The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [87]
“Were they the ones who we encountered after leaving Bearn?” James asks.
“No, I didn’t recognize any of them,” he answers. “Why?”
“I was coming back to tell you that I saw Lord Colerain here in Cardri,” James explains. “Perhaps our being here and his being in Cardri are related. I can’t think of any other reason for us to be in this situation.”
“You’re probably right,” agrees Miko. “What are we going to do?”
“Did you mention to them that I can do magic?” he asks.
“No, I haven’t said anything since they surprised me back in our room,” Miko replies.
“Then let’s hope they don’t find out. It may be the edge we’ll need to get out of here.” James concentrates and casts his light spell, the effort of doing even so little magic causing the pain throbbing in his head to increase. When the light appears, he discovers they are lying in what looks to be a root cellar. Sacks, along with several boxes, are stacked against all the walls save one. That one has an old wooden door, apparently the only way out.
He looks over at Miko who’s bound like himself, with the hood still covering his head. Scanning the room, he sees what looks like a little hand trowel, similar to what his grandmother used in her garden, wedged in between two of the sacks. He slowly wriggles his way over to it and maneuvers himself to grab the handle with his fingers. Holding it as tight as his position allows, he twists his body sharply and rolls away from the sack in an attempt to dislodge it. But it’s wedged in there too tightly and the handle slips from his fingers.
Twisting around again, he lies on his back and places his feet against one of the sacks trapping the trowel and pushes with all his strength. The sack topples over and spills grain as it hits the ground, causing several rats to scurry away. He leans upon one elbow and is relieved to find the trowel lying loosely upon the ground. Wriggling his way over to it, James tries using it to saw through his bonds. The thought of doing magic to break the ropes binding him makes his head ache.
“What’s going on?” asks Miko who is unable to see what James is doing because of the hood.
Groaning with the effort to apply proper pressure to saw through the rope binding his hands tied behind his back, he replies, “I found something that may cut the rope.”
“Can’t you use magic?” Miko asks.
In dire need of an aspirin, James says, “I’d rather not if I don’t have to.”
The trowel isn’t very sharp and having his hands tied behind his back doesn’t give him much leverage to be very effective. He works at it for several long minutes before managing to saw through the bindings.
“Got it!” he exclaims when the rope finally comes apart.
With his hands free it’s much easier to sever the rope binding his legs. Once his legs are free, he comes to his feet and goes over to remove Miko’s hood.
“Thank you,” he says to James once the hood comes off. “It was getting hard to breathe in there.”
“No problem,” James replies as he begins using the trowel to saw through Miko’s bindings. Once he frees Miko, he goes over to the door. He’s not surprised to find it locked. Using his orb of light, he examines the door closely. He can’t really tell anything about the locking mechanism as it is located on the other side, so he decides to try prying the lock up. Using the trowel which is fairly flat, he slides it between the door and the door jamb and very cautiously slides it up until he feels resistance. Giving it a little more pressure, he hears a faint click as the trowel pushes the latch up. He presses lightly on the door and it begins to swing open.
Opening the door a bare crack, he sees nothing but darkness on the other side. Pulling the door closed, but not far enough for the lock to secure itself again, he turns back to the room and Miko.
He takes Miko’s hood and puts the glowing orb in it, leaving