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“Let’s go,” he says and takes the lead as they head for the door through which Jiron and Aleya had gone. Before they make it that far, the sound of feet running toward the room comes to them. Glancing back at the door the two civilians ran through, Miko sees the door burst open and guards begin pouring into the room.

“Go tell the others!” he hollers as he pushes Brother Willim through the doorway.

“What about you?” Brother Willim asks.

“I’ll hold them off,” he asserts. Drawing his sword again, he says, “Go!” Turning back, he sets himself to meet the assault.

“Good luck,” Brother Willim says then runs through the door.

The stairs spiral around three times before ending at the mouth of a corridor. It extends away from stairs and in the distance they can see where it opens up onto a dimly lit room.

“Hope that’s where we’ll find them,” Jiron says to Aleya as he enters the corridor.

“Should be,” she replies.

Moving forward at a run, they soon are approaching the room with the light. Movement is seen on the other side. From the amount of light coming through the partially opened door, there can’t be more than a single candle burning on the other side.

Jiron glances back to Aleya and finds her with arrow set to bow, ready. Reaching for the door, he pulls it back and races into the room. A single guard is sitting at the table, and before Jiron can cross over to him, an arrow flies past his ear and takes the man through the neck.

“No!” cries out Jiron as the guard falls to the ground dead.

“What?” asks Aleya.

“He could have told us where they were being held,” he tells her.

“Sorry,” she said.

He sighs. “Don’t be,” he says. “You did the right thing considering the circumstances. Just hold off a second next time.” Looking around the room, they find three doors which lead deeper into the dungeon, all of which are closed.

“Which one?” she asks.

“I don’t know,” he replies.

Moving past him into the room, Aleya begins examining the floor before each of the doors.

“Now what are you doing?” he asks.

“Seeing if the floor may tell us which way to go,” she says. Then she kneels down before the door on the right and says, “This way.”

“How can you tell?” he asks coming to kneel beside her.

She points to a scuff mark on the floor. “This is more recent than anything else before the other two.”

Nodding, he gives her a quick hug and kiss. “I knew I brought you along for some reason,” he says with a grin.

She returns his grin and reaches for the door handle. Opening it up, they find a corridor lined with doors on both sides. Each of the doors is very stout, with a small window about two thirds of the way up, and a sturdy deadbolt lock.

The corridor grows dark at about the fifth set of doors and then remains so until coming to another light far in the distance. Jiron takes the lead and is about to enter when Aleya stops him. “How are Miko and Brother Willim to know which way we went?” she asks.

“It’s the only door that’s open,” he tells her with the expression that she should have known that.

Giving him a weird look, she takes the dead guard and drags him by the hand until he’s halfway in the doorway. Removing her arrow from the guard’s body she says, “Now there won’t be any confusion.”

Jiron rolls his eyes as she cleans her arrow on the dead man’s shirt. Muttering to himself, he sets off at a quick run toward the light at the other end of the corridor with Aleya right behind. As they pass through the dark area, a voice calls to them from behind a door on their right.

Jiron pauses and turns his attention toward the voice. A hand reaches out toward him as the voice again calls to him pleadingly in the Empire’s tongue. “Sorry,” Jiron says to whomever the hand belonged to then resumes his run toward the light at the end of the corridor.

“Shouldn’t we have done something for that man?” Aleya asks in a hushed tone.

“Don’t have time for everyone,” he tells her. “Got to save the ones we came for.”

She remains quiet