A Song of Silence

Chapter 55: A Jailbreak in the Dark

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It had taken me very little time to rush to my rooms to get my assassin uniform back on. Silently slinking out my window, I make my way to the dungeons. It's pitch black outside, so it's easy to hide from the patrolling soldiers. The dungeons are relatively uncrowded. Suspiciously, in fact. It smelled like a trap. Instead of immediately going to the prisoners, i found an empty cell and hid in the shadowed corner. I had all night to do this, but it would be all for nothing if I got caught. So, I waited. And waited. And waited. Nobody came. Not a soldier or other prisoner in sight. It only further proved that it was a trap.

After what seemed like hours, I heard voices starting to come down the corridor. "It's been hours. You said she would come." A voice whined. An unfortunately familiar voice. Lady Prill.

"She should have come. She cannot stand to see innocents hurt." Guinevere said quietly.

Slowly edging along the wall until I see the two women, I watch as Lady Prill gestures to the grimy hall around her. "Well, she is not here and the reports from the hidden guards down the hall report nothing." Ah. It is a good thing I listened to my gut. Had I not, I would have had to kill the hidden guards near the prisoners.

"She will be here!" Guinevere says indignantly, "I guarantee it!"

"You guaranteed she could not speak and yet she can!" Lady Prill says sarcastically, "You guaranteed she would be easy to kill. Both times you were wrong, just as you are wrong now." Guinevere opens her mouth as if to speak, but is shut down by Lady Prill. Her voice is filled with venom as she says, "If you cannot guarantee this, then i think you have outlived your usefulness." Guinevere looks slightly afraid as Lady Prill storms away. Scanning the dungeons, Brynn reluctantly leaves the way they came, a slight slump to her shoulders. The friendship I had once had for Guinevere begged me to not leave her in this kind of predicament. But she had done this to herself and had conspired to kill and capture me. I waited for a few moments longer before creeping out of the cell and walking further down the hall.

The soldiers that Guinevere and Lady Prill had stationed down the hall were easy to knock out.  Tying them together, I creeped towards the prisoners they had been guarding. The first prisoner I approached was the little boy, no older than eight. He was huddling in the corner of his cell, sobbing.  "Why did you commit the crime you did?" I asked quietly.

The boy jumped and then reluctantly answered me, "Me Mum was sick and we had no money for medicine. We was goin' to return to pay the money back, but I got caught." The boy bursts into fresh tears. Just as I had thought. A victim of circumstance and desperation. Nothing more. The next cell held Guinevere's prisoner. The worn man sentenced to lose his hand. He cowers in the corner of his cell, clutching his hand because he thinks he might never see it again. I ask him the same question I asked the little boy.

"I stole clothing for my boys. They were freezing to death and the soldiers had a surplus of furs that they tried to sell us at prices that were too high. My entire crops yield is what they asked of me! I couldn't pay that!" He says angrily. I too would be angry in his place. It was either watch his family freeze and to death or watch them starve. Neither were good options. Nodding, I turned to the third and final prisoner. A frail old woman. She looked like she might die any minute. I was ashamed that murder is what this world had come to. Ordinary fae had to kill and be sentenced to death all because there were too many corrupt and power hungry fae in the world that we lived.

"And your reason?" I asked her quietly. She faced the wall, hunched over and worn. Hopeless. Beaten down. She should be living out the rest of her life in peace but instead she had been relegated to this. Disgust turned the corners of my mouth downward. Disgust in the soldier that had assaulted her daughter. Disgust in the fact that I could not help her. Other than freeing them, of course.

"You know my reason," she says, her voice a whisper.

"I would still like to hear it from you." I say.

"Do you think I don't recognize you? You were there when I was sentenced. You know exactly why." She says this so quietly as to make sure the other prisoners don't hear her words. "The only question is, why are you here?"

"I am here to free you, if you'd like to be freed." I respond.

"There is no life out there for us anymore. He will send his soldiers to find us if we return home."

"Then don't return home." My response seems to du try pride her, for she turns around quickly and looks at me with wide eyes.

"And go where?" She replies scathingly.

"I have somewhere for you to go. You can never return to your families or be in contact e we it's then, but you will live."

The old woman regards me with suspicion before asking sharply, "Why?"

I know not how to respond to her other than saying, "Because I was in your place once and I would have done anything to live. I do not want you to pay the price that I had to."

She regards me with her sharp eyes, "What is the price." She was a smart lady. Nothing came for free in this world and you didn't survive without asking the price beforehand.

"Your silence and nothing more." I respond quietly. My response seems to surprise her. I would be surprised if I was in her position. Nobody ever asked for such a low price when given the chance to bargain for a higher one.

Nodding slowly, the old woman says, "Alright, I agree to your price." I go to the other two prisoners and give them my conditions. They gratefully agree. Grabbing the keys to the cells from one of the unconscious guards, I unlock the cells and motion for the prisoners to quietly follow me. They are wary as I lead them past the unconscious guards and out of the dungeons to the waiting horses.

Turning to them, I say, "I cannot follow you any further. A guide will be waiting to meet you to help you hide from soldiers and scouts looking for you. These horses are magically enchanted to take you somewhere safe. Do not attempt to return to your families. It will spell death for you and then if you do so." The prisoners shakily get on the horses and canter off into the night. The horses and the guide had cost me another debt to Jameson. I didn't regret making such a choice, but I was getting wary of my now mounting debts. In the past I had been careful to never become indebted to anyone. Since arriving in the Capital city, it seems I can't help but hand them out.

Making sure my hood still covers my face, I make my way back to my rooms in the palace. Given the shortness of my mission, I should be able to get back to my rooms and changed with nobody the wiser. It will be chaos when it is found that the prisoners have escaped, but there is no evidence that I was there, so I will be an unlikely suspect. Azazel and the rest of the court will suspect me, of course. I am one of the few that could pull off such a feat, but I will deny everything. I have to. For the sake of the people who had no other choice.

My decision will make Azazel look weak. The court will see it as his inability to keep lawbreakers confined. They might see it as a reason he should not be High King. It matters little now, though. He made his choice and I made mine. Damn the consequences for I wouldn't have made any other choice. Those people deserved to live. To have a life outside of the shadow of those corrupt and cruel. I couldn't leave. Not until I was sure the corrupt had been removed and the people safe.

Finally arriving in my rooms, I hid my assassin clothes and settled into my warm bed. Best get what little sleep I can. I sure as hell was going to need it for the chaos ahead.