Savina slammed the stone door behind her and leaned against it, still trying to get her arms through the straps of her pack. She glanced down the dark tunnel, then started walking quickly in the direction she knew to be the direction they had come from the night before. She had little hope that she could make it to the door by herself but her only hope was to get there and to the Dark Tower before Rayvin, Nor, and their troops followed her.
It wasn't that she was ungrateful, she appreciated their concern and sacrifice, but she couldn't accept it. They didn't know her; they didn't know that she was nothing but a tavern maid with no father. She wasn't worthy of anyone's sacrifice and she thought little of the fact that she was most likely going to give her life for one last desperate attempt to free her friends.
She followed the tunnel and stopped at a fork, glancing each way and wondering which way to go. She hadn't even thought to pay attention where they were going last night. Sighing, she slumped against the wall, staring down the tunnel to her left, wondering if it was the right one.
The MoonElves had lost so much already; Savina didn't want them to lose anything more due to her. She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword.
Her sword…her father had made that sword with his own hands. Suddenly she remembered a time when she was little, her father and she and gotten themselves lost in an unfamiliar town on a trip to display some of his swords and they hadn't been able to find their way back to their inn.
"Father? How are we going to get back to the inn?"
He smiled down at her and taken her tiny hand in his larger one, "we'll run, Savina."
"Run?"
"Certainly," he straightened up, "when you're lost, there's no better guide than your feet. Let them steer themselves, they know where they're going."
So they had run for twenty minutes and found themselves, tired and panting, standing in front of the Red Coin inn.
Savina stared down at her feet, then, with a deep breath, she took of running as fast as she could.
She sped through the tunnels, hardly seeing as she ran. She ran faster than she had ever run before, then suddenly, only a few minutes later, she slowed down, then stopped.
And she saw it. The outline of a door carved into the side of the mountain.
She glanced down at her feet, whispered thanks to her father, then tore the bar off the door and pushed it open.
Sunlight streamed in, warming her skin that had felt so cold and clammy in the dark tunnels.
Savina realized then that she should have checked to see if the coast was clear before she threw the door open. She slammed it behind her, hoping that someone would lock it from the inside before anything nasty found it's way in.
She turned and gazed at the Dark Tower, a chill running down her spine, but there was no fear.
Gazing across the flat plain at the tower, she estimated she'd be there by early evening.
She straightened her pack and began walking.