choose your own adventure, episode 7a

KNIGHT SWORD, EPISODE 7A

“Let’s wait here for a while,” you say, “and then go back to my father’s house. If the Raven knew about the tunnel, he would be down here already. He must think we escaped through the windows.”

Caius nods. “A sound idea, girl. Very well. Keep quiet – this tunnel is close to the street in places, and sounds can carry far.”

You sit against the wall, the sheathed longsword between your knees, and Caius closes his lantern, leaving you in darkness. After a while you feel the tears trickling down your cheeks. Your father is dead, murdered at the hands of the Raven Ulmoch. The High Queen’s servants are hunting you. And all for what? This sword – whatever it is. Why is it so special?

You open your mouth to ask Caius…and then hear the tramp of boots filtering from the street overhead, along with the harsh rasp of orcish voices.

You decide silence is wiser just now.

Time passes. You couldn’t say how much. Then light seems to flood the tunnel as Caius opens the lantern.

“That’s long enough,” he says. “Let’s go.”

You walk through the tunnel and return to your father’s cellar.

Or what’s left of it, at any rate. The walls are still standing, but the roof and the floors collapsed, filling the cellar with smoldering, smoking beams. You pick your way through the wreckage as quickly as you can, trying to keep your clothes from catching fire. Fortunately, the cellar steps are made of stone, and you and Caius climb into the remnants of the kitchen with little trouble.

“Keep down,” hisses Caius, peering through the window, and you follow his gaze.

A pair of orcs in the High Queen’s crimson livery stand outside the house, crossbows cradled in their arms. Further down the street you see the flare of torchlight, hear shouted voices and barked commands.

“They’re going house to house,” mutters Caius, “searching for the sword. That bloody Night Raven won’t stop until he finds it.” He shakes his head. “Next he’ll start rounding up people who knew Jerome to put them to the question.”

“Put them to the question?” you say.

“Torture.”

You swallow.

“And Ulmoch will have guards at the gates,” says Caius. He smacks a balled fist into his thigh. “We can’t let them have the sword. We can’t.” There’s a note of something unsettling in his voice. Not fear, precisely, but more like grim despair. “This is the last sword. We can’t let her have it. Otherwise it has all been for nothing.”

You frowning, thinking hard. You need a way out of the city.

And then you remember something your father said, about how smugglers were avoiding payment of the Count’s tariff at the gate. Moridun doesn’t get much trade, but enough that someone found a way to smuggle goods in and out of the city. And you remember that Jerome said the smugglers tended to congregate at the Ghost Boar Inn, against the wall.

You open your mouth to speak, and your heart skips a beat.

Dietrich, your betrothed, is standing in the street, some distance from the house. He’s a tall man of twenty-five, seven years your senior, with blue eyes, pale blond hair, and arms like tree trunks. He is gazing at the burned house with a stricken, almost horrified expression. His father Donald is the richest smith in Moridun, and if anyone can hide you and get you out of the town, Donald can.

“I have a plan,” says Caius, his voice toneless.

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