Journey of Duty and Fate

They all nodded to each other and slowly made their way down the hall. The area they were in seemed like little else but storage for the kitchen and other supplies. Listening hard as they walked they could hear the sounds of people, just normal sounds of laughing and talking. The hallway they were walking in was small and in semi-darkness, as of yet they had also run into no guards. Slowly continuing they found another hallway that they could see a brightly lit room at the end of it. Holding their weapons at the ready they made their way towards the sounds. Khalid staying in the rear and making sure no one snuck up behind them. When they saw a room that was obviously a great hall, they stopped and tried to count how many people were in the room. They were largely outnumbered but did have surprise on their side, but they wanted to have somewhat of a plan before they went in. They could see a door that seemed to lead outside to their left, and after searching the room for a time they were able to see Francis and other captives sitting in a corner of the room not too far from the door, but on the other side of the room from where they were. “Too bad we don’t have any of your exploding powder.” Valkrye muttered to Burnhilt. “Aye lass, but we not be knowin’ we be needin’ it when we be leavin’ the kingdom.” She nodded, her eyes searching the room and counting the men around the fire. It wasn’t impossible, but they didn’t want the raiders to turn on the captives and harm them in retribution. Valkrye motioned for the others to listen and said very quietly. “What if we take a couple of these wall torches and throw them to the far side of the room, with any luck, they will ignite the tapestries and get enough of the men’s attention that we can run over to the captives and escape the room with few seeing us.” The men nodded, it was certainly worth a try. Thor and Khalid each grabbed two torches and making sure no one was looking in their direction, each pointed to where he would throw it and they flung them across the room. One hit a stone wall and fell to the floor quietly, but the three others all hit tapestries and landed on the material that was long enough to reach the ground. They smoldered for a moment before flames burst from the material as if it had been waiting for the opportunity. At first no one seemed to notice, but soon one person yelled and it caught the attention of everyone in the room. Deanmuir and Yuki stood quickly and looked over the situation, Deanmuir ordering some men to get buckets of water while Yuki directed others to start beating the fire with cloths to try to knock it out. While everyone’s attention was on the fire Valkrye and the others ran towards the captives who were staring at the fire in fear. “Quickly.” Burnhilt yelled at them. “While they not be lookin’ ye need to be followin’ us.” They didn’t move at first, still too afraid to do much to help themselves, but Francis said to them. “Hurry, these are my friends, they have come to rescue me, and they will take us all out of here.” That seemed to be what the captives needed and they all ran following Burnhilt and the hound out the door. Thor, Khalid and Valkrye followed from behind, keeping an eye on everyone. But they weren’t able to get out unnoticed. Deanmuir looked behind him as the fire was coming under control and noticed the captives were not in their spot. At first he thought mayhap they had gotten scared of the fire and ran but then he looked at the door and saw strangers running out of the hall. With a sneer he grabbed his sword and ran in that direction not bothering to call anyone else to accompany him. On the way he picked up two daggers that were laying on a table near the wall and kept running. When he had a clear shot he stopped and threw one of the daggers and it hit one of the intruders in the back of the shoulder. Valkrye stopped when she heard a sound of pain come from Khalid, she looked at him and he waved his hand for her to continue. The look she gave him meant that she knew something was wrong but also that he was alright enough to continue for now, as they kept going Deanmuir threw the second dagger, this time hitting Thor in the back of the thigh making him grunt and skid to a stop and fall to one knee. This time Valkrye stopped again and went back to both men. The knife wasn’t in too deeply but it was in the muscle and a hindrance for Thor to continue. Valkrye saw Deanmuir coming and stood between him and her friends aiming her left side towards him, her sword aloft as Khalid knelt behind Thor and quickly pulled the knife from his leg, cause a snarl of pain from him. He helped him to stand and yelled to Valkrye that they were alright. She parried a few of Deanmuir's sword thrusts and tried to catch him off guard and then when she found a moment. Made a swing that put his balance all on his left side and then brought the back of her fist to his jaw which caught him enough to send him down on one knee. She saw others behind him realizing where they were and turned to run to catch up with the others.