Chapter 37.1- The Seadragon's Roar

The body slumped over, hitting the table with a dull thud, and then they began to move with the efficiency of men who had worked together their whole lives. He moved to the side of the room, flipping the books this way and that.

“What’s taking so long?” He heard Yoren’s harsh whisper from behind him as he struggled to find the entrance to the secret passage.

“I only read about the passage, Yoren. I’ve never actually seen it before. The plans say it should be behind this wall though.” He said, and he continued to look for a mechanism or level. Nymaria had been a woman of great paranoia. Who else would install a secret exit in their already secret mountain fortress.?

She must have feared betrayal even from her Lords or perhaps the need to escape ones own fortress in secret for other reasons, and this was the failsafe for that. But how could she have foreseen that one of her descendants would take a curious and precarious little boy as his own. And that that boy would sneak into the secret study of the Prince and read the plans for her secret fortress?

He found a lever behind one of the tomes. Finally. He pulled it, and the bookcase began to slide along the ground, making a harsh screeching sound that made him cringe into himself.

“Let’s just get going. Someone must have heard that.” Yoren said when he turned back to him. Icarus nodded, and swept into the passage after his friend did so with the Prince held over his shoulder. Icarus closed the passage behind him and they began to run. The passage twisted and turned, moving through the mountains, deeper even than the fortress itself went. It was dark. So dark that he could not even see in front of himself all that well, but he trusted that the tunnel did what the plans said and led straight out of the mountain pass.

They ran and ran, feeling out of breath all the way but not daring to stop. There was a chance there was someone chasing them through these tunnels even now. And if it was Gerold then they were dead men. Neither of them, for all their martial skill, could stand against him in battle— not even together. He had beaten as much into their heads many a time.

Yoren came to a sudden stop, and it was all Icarus could do to arrest his momentum to avoid running into him.

“What?” He hissed somewhat harshly, even as he tried to recover his breath.

“We’re here” He said, pointing ahead.

“Fuck, that’s dark. How’d you even see the wall?” He asked, squeezing past his friend and touching the dark stone, looking for the loose one to open the passage.

“Just luck. Almost ran into the fucking thing.” He said.

“Good you noticed then. I don’t think our captive would survive the impact.”

“At the speed I was going? I’d have smashed my head open.” He said.