Plain of the Fourteen Pillars - Book 1

Silly Grarrt....

  He had left Cetra and Rod hiding in the shadows, a spot where they could see everything that took place in the Great Hall, from their three shackled companions to the guards standing off to the side.

  Now, having been so excited with his best laid plans, he was gathering his sticky rapples up off the floor and placing them back into a slightly cracked wooden bowl, the new crack having been sustained when it fell from Grarrt’s hands.

  From their shadowy corner Cetra and Rod watched on in silence. They watched as Grarrt picked up the last of the rapples from the floor and continued along the corridor. They glanced across the cavern as their three friends continued to stare in the same direction they had stared when their conversation was interrupted by Grarrt’s clumsiness. They spied Grarrt’s approach upon the two guards and the little effort he needed to capture their attention. They watched on in disgust as the rapples were handed over and quickly consumed; and they held their breath as moments later the two guards fell sideways, crossing each other one to the left and one to the right, hitting the floor with a bounce.

  Task completed.

  Grarrt lumbered back toward them down the corridor and led them directly through the centre of the Great Hall. They assessed its large stones before coming to a halt at the dais on the opposite wall, and quietly greeted their party of three with a whispered hi-de-ho.

  Billy smiled.

  Barret said, “Took your time.”

  Briar gestured something funny with his hand and Grarrt reciprocated with a giggle and a slap of his greasy forehead.

  Grarrt climbed onto the platform and unlocked their shackles. As the chains fell away they all rubbed their ankles for a few moments before Billy eyed Cetra and shyly gestured for his clothes.

  She giggled.

  Cetra threw the bundle up onto the dais and turned to scan the arched doorways around the hall, so far they remained clear of anything conscious. According to Grarrt the two Hump lumps would remain unmoving for the rest of the night.... sleep tight. That was unless another Hump happened along, in which case the two Humps would most probably be kicked to one side so as to make room for any more passersby. Courteous folk.

  “It is a good thing....” Cetra began, and then turned back to face them all, “It is a good thing that these are your clothes and not your hands and feet.”

  Billy, Barret and Briar continued to dress but looked on half interested.

  “I mean, Briar would look very funny with Barret’s big feet.”

  The inquisitive silence was short.

  “If I had Barret’s feet,” Briar said, “I’d go sail boating across the sea on them.”

  “And if I had Briar’s hands,” Barret jumped in, “I’d be stealing everything I put them on.”

  Meanwhile....

  Grarrt awkwardly stepped down from the dais and curtly interrupted their pointless banter with a peculiar rumble in his throat, and then he said “Wehadbettewgetoutofhew.”

  So once again, poised ready and fully clothed, and with a satchel of food to sustain them, they made softly and quietly for the outside world.

  Back around the curve of the hall, right at the gloomy corridor they had entered by, past the doorways and shadowed corners emanating pale light, toward a long incline from which they were certain they could see the night sky through a far away opening, their path to freedom, where stars shone and bleating animals still bleated.

  Again it all seemed too easy.

  Again it was all too good to be true.

  And then....

  CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN