The Iron Butterfly (2 page)

“What did I ever do to deserve this? I shouldn’t be here!” Tym argued. I knew he was confused and rambling, but it was becoming annoying.

“I don’t know? Why are any of us here?” I muttered. I started to wind my dark hair around my finger, something I tended to do out of habit when I was nervous or frustrated.

Just then a loud pounding sound came from the cell down the hall. It sounded like Kael was throwing himself against the door, and then he would intersperse it with pounding his plate against the lock.

“You aren’t going to open the lock with that plate,” I remarked dryly.

“Don’t need too, just need to get their attention,” Kael grunted between throws.

“What!” Tym hissed. “You can’t be serious. You want them to come?” His voice changed to a higher pitch as his nervous laughter got the better of him. “He wants them to come down here? Th-they are gonna be mad, they’re gonna b-b-beat us.”

“Please don’t!” My body started to shake at the thought of the beatings we would receive for breaking the rules. I could handle the pain, I couldn’t handle the machine. “I don’t want to go back into that room.” Now my voice was quavering. “I can’t take it anymore.” Hoping my pleas didn’t fall on deaf ears; I pressed my body against the cold door and prayed.

The noise stopped for an instant as if he heard me, and then picked up again with a desperate fervor. He interspersed the banging of the plate with kicking, pounding and yelling. I pressed my back to the cell door, slid down to the floor and resigned myself to the painful punishment that would be doled out to all of us equally.

“What’s going on?” Scar Lip yelled as he opened the door followed by three guards. None of the Septori in their robes appeared. I wondered briefly where they were. The armed men rushed to the cell and gathered around Kael’s door.

“Over here, you moron! I have information that your master wants!” Kael had immediately directed Scar Lip’s attention onto himself, instead of Tym and me.

Scar Lip halted suspiciously outside Kael's cell door. “What is the information that you have for him and is it valuable?” he asked.

“Oh, it's life changing alright.”

Scar Lip licked his lips in anticipation. “What is it that you want me to know?”

“I thought it imperative that your master knows,” Kael paused for effect, “That you are a slimy, no-good, rotten toad. A bastard son of a flea-ridden donkey.”

“Quiet!” Scar Lip hissed.

“You can’t even think for yourself. You must like the taste of dirt because you grovel so much to the Raven.”

“Shut up!” Scar Lip pounded on the door.
“
Or you’ll be sorry! I’ll make you wish you’d never been born!”

“I’m already sorry. I’m sorry that I’m subjected to seeing your ugly face every day. You know only a dog or a mother could love that face. No, I’m wrong. Your mother must be a dog to love the likes of you,” Kael taunted.

That did it. Scar Lip with his thick fingers grabbed the keys from his belt and shoved it into the lock. The other guards grabbed their clubs, and entered one by one into the cell.

I ducked to the floor and lifted the metal flap to try and see what was going on. But all I saw was the dust cloud made from the scuffling of their feet. I heard fighting and grunting and I hoped Kael was the one dealing the punches.

Finally, the fighting stopped, the dust settled, and I saw Scar Lip emerge from the cell with a victorious smirk on his face. Following behind him were two of the guards dragging Kael between them by his forearms. The third guard trailed behind.

Kael was dead or unconscious. His long, dark hair covered most of his face except for a blue headband around his forehead. His body was long, lean and well-muscled, if a bit thin. His dirty and torn clothes marked him for either a hired sword or a mercenary. In his current weakened condition it was suicide to try and take on all of the men at once.

“Let’s give him a session on the machine,” Scar Lip roared angrily.

“But we’re not supposed to enter Raven’s workshop when the he’s not there,” a nervous guard spoke up.

“Shut up, you idiot. No one will know but us, and believe me, this one needs another lesson in obedience,” a second guard intervened.

As they drew closer to my cell I started to feel an intense pressure in my mind; a headache that pulsed at my temples. I closed my eyes to stop the pressure and I almost missed Kael spring to life.

Kael, who I thought was unconscious, moved in a flash and grabbed the knife from the guard’s belt. He thrust the blade upwards into the guard’s throat, sinking the blade in to the hilt. Pulling it out, the guard released Kael's arm and fell to the ground choking, his life ebbing away.

Before the guard even hit the ground, Kael had gained his footing and slashed at the man holding his other arm, slicing in a downward arc and forcing the other guard to release him.

The rear guard rushed him while swinging his short sword at Kael. The difference in the two blade sizes made Kael look like he was playing with a toy.

Kael jumped back, missing the swing of the short sword, as he adjusted the weight of his confiscated knife in his hand. When the sword swung at him again, Kael ducked and took the brunt force of the sword handle on his shoulder
.
Wrapping his hand around the rear guard’s arm, he swung the handle of the knife into the man's temple, knocking him unconscious.

Scar Lip screamed obscenities at the last guard, “Grab him, you fool! What are you doing? Hit him! Don’t let him up!” all the while keeping a safe distance.

But Kael was bleeding from his shoulder wound, and he was still outnumbered two to one and tiring quickly. The second guard, also bleeding from a slash on his arm, carefully stalked Kael; trying to push him back toward his opened cell. He pulled out a knife from his boot and picked up the dead guard’s knife. There was no way Kael could take out the guard with two knives unless he threw his dagger, giving up his only weapon.

The pain in my head began to be unbearable. “Do something!” I yelled at Tym.

“I’ll try,” Tym answered.

Tym reached his hand under the grate and grabbed at the uniform of the guard. A flash of light appeared, catching the guard’s clothes on fire. He screamed in panic dropping both knives to bat at his burning uniform. Kael used this opportunity to rush the burning guard and elbow him in the throat. The guard sputtered, and dropped to his knees. Kael punched him in the face knocking him out cold. As soon as the guard lost consciousness, the flames about him disappeared.

A small squeal escaped Scar Lip’s mouth and he turned white with fright, as he realized he was the only one left to face the deadly Kael. Scar Lip turned to run up the stairs as Kael threw the dagger. The silver blade sunk into Scar Lip’s back and he fell over with a grunt and slid down the stairs, coming to a halt on the bottom step.

Kael ran over and retrieved the keys from Scar Lip’s still body and ran to Tym’s cell. He quickly unlocked the door and a wide eyed Tym emerged, shaking
.
“Did you see that? I did it. I helped,” he sputtered.

“Thanks!” Kael quickly shot out to Tym, “but you have to get out of here and quick.”

Tym wasted no time and shot up the stairs and down the corridor toward freedom.

Kael unlocked my cell. As the door swung open I could see his face close up for the first time and my heart fluttered with apprehension. Here was someone who wasn’t afraid to die. A fierce look came from stormy blue eyes that were partially obscured by long dark hair. Kael’s hard mouth was set in a firm line as he studied me. He looked beyond me into the darkness of my cell searching for an ambush or possibly another prisoner. Kael looked older than me by a few years, but was striking and fierce looking at the same time. Here was a man bred to be a warrior.

I knew what he would find looking at me, a short little thing that looked more like a child than an adult. My height stopped at a few inches over five feet, and I was small compared to his towering frame. My hair hung dark and limp down my back and my blues eyes looked sickly surrounded by my swollen face and bruises. His look was grim and determined as he reached for my arm, and then stopped, his hand inches away.

“Come on,” he growled, curling his fingers into a fist at his side.

I ignored his gruff demeanor. After all, I didn’t know him and he did rescue me. I tried to stand, but all I was able to do was take a few steps and then stumble into the door. I was weak from malnourishment and the intense pounding in my head was making me feel awkward and unbalanced.

Kael inhaled his breath as if he was holding it and stepped back not bothering to assist me. “Get going,” he snapped.

The tone of his voice made me stiffen in resistance. I squared my shoulders and ordered him about. “Well, then move out of the doorway.”

Kael moved to the side, letting me pass before he reached for a torch from a wall. He entered each of the opened cells and gathered all of the blankets, clothes and straw into a corner to make kindling. Once done, he set them ablaze. He deftly stepped over the dead and unconscious guards and moved to the hall. The hungry crackling fire would soon spread to the wooden door and along the support beams in the wall. I hoped he would bring the whole thing down.

I stood watching him work until I had a prickling sensation on the back of my neck and I moved as fast as my feet would take me up the stairs and out the first door. Not bothering to notice that the stairs were empty of a body that was previously there, I hurried down the corridor to where the passageway split. To my left I could smell the air of freedom, but to my right down the other dark corridor, stood the huge metal door of the laboratory and possibly Cammie. I started to take steps away from potential freedom when Kael loomed up behind me.

“No, leave it well alone. GET OUT of here!” he yelled, as he dragged the still form of an unconscious guard after him. The other guard must not have survived.

“But Cammie could be down there!”

“You get outside. I’ll go look for her.” He propped the guard against the wall and ran toward the laboratory room.

Nodding my head in assent, I silently made my way down the opposite passageway, realizing that I wasn't eager in the least to travel the other one.

I followed the dark passageway by feeling the wall with my hand, wishing that I had thought to grab a torch. The wood beams became sparse and the ceiling started to slant lower and lower, until I was feeling the cross beams skim the top of my head. Anyone taller would have to duck to traverse the same path. My hands started to get entangled in roots that protruded from the wall. The gloomy darkness of the passageway seemed to go on forever until it came to an abrupt end, and I encountered a wall of dirt.

Feeling a moment of panic, I felt around in the darkness, for a door or handle, anything to help me escape. Something rough brushed against my face and I squeaked in surprise. Touching the object I found it to be a rope that dangled from the ceiling. Following the rope up with my hands I found that it was attached to a trapdoor in the ceiling.

By now the darkness was slowly being lightened by the glow of red flames behind me. I pushed the wooden door and it barely moved an inch. I was so weak it took me three tries to push it open. But I still had to pull myself out of the tunnel. I could smell the smoke and it stung my eyes making them water as I desperately tried to lift my own bodyweight out of the trapdoor.

“Come on!” I cried aloud. I scratched the ground for purchase trying to find any handhold to assist me. I finally dragged my chest across the dirt floor bruising my ribs in the process.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I emerged, but I wasn’t expecting a stable. The trapdoor was carefully hidden in the back stall under straw. The whole prison and experimental lab was housed and camouflaged by a stable. The smell of the horses would definitely cover the smell of the prison, experiments and death.

Standing to my feet I brushed my dirt caked hands on my shirt and looked around for a means of faster escape. I glanced back down into the trapdoor, looking for signs of Kael or Cammie. But the passageway was empty except for the faint glow of fire and a trail of smoke that was pouring out of it.

There were eight wooden stalls in the stable, six were empty. I knew the Raven wasn’t here because Scar Lip had said so and I hadn’t seen any of the cursed Septori. Where were they? Somewhere close? Or did they build a stable out in the middle of nowhere for this purpose. No, I thought to myself, there had to be another building close by. I wasn’t sure but I didn’t think the prison seemed big enough to house all of the Septori and guards. If that was the case that meant they would see the smoke and soon they would be upon us.

Two horses were still stabled and the signs that a third was here not too long ago. Tym was smart enough to grab a mount. The two horses were starting to panic as more smoke poured in through the trapdoor.

Running to the wall, I grabbed the bridle from a hook and tried to put the bay's tack on. My hands were shaking so much that I kept fumbling with the cinch. Once finished, I reached for the roan's bridle. I knew I wasn’t going to have time for saddles, I was tiring quickly and I didn't have the strength to hoist the saddles onto the horse’s backs, when I slipped in something warm and wet.