Sentinels: Forsaken Knight (6 page)

            “Humph,” he snorted. “You’re no daughter of mine, you never were! I should have left you in that burning house where I found you.”

            Anye was speechless. Tears poured through her eyes as she fell to her knees against the iron bars of her cell, and watched as her father turned heel and left the dungeon with his escort. Never before had she felt so abandoned and hopeless.

______

            Another day passed. Whispers of the king ordering Anye's execution reaching her cell. After her father had left her there to die she had lost any hope she still had of anyone listening to her, simply waiting for the time when the executioner would come for her. A storm outside the castle walls felt somehow appropriate in her dejected state. What had once been a bright future for the aspiring knight captain had turned into a dark, cold, and dishonorable end.

            "Captain, I'm sorry, but we are under strict orders to-"

            "I am both your and his superior officer, soldier. If I give you an order then that order takes precedence over his. Do you understand?"

            Anye looked up towards the dimly torch-lit corridor leading into the dungeons that had become her home, listening to the faint voices of two men near the entrance. The sound of the rain and thunder echoing off of the stone walls made it difficult to hear what they were saying though.

            "I don't care if he's under direct orders from His Majesty...takes his orders from me..."

            Whoever the other individual was, he didn't seem to be friendly with the guards. The conversation actually piqued Anye’s interest enough for her to make her way to her feet and press her face to the bars to try and listen better.

            "...very well, sir, but I can only allow you a few minutes..."

            "Guards, who’s there?" Anye asked the two men standing in front of her cage. She didn't expect an answer, but with nothing left to lose she didn't see the harm in annoying the men any more.

            As she expected one of them turned around and slammed his halberd into the bars, making a very loud clanging sound. "Shut up, you. You'll only speak when spoken to."

            "And as such she shall speak to me now," the voice of Glenn Sturmwind said from the shadow of the corridor. He emerged a moment later dressed in all of his armor, holding his open-face helmet under his arm. The helmet was adorned with two wings that reached behind his head from his temple like two outstretched dragon wings and colored to match the rest of the armor. Only the Knight Captain of the Dragon Knights was given such equipment to identify him in the field.

            "Guardsmen, you may leave your post," Glenn ordered. "I wish to speak to the prisoner...alone."

            "Sir, we're under direct orders from-"

            "Lieutenant Astley, yes I know," Glenn replied quickly without hiding his annoyance. "Have you forgotten my rank, guardsman?"

            "Captain, sir."

            "And does the rank of Captain not hold more weight in its orders than that of Lieutenant?"

            "Yes...no, sir!"

            "Then I fail to see the issue. Leave, that is an order," he told them coldly. "If Sir Astley has a problem with it he can see me in my private chambers."

            Both guards gestured with a salute and quickly exited the dungeon the way Glenn had arrived.

            When the echoes of the armor bouncing had silenced Glenn let out a sigh and looked towards Anye with a small smile. It quickly vanished when he saw the pitiful state of his close friend. "Anye, are you alright?"

            "Nice to see you," she replied with an attitude. "Finally taken the time out of your busy schedule to visit me?"

            "Anye, you must listen to me," Glenn told her as he gripped her bars.

            She could see the look of distress in his face and dropped the visage of anger. Something had to be very wrong in the castle for Glenn to be so visibly worried about something. "What? Has Amador done something? You believe me?"

            "Of course I believe you," Glenn told her. "But there's nothing I can do. Amador is in the king's ear now. He won't listen to a word I say. He's already threatened to strip me of my rank and throw me in here with you for sympathizing with you on more than one occasion."

            "That's why you haven't been here," she said. "Glenn, are the rumors true? Am I to be executed, even without a trial?"

            Glenn took a deep breath and slowly nodded his head before answering. "I'm afraid His Majesty has been...different, since your return from Mitus. I don't know what it is but he wouldn't be like this if he, and Her Grace, were simply in mourning. Amador has done
something
to affect him, but without proof I can't do anything about it, rank or not."

            "Is that why you've come, then? To say goodbye?" she asked sadly.

            "No," he told her. "I'm here to get you out."

            Anye stepped back in shock as Glenn lifted a key out of a pocket underneath his armor and opened the door to her cell. Her eyes swelled with tears as she could not contain her emotions. She immediately broke down and ran out to hug him. She hit him hard enough to knock the air out of him.

            "Come on, we don't have much time," Glenn explained. "The guards are sure to have reported my actions to Amador by now. We need to get you out of here."

            Anye backed away and dusted herself off. "But how? All of the corridors are patrolled, and if the king is going as mad as you say he'll have doubled the patrols."

            "He already has, but there's another way. Come on," Glenn told her. He took her hand and a torch off the wall. "There are other passages throughout this castle that aren't patrolled. You just need to know where they are to use them."

            The pair ran through the halls of the dungeon, ignoring the foul smell and moaning life-long prisoners that dwelled there. The darkness would have engulfed them had Glenn not taken the torch from the wall to light their way. Eventually they reached a dead end. The only thing around them that Anye didn't recognize was a large statue of a dragon against the wall resting on top of a stone altar.

            "Glenn, this is a dead end," she said to him as she frantically looked for a door. It took her a second before she noticed Glenn wasn't looking around, but rather kneeling in front of the statue. "What are you doing?"

            "Paying my respects," he explained as he got back to his feet. "The door is here, known only to very select few. Watch."

            Glenn gripped his lance from the sling across his shoulders and rested the tip at a circular point on the statue's chest. With a heave, he pushed the lance forward and the circle on the statue gave way, acting like a keyhole for the weapon. He turned it clockwise until the sound of a click echoed from behind the walls.

            Anye heard hidden weights slide against the stone within the walls as a panel on the floor in front of the statue slid away, revealing a staircase covered in dust and cobwebs. "Glenn, where does this lead?" she asked.

            "To the cave beneath the eastern wall," he told her. "There is a horse, clothing, and...a weapon waiting for you there. You must take them and go."

            She looked at him questioningly. "You're not coming with me?"

            "I can't," he said. "I need to stay and find out what Amador is up to."

            "I need to help!" she told him. "Amador framed me, I need to-"

            "You'll be killed on sight, Anye. You need to leave!"

            Anye stared at him. Her emotions stirred around; fury, sadness, understanding. She knew why he told her she needed to leave and she understood that if she didn't she
would
be killed without a second thought, but leaving her closest friend to fight this battle without her didn't sit well in her mind.

            "I'll come find you when I learn something, Anye. Trust me," he pleaded with her. "And don't worry about the guards. I'll tell them you jimmied the lock and overpowered me before running into the darkness. By the time I thought I'd caught up with you, you had somehow disappeared."

            Anye's anger quickly left her as she looked into Glenn's eyes. He was begging her to go, to survive. She didn't want to, her heart wanted her to stay, but her mind told her it was the right thing to do. She nodded her head and started to walk towards the hidden passage. She stopped for a second though, and turned back to face the man who had set her free.

            She either wasn't thinking clearly or circumstances had forced her to no longer care. She ran back up to Glenn and embraced him passionately on the lips. She caught his surprise, but noticed he didn't push her away either as she concluded the kiss. Her emotions ran wild with excitement and sadness. She was finally giving herself to the man she cared for, but knew that they couldn’t be together. She needed to take what joy she could from the moment before it was over.

            Eventually she pulled away, and felt lightheaded for a moment after. When she looked up at Glenn she thought she could see a mixture of utter shock and happiness in his eyes.

            She backed away and, before heading towards the passage she smiled at him. "If I never see you again, I at least wanted to do that," she told him.

            Glenn blinked his eyes for a second in disbelief before coming back to reality. "Right...be safe, Anye," he told her. With a counter-clockwise twist of the lance the mechanism hidden in the wall activated again, closing the opening in the floor.

            With no way back and no desire to get caught, Anye made her way through the darkness to the entrance of the cave. She worried about Glenn and how he would get out of the situation he had put himself in for her escape, but her primary focus at the moment had to be survival and escaping the kingdom. Returning to her family's estate for whatever belongings she thought may help was out of the question as well; if her father didn't turn her in, then the guards who were undoubtedly keeping an eye on her family would try to kill her. It was a painful thought, running away, but it was her only option.

            Just like Glenn had told her, waiting at the mouth of the cave just out of the storm's reach was a brown horse from the castle stables. A sack and a sword rested on top of it. She rushed over towards them, opening the bag to see what Glenn had provided for her.

            There was nothing particularly befitting of a knight, but Anye realized that was for the better and was probably intentional. Inside the sack was a small pouch of gold coins, a small sailcloth, and some clothes consisting of a pair of old boots, a leather belt, a few pairs of trousers, a couple of shirts, and a hooded cloak. All of the clothing was designed for a man, likely Glenn. She doubted he had gone out to buy clothing for her and had just grabbed whatever he could spare. The sentiment touched her and she smiled at the thought.

            The sword that rested along with the clothes Anye recognized immediately. Her suspicion was confirmed as soon as she pulled the blade from its leather sheath. The emblem of the Holy Knights was engraved on it, proving that the blade was her own as well as the one used to rob Prince Robert of his life. Somehow, Glenn had managed to sneak the blade away for her. For what reason he made sure she had that weapon she didn’t know, but she assumed it was to let her know that he wouldn’t forget what had happened and that she shouldn’t either.

            "Glenn, how did you manage this?" Anye asked herself as she looked down at the steel. The thought was interrupted by a bright bolt of lightning followed by a loud crack of thunder that reminded her of the situation. The storm conveniently provided the perfect cover she needed to get away.

            She quickly changed out of her prison garb and into the clothing provided, attaching the sheath to the belt on her waist and wrapping the cloak around her for protection from the weather. Everything else she kept in the sack which she slung over her shoulder. When she mounted the horse, she turned back to look at the cave she had escaped through.

            "Be safe, Glenn."

            She turned the horse out to face the storm and took a deep breath before pulling the cloak's hood over her head. She had no idea where she'd go, but she knew she had to go somewhere. She heeled the horse to get it running and galloped into the rain.

______

            Sunlight broke through the treetop canopy to Anye's camp in the forest far to the south of Delrich’s castle, waking her from another troubled sleep. Her ride through the dark storm had been far from pleasant. Not only did she need to avoid being seen by anyone out of fear of being turned in, she also had to deal with the torrential rain and winds. If that wasn't bad enough, when she reached the relative shelter of the southern forest and made a tent out of the sailcloth, she constantly heard the voice of her father repeating his last words to her. The uttering mixed with her recurring dream of fire, which combined for an especially bad series of nightmares while she slept.

            Regardless of the dreams, she did manage to get some rest and come up with a plan. Mitus was officially still at war with Delrich, and even though most of the hostilities between the two nations had temporarily stopped, fleeing to the imperial capital was out of the question. North of Delrich and Mitus were the snow plains of Toran, and to the south through the forest was the neutral nation of Belrun.

            Toran and Delrich had an alliance which allowed the kingdom to herd dragons from the northern peaks for the Dragon Knights in exchange for protection, and for goods manufactured in Delrich. The alliance also meant that they were at odds with Mitus and would likely report her presence to the capital if she were discovered, so Anye ruled out that possibility as well.

            Belrun remained neutral in the war against Mitus, wishing not to provoke the sorcerous empire from attacking them at their harbors in retaliation for supporting Delrich, or the latter pushing through the forest and razing their farmland if they chose to aid Mitus. The sheer amount of land under the kingdom's control provided a large enough supply of people to keep their army and navy formidable regardless, but they still preferred to remain out of the conflict. Since Anye was already in the bordering forest and there was no real reason for them to turn her over if discovered, continuing south seemed like the best choice. The port towns within the kingdom also provided transportation to other lands beyond the ocean, so leaving the continent was also an option if the need arose.