The Jade City

Chapter 24: Escape

Lloyd's POV

"Lloyd. Lloyd," someone hissed. I immediately jerked awake, surprised at my ability to fall asleep even in this state. Somehow I had ended up lying flat on my back on the rough, uneven stone floor. It was very uncomfortable but I guess boredom could do wonders.

I looked up to see Ruby's face peering at me through the cage bars and sat up promptly. She was wearing one of the Shadow Riders' cloaks, leaving only enough of her face visible under the hood so that I could recognize her.

"What the―what―how?" I sputtered, and she quickly pressed a finger to her lips and glanced around nervously. There wasn't a single Shadow Rider in sight.

"I managed to escape," she whispered hurriedly, "They weren't guarding me this strictly. And speaking of strict, wow, this is insane. But their security at night is pretty lacking, isn't it?" I watched, dumbfounded, as Ruby pulled out a hairpin and began picking at the lock. Never would I have expected her to be able to do such things. But then I never would've thought that Rumi could fight so well in combat, either.

She got the lock open just as I finished melting away the manacles around my wrists and chain around my ankle. When she opened the cage door, Ruby handed me a cloak to put on as well. I did, and we both pulled our hoods down.

"Come on, this way's the exit," Ruby turned and headed for one of the tunnels. "You'd be surprised how accessible everything is. All I had to do was wear this cloak and then I could go wherever."

"How'd you acquire it?" I asked, hurrying to keep up with her accelerating pace.

"I just had to knock someone out. When you're desperate enough, anything's possible," she chuckled softly, "And since nobody's raised an alarm yet, I'm assuming nobody even checks on me. Let's just say you can take advantage of the fact that everyone thinks you're weak."

By this point we had entered the tunnel and we were already running.

"I don't think you're weak," I said, though I admit, I was quite surprised that she managed to get not one, but two cloaks. Still, the Shadow Riders she came across must've been some of the weaker ones, their cloaks just making them seem menacing, because while Ruby was definitely much stronger than she let on, she couldn't be that powerful.

"Thanks, but most people would probably disagree. Have you seen me in combat?" I could almost hear her grinning.

I didn't really know how to reply so I said nothing. Soon the underpass became more of a vertical hole and we began to climb. I craned my head upwards and saw only darkness, but since Ruby had said it was nightfall, I wasn't surprised. It was probably hard to tell since the cave was always illuminated by dark blue crystals. At least those crystals allowed me to see where I was stepping and what I was holding onto while climbing. Ruby didn't seem to have trouble rock climbing, moving with the type of speed and agility that I'd only seen in Morro and Cole before. The royal family must be trained well in these skills. Meanwhile I could soon feel my arms shaking after a couple of minutes and had to tread very lightly to avoid foot cramps.

My shoes had already been worn to the point where there were holes in it even before our adventure (an unwise decision of mine), so the bottoms of my feet hurt badly. Sweat on my hands made the rocks feel slippery. I gritted my teeth and dug my nails into the stone, the sharp, jagged corners pricking my fingers. My feet were barely able to hold their own and I felt the urge to look down, but knew that I could end up losing my grip and falling to my death if I did. There was no rope, no harness, no anything.

While I climbed, I scraped my knees several times in an effort to stay as close to the wall as possible. Though the walls weren't exactly at a ninety-degree angle, they were still extremely steep and hard to climb. All four of my limbs became sore within a few minutes, shaking harder with every step. I could feel the strain in my muscles. Even as the Master of Energy, I didn't have enough left to ask Ruby how far we still had to climb.