The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Twenty Nine

Chapter Twenty Nine

She crept through the corridor, her sword held slightly out in front of her as she advanced slowly, Varenna behind her and Arthan following, watching their back. She peered round each corner cautiously before waving them on and flitting from shadow to shadow. Suddenly they turned a corner and came upon some more men, two of them who were armed to the teeth. They paused momentarily as they frowned in confusion before leaping forwards, swords outstretched. Safita and Arthan mirrored their movements instinctively, ducking under their blades and slicing quickly. Arthan slit one’s abdomen open while Safita stabbed the other in his leg before decapitating him swiftly and gesturing for them to move on. The elaborate hallways seemed to stretch on forever and they began to speed up, pouncing recklessly on any men that they saw heading their way and fulfilling Safita’s promise to Finred.

Safita ran up the stairs Arthan had pointed her towards, taking each one two at a time and bursting out into the corridor at the top; as she raced down the hallway to the left she turned a corner and slammed into a body coming from the opposite direction, rebounding backwards and immediately preparing to fight. When her initial shock had dissipated she realised that it was Lalia and this left her just as surprised as she had been a moment before. “Lalia!” she exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“We didn’t want to leave,” she explained, panting slightly, “but we didn’t want to die so when Lassirus announced his arrival in the ballroom we headed for the exit along with anyone else. When we got through the doors though we headed in a different direction, away from the crowd, and through the castle; we’ve been heading through the corridors trying to find you since then.”

“How did you know we’d be here?” Arthan asked.

“We saw you stand back,” she answered, “but then you vanished. We figured that there was probably some kind of secret passageway.”

“We certainly hoped it,” Nell added from behind her, smiling embarrassedly as Safita grinned at him. There were three of them, her brother, Lalia and Frent and none of them had weapons.

“How did you get past the men patrolling the corridors?” she asked.

“Caution and hiding,” Frent said with a shrug. “It’s not like we planned on this happening and it’s not exactly customary to take swords with you to social events.”

“Well we can remedy that,” Arthan said, handing a knife to Lalia and the spare sword that he had been given by Finred to Frent. Safita handed the sword that she carried to Nell and pulled one of her knives from where she had attached it to her arm.

“We’re heading out,” she said as they started down the corridor. “Finred told us to get Varenna to safety.”

“She’s worth more than we are I suppose,” Nell nodded.

“There’s a secret passageway from the council chamber on the third floor,” Arthan said as he directed them to the right.

“This place is a maze,” Frent muttered, “it took us ages to work out where we were once the rush of people had subsided.”

“Luckily you’ve got me though,” he chuckled. “Living in the palace does have some perks and at least one of those is being able to find your way around it. The stairs to the third floor are up there,” he added, hurrying on towards the end of the passageway. Safita was two steps behind him when he skittered backwards and turned around, eyes wide. “People coming,” he muttered as he pulled them down the corridor with him. Their feet pounded on the stone as they trailed behind him. Suddenly Arthan dived behind a tapestry and without hesitating everyone else followed him. When the fabric closed over them they found themselves in a small enclave, completely hidden from the view of the men who were now marching down the corridor. “Let’s go up here,” he said, pointing up behind them where a small staircase spiralled to the next floor, “we should be able to get round them.”