Chapter Two

Serena clamped her jaw shut as she tried not to give in to the urge to scream. The whip descended, time and time again. She had lost count of how many times it had fallen and dreaded to think how many more times it would descend upon her back. The agony was never- ending, and darkness pulled at the edges of her vision.

The Keepers hatred for this girl was strong. She loathed having to look at her everyday and dreamt of the day when she would have Serena at her complete mercy. She vowed that Serena would pay for her parent's interference. What she was feeling now was only a very tiny sampling of the torment the Keeper would put her through when the day came that the Lords gave up on the secrets she carried and handed her over. Revenge would be sweet, and not at all swift. Death for Serena would come slowly. Until then she would have to be content with what she was allowed, but the time would come and she would be ready for that day. Oh Yes! She would be ready when the little Serena was handed over into her care.

Mina finished stuffing her few meagre belongings into the bag she had stolen from the Keepers office. She walked over to Serena's cubical and started packing her belongings on top of hers. She was going to get them both out of there, and she was going to do it tonight. She knew she had been lucky to get off so easily and that she would be watched from now on, so she had to get them out tonight. She didn't regret doing as Serena had said as much now as she had then. She recognised the opportunity it was and seized it. Amazingly the Keeper had been quite easy to convince that she was regretting her rash actions. When she had got ack to her room and seen her reflection in the mirror, she guessed it wouldn't have been too hard to believe. Serena was right; she looked like she had been mauled by a dog. She heard the bell go for dinner and walked over to the door to look out into the hallway. A few girls were heading from their rooms down to the dinner hall, so she waited until the last one left and then headed down after them. She hid the bag at the back of the block of toilets on her way to the hall. She ate her dinner at her normal speed, trying not to look at any of the girls that surrounded her. None of them took a second look at her face or expressed any signs of surprise at the state it was in. It was not uncommon for one of the girls to come in with cuts or black eyes. She was on kitchen duty that night. She deliberately delayed in finishing, trying to be last to finish, praying to whatever spirit there was up there, that she would be left alone when the guardian got fed up with her slowness and walked away. Luck didn't appear to be on her side, the guardian pulled a passing girl into the kitchen and instructed her not to leave until Mina did. Her plan to steal some food went out the window, but not her determination to leave. She went to bed at her normal time and waited until the early hours of the morning.

The massive clock in the downstairs hallway struck three in the morning. Mina was still awake to hear it, and was out of bed as soon as the first chime sounded. She had dressed herself under the protection of her covers, without shoes. They were packed into the bag for when they got out of that brutal place. She padded to the door and slipped through, not looking beyond her next step for fear she would lose some of the courage she had been building up all day. She felt in her pocket to make sure her few weapons were still there and headed towards the Keepers office.

Serena came out of her stupor when she heard a slight knocking on the door. There was a faint clicking sound. Someone outside was breathing quite heavily, but trying to stifle the sound of it. She glanced over to the massive guardian sleeping in the chair across the room from her. Suddenly there was a slight odour coming in under the door. She instinctively held her breath. There was a yellow coloured gas filling the room. She shut her eyes tightly when they began to sting.

Mina capped the jar she held and waited a few minutes for the air to clear. She peeked into the office to make sure the gas had done its work, then crept by the unconscious guardians, to the door leading into the next room, praying Serena was still in there. She lifted the padlock, inserted one of her hairpins and twiddled it about a bit until it came undone. She pushed the door ajar a bit and placed the open jar inside. She left it for a few minutes, for the gas to permeate the room, then held her breathe, pushed the door open further and walked into the room.

Serena lifted her head from the table and looked, with glazed eyes, to where the person had just entered the room. Mina was standing there staring in horror at her exposed back. The colour was draining out of her face rapidly and her eyes were large with shock.

" What did they do to you?" Mina whispered. She took in Serena's condition and acted as quickly as her shaking limbs would allow her to. She walked over to the sleeping guardian and lifted the keys from his belt as well as the gun he carried and attached it to her belt. She quickly released Serena from the chains holding her to the table and helped her to sit up, smothering the slight moan Serena let out with her hand. Serena's face was burning, as was the rest of her body and Mina knew there would be infection in the wounds on Serena's back tomorrow if she took her away from this place tonight. But she also knew Serena would rather fight an infection than stay her any longer.

" You have to walk out of here Serena, I can't carry you and the things we need to get out. I need your help now." Mina whispered in Serena's ear.

Serena's hazy mind barely registered the fact that someone was talking to her. She couldn't think past the fact that she was standing and she was hot and cold at the same time. When the person supporting her started to move forward, it was only by sheer willpower that she managed not to pass out. Her feet seemed to move automatically, guided by the steps of the person next to her.

Mina reached the door to the eating hall, just as the clock struck four. By her reckoning she had just over an hour to get Serena and herself outside the walls and away, before the guardians awoke from their drug induced sleep and found that Serena was gone. If what she planned didn't wake somebody before then. She worked as quickly as she could, propping Serena against a wall whenever she needed both hands to work. They went quickly through the orphanage, descending many stairs and turning down many corridors. She fiddled with the lock on the hall door. It wouldn't open. She checked the watch she had stolen from the Keepers desk as she had past it and saw that she had wasted half an hour. She searched around her for something to use to get the lock off, but saw nothing. She didn't want to have to use her supplies for anything other than what she had planned them for, but she had no choice. Lifting the gun she had stolen from the guardian from her waist, she tipped some of the gunpowder into the lock. Moving Serena a couple of metres away, she lit a match and chucked it into the lock, on top of the gunpowder. The small explosion sounded too loud to Mina's ears and she was forcing Serena to run before it had even stopped echoing through the hall. She ripped the broken lock from the door and rushed them both through it.

Serena cried out at the brutal treatment her body was receiving and tried feebly to fight off who ever it was that was forcing her to run. Agony shot from her back to the rest of her body.

Mina ducked quickly to grab her bag, without stopping, as they passed the back of the toilet block. She threw a paper bomb of some sort at the guardian stationed there and he dropped immediately, choking on the powder that spewed forth into his face. Quickly she propped Serena against the outside wall and dumped her bag and equipment next to her. Running her hands along the wall she found a couple of small holes and filled them up with the remaining gunpowder from the gun, trailing some along the joins of the rocks, to join each of the gunpowder caches together. She lit the end furthest away from Serena and ran back to cover her body with her own. Explosion after explosion broke the silence of the morning, as the fast moving flame touched each gunpowder filled hole. The wall slowly crumpled, rocks and dust flying everywhere. Mina felt small shards of rock hit her back. When the last explosion was over, she grabbed Her back, flung it over her shoulder, wincing when it hit a cut, and grabbed Serena. Bells were going off in the orphanage and lights were appearing in the windows in rapid succession. But the way was clear, the wall had crumpled completely in the area where she had planned.

"How could you have let her get away?" The young lord asked furiously.

" She had help, my lord." The Keeper said.

" I don't care if she had help! She should not have been able to get away, even if she had an entire army at her command!"

" Yes my lord." The Keeper said.

The Keeper eyed the young lord with trepidation. At 25, he was the youngest of the Lords currently ruling the local area. But, despite that fact, he was one of the most influential. With black hair, blue eyes and an aloofness that was tantalizing, Lord Darien, was by far the best looking young lord to be born in the last century. But his temper was infamous. He was notorious for seducing all the local women away from their husbands, and making those said husbands cower when they dared to stand up to him. He was probably the greatest asset the Lords had.

" She has go tot be found!" Lord Darien said.

" She will be my lord, I promise you."

" You promise me! I will believe that when she is handed over to me, bound gagged and unconscious!" Lord Darien pushed away from the window, from which he had been viewing the evaluation of the area by his trained men. He stalked to the desk and wrote something on a piece of paper. He handed the piece of paper to the Keeper with a scowl.

"My secretary's name. Once the girl is found, have a message sent to me immediately. Understand?"

" Yes, my Lord." The Keeper said quietly, bowing her head.

" Hmmph! Incompetent idiots!" Lord Darien muttered as he strode out of the room.

Mina had been right, Serena's wounds had festered and now looked ten times worse than they had before. They were hidden as far away from the orphanage as they could get, before Serena had collapsed. Her fever had raged continuously for four days, getting steadily worse. Mina could not seek help, for fear they would be found and turned back over to the Keeper. Mina had no water to clean Serena's wounds. The water she could get, mainly from puddles and roof gutters, was barely drinkable. She forced it down Serena's throat, though it did little good. If a miracle didn't happen soon then Serena would die. And quite possibly Mina too.