Book 2

Chapter 7

Kate had managed to stay upright for five minutes. That was almost a record in their sparring matches. Gwelweil stuck her head through the gate and called her name. She turned her head and, *crack.* She was on her back again.

Kate let out a growl. "Kreelan isn't here." She got up with a groan. She missed the healing pond near Zanor, and Romion's practice sessions had definitely added muscle. She looked down at the hardened features of her body compared to the curves of Gwelweil. No wonder Kreelan had chosen the elf over her.

"I know." Gwelweil sobbed. "The goblins have him. The goblins came for you and my father led them right to your hut. They took him. They only left me alone because I was the mayor's daughter. Oh, Kate, they are going to torture him until he tells them where you are."

Kate's frown softened. Gwelweil may have stolen the guy Kate wanted and she was angry at Kreelan for leading her on and then abandoning her, but she couldn't let him get hurt trying to protect her.

She reached out to Gwelweil and patted her back. "It's okay. We will get him out."

Gwelweil took a heaving sigh and wiped her eyes. "But how? There are a dozen goblins guarding him, plus our police. There are only three of us and I don't even know how to fight."

Kate looked up at the maple branch waving above them. She smiled. "With a little help from my friends."

The three snuck through town. She wore a hood low over her face to hide her unusually colored hair. Wirte had turned sympathizer on them; there was no telling who else might and give them up to the goblins. Fortunately, hoods seemed to be the style even among the city elves and she didn't look too out of place.

The jail sat next to the library were Regkor was studying. Kate realized that he was in just as much danger. Stopping behind the building, she turned. "Gwelweil, go inside and find Regkor. Let him know what is going on and get him out of there before the goblins think to look for him, Get him somewhere safe. They probably won't think of looking for him in Romion's courtyard."

Gwelweil nodded and left. Romion lifted his hood. "What is your plan? We can't take this many by ourselves. It would be almost impossible with two trained fighters. With you it's hopeless."

Kate bit her lip. Even in danger as they were, he couldn't seem to not put her down. "We need to get inside and find him."

"Don't do anything stupid."

She didn't answer. Unlike most of the buildings in Fawla, the Wanco jail was stone. Kate guessed that the builders figured it would be sturdier and hold better against attempts at jail break.

The builders hadn't anticipated her.

She surveyed the weapons at her disposal. The oak's branches spanned the length between the library and jail. She willed a branch lower. A chink in the masonry was all she needed. A twig squeezed inside like a thread through the eye of a needle. The branch began to grow and swell in diameter. The stones bulged around the site of her intrusion, and one fell.

The branch continued growing. More and more stones fell. When Kate deemed the hole large enough to crawl through, she pulled the branch out.

It snagged and Kate mentally pulled harder. The wall cracked open, and the branch came free, carrying a metal cot that the branch had grown around. The branch cleared the building and the side collapsed with a roar.

A hissing voice sounded an alarm from within. "I thought I told you not to do anything stupid," Romion yelled over the noise.

Kate shrugged. She had hoped that Kreelan was being held where she and broken in, but that didn't seem to be her kind of luck. She drew her sword and climbed over the pile of rubble. She turned her head, "Well, you are really not going to like this," and hopped to the floor inside.

She found a door and opened it. Two guards were on the other side, about to enter to explore the sound of her explosion. Kate breathed out. These were elves. She didn't want to hurt them, but the good news was that by now she had more fighting experience than the police officers used to only dealing with drunks.

She swung her sword forward. Only one tried to defend himself. The other dropped his baton and raised his hands over his head. Kate deflected the baton of the first elf and brought the butt of her sword down, knocking him unconscious.

The other looked like he was going to run. "Sorry, I can't let you do that. It's nothing personal." She brought her weapon down again and he also fell. She pulled the two guards into the broken room and shut the door. Not being a cell, it didn't lock, but she was able to force a chair under the knob to block it. Locking enemies in her escape route wasn't the best plan that Kate had ever had, but she couldn't think of a better one. She just hoped when she came back through this way, she wouldn't need quick access.

She heard goblins and ducked into another room. This one was a cell and if the goblins found her there, her rescue mission would reach an early and embarrassing end.

They passed by. She couldn't let them find the guards, so she jumped out. She ran her sword under the legs of the first one. He yelped as he went down and alerted the other one. He drew his sword, but Kate was ready and swung. His sword hand came off with a spurt of blood. His eyes went wide, and she could see the scream coming. She knocked him out and he fell on the other goblin who was starting to recover his feet. Kate knocked him out as well and dragged the two into the cell.

She debated opening the first door and bringing the elves inside the cell as well, but she knew she was running out of time. Kate managed to avoid detection as she searched the jail for her friend. She let out everybody she found in hopes of creating a distraction from her pursuers who must have known she was there by now.

She found him on her fourth try, hanging from chains that appeared to be hastily attached to the ceiling. Blood was caked on the left side of his head, and he hung limply in his fetters. She looked around but couldn't find the key. If the chains weren't original to the building, Kate figured they couldn't be very secure. She jumped up and tugged on them as she landed. The spike that had been hammered into the ceiling came free and Kreelan fell to the floor.