“Are you absolutely sure this will work?” Devin asked as he worked at several of the small metallic nubs that were studded in his leather armor. They were put there to provide extra protection against any sort of bladed object coming at him. The orc woman had asked for several of them.

“Yes, now hurry up with taking them out. The sooner you get enough, the sooner we can escape,” Daisy said.

Devin stopped and stared at her. She stood at the bars separating their cells, wearing only a loose shirt and wrap, likely made from a blanket she had been provided. He waved his mangled hand at her.

Rolling her eyes at his gesture, she said, “Just hurry, ok?”

“You were here before I got here, you can wait a few moments longer while I work these,” Devin said, returning to his task. The nubs were folded into layers of stiffened leather, with flares spreading out to keep them locked in pace.

“I still don’t have a reason to trust you,” he said as he worked another one loose. Three down, only two more to go. “What's to say you won't ditch me as soon as I give you these?”

“You really think I can escape alone? Look at me!” She took off the blanket shirt, leaving herself standing with only the small wrap around her waist. Her ribs poked through her sides and her stomach was sunken in. She had clearly been starved during her time here, not to mention the bruises criss crossing over her emaciated body. She shook her head as she pulled her cover back on, crossing her arms and turning away from him.

He continued to work at his armor, getting one more free. As he started on the last one, he spoke up to break the silence. “I’ve had a pretty shitty couple of days leading up to this. I’ve been betrayed and fucked over by nearly everything around me, I can’t help but be a bit paranoid.”

“Yeah,” she scoffed, “You’ve had a bad time over the last couple of days. I’ve been here over two months, getting beaten and subject to the guards' whims.” She still stood with her arms crossed, but Devin saw her shoulders untense a little.

“Look, we will both get out of here. Once we do, we can get in contact with the rest of my band. If you’d like, I’m sure there's a spot among us for you. At least for a little while.”

She glanced over at him in the flickering light of the torch that illuminated the entire dungeon. He was lucky it was just across from their two cells, otherwise prying these stupid pieces of iron from his armor would have been even more difficult. Why hadn’t they taken his armor from him when he got thrown in here? It seemed like a lapse on their part.

“Being down here has done a number on myself too. You think I don't worry you will betray me the first chance you get?” she said softly. “I suppose our best bet is to trust each other at this point and see what happens. It’s not like some rescue will come charging through the doors at the end of the hall.”

“Yes!” Devin exclaimed as he worked the fifth nub of metal free from his chest armor. He reached out and handed them to Daisy through the cell bars. She took them and turned toward the entrance to her cell, her fingers working swiftly on the metal. Devin craned his neck to try to see what she was doing, but the flickering light combined with her position made it impossible. He would just have to trust she could get whatever she had planned done.

He sighed and walked over to his own cell door. Leaning his head against the cold metal he closed his eyes. How in the world did it come to this? It wasn't the first time he reflected back but he still couldn't figure it out. He came over to this continent as a child with such dreams of grandeur. He fought his way through the streets, picking up small jobs here and there.

Where had he gone so wrong? He and Bronn had been inseparable as children and even into their young adulthood. What had been the defining moment where they had split? At first it seemed they just drifted apart. Maybe it was the different ideas on how to form and lead their mercenary bands. Well, the joke fell on himself. Bronn was the leader of the most successful band in history and Devin was in Bronn’s personal dungeon.

A small click and creak of bars brought him back to his dank reality. His eyes snapped open and he found Daisy standing outside his cell, a broad grin on her face. She held an impromptu lockpick in her hand, fashioned from the nubs and pins he had pulled out.

“How in the world did you make that?” Devin asked, gawking at the tool.

“Years of practice and training,” she said as she worked at his own cell lock. Devin’s eyes narrowed as he watched the orc woman work. Something incredibly strange was going on here. The fact she could pick locks with scraps of metal with such ease and just happened to be here at the same time as him was too much to be a coincidence.

The lock clicked and Daisy pulled his cell door open. The door screeched on unused hinges as it opened, causing him to wince slightly.

“Let's move, there is no way the guards did not hear that,” Daisy said. Devin nodded and left the filthy little cell. They both stalked down the hallway between cells toward where they’d seen the guards leave earlier. Devin was grateful that no one else was inhabiting the cells around them. It would be just his luck to be getting ready to escape only to have another prisoner warn the guards or demand they let them out too. Devin boots clicked softly with each step against the stone, while Daisy’s bare feet made no sound as they crept down the hall. As they left the torchlight things got dimmer. Devin could barely pick out the silhouette of the door against the end of the hall. They approached in silence and leaned their ears towards the door.

Through the thick wood Devin could hear voices rumbling, but could not make out what they were saying. He leaned back from the door and turned to Daisy.

“Guards,” he whispered. She nodded back to him.

“What should we do?” he asked, mostly mouthing the words to her.

She paused, thinking and running her tongue over the broken tusk. After a few moments she seemed to come to a conclusion and nodded again.

“We have a couple of choices. We can wait and see what happens, see if they leave or something. This risks them coming back in here and finding us out of our cells.”

Devin glanced back down the hall and saw their two cells illuminated by the torch, clearly showing they were no longer in them.

“Probably not the best idea, they’ll know we are out right away and go for help.”

“My thoughts too.” Dalia said.

“The other option?”

“Well,” she began, “We could fling this door open and try to incapacitate them before they can do the same to us.”

Devin looked down at his mangled hand, the wound throbbing with each beat of his heart. “I don’t like that option either. How do you think you’ll do at fighting?”

“Well, considering my condition,” she held up a thin arm, revealing not much more than skin and bone, “And the fact they are probably armed to the teeth, not well.”

Devin started to chew his lip, looking between the tin orc woman, his hand, and the cells around them. They couldn't hide in a nearby cell and lure them in somehow, the guards would see them missing right away.

If Bronn had wanted Devin dead immediately he likely would have killed him in the street. Brawls were not terribly uncommon in Mossglenn Depot. The fact that Daisy was still alive after two months spoke to some form of usefulness for her as well. They would have to take their chances that the guards would be reluctant to kill them with an escape.

“Let’s try for an escape. We are both still alive for a reason, I figure it's our best bet to go for an escape.”

Daisy nodded. “Ready?” she asked.

Devin took a deep breath. “Yeah.”

She placed the makeshift lockpick in the door and started to work it. Devin could hear small clicking and scraping from the handle and prayed the guards couldn’t hear the same thing. Several tense moments passed with the sound of the lockpick and rumblings of the guards being the only thing he could hear. He saw the sweat start to bead on Daisy’s head as she concentrated. Moisture started to form and drop down his own back as he watched her work.

Finally, with a soft click, the door came unlocked. They both let out a long sigh of relief, smiling toward each other. Their smiles dropped as they returned to the task at hand.

“Ready for some mayhem?” she asked, grabbing the door handle.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said.

He took a step back and Daisy swung the door open suddenly.

“Hey!” came the startled cry as Daisy launched herself toward the open door with Devin close behind.

~~~~

Teryn jogged behind Dahlia, lifting her robes to keep from tripping. The hem of the robe swept just above the ground, making fast movement near impossible. Though, to be fair, Teryn had a hard time imagining a situation where an Argenti would have to run and couldn't send their minions instead.

They took off down the main hall toward the garish mural of Bronn, taking a left at the first door, as the now dead lady had told them. Teryn understood why Dahlia had done it, from a purely mission based perspective of leaving as little information as possible, but she did not like the idea of an innocent woman dying. Shia had been furious, nearly shouting at the orc woman before Teryn had been able to calm her.

Glancing back at the young woman jogging behind her she saw the same lines of anger still on Shia’s face. She glared right past Teryn at Dahlia leading them. Looking forward again Teryn sighed, this would come to a head later, she was sure of it. She just hoped Shia would keep her emotions under control until they got out. Once they were free, they could go at each other for all she cared.

They kept jogging down the hall until they reached an opening at the end on their right, leading to a small spiral staircase that went both up and down. Teryn had a moment to wonder why the building seemed so empty before they tore off down the staircase.

They followed round after round of stairs, delving deeper and deeper into the earth. The group passed several landings with closed doors but did not pause to stop. Their now dead informer had told them it was all the way at the bottom.

The air was starting to lose its warmth, gaining a chill and somewhat damp feel to it when they finally came to the end of the staircase. The stones were cold and slick as Teryn rested her hand against the wall, catching her breath. Shia was doing the same thing beside her while Dahlia peered through the small slots in the door to see what was inside.

“All right, it looks like a hallway with two guards standing outside another door. My best guess is that is the dungeon.” She turned toward the two women, frowning a little at their panting.

“Aren’t you mercenaries?” she asked. “I’d have thought you would be in better shape.”

“Give us a break, we’ve been running and fighting for over twenty four hours now. I think we can afford heavy breathing after running some more,” Shia said between breaths. Dahlia grunted and turned back to peer through the door.

“They are maybe thirty feet down the hall, chatting with each other. They seem pretty relaxed, though they are heavily armed.”

“Any ideas?” Teryn asked, finally catching her breath and standing up straight.

“We kill them,” Dahlia said. Shia rolled her eyes behind the orc and Teryn jumped in.

“Well yes, but how do we kill them?”

“I’ll swing the door open and go in low. Shia, you launch some arrows at them as I approach and Teryn, you throw some icicles at them. If we are quick enough I am hoping you’ll take them down before I get there. If not, I’ll finish it.”

Teryn nodded. She looked over at Shia who had taken a smaller bow out from underneath her robe. They had decided to strap one to her back, just in case they would need it later. Luckily, the billowing robes allowed a person to hide nearly another person inside them. She reached back under her robes and pulled out a few arrows, notching one while jamming the other two through the fabric of her robe near her waist.

“To hold them in place,” she explained as she saw Teryn’s curious look. Dahlia shrugged and turned back to the door. She gripped the handle and held her other hand up with three fingers extended. Teryn started to focus, feeling the familiar chill creep from her wrists into her hands.

Two fingers. Ice started to coalesce and form around her hands, small flurries of snow falling down to the stone floor.

One finger. Sharp icicles formed in either hand, starting in her palm and filling out before extending into razor-sharp spears.

Dahlia flung the door open and threw herself into a low crouch, moving toward the guards. They turned in unison toward the group and one shouted out.

“Hey!”

An arrow flew past Teryn’s left ear close enough that she could feel the wind from the feathers. She flung an icicle at the guard nearest to them, then flung the next one at the other. An arrow and icicle hit the first guard squarely in the chest, dropping him immediately. The second one managed to jump slightly, causing Teryn’s second icicle to clip his shoulder, glancing off his armor and exploding into shards against the wall.

Shia’s second arrow hit his throat, disappearing up to the feathered shaft at the end. As he fell backwards two figures leapt from the doorway the guards had been standing in front of.

Teryn started to throw another icicle as she recognized the second one coming out. She tried to adjust her throw, tossing the icicle into the wall to her left, just barely missing Dahlia as she stood back up.

“Hold on!” Teryn shouted as Shia pulled her bow back. Everyone in the narrow hall stopped. Devin stood with his mangled hand clutched to his chest, a little paler than she last saw him, but still alive and reasonably well, all things considered. Next to him stood a bone thin orc woman with a vicious snarl on her face.

“Devin!” Shia said.

“Teryn, Shia? What are you doing here? Who is that?” he asked, pointing toward Dahlia with his good hand.

“We came to save you! Turns out the orc girl you got the contract from is much more than that. We can explain a bit later once we are all safe. Who do you have with you?” Teryn said.

Devin opened his mouth but Dahlia cut him off before he could answer.

“Her name is Daisy.”

“How did you know that?” Devin asked, looking at her incredulously.

“She’s my sister,” the other orc rasped.