Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li - Brian Pratt [115]
“No other way out?” asks Jiron.
“Doesn’t look like it,” he says.
“What are we to do now?” he asks.
James looks from one to the other and says, “Give me a moment.” He then begins considering the situation as he starts to pace.
Suddenly, the sound from the door begins to change. A steady thumping sound starts to beat on the door. Lord Pytherian says, “It won’t be long now. It sounds like they’ve found a ram.”
James’ pacing leads him into the other room. There he finds the area where the blacksmith would’ve worked on fixing the broken or dulled weapons and armor. An anvil sits in the corner as does a bellows; a hole can be seen in the roof that would allow the smoke to escape from the forge.
A large bucket of water sits on the floor and next to it is a depression in the stone with a small drain that would allow the used water to drain away. Suddenly, an idea hits him and he sends out his senses beneath the floor and realizes that there’s an open space beneath them.
From the other room, Lord Pytherian hollers out, “That door’s not going to stand much more of this!”
“Got an idea!” James yells back to him. “I need a few minutes.”
“Better hurry,” Jiron says from the doorway.”
James glances over to him and nods. Then he begins tracing the creases around one large stone in the floor with his finger, letting the magic flow as he loosens the bonds holding it to the ones next to it.
When Jiron sees what he’s doing, he nods his head as he remembers how they’d escaped the jail back in Mountainside. He turns to the others and says, “Let’s move as much of this stuff before the door to slow them down once they’ve broken through.”
Everyone begins moving tables and pulling racks of weapons off the walls as they create a blockade in front of the door. By the time they’ve created a pile extending several yards away from the door, they hear James holler from the other room, “I need your help!”
Jiron is the first to enter the room and sees James standing there with a sledge hammer. “Grab a hammer or something and help me smash this block down,” James tells him.
James then begins slamming the sledge hammer down upon the stone block. The others see what he’s doing as they come into the room and move to help him. Pytherian holds back a moment, doubting the usefulness of this course of action. But then when he sees the block move down half an inch from the blows raining down upon it, he grabs a war hammer and adds his strength to the endeavor.
Inch by slow inch the slab moves down until it falls into the room beneath it. “What’s down there?” asks Miko as he looks into the black hole.
“Don’t know, don’t care,” Jiron says as he moves to the lip of the hole and begins to lower himself over the edge. James moves the orb over the opening and they see the floor of the room is about fifteen feet away.
“Be careful,” James warns him.
He swings over the edge and hangs by his hands a moment before letting go. James watches as he lands on the floor and then looks back up to him. “Come on!” he hears him holler out of the hole.
James looks to Lord Pytherian and says, “Your next milord.”
Lord Pytherian moves to the edge and just like Jiron, swings over the edge and lands next to him.
“Okay Miko,” James says as he indicates the hole. As Miko is lowering himself into the hole, James hears the door crash open. Smashing and clattering comes from the other room as the soldiers begin removing the haphazard barricade they’d erected before the door.
“What was that?” Jiron asks from below.
Nervously, James replies, “They’re in the armory.”
When Miko hits the floor, James moves to the edge and begins to swing down when from the doorway, he sees a soldier appear. Letting go, he falls and then feels hands grab him to slow his descent as he lands on the floor. “Thanks,” he says.
From above them, they see soldiers looking down at them and then another begins to swing over