Dara's Arc

Chapter 6 of 10

Dara waited in the tunnel until the dark thinned to gray. Then she crawled forward and pushed the grate open. Elara had promised the cellar door would be unbolted at dawn. If it was, Dara would walk to Kael. If it stayed locked, she would stand in an open corridor with no shadow to hide in, her wanted face plain to any guard who passed. She climbed out and dropped into the stone room. Cold air pressed her mask. Ahead, the corridor ran straight to a low stair. She took it down. At the bottom waited the door Elara had named. Black steel. A red light burned above it. That light meant the bolt was thrown. Dara's stomach dropped. She crossed to the door and pushed. It held. Locked. She pressed her ear to the metal and heard nothing. Somewhere above, boots scraped. A shift starting. She had no cover here, and the promise had failed. Then a key turned on the far side. The door swung in. Elara stood there, clipboard against her chest, apron stained. Her hand shook, but her face was calm. "They changed the lock last night," she said. "New cylinder. My key still fits." She stepped back to let Dara through. "The light stays red. That's the trap. Everyone thinks it means locked." Dara slipped inside. Elara shut the door soft behind them. The cellar dropped away in cold stone lines. Down a short passage, behind a grate, a man sat against the wall. Thin. Gray-faced. His head lifted at the sound. "Kael," Elara said. She knelt at the grate. "This is the one I told you about." Kael looked at Dara. His voice came out cracked. "You played the trumpet. Across the whole city." A weak smile. "I heard it down here. That bent note at the end." Something tightened in Dara's throat. "I came to get you out." She pulled the lock pick from her sleeve and set the hooked tip into the grate's lock. Her hands stayed steady. Elara held the clipboard flat, watching the stair. The pins gave one by one. The lock clicked. The grate swung wide. Kael tried to stand and could not. Dara caught his arm. He weighed almost nothing. Then a bell rang above them. Sharp. Three strikes. Elara went white. "Morning count," she said. "They count the prisoners at first light. I forgot the new schedule." She stared at the empty cell, then at Kael in Dara's arms. "His cell reads empty in four minutes. They'll seal the camp." Dara looked at the stair, then the tunnel far behind, then the frail man she could barely lift. The door was open. Kael was free of the cell. But the count had started, and she could not carry him back through the tunnel before the whole camp locked down around them.