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“Here!” I called as I curled myself up and over where my good hand had just made contact. I ran my hand along the edges, trying to make out where the stone began and where it ended. I tugged on it and heard a grinding noise as it moved slightly again.
I repositioned myself once Nicole came over and got to my feet, my knees bent. I tried to tug at the wiggling piece of potential hope but fell back onto my butt, only moving it a miniscule amount.
“It’s heavy,” I breathed out as Nicole bent down to try both her hands on it.
She grunted but succeeded in twisting it more in its unstable position. “Damn, it is.”
I peered down, looking at the stone before us. The part I’d tripped on overlapped the stone next to it. Nicole’s jostle had moved it enough so that if I could get enough strength somehow, it could shove off the stone next to it and potentially move it more easily.
“Stand back,” I told Nicole.
I moved myself over so that my feet were in front of the raised lip of the stone. Bracing my good hand behind me I raised my feet and pushed as hard as I could.
Movement. Small progress, and I’d take it.
I adjusted, taking in a deep breath, and positioned my feet to shove at the stone once more. I grunted as a hiss of air escaped my lungs forcefully. I fell forward on my forearm, but this time it wasn’t from losing my balance.
This time it was because the stone moved.
The grating noise of stone on stone had echoed loudly in our cell and the chattering and murmurs from the crowd of us trapped inside halted. Immediately.
All eyes jerked my way and then shifted back to the front of the cell.
For a moment, time stood still as we waited to hear if the grinding stone had alerted the guards to any trouble.
One by one, as time passed with no guards, people began to turn and look back at me.
I scrambled to my feet and Nicole’s arm shot out, providing me something to grab onto as I lifted myself up the last little bit. We both peered down.
There was darkness below. And no way to tell if the effort to move this hunk of rock had been worth it.
I looked among the crowd, searching our cell for a few able-bodied men. “You,” I said, pointing toward a very large fellow standing next to the far wall. “I need you.”
“I don’t want trouble,” he huffed, and leaned back as if he was attempting to get the wall to swallow him up.
The noise from the stone and my earlier behavior had made me front and center for all to see and watch. And that’s exactly what they were doing. So, with all eyes on me, this was important.
“You’ll get trouble if you do nothing. You think they’re planning on letting us out any time soon?” I asked, hiding a wince as I moved toward him and my wrist bumped against my side. “What happens when we are packed so tightly into this cell they can’t fit anyone else? I can tell you, with a witch hunt fervor, next comes death.”
A few gasps sounded around me and I tried to make eye contact with as many people as I could. It was tough given the darkness, but the few I did catch, I held their gazes.
“Now we can work together in an effort to try to make it out of this thing, or we can sit around waiting for the right thing to happen.” I paused and spun once more. “I can tell you that I’d rather try to find an escape to sanity than wait here and flip a coin on if the guards come to their senses or not.”
“She’s Prince Noah’s feeder,” Aleita spoke up while everyone else stayed quiet.
My eyes widened as she moved forward to stand near me. I held her gaze, silently begging her not to say more; it could turn them all against me.
Aleita gave me small nod before standing beside me and addressing the rest of the prisoners. “The prince has already come to check on her and even he can’t get her out. If we want safety, we must find it ourselves.”
She touched the small of my back encouragingly and I turned back to the large man who initially declined my request. “What do you say?”
He grunted, shoving off from the wall and walked toward the stone. Another man came forward and inched backward toward the site where our hope lay.
“Nice speech,” Nicole whispered in my ear. “Remind me to nominate you for Employee of the Month.”
I rolled my eyes at her and turned my attention back to our volunteers, who made short work of getting the stone moved the rest of the way.
Moving slowly and remembering to keep my wrist tight to my chest, I knelt over what was now a large enough opening to peer through.
