The Lone Apprentice by I K Spencer

Author:I K Spencer [Spencer, I K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I K Spencer
Published: 2014-02-03T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 26

It was past midnight when the young guardsman rose from his bed. He had heard Cidrl return earlier and waited another hour after the castle became quiet. He moved noiselessly about the room, collecting his weapons, then waited by the door. While lying on the bed he had listened to the hallway sentry's movements and learned the man's patrol pattern. Over a minute had elapsed from the time the sentry passed his door heading to the guardsman's left until he again heard the man's footsteps. Anthen waited for the Dolonarian to pass, then opened the door a crack and watched as the man reached the end of the hallway and disappeared, as expected. Anthen slipped out into the hallway and walked quickly to the right, in the opposite direction.

As he approached the end of the hallway, he sensed a presence ahead before hearing voices on the stairs. He saw a pair of guards conversing just inside the stairwell and ducked into a dark alcove. He wanted to avoid killing any guards if at all possible, especially this close to his chamber, but could not wait for too long, for the sentry who patrolled the hallway would return in less than a minute.

He counted the seconds and lined up the shot with his bow, hoping desperately that he would not have to resort to the weapon. He would drop the farther Dolonarian first, then must fire the second shot before the other guard could sound an alarm. He had practiced the shot sequence countless times at the academy so was not worried that it would succeed if it couldn’t be avoided.

Just about when the guardsman thought he could wait no longer, the two guards turned and mounted the stairs. As soon they were out of sight, he hurried out of the hallway and started down the stairs. A second later he could hear the sentry who patrolled his hallway; the man's gait sounded normal and he let out a sigh of relief.

He went a short way down the stairs before stopping just out of sight from the floor above. He could hear the pair of guards above him but heard nothing from below. He continued down the stairs, pausing at each landing to listen for movement below. Eventually he descended to the dungeon level without running into another sentry.

The first door to the prison area was located just beyond the stairwell and in front of it stood a lone sentry. The bored Dolonarian hummed a melody and twirled the key on his stubby finger. Anthen waited to see if the man would move. If not, the guardsman would have to take him with the bow and risk alerting the guards certain to be stationed on the other side of the door.

As if in answer to the guardsman's silent request, the sentry started to walk back and forth in front of the door. The man seemed to be moving in rhythm with his song while studying the ground and Anthen guessed he just paced out of boredom.

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