Chapter 1
It was the Dark of night at Le Pieu's Manor; Danielle shuffled down the hallway as best she could in the leg irons she had to wear since the last time that she had tried to escape. On the tray she carried what was left of Le Pieu's dinner. Up on the roof of the Manor a shadowy figure moved noiselessly across the roof. The figure came to the edge of the roof and paused to remove a rope and a grappling hook from the bag that he carried strapped to his back next to a menacing looking, custom made fighting axe. Attaching the rope to the grappling hook and the grappling hook to a gargoyle on the edge of the roof, he lowered himself down on to the balcony below. Jimmying the latch on the window with the fighting dagger he carrying on his belt he slipped inside.
The Figure, A young dark haired man in his late teens, paused by the light of a flickering candle just long enough to consult what appeared to be a map of Le Pieu's manor before moving off down the darkened upper hallway. A few seconds later he found himself in the Manor's great room. Almost immediately he spotted what he was looking for.
It was a medium sized Jewelry chest that Le Pieu's so called debt collectors had taken from the home of a friend of his in Calais. Walking over to the chest he turned a piece of the inlay clockwise and a secret compartment popped open. It revealed a copy of Utopia by Thomas Moore. The boy picked up the book and was about to put it in his bag when there was a loud crash. The boy whirled around and saw a chubby looking white and black tom cat that has just knocked over one of the silver candle holders on the mantle.
A split second later he heard the sound of voices approaching the door. He recognized one as Le Pieu himself.
"I heard something in the great room!" he was saying.
The young intruder turned and looked at the cat again.
"Thanks a lot, Pal!" he hissed turning around he dove under a nearby smaller table which had a cloth big enough to hang to the ground all the way around. He crouched under the table listening as the main doors opened.
Le Pieu and sever people with him began to look around the room. As he sat there hardly daring to breath, He suddenly felt something soft rub up against his foot in the dark. It was the cat who had followed him under the table.
"This is no time to try and make amends," he thought in the cat's direction. No sooner had the wry thought crossed his mind than the table cloth was lifted up and he found himself staring into the eyes of a pretty redhead. Two pairs of surprised eyes met in the semi darkness. A tense second or two passed as Danielle and the boy crouched there. The boy, expecting the worst, instinctively reached for his knife, the most convenient of his weapons. Before his hand could even close on the handle, the girl grabbed the cat and pulled it out from under the table dropping the cloth back into place.
"It was the cat." She said
"Stupid cat," Le Pieu muttered, "All right everybody who is not on watch, go to bed. Claude, Gerard, lock Danielle back in her room."
It wasn't until the doors of the great hall banged shut and the footsteps had moved away down the hall that the young man under the table allowed himself a sigh of relief. As he slipped out from under the table his thoughts were racing,
"Why didn't that servant girl betray me? She had ever right too?"
A few minutes later he was out on the roof again. Just as he got to the corner that was closest to the wall where he could make good his escape, he stopped gave his head and exasperated shake, turned around and started back the way he came. About halfway back across the roof he stopped laid down on his stomach and peered over the edge of the roof. There was a flickering light the type that comes from a single candle coming from a large barred window about two stories down. The boy's remarkable hearing picked up the sound of a cat purring and a girls voice talking.
"I sure hope that young man, whoever he was, got away from this hellhole, Felix." Danielle said quietly, as she stroked the old cat's fur, "I wouldn't wish this place on my worst enemy."
Suddenly Danielle's Conversation with the cat was interrupted by the sound of groaning metal. He looked up to see two hands twisting the iron bars outside her window like they made of parchment. a human form stepped through the door sized opening in the bars and into the candle light.
Danielle was shocked to see the boy from earlier standing there. Without saying anything boy bent down and broke the iron shackles on her ankles like twigs. Then he stood back up and gave a little bow.
"Permit me to introduce myself," he said in a voice not much about a whisper, "My name is Asa, would mademoiselle care to take a stroll?"
"I'm Danielle and Try and stop me." Danielle said heading for the now open window. Felix rubbed up against Asa as if to show his own gratitude for the rescue of Danielle.
smiled this time and stroked the cat.
"All right," he said, "You're not such a bad cat after all and if you're smart you'll get out of here too!" as if to answer Asa's question the cat turned and jumped out the window too. Asa grabbed the ratty old pillow that was there and slipped it under the blankets so it looked like someone was laying in the bed. After he climbed out through the bars and paused long enough to bend them back into place.
Turning around he realized that Danielle was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly the rope he had climbed down wiggled. He looked up to see Danielle grinning at him from the roof. Grabbing the rope he shinnied up after her. When they reached the spot on the roof where Asa had decided on this impromptu rescue mission he suddenly turned and picked Danielle up bridal style.
"What're you doing?! she hissed
"This," answered Asa. With one move he launched himself off the roof and out into space they sailed over the wall and down to landed deftly on the other side.
Asa put the stunned Danielle down and they hurried off down the road.
"It's not that I don't appreciate it, but why did you come back for me?" said Danielle when it was safe to talk, "You didn't have to?"
Asa shrugged,
"I figured I owed you one for not squealing on me back there."
"What were you doing in Le Pieu's place anyway?" said Danielle, "And another thing how were you able to bend those bars so easily or make a 40 foot jump with me in your arms like it was nothing?"
"Ordinarily," said Asa, "I'd find away to avoid answering those questions, but something tells me you can handle the truth."
"What is 'the truth'," said Danielle.
"I came to get this back," said Asa Pulling the book out.
"It's a copy of Thomas Moore's Utopia," Danielle said, peering at it in the moonlight, "It's one of my favorite books but it's hardly worth risking your neck for!"
"This particular copy is." said Asa, "there's more to it than meets the eye!"
Danielle took the book from Asa's hands and opened it. Immediately, she stopped short at the sight of the something inside the cover. A single word escaped her lips.
"Impossible!"
There on the cover of the book was written: Property of Auguste De Barbarac
TO BE CONTINUED….
AN: well there it is the first chapter of my newest EVER AFTER story. I hope you like it!
Don't worry I'm still working on In the Shadows I'm just having writers block on it right now.
Please Review.