Chapter 6 - Flight From Fate

"Wait here," Kaira whispered as she left us next to a closed door not far from our cell. She disappeared to the other side of the room and went up the stairs. Borrin, Cal and I glanced at each other, and it seemed that the three of us were all looking around nervously as we waited for Kaira's return. Well, Cal looked nervous at least, and I knew I surely did as well, but Borrin just looked alert.

After what felt like an eternity, Kaira reappeared on the other side of the room and headed back toward us. I noticed that she made absolutely no noise as she crossed the room. "Guards won't be coming from that direction, at least not until they break the lock." She held up two sets of keys with a smirk, then tossed them to the side. "We need to head through here, and quickly." She gestured at the door that she had left us next to.

Borrin questioned, "Girl, does this not lead straight into the main hall?"

Kaira said with a frown, "First of all, I am a woman, not a girl. Jol can vouch for me on that." She winked at me, and I felt my cheeks color for a moment. She resumed her frown, "Secondly, my name isn't 'Girl,' it's Kaira. And I do believe I'm the one that is breaking you out of prison. Now, follow me or stay here to die, you choose." Kaira stepped past Borrin without giving him a chance to speak again, and he simply raised his eyebrows with a frown of his own.

Kaira opened the door slowly, but only enough for each of us to pass through one by one. I was last, and before Borrin slipped through, he muttered to me, "Best watch out for that one. I think she might be dangerous." He bore a sly smile as he went through the door, and I returned the grin as I stepped through after.

There was a set of stairs on the other side of the door, and as we neared the top, there were voices speaking loudly. Kaira stopped just short of the last few steps, keeping her head down. She held a finger to her lips to signal for us to stay quiet. One voice shouted from across the hall, "Farengar, you and the remaining guards head up and protect the Jaarl."

The voice that I assumed must belong to Farengar responded, "What has happened? Are we under attack?"

The other voice replied, "I don't know yet, I haven't even made it outside to see. Just go be with the Jaarl. I'll send someone once I know something." This exchange was followed by the sounds of boots shuffling across wooden floors. After perhaps a minute, we no longer heard any more footsteps.

Kaira turned to us, whispering, "This is standard procedure. They have the court wizard and some guards head up to the Jaarl's quarters, and the remaining guards around the keep go to investigate. There's a gap of time where we should be able to go right out the front door, if we're lucky."

"If we're lucky?" Cal began to say, but then he switched to "When is that gap of time?"

"Now," Kaira responded promptly, and she finally went up the last two steps. She looked around in all directions as she walked into the main hall. She did not motion for us to follow or even look back to see if we were coming, but we all followed her lead. I briefly admired the size of the main hall, for I had never actually been inside. I noticed long tables with leftover food and ornate dishes strewn about. The ceiling was far higher than what I had imagined. I pulled my focus back in, looking around cautiously.

Just then, a guard stepped out of a side room right next to Kaira. He tried to shout, but Kaira cut him off by punching him square in the mouth. However, he recovered quickly and backhanded Kaira across the cheek with a gauntleted hand. She slammed against the wall and stumbled several feet, but did not fall over. The guard was reaching for the sword at his belt, but Borrin jumped in and punched him in the stomach in an attempt to stop him. Cal simply looked stunned. I charged past Cal and Borrin, tackling the guard to the ground. Seeing the man slap Kaira had filled me with rage that I had never felt before. I was now sitting on top of the guard, and I threw a few punches to both sides of his face, now bloodied. He swung and boxed me across my right ear. My vision swirled and my ear began ringing immediately. Trying to regain composure, I wrapped my hands around the guard's throat, locking eyes with him as I squeezed. He struggled and pulled on my arms to try and free his throat. I felt a wave of energy pass through me, and the guard's own armor started to bend inwards on its own. The metal closed in on the guard's throat, and just then something yanked me back.

I looked up to see Borrin, but Borrin was staring at the guard on the floor. The man was still choking for air due to the armor that had somehow bent itself inward. Borrin looked between me and the gasping guard, and he actually looked incredulous. I had no idea what had happened.

"We have to go, now." Kaira was addressing all three of us, but she looked at me with a worried expression. There was now a gauntlet-shaped red mark across her cheek, but she showed no signs that she felt it.

We all followed quickly to the front door, and once again, we all stepped through one at a time. Kaira immediately veered to the right slightly once we were all outside. I realized that I didn't actually know what the time was up until now since I had been unconscious and in a prison cell not even an hour ago, but I could now see that it was nighttime.

Kaira led us right up to the edge of the water that the bridge in front of Dragonsreach crossed over. She said abruptly, "Jump in." Before I could even hesitate, Kaira jumped and pulled me with her. I splashed into the water, feeling my entire body become enveloped with an icy chill. I was underwater for a moment, and heard the distorted splashes of what had to be Cal and Borrin jumping in after me. I surfaced, breathing swiftly due to the cold. We all waded under the bridge so that we would be out of sight. I was shivering, and so was everyone else, but Borrin and Kaira seemed to somehow stifle their breath so as to remain quiet. I did my best to do the same, and so did Cal.

Moments passed, and then the sounds of several boots trampling across the bridge sounded above. Someone spoke above, "What happened?"

"Looks like some kind of explosion blew a hole in the wall behind the keep."

"Do we know who or why?" The first voice pressed.

"Not yet. There was no one to be seen. It only happened maybe twenty minutes ago." That was strange to hear. To me, it felt like hours had passed. And at this moment, all I could feel was the chill of the water seeping into my body.

"Go check the prisoners in the dungeon. We'll go check the city and let the rest of the guards know what's going on."

"Yes, sir," the second voice responded. After that, footsteps headed in both directions across the bridge over our heads. The guards had all left the area as far as I could tell. There were distant shouts of orders and demands, but they were not in our immediate vicinity.

We followed Kaira as she waded towards stairs to exit the moat. Stepping out of the moat after her, it almost felt even colder now being outside of the water. Once she headed up the stone stairs and determined the coast was clear, she said quietly, "Just keep following me. We are going to stick to the sides of the city walls. Just follow the right side, in the shadows." We passed the bridge, stepping out and seeing the entire city below us. Several guards were down below, but they did not see us and were preoccupied. Instead of going down the paved steps, Kaira led us to the shadows of the city walls as we quietly ran and hopped along large stones and boulders that jutted out along the wall.

Eventually, we came to a jump that led to the roof of the Hall of the Dead. With ease, Kaira glided over the large gap between the rocks and the roof. Borrin and Cal jumped across with ease as well, though Borrin did stumble slightly when he landed on the roof. I was still freezing, with my clothes still dripping wet alongside the chill of the night air, and I wondered how the others appeared to be handling it so well.

With a small running start, I jumped over the gap, just barely landing on the edge of the roof. I had cleared it, but Kaira grabbed my hand as I landed for good measure. She gave me a quick smile, hood still drawn and casting a shadow over her already-dark eyes, and then she went right back to business, "We have to go over the wall here. It's a bit of a drop, but we should be able to ease ourselves down."

"What about Garren?" Cal demanded. "You haven't told us where he is."

"He's waiting for us," Kaira responded directly but reassuringly.

After glancing over the wall, Borrin said doubtfully, "You sure we can make this drop? Are there any footholds on the other side of the wall here?"

"I've got us this far. You really must start trusting me, 'Boy'" Kaira remarked, mocking Borrin's earlier folly of addressing her as 'Girl.' It was an odd thing to hear her refer to a middle-aged man as a boy. Borrin simply grunted and looked back over the edge. I went and stood next to Borrin, looking over as well. It really was quite the drop.

While Borrin and I were still assessing the height, Kaira swung herself over the wall without a word, and began lowering herself. She very adeptly found places to grip with her hands and feet, scaling down the wall rather quickly. "I don't think she is going to wait for us," Borrin said with a sigh. Despite the hardened, poised appearance that Borrin always had, he seemed a little out of his element. I guessed that maybe heights weren't his cup of tea, either.

Just as Borrin and I both began to hesitantly lift our legs over the edge of the wall, Cal quickly swung himself over nearly as gracefully as Kaira had, and began lowering himself. He looked up at us and said, "I think I heard guards getting close to the building, we'd best get down this wall quickly." He then continued placing his hands and feet wherever he could as he headed downward.

By the time Borrin and I had just finally started heading down, it looked like Kaira was already almost to the bottom. My head spun a little from looking down though, so I resumed my focus on finding wall stones that I could grip as I cautiously proceeded. I tried to convince myself that the dizziness was from having been punched in the side of the head earlier, for my head was still throbbing and I could feel warm blood slowly dripping down to my neck, but I knew it was really just the height. At one point I accidently placed my foot right where Borrin's hand was since he was just below me, and he spouted a curse at me, but I quickly moved my foot.

Once I was about eight feet from the ground, I went ahead and jumped the rest of the way, landing right next to Cal. He had waited for Borrin and I, but Kaira was already heading across the rocky hillside. The three of us jogged quickly to catch up to her. Eventually, we rounded a large rock, and came upon Garren. He was crouching, and was accompanied by three horses. Once he saw the four of us, he stood from his crouched position excitedly, "Jol, Cal! You guys made it out! And Borrin!"

"Nevermind the girl who did all the work helping them escape," Kaira said half-jokingly, but with a tinge of annoyance. "Really though, thank you for prepping the horses, Garren."

"'Woman' who did all the work," Borrin corrected sarcastically.

Kaira glared at him briefly before moving on, "As you can see, we've only got three horses. One person gets a horse of their own, but the rest of us will have to pair up. Borrin should probably take one, and I'll ride with Jol." She eyed me briefly, smiling faintly, "That leaves Cal and Garren. You two will have to ride together." Garren groaned, but did not protest.

The horse that Kaira and I climbed onto was a very sturdy dapple-gray, and the other two were bay horses that were nearly identical in both their brown color and their size. Borrin sat snugly in the saddle of his horse, soothing it by rubbing its neck. Cal sat in the front on his horse, and Garren sat behind him, appearing as if he were struggling to balance as he awkwardly tried to lean back. He eventually settled on just allowing himself to lean on Cal slightly, and Cal bore a mildly indignant look but did not say anything. Kaira sat directly behind me on our horse, and she had her arms wrapped around my waist.

"What do we do now?" Garren asked, still trying to position himself on the shared horse.

Kaira spoke from behind me, "First, your weapons." She pointed at the saddlebags on the horses. Borrin's sheathed sword was tight to the side of Cal and Garren's horse. Cal untied it and handed it to Borrin. Borrin seemed to visibly relax a little as he slung it across his back. I realized my bow was on mine and Kaira's horse, and so was Cal's. I wasn't sure how Kaira managed to get these back, or how she pulled off this entire escape for that matter, but that explanation would have to come later. I pulled the horse up to Cal and handed his bow to him. Kaira continued, "This is where the plan becomes flexible. I have friends in Riften, so I was thinking we could head there." I wondered what kind of friends she could have in Riften, but brushed it off.

"Too risky," Borrin began, shaking his head, "Word gets to Riften fast, so people will know about Dragonborn's assassination and about escaped prisoners before we get there. I suggest we head northeast. The mountains and the cold will be rough, but that slows the news from traveling, so we'll be better off. I know the innkeeper at the Nightgate Inn." Borrin's suggestion sounded more a command, but Cal, Garren and I obviously had no ideas of our own. Kaira simply nodded. "Off we go then." Borrin pulled his horse's reins until he faced northeast, then kicked his horse's sides hard, sending it into a sprint. We faintly heard more shouting, some of which sounded like it was outside the city, so Cal and I sent our horses sprinting as well after Borrin.

I felt Kaira's grip around my waist tighten as the grassy, rocky terrain rushed past us. Before we caught up to Borrin, Kaira asked me, trying not to shout despite the wind rushing by as the horse continued to gallop, "Jol, what was that back there inside Dragonsreach?"

"What do you mean?" I asked back, but I thought I knew what she was talking about.

"With the guard that attacked me. When you tackled him and you were on top of him, his armor, it… You were crushing it, without actually touching it."

I was puzzled. I remembered trying to choke the guard, but the armor being crushed by what I could only assume was magic, I had assumed was someone else's doing. But then again, I recalled the surge of energy I felt passing through me in that moment. "I… I don't know. I thought maybe someone else was… I'm not sure what that was."

With Kaira behind me on our horse, I could not see her face, but I could hear the tinge of worry in her voice, "It's no matter. For now, I'm just happy I got you out of there." She then rested her head on my back. I looked over my shoulder to see Dragonsreach slowly but surely becoming more distant, yet it towered over the landscape, silhouetted by the reddish-orange moon Masser in the crystal-clear night sky. I also saw Kaira's cloak flapping behind us, and the wind rushing by was already numbing my face. Looking forward again at Borrin's and Cal's horses galloping ahead, I realized this was going to be the furthest from home I had ever been, and I knew the night ahead of us was going to be long.