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She stretched out past the bars, her fingertips barely able to reach the wire.
Back into her fingers, she set the wires back into the lock, retracing what she had just learned about the interior mechanism.
Her forearms screeched in pain for the odd angle she had to work, the sweat on her brow dripping. She couldn’t give up.Couldn’t.
At her breaking point, the nail of her forefinger tore back bloody from the edge of the lever wire as she pressed the tip hard into what she hoped was the last lever inside.
Click.
Victoria froze, afraid she didn’t truly have it.But then she pulled on the shackle of the lock and it slid open.
Heaven to hell, she’d done it.
She looked over her shoulder to Torrie and Eva, a smile on her face. “We have way.”
With a determined smile, Torrie nodded and instantly bent over, sliding her arm under Eva’s left arm and grabbing her about the torso. Victoria rushed to the opposite side of Eva, helping her to her feet.
A grimace on her face, Eva nodded forward. “Make sure it is clear.”
Victoria left her side, then paused for one second to quickly retie her boots and then slide the dagger from her thigh into the side of the leather. She slid open the cell door, lifting the heavy iron as well as she could to stop the squeak of the hinges. Peeking her head into the corridor, she saw no one, heard no one. The torches next to the cell were almost burnt down, an indication they meant to let them flame out that night.
Victoria motioned for Torrie and Eva to join her.
Using Torrie as a crutch for Eva’s broken left ankle, they shuffled out into the corridor. Eva pointed to the dark end of the undercroft where the vaulted bricks disappeared into blackness, looking distinctly like an eerie passageway to hell.
“It is this way,” Eva whispered. “The last cell on the right. It looks like the rest, but it has a small opening on the left that leads to the tunnel.”
Victoria wedged free one of the two torches still lit and then wrapped her left hand around Eva’s back and the three of them hobbled into the darkness.
It took some hissed profanity and several nails torn down to blood to move the three stones free from the wall that led to the tunnel. The trickiest part was getting Eva through the opening without further torturing her broken ankle.
Once they had all made it into the skinny tunnel, Torrie pulled up the largest of the three stones they had dislodged back into place. Not perfect, but one would have to be looking hard to notice that the two smaller stones weren’t in place on the wall.
The tunnel itself was only slightly shorter than Victoria, so while they had to hunch over and side step with Eva clutched in the middle, their progress out along the tunnel wasn’t hindered by any more barriers. Just a half-rotted wooden door at the end that was trapped under winter-dead vines that Victoria managed to cut through with the dagger in her boot.
Stepping out into the night, the cold air hit them just as the torch flickered its last breath of flame.
“Where to?” Victoria whispered, letting her eyes adjust to the low light of the moon. The snow on the ground helped to reflect more light, and the fuzzy forms of barren trees quickly came into focus.
Her fingers gripping both Torrie’s and Victoria’s shoulders tight, Eva nodded her head toward the front and right. “The nearest road off this south bank of forest is about a half hour walk. If I remember correctly, there is a family on a farm another hour down the road—an older couple without children and they were always kind—but even if they are no longer there, we can at least steal a horse or two to make it a distance from this place before the guards find out we’re missing. It looks like we’re still deep into the night.”
Victoria hid a smirk. Eva—the most virtuous one out of all her aunts—wanted to steal a horse. Two if possible.
“Let’s go.”
The half-moon sat low in the sky above, offering just enough light filtering down through the canopy to navigate the woods in front of them without tripping every other step.
Weaving their arms around Eva’s back for support, Torrie and Victoria moved forward, desperate to disappear into the thick of the trees before a guard happened upon them.
They only made it a hundred feet before the distinct sound of heavy footfalls reached them.
“Shit.” Torrie hissed, stilling.
Freezing in place, Victoria looked over to her and nodded, the barest whisper leaving her lips. “We can’t make a sound, but we have to keep moving.”
An impossibility.
Eva could barely walk at this point, mostly balancing between Torrie and Victoria, her left foot dragging through the crunchy, dried brush under the thin layer of snow on the ground.
