Page 75 of The Noble Servant

They came to another Y and Magdalen stopped.

“Which way?”

“I don’t know. Oh, Steffan, I’m so sorry. I can’t remember.” She put her hand to her head.

“Don’t worry. Just think back to when you were a child playing in here. Think.” He tried to sound calm and use a gentle tone. His blood was starting to pulse faster in his veins even as the torch was flickering and burning less bright, threatening to go out. He took deep breaths as images flashed before him of being alone in the deep, dark, slimy well.

She pressed her thumb into her temple, staring down at the floor. Finally, she said, “I think we need to go left.”

They turned themselves and the horses to the left fork and hurried several dozen feet into that tunnel, until Magdalen suddenly groaned.

“This doesn’t look right. We’re starting to go down, aren’t we? This is wrong.” She halted. “We have to go back.”

“Are you sure?”

“No, I’m not sure, but ... I think so. Oh, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry. We will make it. Just breathe.”Just breathe, Steffan.

They backed the horses all the way up. Any minute Lord Hazen and his men could be upon them. They were trapped.

Sweat beaded on his forehead and ran down his temples. But he forced himself to focus. He had to get Magdalen safely out of here. Thankfully the horses were calm as long as he kept the torch away from their eyes. And the torch was growing dimmer and dimmer.

Finally, they were back at the fork. This time they took the right one, which climbed gradually higher. After they took a dozen or so steps, the torch flickered, sputtered, and then went out, plunging them into darkness. It pressed in on him on all sides.

“I can’t see.” Magdalen’s voice broke through his panic.

She seemed to be groping as her hand skimmed his arm, then she grabbed him with both hands.

“We have to keep going. I’m putting my hand on the wall.” He kept talking to keep them both calm. “It might be for the best. If Lord Hazen’s men have no torches, it will take them awhile to reach us. They’ll have to make one, and they won’t be able to see us now that our torch is out.”

“Ja, that’s true.”

He scraped his hand along the wall to make sure they didn’t get lost or collide with the wall while Magdalen clung to his arm that held the horses’ reins.

“How will we know when we are close to the opening?” he asked.

“It’s not easy to find, unfortunately, but this tunnel ends just past the opening above us. We just have to go to the end and then take a few steps backward and we should find it.”

They kept walking for what seemed like an eternity. Occasionally he heard a muffled shout somewhere far behind them. It was only a matter of time before Lord Hazen’s men reached them.

“We should pray,” he said.

“Oh God, oh Jesus, help us,” Magdalen whispered softly. “Help us find the opening. Help us escape and reach safety. We lift our eyes. Where does our help come from? Our help comes from the Lord.”

His heart skipped a beat at hearing her quote the Holy Scriptures.

Breathlessly, she kept talking, softly but quickly, as if she was saying whatever came to her mind. “Jesus, name above every name, keep us safe and give us victory over our enemies. ThankYou for Steffan’s courage and for these horses who will take us to safety. Show us the way out of here and confuse our enemies so they cannot find us.”

Steffan’s head scraped on something and his chest constricted, so tight he could barely breathe. He was forced to lean down as he walked. Would he finally be suffocated in a dark hole under the earth, as he had so many times in his nightmares? Or would he humiliate himself by screaming like a baby afraid of the dark?

No, Magdalen was thanking God for his courage. He could not let her down.

“Thank You, God, that Your power is greater than any other,” her voice rattled on. “Thank You for rescuing us from our dire situation. Our lives are in Your hands.”

Now he was alternately running his hand along the wall and the ceiling overhead. Finally, he couldn’t resist asking, “Is the ceiling supposed to be getting lower?”

“Oh yes.” There was a joyful lift to her voice. “That means we’re close to the opening.”