Chapter 3: Escape
With a shudder she turned from the man, searching for a lock on her cage only to find, to her confusion, that there was none…
"No use looking for a laugh lassie" The man's voice echoed over that of the screaming woman as Sari slowly turned back towards him. At her puzzled expression the man laughed and then went on to explain, "Their aint one. Its mage work." The man spat on the rushes that lined the bottom of his cage. With a grimace, Sari turned her back to him once more, settling herself on the cage floor. Suddenly she whipped back around, causing her cage to swing and groan. Ignoring the noise and the small flaked of rust that came to settle on her head she opened her mouth to speak.
"How long have I been in here?" She asked, her voiced panicked. For as she had settled on the floor of her cage, her eyes had once again been drawn to that stained piece of parchment and again she had read the date of her execution.
"Five days." With out warning the floor to Sari's cage dropped out from beneath her and she fell to the dirt floor below. "Sorry bout that lassie," The man added as a man dressed in black robes, strode up to her and hauled her to her feat. "You seemed a decent sort, for a murderer."
Sari's frantic scream continued to ring long after she had been dragged away. The man huddled up against the wall of his cage, softly muttering to himself. "Pity, pity, such a pity…" His voice gradually trailed off as he drifted towards sleep.
Sari was desperate. She was being dragged along a corridor lined with soldiers. All attempts to reason with her escort had failed and she was now desperately racking her brains for another means of escape. She took another step and something jabbed the small of her back. Wincing she groped under the back of her shirt for the source of her pain. Suddenly she froze as her hands closed around a small dagger caught in the back of her shirt. Quickly she snatched out and tucked it into the waist of her pants, all the while glancing around to make sure no one had noticed. No one had and as they continued down the corridor the seeds of a plan began to take root in her mind…
