The Exiled King's Guard

Chapter 24: Escape

Lucas POV

Just a little bit more. These ropes were not made for weak hostages. It was great that they hadn’t thought of checking my cuff, and I was able to get my tiny blade from there. Sure, I got a few cuts from prying it out with my hands tied behind my back, but that was my punishment. Punishment for getting caught by local thugs of all the people in the world. They didn’t even try to claim the reward on my head, which said something about how unrecognizable I had become over the past few months. But how I looked was the least of my worries right now. I was regretting turning down Esmerelda’s suggestion of taking an earth witch with me. I thought I knew the area well enough, and I hated putting the witches in dangerous situations. Putting Eli in the castle as a spy was the hardest decision I made, but everyone voted for it, including the girl herself. My people believed in me, they counted on me, and here I was, stuck in a thug’s shed. Redoubling my effort, I cut through the ropes strand by strand, nicking myself more in the process. After an agonizing amount of time, my hands were finally free, so I moved on to my feet. Making quick work of that, I made my way towards the one tiny window in the shed. I knew the door would be guarded, and I was in no mood to prolong this escape. I had lost precious time and Commander Marjorie was probably long gone. He didn’t even have to be Credoran, just his name was enough to irk me. What self-respecting man is called Marjorie? Isn’t that a woman’s name?

The thing I was dreading more was that I would have to have another discussion with Esmerelda about the efficiency of this method. I even knew the argument we would have verbatim.

“Why won't you involve my witches more?! We are intelligent, you know, if we get close enough to the commanders we can sense if they have dark magic.”

“No Esme! None of you are battle trained. I can't put you at risk. Every elemental is precious, and it is my job to protect you. I cant, no, I wont put any of you in harm’s way.”

“ Well then, train us Luc! Teach us how to fight, make us better so that we are not wasting time like this, in this one-man operation that you are running with us as spectators. You do realize you are wasting a lot of time, don’t you? And if, by chance, we are discovered before you find the dark ones, all of us are doomed anyway.”

“That wont happen.”

That wont happen. I thought to myself grimly as I continued my silent assault on the window. Soon enough, I had made enough space to squeeze through and I did, almost falling right on top of a thug. I managed to gather my wits fast enough as he was turning and grabbed him, using his own momentum to throw him to the ground and punched him right in the face before he could shout for help. Knocking him out but further opening some very painful cuts from my knife. I barely stopped myself from yelping in pain.

Seeing my chance, I ran for my life. We were in a forest and I didn’t know which way it was to the town I was grabbed from. So I focused on “away from the shed” as my destination for now. I didn’t hear any shouts or footsteps behind me, so I had a good headstart at least. But my cramped muscles started protesting, and I realized I couldn’t outrun men with horses.

Quickly, I climbed on to the nearest tree, and went up as high as I could. As I climbed I realized two things. One, the tree was quite short and two, it was also not very leafy. I couldn’t see, but I could be seen. I sighed, knowing what I had to do next, so I monkey jumped to the next tree which was taller and leafier, and did the same a couple more times until I was satisfied I was well hidden. From here I could see that a village was to the south, and I wouldn’t have to cross the thug shed to get to it. The sun was setting. I had been knocked out for almost a whole day. I didn’t see any thugs trying to pursue me, it looked like they didn’t know yet that I was gone. Sometimes, luck worked like that. Deciding to make the most of the remaining sunlight, I set out towards the village. If I arrived at a decent time, maybe I could find a place to get some rest.

* * *

As I walked through the village trying to look inconspicuous, my stomach started rumbling. I made my way to the tavern across the street. This village was bigger than I thought it would be. There were multiple taverns, many people on the street. This was good, I got to blend in and disappear. I still kept looking over my shoulder for fear of being followed. I checked my appearance as best I could before entering, making sure I looked thoroughly tired and beaten up. Trying my best to look like a shaken man, I walked up to the barman. He gave me a disgusted look. Perfect, this was working.

“Sire, could I get a warm meal in exchange for some service?” I looked at him beseechingly. He just glared back.

“Please, my good man, I am a simple trader. I was robbed and beaten up on the way by some thugs. I was so scared, I hid in the trees for days! I only came down when I couldn’t tolerate the hunger. Please sire, help me please!” I pretended to ramble while thinking in the back of my mind that I was getting pretty good at making up stories. If I couldn’t be king, I could be a bard.

“ I don’t have time for every robbed man who comes in looking for a meal. Leave now!” he shoved me and I didn’t resist, letting myself fall down.

“ Please sire, I could clean dishes or scrub the floors, anything! Just a meal! That’s all I ask” I said from my position on the floor, cowering as I pretended to fear being beaten. I also strategically raised my voice and pitch, hoping it caught the attention of other patrons.

He roughly grabbed me by the arms and started dragging me outside, as I pretended to be so tired I was dead weight on him.

“ Samuel! What on earth is going on!?” we turned to see an older lady with a rolling pin standing behind the bar at what looked like the entrance to the kitchen.

“Let that boy go right now!” she scolded.

“ He is no boy, Ma! He is a strong and able man who refuses to do a good day’s work and wants only free meals”, Samuel shot back.

“ Look at him, Sam. He looks right tired and beaten” another man chimed in, he seemed like a regular, the way he spoke.

The man looked around, people were all now looking at us and murmuring. Doubt flickered through his eyes as he looked at his Ma and then at me. Grudgingly, he let me go and motioned me to sit.

As I took a seat at the bar, the older lady said, “ can you wash dishes young man?”

“Yes Ma’am I can” I responded.

“Good, I am bringing you a plate. Once you finish, Sam here will let you in the back with me where you can do the dishes for the evening.” Then looking at Sam, she added, “ You better thank him for doing your chores and giving you time to flounder with your friends.”

Sam muttered something incoherent and then went about serving others.

Tonight was going to be a long one, I thought as I dug into the broth and bread.