Shadow and Memory

Part 1

There were trophies here, a battered helmet, a tattered flag from some royal army deployment, a pile of maps and books on a wooden table, a footlocker of personal possessions beside one of the few real beds in this makeshift encampment. Chief among the prizes was the young woman manacled to the wall. Her head was down, dozing, exhausted, but she didn't look as if she'd been badly abused. Wulfric crept closer.

"Carol." He said softly. She twitched, groaning. "Carol, wake up, I need you to wake up now."

She looked for a moment as if she didn't know where she was. "Wha, who..."

"Shh." He hissed, placing a finger to his lips. For a moment it looked like she might cry out in instinctual fright, but her hazel eyes locked onto his shining gold, and she calmed a little, though her breathing came in quick shallow gasps.

"Wulfric?" She squeaked, as if she couldn't believe it, eyes wide with fear.

He nodded. "I'm going to get you out of here, get you somewhere safe." He promised, looking around the cabin again. He'd hoped that perhaps his axe might have been left here, but good fortune rarely graced him that much at the same time. "Do you know where their leader went?" He asked quickly, looking into her eyes again to give her something to focus on. He knew the telltale signs of someone teetering on the edge of a nervous panic, he needed to keep her focused on something constructive.

She gulped. "He just left, minutes ago." She began, managing to calm herself. "Someone came to the door, and said that a party had arrived at the entrance, that he had to go talk to them. Then he left, he said he'd be back soon."

Wulfric nodded, letting some of his worry steal over his face. It might have been nothing, just going to meet some of their number returning from a night of carousing, but it could be something far more significant. What if it was the group that had hired these mercenaries? Come to claim the prisoner? If that was the case then there wasn't a moment to lose, and it also meant there was likely more people waiting outside the cave mouth, though it could be three or it could be thirty. In any case, not welcome news at all.

"Then we have no time to spare, do you know where the key to that is?" He asked, gesturing to the lock on her heavy iron manacles.

"The leader, the captain, he keeps it on his belt, I don't know how you'd"

He cut her off. "No matter, no matter, these look pretty cheap." He got his picks out and started working at the lock, ears flicking and twitching as they strained, listening to the minute clicks from inside the simple lock. He cocked his head a little, glancing back at the door.

"Lady Carol." He said quite calmly. "I know you've been through an ordeal, but I'm going to need you to stay focused with me here. When I get these cuffs off you, you're going to have to get up and be ready to run. I won't be able to spare a hand to pull you, so you'll need to keep up with me on your own."

She nodded, and a little of the sharp intelligence he'd come to know over their brief travel together came back into her fearful eyes. "Why, what's happening?"

Wulfric glanced back to the door again. "I don't mean to alarm you, but there's footsteps coming towards the door, and we're about to be discovered." He said as calmly as he could.

She gulped, but nodded, steeling herself with visible effort. Wulfric's world shrunk to the manacles and the lock picks in his hands, focusing on the oh so quiet clicks and scrapes of metal on metal, trying to not let the noises outside the little cabin distract him.

"Hey, who let the lamp go out?" One of them asked, the footsteps scraping to a halt right outside the door.

"Dunno. Good thing the captain didn't see it though, he hates stumbling around in the dark.