PART II Chapter 4

Ashanta sat perfectly still on her bed. Her dinner had been delivered, and eaten, hours earlier, and it must now be the dead of night. Through scraps of parchment passed to her in pieces of bread and on the bottoms of soup bowls over the last few weeks she had been alerted to the fact that Lingqui seemed to have solved the mystery of the writing above the mosaic in the other part of the dungeon. Plans had been made for her escape, with Sharra offering to drug the contents of several barrels of wine to ensure that everyone in the castle slept deeply that night. Ashanta hoped that had been accomplished, for things would go much more smoothly if it had. Now there was nothing for her to do but wait, and listen.

Lingqui had promised that her door would be opened shortly after midnight. She was to make her way carefully to the room that they had opened, and, standing in front of the picture of the tunnel opening, she was to speak the syllables that she had so carefully committed to memory over the last days. She still had the parchment, rolled up carefully and tucked into the waistband of her undergarment. She also had a stub of a candle, enough to burn for perhaps an hour, and a single match, which had arrived the previous day tucked into a hollow in her bread.

From the passageway outside her cell, Ashanta heard a scratching and a scrabbling sound as someone attempted to open the door of her cell. She wanted to tell whoever it was that the lock stuck, and that it worked better to turn the key to the right first, and only then to the left, but she dared not make a sound. If it was a guard checking on her, he must think that she slept. Otherwise, she must trust that whoever it was would manage to get the door unlocked without her help. After what seemed an interminable amount of time, the lock clicked back, and the door swung open to reveal the silhouette of the jester. He beckoned urgently with his hand, and she slipped through the opening to join him, eager to head to the old dungeon and hopeful escape. Lingqui stopped her with a raised hand. Carefully, he relocked the door of the cell and cautiously replaced the keys on the belt of the guard. Lifting a finger to his lips to indicate that she should not speak, he headed down the corridor with Ashanta close behind him.

It was a matter of minutes before they had reached the entry to the ancient dungeon rooms, and once they had slipped through the entrance Lingqui turned to her and whispered, "I think that we may chance a whisper here, and perhaps a second candle. Sharra awaits us at the exit to the passageway. She has with her food and water enough for a seven-day, and warmer clothing and shoes for you. We must travel far and fast tonight, for when the king discovers that you have fled, he will surely send hounds and huntsmen on fast horses after us."

"Us?" Ashanta asked, "Are you coming with me, and Sharra as well? But why? Surely you put yourself in grave danger by disappearing at the same time as I. You shall never be able to return to your positions at the castle."

Lingqui nodded. "What you say is true. This is not the time to explain it though. We can talk more later, once we are through the tunnel and well away from this place. Now, we must hurry to open the tunnel and flee from this place."

Standing in front of the picture, Ashanta took a deep breath. She hoped that she would not forget the syllables, or even mispronounce them. Also, she hoped that it would work. It seemed clear that the words were some kind of an incantation in a language that she did not speak, and never would. Who knew what would happen if she got the syllables wrong. Perhaps nothing, and perhaps something horrible. Ashanta tried not to think about what the horrible thing might be if she failed. Taking a deep breath and opening her mouth, she spoke the syllables clearly, exactly as they had been written on the scrap of parchment, "Soac chatht foeien schanlim." Nothing happened.

Ashanta nearly cried with frustration and disappointment. There would be no escape for them this way. Perhaps Lingqui had best return her to her cell and lock her back up. Maybe she would be able to fight her way out against the executioner. Lingqui suddenly grabbed her arm and pointed to the floor. At the base of the wall a crevice was opening, and slowly growing bigger and bigger. In a few minutes, it was large enough to slip her hand into, and then her whole arm, and then it had widened so that she could have stuck her head into it if she had wished to. Finally the crack was wide enough to permit even the girth of her very pregnant body through. Ashanta looked at Lingqui, and pointed to the opening with her hand. He nodded, and the two of them slipped through it together, feeling for the floor of the tunnel with their feet.

"Do you suppose we need to do anything to close up the opening?" Ashanta wondered aloud. "It seems better that our escape be at least something of a mystery."

In response, Lingqui pointed to the opening which was already beginning to close again, and much more quickly than it had opened. "I think the tunnel will keep its own mystery," he said as the stones ground shut behind them. "We had best start down the tunnel lest it also begin to close up."

By the time they exited from the tunnel nearly an hour later, Ashanta was bruised and scraped from the dozens of falls she had taken, and exhausted with climbing over, under, and around the piles of stones that had fallen from the ceiling of the tunnel onto its floor.


Standing at the entrance to the tunnel with a lantern in her hand was Sharra, her hand on the bridle of a small pony loaded with sacks and bundles. "I did not dare to take any of the big horses from the stables," she said by way of explanation. "Lingqui and I will not be missed for many hours, and we do not normally appear before dinnertime anyway, and with luck, your guards will just slip your breakfast tray inside without checking whether you are there or not, but the big horses from the stables would be missed as soon as the stablehands went to feed them at sun up, and then the chase would be on. By my estimates, it is about three hours until it begins to get light, and we must walk as fast and as far as we can in that time. I fear, Highness, that you must walk as best you can, for our steed, such as it is, must carry our gear."

Ashanta looked ruefully down at the slippers that she wore, never very substantial and now worn to shreds during her weeks in captivity. "I don't suppose you have anything more substantial for my feet," she hesitated, "I am not certain that I can walk very far at all in these."

Reaching into the top of one of the bags, Sharra pulled out a pair of sturdy boots, some thick socks, and a farmwife's outfit that looked to be about the right size for Ashanta. "Duck into the tunnel and put these on," she advised, "and I will help you to tuck your hair up into the cap. It will attract less attention if you do not look like the queen. As you will see when it gets light, we are wearing the clothing of countryfolk as well."

Ashanta did as they asked, and they were quickly on their way. The darkness of the forest through which they passed pressed down on them, and every hoot of an owl caused Ashanta to jump. Once a small animal scampered across the toe of her boot, and on several occasions, large moths, attracted to the dim light from the lantern that Sharra carried, blundered into her face. She nearly wished on more than one occasion that she was back in the darkness of her cell, and had to remind herself rather sternly that to stay there would have meant certain death for her.

At last they began to see the faintest glimmer of light appear through the trees. Lingqui pointed, and said, "I think that the sun is coming up, and also that we are near to the end of the forest. See how it begins to thin over to the east?"

Ashanta looked and realized that he was right. The forest did seem to be coming to an end.

"Dare we walk in the open though?" Sharra asked. "It will be full light soon, and folk will be about on the road and in the fields. It seems unwise to me to travel where we might be seen."

Lingqui looked at her in surprise, "You may be right," he admitted. "I had thought that we would travel directly east today, but perhaps that is unwise. If we turn here, and follow the edge of the forest, we may keep to the shadow of the trees for many hours yet, and still put many miles between us, and the castle."

Ashanta, nearly collapsing with exhaustion, groaned audibly, "But walking through the forest is so hard," she complained. "I keep tripping on tree roots and animals run across my feet and things fly into my face. Do we really have to stay in the forest? What harm will it be if we are seen by some farmer?"

Sharra looked at her carefully, "We need to stay out of sight," she said, "for the king will send out messengers to ask if anyone has seen a small group, consisting of a shortish man and two women, one of them very pregnant. And it is rare for women in your advanced state of pregnancy to travel from their homes at all, save perhaps to the market, for it is know to be ill for the infant to be born under the open sky. That said, I think that we could chance a short rest now, and some food which will, hopefully, provide more energy for you than the incessant bread and water you were given in the dungeon. And perhaps, while we rest, I can begin to tell you the story of my search for King Rafe, and what conspired when I spoke with him."

"Let us travel a little further now," said Lingqui, "for it seems to me that we should make full use of the darkness, and it will be light soon. Then we can find a place where the trees and bushes grow closer together, and rest there, where we are less likely to be seen."

Ashanta nodded weakly, "I can see that you are right, and so we will press onward for some time yet, though I wish that it were not necessary."

It was not long before the light was more than a faint glimmer in the east, and Lingqui and Sharra began to scout for a place where they could be concealed for a few hours. It was Ashanta who spotted the cave along the bank of the river that they had been following for the last twenty minutes. Indicating it with a wave of her hand, she asked, "Would that cave work?"

Lingqui grinned in replay, "I will go and look at it, but I think that it will do very well for a few hours. Afterward we must walk in the water of the river for some miles to hide our scent from any hounds that the king may send after us." Grabbing the lantern from Sharra, he splashed into the river and emerged, moments later, at the mouth of the cave. Minutes later he came out, "It's perfect," he called, "and big enough so that the pony may come inside with us."

In short order, Ashanta and Sharra had also crossed the river and were snug inside the cave. "Now," said Sharra, "some food, and while we eat, I will tell my story. Then, perhaps, we might risk a couple of hours of sleep before we press on."