Heirs of Prophecy - Lisa Smedman [66]
The woman looked up, an expectant expression on her face. Realizing what is was she wanted, Leifander whispered his thanks. Her companion, meanwhile, fumbled open the manacle around one of Leifander's ankles.
As Leifander withdrew his foot, his woodland-keen hearing picked up the sound of footsteps approaching from behind the closed door.
"Someone's coming," he hissed. "Be quick."
Forcing himself up into a half squat on his freed foot- the second manacle was still tight around the ankle of the foot the woman had just healed-Leifander strained
to reach the crow, but as it swooped down to meet him, it got in the way of the human, blocking his view of the manacle lock. The human swatted at the crow, backhand-ing it away from him.
"No!" Leifander cried, as the crow was sent tumbling.
An instant later the creature gave up and flew back up into the ventilation pipe and disappeared. Cursing, Leifander staggered to his feet as soon as the second manacle fell away from his ankle. He turned toward the two newcomers. However bold they might have been in this rescue attempt, theyd just cost him what might have been his only chance to reclaim his magic. With the crow gone, he'd be forced to rely on the two humans.
"Come on," the woman whispered, picking up her magic dagger again. "There's a way out, back through the cells. The guard's station-the jakes. We can use them to reach the sewers."
She slipped out of the room and hurried down the hallway between the cells. Leifander ran after her, jumping nimbly over the body of the guard his male rescuer must have killed, which lay in a spreading pool of blood, and skirting a second body without a mark on it that had probably been felled by the cleric's magic. The male paused just long enough to close the door behind them, then brought up the rear, his sword ready.
The woman led them through the maze of hallways to a small room with a filth-crusted hole in the floor. From the darkness below that opening came a terrible stench. The two humans exchanged glances, and some unspoken communication passed between them. The man kneeled, hooked his arm through the hole, and levered up the flooring stone into which the hole had been cut, creating a larger opening. With a nod, the female sat down and slipped through it, feet first. Leifander heard a splashing noise, and a muffled word, and the light from her dagger flared up through the opening like a beacon.
The man stood guard with his sword, staring back up the hallway, and motioned urgently toward the hole.
"You next," he ordered. "It's only a short drop."
Leifander took one look back down the hallway-he could hear shouts of alarm coming from the room in which the wizard had interrogated him-and made up his mind. Shivering, he forced down his fear of tight, dark spaces and concentrated on the magical blue light filling the space below the opening in the floor. Grimacing at the filth, he sat on the hp of the hole, then slid in, feet-first.
He landed with a splash in knee-deep sewage and was immediately overwhelmed by a smell that made him gag. The walls were close and tight on either side, barely wider than his shoulders, and the curved ceiling was just a handspan above his head. He felt crushed by the weight of stone around him, unable to breathe. Dizzy, short of breath-unable to move. The woman yanked him aside, and an instant later her larger companion wedged himself down through the hole. He splashed into the sewage beside them, bending at the waist to keep his head from banging the ceihng. His sword scraped against the stone wall as he turned. He reached up and dragged the flooring stone back into place, sealing them inside the tunnel.
The shouts coming from above grew louder and were joined by the sound of running footsteps. The woman whispered something, and the light from her dagger blinked out.
Somehow the darkness made the walls seem even tighter, more confining, than