Chapter 11 - In the Midst of the Enemy

“3.. 2.. 1.. Now!”

BOOM!

An explosion even fiercer than the previous ones shook the night, and a storm of red-gold lights danced in the skies above the central area of the camp. Several cries of pain could be heard, and all the prisoners within the cages began to move about anxiously, uncertain of their fates.

The guards didn’t seem to pay the prisoners any mind. In fact, their gazes were absorbed in the spectacle of the flashing lights coming from the distance.

To Skyle’s eyes, the golden energy of the beast was still struggling fiercely against the rift. At first, Skyle had assumed the beast would eventually break through. However, even the beast’s overwhelming power had finally met its match.

Though Skyle hadn’t noticed it at first, there were thin, pulsing lines of blue and white snaking across the rift, as though threads attempting to sew a wound closed. Each seemed relatively puny in comparison to the great golden ball of fire that was constantly trying to force the rift open. However, by now dozens of such lines had come into being, constantly drawing the edges of the rift together.

Still, to Skyle the more both sides struggled, the better. In this last explosion, Skyle had instantly sprung to action, opening the door decisively and closing it after pulling Leon through. Immediately, Leon crouched low and began to sneak his way towards the far edge of the cage area, past several rows of empty cages. However, Skyle hadn’t moved yet as though he were debating something.

Leon hissed under his breath as he saw this, and motioned urgently in Skyle’s direction. Skyle seemed torn as he glanced back towards the many people trapped in the cages. Finally, Skyle seemed to make up his mind and he took something out from his pocket.

Leon could only see a ball of cloth at first, but then he realized there seemed to be a stick of some kind tied at the end of the strip of cloth. Skyle took a few steps in the direction of one of the cages with captives in it, then he threw the stick with the trailing cloth in front of the cage. The person the key fell closest to was a man who seemed calmer than most prisoners, and when he heard the slight noise of the stick hitting the ground, he turned his head. After seeing the stick, the man frowned slightly, then lifted his eyes to meet Skyle’s meaningful gaze towards the empty cage from which Skyle had emerged.

The man instantly gaped in astonishment, then nodded to Skyle in silence. Skyle returned the nod, then turned around and followed lean as swiftly as his badly wounded leg would allow him. The man in the meantime studied the guards as he drew closer to the key just outside his cage, all the while the rest of the captives and guards continued to be completely distracted by the chaotic storm of lights in the central part of the camp.

As soon as Skyle reached Leon, he was met by a single withering stare from the other boy. Clearly, he was disapproving of his actions. While Skyle understood that the possibilities of the men escaping were close to none, still Skyle simply couldn’t bring himself to abandon them to their fates. He had clearly heard of some sacrifice, and the least he could do was give them a chance, small as it was.

Skyle didn’t need Leon to remind him that as soon as the prisoner managed to open his own cage, the commotion would draw the guards’ attention. As soon as that happened, they would also discover Skyle and Leon missing.

“You just blew our headstart,” Leon remarked heatedly. “This could be our best chance of escaping.”

“And this could be their only chance,” Skyle answered helplessly.

Leon sighed and his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Never mind, let’s get out of this place first. Then we can worry about what to do next,” Leon muttered, still leading.

Skyle followed for a while as they made their way through rows of empty cages, farther away from the areas illuminated by torches. It had barely been a handful of minutes when loud whistles rang out through the camp, coming from the area they had just left.

Leon growled in his throat, but Skyle simply looked back in the direction of the sound for a moment, seemingly with no regrets.

After that, the whole place seemed to come alive as though it were a hornets’ nest. The boys picked up the pace, but suddenly when Leon made a left turn, Skyle reached out to grab his shoulder.

“Turn right here,” Skyle whispered, his breath labored as he heavily favored his broken leg.

Leon raised an eyebrow in Skyle’s direction, but didn’t argue and nodded. A moment later, Leon heard the sound of boots as a patrol of two men bearing torches rounded a corner and walked down the path the boys had been about to follow. If Skyle hadn’t stopped him, they would have definitely been caught! Leon breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the guards walk past, then resumed their escape.

The boys made further progress along the camp, choosing the darkest spaces to crawl through, avoiding torches and all sounds of activity. This seemed an almost impossible task, as the whole camp seemed to have come into life and lights seemed to be dancing about everywhere, with endless groups of soldiers searching every corner of the camp.

Leon knew it was a miracle that they hadn’t been captured yet, and this miracle had a name: Skyle Farrow.

From time to time Skyle would stop Leon and point to another direction, and Leon would silently obey. In every single instance, moments after they changed their course, Leon either heard or saw an enemy patrol move through the space the boys had just left. The first couple times, Leon simply shrugged it off, but after the fourth and fifth times, the hairs in Leon’s arms were standing on end, and he was watching his fellow escapee as though he were seeing a ghost.

This wasn’t far from the truth, as during the past ten minutes, Skyle’s face had grown increasingly pale, his features twisted in a grimace of pain with sweat pouring down his face constantly. This wasn’t the kind of pace a 12 year old boy could maintain for long with a broken leg, no matter how resolute and brave he was!

Finally, after they rounded one more corner Leon heard a sharp hiss of indrawn breath, and he turned just in time to catch Skyle as his leg gave out under him and he fell forward.

“Give me your arm and lean on my shoulder,” Leon whispered.

“Not needed,” Skyle panted out, his breathing ragged. “Just slipped.”

From his short, clipped words Leon could tell Skyle couldn’t even waste breath of a couple additional words. However, the more time passed, the tighter and wider the net would spread and within a short time, they would be helpless, like fish in a net.

Leon’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Skyle’s bent figure, and he nodded resolutely.

“Good. Then get up and prove it to me, Skyle Farrow. Else I swear by the Lady Avaria, I will haul you up by the scruff of your neck and throw you across my shoulders like a side of lamb.”

Skyle gritted his teeth and nodded, grunting as he straightened up.

“Let’s- Down!”

Skyle abruptly pushed Leon inside a canvas tent erected next to the boy, while he himself hid behind a pile of crates at his back. Leon had barely managed to pull down the tent flap when he heard footsteps approaching from outside. Leon looked around himself in the dark, not daring to move in fear that he would step on something and make a noise, alerting the guard outside.

The footsteps slowly grew near, accompanied by the rhythmic clanging of metal armor armor as a flickering torch could be distinguished through the fabric of the tent. Leon blindly groped with his hands in the dark, trying to orient himself.

The footsteps paused for a long moment just outside the tent, and Leon’s heart started to hammer in his chest as his hands found a solid object and his fingers slowly curled around the object. It was a handle!

There was a shuffling noise outside, then he heard a spitting sound, followed by a sigh. Then Leon could heard a deep voice muttering to himself.

“Damn fool’s errand, trying to catch a couple escaping rats in this chaos. Haven’t seen a single thing, would be better off stopping those damn explosions tearing the sky apart. Damn waste of time.”

Leon silently let out a breath of relief as he relaxed his grip around the handle he had found, closing his eyes and reflecting that this really had been too close a call.

“Leon, get back!”

Leon barely had time to register Skyle’s urgent cry before he saw a deadly flash of steel easily cut through the tent flap, reaching for his throat.