get up but found that her chains only allowed her to stand and walk out afoot.

"It's no use, Una," Laurel said, looking away.

"Where are we? Are you okay?" Una asked.

"I should ask you the same. They threw you in here against that wall, and I was terrified that they busted your skull open."

"It sure feels like it," Una said, touching the sore spot on her head.

"We're in a tower. It was explained that there are five towers in this castle. This is the largest but also the most unkempt. They keep the worst of their prisoners here, so I think it's amusing that they put me in here. Just look behind you. We're trapped." Laurel laughed with hoarseness in his tone.

Una turned around and nearly jumped out of her skin at the sight of how high up they were. Una would plunge almost a mile off of a cliff to her demise if she were to slip somehow and fall if she tried to escape.

"We're on a very high mountain," Una said.

"Yes, the hidden wing of the castle, tucked next to an even larger mountain and near the edge of a cliff. Quite a bright spot if you ask me." Laurel smiled.

"How long have you been here?" Una asked, sitting down on the frigid floor.

"I honestly don't know. Like you, I woke up not knowing where I was. You have been asleep for a day and a half."

"Impossible!" Una said, clenching her fists.

She suddenly remembered Yvar's betrayal to her.

"How were you captured? Are you wounded? Do you know how Gareth is?" Una begged Laurel.

"A poisoned arrow hit me. They couldn't kill me anyways if they tried! They were going to use me as bait. It obviously worked now. It's kept you here when instead of saving me, you could have torn Amon's neck open by now. You should have saved your strength. You're too chivalrous for a lady, honestly. You played right into their trap trying to save me." Laurel said, pulling back his thin tunic to reveal a small wound on his hip.

Despite the circumstances, Laurel, as always, was smiling and laughing as if everything was fine.

"But Gareth is well. I sent him back to Wintacaster, hoping that you and Alaric would be there to help heal him. However, I was sent word that you have still not made it back. We knew there was no way you were dead. However, that was not to say that you were not lost. I was sent out to scout for you, but I was captured at the Mercian border. Obviously, I am unaware of his condition now. I have prayed diligently for his healing success. However, I fear that his wounds were too great. So where have you been?" Laurel asked solemnly.