After Morgana left, Arthur sat in the cell worrying about Merlin. Physically Merlin was a mess. The cuts and lash marks across his body were proof of that.
Emotionally Merlin wasn't doing any better. He looked sad, disappointed in himself and guilty about having whipped Arthur. He knew that Merlin was beating himself up over it. Even though it wasn't Merlin's fault, he was just too kind and loyal to forgive himself.
Arthur had to think of a way to get them out of this mess. He didn't know how he was going to do it, but he was not going to let Merlin be tortured again.
By now there would be search parties from Camelot looking for the King. But they would have no idea where to look. Even Arthur wasn't entirely sure where they were. He hoped that their captors had left a trail for the search parties to follow.
The silence in the cell was broken by a serving girl holding a tray of food and a pitcher of water walking up to the two guards standing outside the cell. "Food for the prisoners," she said quietly.
The guards looked at each other in confusion. "The prisoners are not allowed food," one of them said, looking at the woman questioningly.
The girl then smashed thee guard across the head with the metal tray, before punching the other hard on the head. Both guards slumped to the ground unconscious.
She then started searching through the guards pockets looking for the set of keys. "Which key?" She asked, looking worriedly at Elizabeth once she found the key ring.
"It's dark and rusted with about five spikes." Elizabeth replied automatically, a smile creeping across her blindfolded face.
The woman then quickly unlocked the cell door and ran over to Elizabeth. "Can you walk? Run? Fight?" She questioned as she unlocked the shackles.
"Depends." Elizabeth replied, "how strong is the painkiller you've brought?"
A small answering smile appeared across the woman's face as Elizabeth's hands fell free of the wall.
Arthur wondered who this woman was. She clearly cared a lot about Elizabeth if she was prepared to break into Morgana's hideout to rescue her.
Maybe this was their ticket out of here?
Elizabeth was relieved to finally be able to move her hands again. She quickly pulled away the blindfold and her eyes confirmed what she already knew. Jane was here to rescue her; no doubt Mary was standing lookout too.
Jane was the youngest of the three sisters. She had the same brown hair as Elizabeth, but was taller and was known for ordering her older sisters around.
Elizabeth swallowed the entire draught of painkiller that Jane handed her.
"Who are they?" Jane asked, pointing towards the men in the cell with her.
"No idea, but they're coming with us," Elizabeth replied. She wanted to annoy Morgana further and more than that, she wanted to stop Morgana from torturing them more.
Jane pulled off her wraparound skirt to reveal worn travelling pants and two belts with weapons and essentials secured to them. She undid one and threw it at Elizabeth before walking over to one of the men, armed with the set keys to unlock his shackles.
Elizabeth secured the belt around her waist, she felt so much more confident now that she had her swords and daggers at her hips. Now she could defend herself. The painkiller was kicking in as her cuts and bruises were no longer throbbing.
Jane had unlocked the man with curly blonde hair and handed him the keys to release his friends. She then walked back outside the cell to grab the jug of water before bringing it to Elizabeth.
Elizabeth drank deeply as Jane wrapped the discarded cloth that made up the wraparound skirt around her sister's torso as a makeshift bandage.
"You going to be alright to leave soon?" Jane asked glancing back down the corridor out of the cells.
"Yup," Elizabeth said stretching.
Jane nodded and turned to the men. The blonde one who seemed to be in charge turned to her. "Thank you, I am Arthur," he introduced himself.
"Look, I really don't care," Jane snapped. "You can follow us, but know this: if you lag behind or end up dead it's your own problem and we are not stopping," Jane said, coldly laying down the ground rules.
Arthur stared blankly at her, not sure how to respond.
Jane then turned back to Elizabeth, "good now?"
"Yup, can't feel a thing," Elizabeth said, relieved to be free of the pain that had been haunting her.
"Right. Let's go," Jane said before giving a short whistle to signal to Mary that they were leaving.
Jane led them out of the cell, sword raised. Elizabeth followed, then the men came after, with Arthur ignoring the pain in his back and a man built like a bear carrying the black haired man who must've been Merlin. Elizabeth flinched when she saw how bad his back looked. She had gotten off lightly.
Jane led them up a crumbling set of stairs to a platform where Mary was standing. She looked relieved when she caught sight of Elizabeth.
"You're all right," she breathed. "Thank God. Now we just have to get out of this stupid Castle."
"Please tell me you have a plan," Elizabeth said suddenly worried.
"We do." Jane said, "you're just not going to like it much."