Sudden understanding comes to Jiron as he steps back from Miko.

Miko begins looking around and James comes over, saying, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he says, somewhat distantly. "I'm fine."

"You sure?" asks Jiron as he comes over.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he says as he glances from one to the other. "What's the matter?" he asks, seeming to abruptly snap out of whatever fugue he'd been in.

"Nothing," James replies. "Let's go."

As they move across the guard room, James and Jiron exchange concerned glances.

Miko seems alright, just the sudden skill at arms and the way he attacks anyone gives James cause for concern. He gestures for Jiron to take the lead as they come to the stairs.

Jiron pauses at the bottom as he peers up the stairs and finds that they extend up to a heavy door with a small window. A face is looking out at him through the window. He turns back to James and says, "I think we've found him."

James moves around Jiron and climbs the stairs, stopping several feet down from the door. The man is looking straight at him. "Are you the Madoc general, Pytherian?" he asks.

"Who wants to know?" the man behind the door says.

"One who would bring you from here," replies James.

The man seems to consider a moment and then says, "Yes, I am Lord Pytherian."

James turns back to Jiron and says, "Open the lock."

Moving past James, Jiron takes out one of his knives as he begins working to open the lock. They all hear a 'click' and then he pushes the door open into the room.

Lord Pytherian is a man in his middle years who's begun to gray along the temples. He looks at them and says, "Is this all?"

"What do you mean?" James asks.

"Is this it, two of you and a boy?" he asks. "How do you plan to get us out of here?"

"I a.s.sure you," James tells him, "we are more than enough to get you out of here."

Lord Pytherian doesn't look convinced.

James looks at him and asks, "Are you coming?"

He starts to leave the room when from outside the window of his cell, they hear a great commotion coming from below. They all move to the window and look down to the courtyard below. Several figures are moving quickly across the open area as they head for the gate leading out of the keep. Soldiers are moving to intercept them and soon they're engaged in battle.

"Are they part of your group?" Lord Pytherian asks.

"No," replies James, mystified. "I don't know who they are."

"I do," replies Miko. They all turn to him as he continues, "They're those prisoners in the cells down in the dungeon."

"But how did they escape?" asks James.

"They must've gotten a hold of the guards we killed and managed to escape their cells," figures Jiron.

"That tears it!" exclaims James. "They'll be here to check on him," he says as he points to Lord Pytherian, "once they've dealt with them. If they're not already on the way."

"Then let's move!" Jiron says as he heads for the stairs.

They follow him as he quickly moves down the stairs. When they reach the guard room, Lord Pytherian pauses a moment to remove a scabbard from a fallen guard and buckle it around his waist. As they hurry through, he takes out the sword and tests its balance. Satisfied, he returns the sword to its scabbard and hurries after them.

Almost running down the stairs, they reach the bottom just as the double doors open up and a squad of eight soldiers enters, led by a man richly dressed. Both groups pause momentarily in stunned silence at seeing the others before the soldiers draw their swords and charge.

James hears a strange cry behind him as Miko rushes past, sword in hand. He meets the lead soldier and in two pa.s.ses of his sword, the man lies dead at his feet.

Jiron and Lord Pytherian follow and the battle is joined.

Deflecting a sword thrust with a knife, Jiron follows through with the other and is able to stab the man in the exposed armpit. When the knife is pulled out, blood flows quickly from the artery that was severed.

Lord Pytherian, with a war cry, wades into the soldiers. He deflects one sword thrust and quickly brings around his sword and slices into the man's leg, practically severing it. Another soldier engages him and he blocks a downward hack as he kicks out at the man's stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to stagger back.

The man staggers back near Miko who almost absentmindedly swings his sword in that direction and takes the man's head off. The head flies and bounces off the wall as the torso falls to the floor, blood spraying everywhere.

Then all of a sudden it's over. James glances over to see Miko looking around. His eyes catch sight of Lord Pytherian standing there and begins moving toward him to attack. "Miko!" he yells.

Lord Pytherian sees him coming and backs away from him, sword at the ready.

"Miko!" he cries one more time.

Miko slows and then suddenly comes to himself. He looks around at the dead bodies and almost without thinking, reaches down and cleans his sword on a fallen soldier before replacing it in its scabbard.

Lord Pytherian glances from Miko to James and back again. "What's wrong with him?" he asks.

"No time to explain," replies James. "Just stay away from him when he's fighting."

He nods and then looks around at the dead, "Where's the other guy?"

"What other guy?" Jiron asks.

"The one that was with them, the one in the fancy clothes," replies Lord Pytherian.

They look around but fail to find him among the dead. "He must've gotten away," James says.

"Then we're out of time," Lord Pytherian says. "He'll bring the whole army to hunt for me."

"He's got to find us first!" Jiron cries as they hurry out through the double doors. A couple servants can be seen in the hallway, looking around confused. But when they see them burst through the double doors, all covered in blood, they begin to scream and yell as they run away down the hallway.

Jiron leads them down to where they left the girl and opens the door. He looks in but finds her gone.

"Where to?" asks Lord Pytherian as he continues glancing down the hallway.

James looks to Jiron and says, "Back the way we came?"

"As good a way as any," he replies as he moves toward the banquet hall. Before they come very close to it, a group of soldiers enters the hallway from there, the fancy dressed man in the fore.

He hollers to the soldiers and they rush to attack.

Turning around, they run back the way they'd come and turn down the other hallway at the double doors. Racing with a dozen soldiers at their back, they fly down the hallway until it suddenly opens up onto an inner garden.

They run along the walkway, past many types of flowering bushes and benches where people could rest while enjoying them. "Do you guys know where you're going?" Lord Pytherian asks.

"No," replies James. He hears a curse from Lord Pytherian behind him.

They exit the garden through another door and they swing it closed. The room they're in is not too large, several benches sit on either side.

"Give me a hand!" hollers Jiron as he indicates one of the benches. Lord Pytherian moves to help him and they pick it up, carrying it over to in front of the door, blocking it somewhat.

A door on the opposite side of the room stands open, James moves toward it and looks out. "Another hallway," he hollers back. "Doesn't look as if anyone is in it."

Their pursuers suddenly hit the door on the other side and the door swings open a little before Lord Pytherian puts his weight against it and closes it once more. "I can't hold this very long," he hollers to them as the soldiers on the other side continue throwing their weight against it.

James comes over and places his hand against it as he casts a spell of holding. When he's done, he says, "You can let go now milord, it won't open."

Lord Pytherian gradually reduces the pressure he's exerting and the door continues to hold even with the soldiers. .h.i.tting it from the other side. He looks to James and raises an eyebrow, "Mage?"

James nods his head.

"Then we do stand a chance," he says with a grin.

"Come on!" cries Miko from where he stands next to Jiron. "We've got to get out of here!"

Lord Pytherian and James run across the room as the soldiers continuously beat upon the door behind them. As they reach the others, Jiron moves down the hallway to the right. Running quickly with no pretense of being quiet, they turn left when the corridor does and see more soldiers coming toward them.

As Jiron stops next to a door on their left, a cry goes up from the advancing soldiers as they break into a run to attack. Throwing his weight against the door, he bursts into the room. The rest follow, Lord Pytherian closes the door behind them. The dark room blossoms with light as James' orb springs to life.

Lord Pytherian's eyes widen slightly and James shrugs and says, "It's useful."

A slight smile breaks out upon his face as he says, "I would think so."

"Here!" Jiron hollers as he tosses a poleaxe toward Lord Pytherian who uses it to brace the door. James comes over with another and they get them wedged in just as the solders begin pounding upon the door from the other side.

Miko comes over and says, "This might work better." He reaches up and pulls an iron bar from the door jamb and sinks it into a recess on the other side. With the added strength of the bar, the door will hold a long time.

They turn to look at the room they've found themselves in and discover they've run into an armory. Racks of swords, pole arms, bows, and every other type of weapon imaginable are lined in racks along all the walls.

"James, come here," Miko hollers from where he stands next to a large barrel.

When James comes over, he sees the barrel is filled with the lead slugs he's been using. Giving Miko a pat on the back, he proceeds to refill his belt as well as filling a pouch that was lying on a nearby table. It may weigh a little bit, but he feels better for having them. Once the pouch is bulging, he secures it to the belt around his waist.

They suddenly hear pounding as the soldiers out in the hallway try to beat their way in. But the door with iron bar firmly secured is strong enough to hold against them.

Jiron comes in from the only other doorway leading out of the room and says, "There's just another room back there with shields and some armor." He points to the door the soldiers are beating upon and continues, "That's the only way out."

Miko turns to James and asks, "Now what?"

A translucent bubble forms in front of James and Lord Pytherian asks, "What's that?"

"It should show us a way out of here," he replies. But the bubble floats around a moment and then goes over to the door leading out to the hallway and the soldiers. "d.a.m.n!" exclaims James.

"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 s.p.a.ce 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.