@Rillewen @Pele Alarion
Carpe Diem – Part 28
Unalmis Raxëlilta. The last day of Autumn (last year)
In the Guardhouse of the South Gate, with
Cadil
And an all too familiar antagonist, just outside
His hands came up almost on instinct to keep whatever was coming at him, fast, from striking him in the face.
Unalmis caught it in both of those hands, but then stunned, recognising ..
Cadil’s bag ?
Lowering the pack down from head height, he was granted sight of
Cadil himself, being herded toward the gatehouse by ‘
Rip’. While the Ranger had half hoped to have a moment with his foe in this aside, he had not factored in the Guard bringing his friend along for good measure. There was no time to object or halt his complaining accomplice before
Cadil was driven forth by the wrath behind him.
Unalmis, though now facing the open door, was forced to back up towards the far wall of the small gatehouse, to keep from being mown down by the newest arrivals. In moments, he was pressed so close up against the single chair within, that he might as well sit down on it. But the young Ranger managed to stand upright, just barely, with the rim of the seat digging into the back of both legs.
Cadil was rather inconveniently now stood between
Nal and the source of all contention, but the Guard’s smile carried over that living barricade, only to disappear, in a culmination of triumph.
“
Wait .. no, no no No !”
All the count of times that he could say the word did not lend it the strength to stop the sunlight vanishing behind hard studded wood. The sound of a sliding bolt soon succeeded the slamming of the door behind
Cadil and then ‘
Rip’s gloating rebuke reached them, from far beyond all reach and chance of repercussion.
Sinking onto the chair,
Unalmis cursed under his breath, before asking his friend if he was alright. “
What just happened ?” he wondered, aloud, as though it wasn’t blatantly obvious. In hindsight. As the shock began to subside and it became clear that
Cadil was not badly hurt,
Unalmis could recognise that they were not entirely encased in darkness within. There was a long slender window running down part of the way alongside the closed door. No doubt for the Guard to glance through, if the weather was unkind, and/or the traffic outside was few. He could see the back of the man out there now, calmly waving on the queue that had been backed up, returning all things to business as usual.
Except .. this was not supposed to have happened ! At least not from
Nal’s understanding. Had this little trick been ‘
Mar’s plan ever since he started on about them sitting to wait in the gatehouse ? Or had he simply seized on the opportunity which
Unalmis had stupidly provided him ? It made little difference really. All that mattered was undoing the thing. As soon as ever was possible.
His friend’s bag still in both his hands,
Unalmis stood up again, to try and place it out of the way on the shelf beside him. But it soon fell off the too-thin ledge, bringing down a candle and tinder box with it. Apologising to
Cadil, the Ranger tried to think how best to manoeuvre around their small enclosure. “
Can you slide it under the chair a moment, with your foot ?” he suggested. “
I need to .. just ..” A clumsy side shuffle saw
Nal almost exchange places with his friend so that the former could reach and face the door, while the latter could now choose to sit down and inspect his property for damages if he so wished. The candle rolled against
Nal’s foot, and he tried not to slip on it, though if he put an arm out in either direction he could find a wall to keep him from falling right down. He wasn’t even sure there was room enough to fall down properly. He had never realised how spaceless the gatehouse was until there were the two of them and the chair in there, or maybe it just felt small after the joys of frolicking about outside most of the morning. Maybe that was it.
The sight of outside was not much of an improvement to finding himself inevitably stuck inside. For the door was without a doubt unwilling to give way, and the slender window did not open. Unwilling to strike at the glass with his bare fist,
Nal glanced down to where the candle and tinder box were effectively being kicked about the floor. Both had soon enjoyed a turn at being thrust hard at the window, to no avail, and the young man considered the shelf .. if there was some way to get it unhitched from the wall, then he could use it to smash the window, reach his arm out and make a play for the bolt. If it was just a sliding bolt … But following the line of sight,
Nal saw that the door was hinged on the window side, which meant his arm would not reach along the outside far enough to grasp any lock, even if they did manage to try such a thing without meeting the Guard’s immediate protest.
“
Any ideas on how we can get out of here ?” he asked the room, well,
Cadil .. before he began to run low on possibilities himself, and panic .. There was no way they were going to just sit and stay like an obedient dog. Waiting to explain to the guard who relieved ‘
Rip’ .. in this heat .. and to the Lieutenant’s eventual amusement at painting their endeavours in the worst possible light to his contemporaries .. no. They had to get out, and their best chance would be before the backed up queue began to relax and their captor’s attention along with it.
“
We could use the tinder and candle to set fire to the door and then .. then we could suffocate before that door ever gave way ..” he conceived and abandoned another option. Glancing around again, he noted a book that was hung from a piece of string from the underside of the shelf. Opening it, curiously, with the window granting enough light to read, it seemed to be updates of things to look out for. The most recent entry was something about an escape .. ironic. Sadly it did not give mention of how such a thing might be achieved from inside a locked gatehouse. Sliding down the wall,
Unalmis gathered up the candle and the tinder box, to return them to a place he would not step on either. In standing back up, he began to note the tide of wanted posters which were tacked about the wall on every side. One a familiar smuggler, .. another just a very young looking girl .. not a single one of them though would justify ‘
Rip’s suspicions about the two young men he had decided to detain. And the Guard didn’t even know about the hidden knife ! No, this was personal. And .. infuriating. And it would not be stood for. But how ? How how how were they going to get out ?
Leaning his head flat against the closed door,
Unalmis laid a hand flat on either side of that, as though he could will the portal to open with his mind. What happened next .. he could not have expected, and paused, slowly removing contact with the wood. Backing up across the small room was not too far possible, and the Ranger made himself return to the door just once, to make sure he was not losing his mind .. already ? Last time it had taken … hours, days before he started to imagine things ..
He almost hoped that he was imagining what he was hearing this time, as then. Because that voice, that voice he knew. He had heard it though a wall of wood before, and a swift rush in one step toward the window brought him a most unwelcome confirmation. His left hand slid limply down the door length, gathering a splinter of wood on it’s path .. but he did not notice, as
Nal watched the latest arrival leap jauntily down from his wagon outside, and greet the nefarious Gate guard.
“
A lovely day for it,”
Arkadhur met
Ademar and patted the side of his packed wagon, with meaning. “
I suppose this is the part where you ask if I’ve anything to declare ..?”
Inside the gatehouse,
Unalmis did not realise he had backed up all the way toward
Cadil until he almost fell into his friend’s lap.
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