An Aimless War - Chapter 23: Chapter 23

I felt hands prodding me, checking over my head and my chest, gently moving my arms and legs.
"He's better off than he looks." Jalor's voice came through, just as I was slowly becoming aware of myself. My head hurt, but not as badly as it could have. The rest of me ached. I groaned and tried to prop myself up with one elbow.
"Steady." Acen put a hand on my back and helped me sit up.
There was something I had to tell the knights. Something about what had just happened. I thought back—the guards kicking me until they got bored, then carrying me through the prison. I looked down at my hands. My left knuckles were bruised and scraped and bloody, and my fingers felt stiff. But they still worked.
"How do you feel?" Acen asked. He was sitting very close, his hand still hovering behind my back like he was ready to catch me if I blacked out again.
"I've been worse," I said, slightly surprised to realize it was true. Which made me think Kalvahi probably hadn't encouraged the beating, and the guards hadn't wanted to hurt me too badly.
Jalor crouched beside us and offered me a dirty flask. "Nothing looks broken. You'll probably feel awful and you'll definitely have some dark bruises, but all in all," he trailed off and shrugged. "What happened to your hand, though?"
I took a few gulps of water. "They had a clamp, and they were going to crush my hand to make Tannix talk. He..." Shame flooded through me. "He agreed. I tried to take it quietly so he wouldn't help them, but I... I was scared," I admitted quietly. "And now he's helping them and—"
"Being scared when you're being tortured isn't a weakness," Acen interrupted. "You weren't trained for this."
I opened my mouth to protest, when suddenly I remembered what I needed to tell the knights. Or rather, what I had to show them. I could feel the weight of it, hidden in my sleeve. The pieces clinked together as I drew them out and dropped them in Acen's hand.
He stared at the key ring with wide eyes. "How did you get this?"
I drank some more of the water. "I can do this rolling trick, where I just sort of dive off to the side to avoid getting hit or grabbed. But I can take stuff off of belts if I do it properly. And then I distracted the guards by pretending to get a mace."
Across the cell, Mandell perked up. "A mace?"
"I immediately found it far too... cumber-something."
Mandell laughed. "Cumbersome?"
"Yes. That."
"Finn," Acen interrupted. "These are keys. This is our way out."
I shrugged, suddenly aware of the way they were all looking at me. "I'm a thief."
Acen slipped the keys into his pocket. "Thank the Goddess you're here. This is exactly why we all have different skills. Don't dwell on the fact they realized they could hurt you to get to Tannix. That isn't your fault, and it isn't something you can control. You stole keys. You're incredible. Gentlemen," he looked around the cell. "Rest up. We'll move tonight."
The knights were anxious, but I managed to doze off. When I woke up it was dark outside our small window, and Acen was offering me the keys.
"You should do the honours."
I took them and stood up. The knights were standing in a loose circle. Dirty and disheveled, but determined and dangerous. Even Ender, with his arms over Kor and Evrik's shoulders, looked ready for a fight. I might have stolen the keys, but the knights were going to get us out of prison.
They watched me as I approached the gate and reached through to try the keys. The first key I fitted into the lock wouldn't turn. I tried the second, and the third, and I started to wonder if I had just let them all down. Then I tried the fourth.
It clicked.
I ignored the subdued cheer behind me and tentatively pushed open the door. The hinges creaked loudly. For a moment we all stood frozen, listening for any sign that someone had heard us. The only sounds came from other prisoners in other cells. I pulled the key from the lock and stepped into the hallway.
"Jalor," Acen whispered, "Trail behind with Evrik and the twins. We'll clear the way to the armoury. Lead on, Finn."
We began to jog down the hallway. The prison's layout, at least the part I had explored, was mapped out in my head. I knew the easiest way to get to the guard room, and then back to the room Tannix was being held in. From there, we would have to figure it out. I rounded a corner, too caught up in my plans to check first, and immediately collided with two guards. They looked at me, shocked, and in unison grabbed their swords.
Then Mandell was there. He punched the closer guard, and used his shoulder to slam the second one into the wall. They both collapsed. Dead or unconscious, I wasn't sure. Mandell cracked his knuckles. "That felt good."
Acen crouched to draw the guards' swords, one of which he wordlessly handed to Mandell.
I checked the next corner, then waved at them to follow me. We continued more cautiously, until we reached the wooden door to the guard room. I guessed the right key on my first try. The room was dark, but Acen took a torch from the hallway and stepped in ahead of me. He smiled as he stood in the centre of the room and turned in a circle.
"This is exactly what we needed." He went to light the torches in the room.
I was nudged aside as Evrik, Kor and Ender arrived. They moved past me to help Ender lean against the wall, then went to explore the room.
Jalor arrived a moment later. "Next time, hide the bodies," he said, giving Mandell a glance. "I dragged them into a corner. Hopefully they won't be noticed for some time."
"We need to hurry. Take as many weapons as you can carry." Acen was already sliding a knife into his boot. "Finn, where's your blacksmith?"
"Down the hall we just passed."
Acen nodded. "Evrik, go with him. Be quick."
Evrik pulled two axes from the wall. I'd never seen him fight with two axes before, but there didn't seem to be any shields in the room.
He followed me as I dashed out of the room and back down the hall. Almost everyone we passed was asleep, except for a few who warily watched us run by. I unlocked Joen's cell and slipped in, tiptoeing past other prisoners until I found him lying on his side.
I shook his shoulder. "Joen."
He opened his eyes with a start and grabbed me, rolling to pin me roughly to the stone floor. Evrik dragged him off of me immediately. They eyed each other for a moment, then Joen seemed to understand what was going on and he looked at me.
"Sorry. You startled me."
I rubbed the back of my head. "I'm fine." Some of the other men were starting to wake up. Most of them looked scared and weak. A few looked at Evrik like they wanted to steal his axes. "Let's go," I said, stepping a little closer to Evrik.
Evrik gave Joen a nod, and we were on our way.
In the guard room, the knights looked like they were going to war. Each of them had a sword and multiple knives tucked under their belts. Acen had an extra sword. Mandell was hoisting a mace onto his shoulder. Kor was helping Ender buckle a quiver onto his back. Evrik stepped around me to collect more weapons for himself.
Acen stepped up to Joen "Finn says you're a blacksmith. Do you know how to fight?"
Acen was tall, but Joen was taller. He was broad, too, nearly as big as Mandell. He nodded. "I'm not trained, sir. But I can handle myself."
"Well, pick out something you feel comfortable with. We'll keep an eye on you."
Joen nodded again. He went to rummage through the racks, and quickly found a pair off odd looking hammers. The hammer heads had four points on one side, and a long spike on the other. They made me think of Mandell's maces—big, heavy, designed to crush. I didn't like thinking about it, but they suited Joen. He probably used hammers all the time in his forge.
Evrik distracted me by handing me a few small knives. "Just in case," he said. I took them, and tucked them away. Hopefully I wouldn't have to use them, but it was somewhat comforting to have weapons of my own.
Everyone was ready to go. Acen looked at me.
"Take us to Tannix."
Tannix's cell door didn't unlock with any of the keys I had. After trying all four of them multiple times, I stepped back. Mandell and Acen were standing with me. Ender was leaning against the wall nearby. The others were standing guard at both ends of the hall.
"It won't open," I said.
"I'll open it," Mandell grumbled. He took a step back and looked like he was going to ram the door, but Acen held up a hand to stop him.
"Can you pick it?" he asked me.
"Maybe." I thought about what we had at our disposal. "Mandell," I held out the ring of keys. "Can you bend the ring so it's straight?"
Mandell took the ring and fumbled with it. When he was done, he dropped a straight enough piece of metal into my hand.
"Thank you." I slipped the bit of metal into the lock and prodded for the moving parts. Picking locks wasn't something that came easily to me, and I didn't have a lot of practice. "Please, Lukk..." I muttered under my breath as I twisted the metal. I kept expecting one of the knights to call out an alarm. But they didn't, and then the lock clicked.
Mandell grabbed me before I could rush into the room. Acen stepped through more cautiously, a torch in one hand and a knife in the other. Mandell pulled me a few steps down the hall, and with a sudden jolt of fear I realized why. They weren't sure if Tannix was alive. They didn't want me to see him if he wasn't alive.
"Mandell." I squirmed in his grasp. "I need to see—"
Tannix stepped into the hallway.
He looked no worse than he had before, which was a relief. In the slightly better light of the hallway, it was painfully clear that something was wrong with his right shoulder. His arm was bound in a sling that Acen had made out of his own sleeve. Tannix was holding Acen's extra sword in his left hand, his grip so tight that his knuckles were white.
He looked up and down the hall, his eyes landing on each of his knights briefly. Then, finally, his gaze rested on me.
I didn't realize that Mandell had let me go until I stepped forward. "What's wrong with your shoulder?"
Instead of answering me, Tannix passed the sword into his right hand and held it limply. With his left hand he grabbed the front of my tunic and pulled me closer. He kissed me passionately, as if we hadn't seen each other in years instead of a few hours.
I forgot about the knights. I almost forgot that we were in a jail and that Tannix was hurt. When he let go, all of that came crashing back.
Tannix switched the sword back over his left hand, as if nothing had happened. He didn't offer the knights an explanation, and they didn't ask for one.
"Gentlemen," he said. "Let's get out of here."