Chapter 26

Deanna froze at the sight of the men who'd been chasing her. They had a man she'd never seen before with them, sitting comfortably on one of the beds.
"Are you going to get us out of here?" The youngest of the men asked, who she remembered from what she'd overheard in the forest was Finn. His voice shook slightly.
"Depends," She said. "Are you going to not try to kill me?"
"What?" The man she'd freed said, swinging to face the others. "You said you didn't want to hurt her!"
"Bart, calm down." The singer, Cayle his name was, said. "I promise we wont hurt her."
"I want a promise, from all of you, that you will not hurt her at all." Bart said, ignoring Cayle's words.
"Okay, okay, we promise." Cayle said.
Deanna stepped forward and unlocked the door; Finn practically ran through the door.
When everyone was out of the cell, they began walking back to the dungeon door; when they were at a corner, Deanna paused and turned to face the others.
"Okay, so, this is where things get complicated." She said.
"How so?" Cadman asked.
"Well, the guards don't know I took the key." She said simply. "And I don't want to get the maid who brought me here in trouble, so we'd best go our different ways."
"How? The only exit is that door." Finn asked.
"Well, you can wait until we've gotten far enough away before escaping." Deanna said. "I just need ten minutes to get the maid away, then maybe they'll forget she was here."
"I doubt that."
"Why, Alroy?" Finn asked. 
"Because guards rarely remember guests being present at these kinds of things," Alroy explained. "They tend to just remember the familiar face."
"Damn." Deanna said.
"We'll find another way out and meet at the stables." Cayle said.
"There are two stables," Deanna said. "One for the people who live here, and the other for visitors, and, apparently, prisoners."
"Do you know where the other one is?" Cayle asked.
"No," Deanna said. "It's off limits and the maid wouldn't show it to me."
"Well, that's inconvenient." Alroy said. Deanna shrugged and began walking down the hall.
She got three feet before freezing and slowly turning back towards the group.
"I don't suppose you found..." She trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished for fear her voice would break up.
Cayle got the message.
"We did." He said. "Or rather, he found us."
Deanna's face lit up and she felt as though a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She turned and started back down the hallway.
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She walked back into the guardroom, closing the door behind her.
Alissa was pacing nervously, and she stopped mid-stride when Deanna came back in.
"Can we go now?" She asked, heading towards the staircase, not waiting for an answer. Deanna followed silently after slipping the dungeon key back on the hook.
The maid led her back to her rooms and left without a word. Deanna entered her room and closed the door behind her and walked over to the bed and sat down.
She glanced at the dresser and saw that the clothes that she'd arrived in were there, cleaned and folded.
She got to her feet and walked over to the dresser and took her clothes down and walked into the bathroom to change.
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Cayle walked through the maze of cells, trying to find another way out, and doing his best to ignore the cries of the other prisoners.
After exploring for what seemed like hours, he wandered back to where the others had been, and got there at the same time as Cadman, who'd also gone to try and find another way out of the dungeon.
Finn looked up at their arrival. "Any luck?" He asked.
Cayle shook his head.
"I think I may have found something," Cadman said. "It's just hard to see in the dark, so we may need a torch."
"Where is it?" Alroy asked.
"I don't know, but  I'm sure there's a torch around here somewhere," Cadman said, looking at the wall for a torch.
"No," Alroy said. "The thing you found."
"Oh," Cadman said. "It's over that way." He motioned in a direction.
"Helpful." Alroy muttered.
"Can you show us?" Cayle asked.
"Sure." Cadman said, turning on his heel and walking back where he'd come from, the others following behind.