The Dark Lord's Demise (14 page)

Betty shouted, "What's wrong with you? What are you doing?"
Lisa fought on, but the thing nearly squeezed the breath out of
her. Red lights sparkled before her eyes. Then she saw streaks of
yellow and green and purple and-blue! Pure pale blue, the true
light! Into her mind flashed the silent plea, Gaal! If you're here, get
me loose from this thing!

Air rushed into Lisa's lungs. The attacker eased its grip. Betty
yelled "Got it!" and the cell door moved. Terrified of the unseen
thing behind her, Lisa stumbled to the door, grabbed the bars next to Betty and pulled. The door moved, jammed and moved again.
Suddenly it swung open and let the girls out into the dark of the
corridor.

"This way!" Betty ordered.

"Which way? I can't even see you!"

"To the right! Run!"

You've probably never run full tilt with your eyes closed, at least
not very far. Everything inside tells you to watch where you're
going. Both girls disobeyed every instinct and sprinted down the
corridor into total blackness. Then Lisa slowed and thrust her
hands in front of her. How did she know the corridor was straight?
How did she even know which way straight was? At any second she
might smack into a stone wall.

She panicked as she heard Betty's footsteps running away
beyond her. Betty hadn't slowed down. They would be separated!
Lisa screamed, "Betty! Wait!" It was silly to scream during an
escape attempt, but the light person had said no one would see or
hear them. From somewhere ahead Betty's voice called, "Keep
coming! It's all clear!"

Wesley raced down the unlit corridor. He was amazed that he
didn't collide with anything. He tried to imagine that he was in a
huge open courtyard. But even a courtyard ended someplace in a
wall! Kurt lagged a little behind. Wes called encouragement over
his shoulder. He was determined not to slow down as long as he
heard Kurt's footsteps and hard breathing behind him.

Close by on their left, desperate voices shouted, "In here! In
here!" "Set me free too!" "The keys! Give me the keys!" They
guessed that they ran past a succession of prisoners in their dark
cells. Kurt felt sorry for them. How many of them were innocent?
The impact of their cries hit him. He stumbled and nearly fell
down. How did the other prisoners know the boys were there? The
light person had said no one would be able to see or hear them!

Lisa speeded up. She hardly cared if she ran into a wall. Ahead of her she heard indistinct voices. She couldn't make out the
words. After all her fears of hitting a wall, she was still shocked
when she ran hard into a solid object. It knocked the breath out of
her. Bodies! A jumble of startled cries echoed through the corridor. Lisa could only think We're caught! Then she recognized the
voices.

"Wes!" "Lisa!" "Betty!" "Kurt!" In the darkness the children
mobbed each other with joy. They were all free!

Wes took command. He explained to the girls, "A light in the
shape of a person appeared to us! It told us there's a door where
we can escape!"

Betty said, "A light told us that too! It said when we got out of
our cell, to turn right and run!"

"It told us to turn left and run," Kurt answered back. "You ran the
wrong way!"

"You ran the wrong way!" Betty returned.

The corridor fell silent. Something was very wrong. Had they
misunderstood or forgotten their instructions? Lisa didn't enter
into the argument. She knew it was wrong to go out the door. That
unseen thing in the cell had dragged her toward the door. It had
wanted her to escape!

Betty said, "Look! Here comes the light person to set us
straight!"

Flickering light appeared in the direction from which the girls
had come. More light came from the other direction. Men shouted,
"There they are! Seize them!" Torches rushed at the children from
both sides. One torch advanced ahead of the others. It gave weird
illumination to the face of the jailer who had locked up Wes and
Kurt. He grinned in wicked triumph. "The little devils tried to
escape. Death to all four of them!"

The jailers struck the backs of the children's knees, knocking
them to the filthy floor, and pinned their arms behind them. A
harsh voice sneered, "What happened, Dominicus? You had
charge of the females. Did they flirt with you? Persuade you to let
them borrow the keys?"

Lisa looked up and recognized the worn features of the jailer
who had guarded her and Betty. Dominicus's face, already red in the torchlight, turned even redder. He sputtered, "Nothing like
that! I locked them up securely!"

Lisa's heart went out to him. He had showed them what kindness he could.

"Do you know the penalty for letting prisoners escape?"
demanded the voice. It apparently belonged to a chief jailer who
had authority over the others.

"Y-yes, sir. I know the penalty."

Lisa couldn't see the chief jailer's face, but she imagined him
drawing his finger across his throat, as Dominicus had, to show the
penalty. Would this man die because she and Betty escaped? It
wasn't fair! None of this was fair!

"And you, Andron," the chief jailer continued. "Were you not
guarding the young males?"

"Well ... yes, I was, sir," conceded the boys' jailer.

"And what took place that they escaped while you were on
watch?"

Andron shifted his feet. His sandals were only inches from Kurt,
but he appeared to have forgotten Kurt was there. In fact, all the
guards ignored the children in their quest to uncover blame.
Andron grumbled, "They were a bad pair. Strangest prisoners I
ever saw. Ate every crumb of the garbage I gave them. Licked their
plate clean. Is that normal?"

"You wander from the point, Andron. How did your prisoners
escape?"

"I-I don't know, sir. I swear the door was locked. You see I have
all the keys here on my ring." A metallic jingle sounded above
Kurt's head. A similar jingle sounded above Betty's head. Dominicus must have produced his own keys to prove his innocence.

The chief jailer let out a scornful snort. "Your keys prove nothing. Both cell doors stood wide open. They could not have been
opened unless they were unlocked. There is only one explanation.
You-and you "-the children imagined him jabbing his finger at
Andron and Dominicus-"neglected to lock the doors."

Dominicus ventured, "Sir, if I might point out one fact ..."

"It may be the last you point out."

Dominicus gulped but went on. "We all know the punishment for letting prisoners escape. But may I point out that the prisoners
have not escaped. They're right here. Still in our custody and still
inside the prison."

Kurt rocked back on his heels and cheered. The jailers with
torches nearly dropped them. All reached for their swords. Wesley
hissed, "Shut up, Kurt! You want to cause even more trouble?"

"Sorry, but-what I mean is, Dominicus is right," Kurt
explained. "We haven't escaped. There's no penalty for not escaping, is there? And there can't be a penalty for not letting prisoners
not escape, can there be?"

The chief jailer scratched the back of his head. He squinted at
each of the four captives. Wes thought, He doesn't know what to do,
but he needs to look decisive in front of these underlings. With a short
nod the man ordered, "Bind them and take them to the hall of execution! Dominicus and Andron, you will go with me to give a full
report to the Commander. He will decide your fate. Do not expect
him to be merciful."

A jailer approached with a coil of the same cord the Marmon
used. He was about to tie the children's hands behind their backs
when Betty stopped him with a yell: "Don't tie me up with that
weaver bee stuff! I'm allergic!"

The jailer froze with the loop of cord still in his hands. He looked
at his superior. Wes saw the man blink and scowl. Here we go again,
Wes thought. He's got to decide fast, and he doesn't know what to do.

The head jailer squatted down directly in front of Betty. His face
was partly in shadow and partly illuminated by torchlight. He
demanded, "What is allergic?"

Betty fumbled for an answer. "Allergic is ... it has to do with
reactions."

The man seemed interested but wary. "Reactions of what sort?"

"Bad. Real bad." Betty picked up momentum. "Very had. Terrible! Terrible things will happen if you use that stuff on me!"

The situation was serious, but the Friesens had to snicker. By
accident, or maybe by cleverness, Betty Riggs had stymied a whole
crew of armed officials.

The chief jailer stood up. He asked the others, "What do you
know of this allergic?"

"I fear it is some type of magic, sir," muttered one.

"I have heard tales of children who exercise magic," said
another.

"They say children with strange powers came to Anthropos long
ago," recalled a third. "Perhaps these are of the same clan."

The other jailers joined in. The discussion got louder. It turned
into an argument. "Foolish rot! I say execute them tonight!" "It
does no harm to take precautions." "How do we know it's magic?
Perhaps it's some form of illness." "Put them back in their cells for
tonight." "It's magic. I'm sure of it! I can tell by the sound of the
word. Allergic. "

The voice of Andros, who had guarded the boys, rose above the
others. "Of course these prisoners possess magic. How else could
their cell doors open of themselves when they were securely locked?"

The rest went silent. They looked down at the kneeling children. The children looked up into their faces. Several jailers
stepped back. Andron plowed ahead with his argument. He gained
courage with every word. "If we execute them, who knows what
powers of revenge may be let loose on our heads? And if we lock
them up in their cells, they will only escape again. We must take
them from here-unbound-and hand them over to the palace
priests. Their powers are stronger than any arts these simple children possess."

The jailers studied the children, who studied them back. Lisa
thought, They like the idea ofgetting rid of us, but they're not so sure we're
simple children.