Simple task

Here is the beginning of a possible novel. Kitten, my other piece would be the end, so there are definitly a lot of holes to fill...









         This was supposed to be a simple in and out job: get in, grab the crown, and get out. But then she woke up. And called for the guards. I don’t even know what went wrong.

         Luckily, I didn’t have anything in my hands when she spotted me. I was about to grab the crown, but as soon as her eyes opened, she made a muffled cry, and I started my hasty retreat. Before she was awake enough to know what was happening, I was on the other side of the room.

         Unlucky for me though, the other side of the room was right by the door. The same door that had the princess’s vast bed chamber on one side and the guard’s guarding room on the other. She called for the guards even quicker than I could have imagined possible, and before I could even think about running, I was caught.

         They put shackles around my ankles; far enough apart I could take short shuffled steps, but close enough together that I couldn’t run. My hands were cuffed behind my back and I was led away from the princess’s chambers. She watched me go.

         Someone must have told her I would be coming, and she warned her guards. How else could they have got me so fast? But very few people knew of this task. I knew, obviously. My uncle knew as he assigned the task, and Henry knew. Henry was my best friend, and he had the job of stealing horses for our escape.

         Oh Gods, Henry was waiting outside for me. What if he was caught too? Because I had messed up for the first time in my life on the biggest job of my life. I didn’t have a chance to give him a signal that I had been caught. I knew he would leave by sunrise if I didn’t come, but what if that wasn’t soon enough. I just ruined his life to!

         The guards led me down the stairs. In my shackled feet, I tripped and was able to turn around and count the 5 guards following. One wore the chief guard’s badge. I was screwed. They didn’t have the chief guard guarding the princess in the uneventful hours of the night shift. Someone definitely ratted out our mission. When I find out who this blabbering fool is…

         “Get Up!” The chief guard yelled before I could finish the thought. I quietly stood, knowing my best chance of escape would come later, and only if I was quiet. The guards led me the rest of the way down the stairs and 4 stood with me while the chief went to go talk to the clerk. While he talked to her, I looked around, trying to develop an escape plan.

         The stairs were behind us and in front, there were 4 rows labeled A, B, C, and D. They went back very far, and I couldn’t see the end. In between rows B and C, there was a window cut out of the rock used to build the walls and a man sat behind it. There were keys lining the back wall, so stealing a set of keys from the guards around me was pointless. The clerk was sitting in a solid chair and was directing the chief guard what to write in the books.

         The clerk got up and grabbed a key from the wall and gave it to the chief. He came back to us and said, “Take her to 37B. I’ll follow.” Obediently, the guards led me down row B back. The hallway was lined with cells on each side. I couldn’t get a clear look in them as it was very dark. The hallway itself was lined with torches between every three cells. Only under the torches could I see numbers clearly. On the right side were even numbers, and the left had odd. The led me until we got to cell 37.

         The chief stepped in front of us and unlocked the door. The guards shoved me in. Now, if my ankles weren’t shackled as they were, I would have been fine. But the shove threw me to the ground. I would have caught myself, except my hands were stuck behind me. By the time I got my bloody nose out of the dirt, the guards were long gone. None the less, I yelled, “YOU IDIOTS!! I WOULD HAVE WALKED IN IF YOU GAVE ME THE CHANCE! DIDN’T YOUR MOTHERS RAISE YOU BETTER!!?”

         My face was in terrible pain, and my head ached horribly as well, but I forced myself to think clearly. I went to steal the crown. And if I couldn’t escape, the interrogator, a terrible man, would come and question me endlessly and he would use very painful methods of extracting the truth. I am a very good liar, but I should still come up with some story to keep me alive.

         The interrogator will surely ask what I was doing in the princess’s chambers. I could simply tell him I was stealing 1 gold Kota. Then he would ask why would I steal something so small from someone so big. I could simply say I wanted a new challenge. This would be true, seeing as I have successfully stolen from everybody else. Anyway, she is one of the only people I can be certain that possess one gold Kota. Maybe I could make this a sob story and plea on behave of my ‘starving family!’ I could say my sister is terribly sick and my mom can’t afford a doctor. We just want to get food and make her healthy again.

         But really, I won’t have to worry about an interrogator. I plan on being long gone before he comes to ask his questions. This was not my first barbecue. Those incompetent fools called guards didn’t search me, so I still had my little dagger (which actually was a gift—to me, not stolen) and my tools of the trade. I reached into the small inside pocket sewn on the back of my trousers and pulled out a small thin piece of metal. My favorite lock pick. Within seconds I undid my hand cuffs, and with my practiced hands free, my ankles were free even faster.

         It’s time to blow this Popsicle stand. I went to the door made of vertical metal bars unlike the stone walls on the other three sides and stuck my arms through. I reached around and found the key hole and started picking that lock. This one took longer, but I finally got it. I turned around and actually looked at my tiny cell.

         A pile of straw was in the right corner, probably my bed, and a bucket in the right. I didn’t even want to think about what that was for. No windows in this cell either. I wasn’t even going to think about missing this horrid place. And without a second thought, I left.

         I walked up the hallway, opposite the way I came and looked in each cell for Henry. I knew he wasn’t in any of the other cells because I checked on the way to 37B. Luckily, he was nowhere to be seen. That didn’t mean he wasn’t caught, just that it wasn’t as likely. I didn’t have time to look for him in any of the other rows. If he was here, he would be on his own for a little. I quietly ran back to the front and slowed down when I got close to the clerk’s desk.

         On the way up, I noticed the door leading to the clerk’s room. I tried to twist the doorknob, and luckily, it wasn’t locked. I slowly opened the door praying it wouldn’t squeak. I was lucky once again. I stepped in and was shutting the door carefully behind me when the clerk looked over and saw me. He was about to raise the alarm. I forgot about the door which slammed shut behind me and clapped a hand over his mouth. I moved my hand up a little so it also covered his nose, and soon the clerk was fighting for breath. As he started to lose consciousness, I gently slid him to the floor and removed my hand. I put my fingers against his neck and was very relieved to find a pulse. At least I hadn’t killed the unsuspecting victim.

         I walked out of his office and ran up the stairs. I left the castle without any other trouble. The sun hadn’t come up yet, and I took a chance and went to my meeting place with Henry. He was still there and upon seeing me he whispered, “Sayra! I was starting to get worried! What took you so long? Where’s the crown?”

         I quietly told him, “I was caught, no crown. Let’s go before they discover my escape.”

         The alarm bells rang as we rode away on the stolen escape horses.