Leo was only around hundred fifty yards away from the gate when suddenly a loud wave of cheers drew everyone’s attention. For some reason a group of tall and strong guards in the imperial armor were already bringing Lana out even though there was still some time left till the midday.
The most plausible explanation Leo could think of was the warlord’s intention to display the captive for a longer period so that her companions would have more chances to make mistakes. Obviously it was impossible for anyone to save her except if some Nascent soul stage cultivator suddenly flew in and carried Lana away, but there were none such in this realm.
Since everyone was fully focusing on the captive, Leo hoped his infiltration would go smoothly, but he didn’t even get to the gate when he, along with the rest of the male-slaves and their overseers who intended to enter the castle, were ordered to wait.
From then on the time crawled by for everyone, but Leo guessed it went especially excruciatingly slow for Lana. He didn’t know she was the person who out of these thousands of people was amused the most because she knew the trap that the empire prepared was for naught. Of course, she regretted she wouldn’t be the one to personally report to the Southern queen and tell her who was the traitor in her closest circle, but she knew the queen was a smart woman and will be able to figure it out by herself. All that was left for her was to stand proudly until she dropped dead – simple as that.
The lashing went by just like yesterday, except this time the warlord didn’t come out to hold a speech. Lana endured, surprising the most of the crowd and was brought back in alive, albeit unconscious.
The moment she was carried inside, the line of people waiting to get in the castle began to move and Leo together with the other male-slaves got almost pushed in to make the process go faster. Contrary to the others though, after stepping in the castle grounds he immediately separated and turned towards right – the direction the guards carrying Lana went.
To keep the head low and to not look around turned out to be extremely inconvenient in the unfamiliar place. All Leo managed to discern was that across the gate there was large, four storey tall building – apparently the place where the warlord resided, to the left where the largest flow of the people went were few smaller structures, but to the right were only two – one long building, two storeys high, and right next to it another smaller house also build in stone that could’ve been taken for a smithy or a workshop if not for the guards who one after another came out the moment Leo got closer.
He immediately recognized the ones who brought Lana in earlier and dropped the basked to the ground pretending to catch a breath. The guards threw a glance at Leo, but went by ignoring him and only now he realized he actually kind of ‘got in’. The problem was – he still needed to get to Lana, or rather – he first needed to find out where exactly she was kept.
Fortunately the luck was on Leo’s side and the moment he got closer to the house he heard someone further on the other side curse her. The voice was was muffled and distant, but despite that Leo could discern the hate and anger in it. Hoping no one was paying attention to him, he went through the gap between the two houses only to find himself at the edge of the practice grounds. Turns out that not only the smaller house was some kind of a castle’s prison, the two storey building turned out to be barracks and the place was crawling with guards.
Yes, he heard Lana’s ridiculing laughter coming from a narrow opening that probably was meant to be a window and someone immediately hitting and cursing her, but currently he was right in the open without any chance to take a peek inside unnoticed. His presence already attracted few glances from the guards who just arrived after enjoying the entertaining lashing event, but for now they were all pumped up from what they saw and paying out the lost bids to each other.
The ‘window’ was actually more like a flat hole in the wall right at the ground level. Apparently the room behind it was some kind of a basement and the opening functioned as a light source, but the main problem was – it was really flat and narrow. Only a rat or a cat could comfortably slip through, but a grown person, even a woman, would have a hard time doing that.
‘Do something!’ Leo inwardly shouted at himself trying to wake up from stupor.
“I’m sorry, master! I’m on it, master! Just don’t punish me anymore, master!” He mumbled loud enough it could be heard a couple yards away and emptied the basked next to the wall. Then he did what any real man should be able to do – let out a nice and juicy fart, although not a loud one.
‘Alright. Out of all people in the world she might be the only one to realize I’m here.’ Leo thought to himself, grabbed the basked and went back towards the gate with a slight smile on his lips.
He was pretty certain that just now Lana laughed even louder and in more ridiculing manner than before – at least he hoped so since he bet on her incredible sense of smell and hearing to notice his presence.
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The traffic through the castle gate was quite lively and Leo once again tried to keep his head low and the basket upside down so that the guards immediately knew he was harmless and the basket – empty.
As it turns out in Dreadlands there was another major advantage a man had besides the ability to pee without squatting down, at least in the Kinta city castle – no one ever took you seriously. The guards at the gate vigilantly inspected wagons that were pulled in and goods inside as well as the packages of larger sizes that were carried in or out by male-slaves. But for some reason no one cared enough too check the faces of the slaves to not speak about registering them.
The most attention Leo received was when on his third time going in one of the guards suddenly lifted his chin to check whether he had an Adam’s apple, but besides that no one ever said a word. Leo already decided that if he ever needed to spend a night in an unfamiliar city, he would simply go over to the warlord’s residence, eat, sleep and be on his way the next morning.
The guards hanging out at the training grounds was a different story though.
The two storey building adjacent to the training grounds indeed turned out to be barracks and because of that during the day the training grounds became as busy as a marketplace. Since Leo was running back and forth emptying his enormous basket after every trip, the firewood pile grew rather eye-catching. At some point few people came over and asked ‘what the hell are you doing?’ to what he either sighed and replied ‘inquisitor’s punishment’ or ‘master Meda Matas’s orders’ and surprisingly it was enough to satisfy anyone’s interest.
After returning from the warehouse for the fifth time Leo began to organize the firewood pile stacking it in a couple of neat rows along the wall similar to how it was stacked in the warehouse. From the side it looked like this male-slave took his task seriously and soon no one bothered with him or even looked his way.
For the rest of the day no sound came from the tiny window a couple yards away – apparently Lana had passed out and the warden or whoever was the one who hit her, left. Leo didn’t believe she had died, otherwise the guards who went in and out the small building were Lana was kept wouldn’t have such calm and complacent expressions.
He continued to carry the firewood all day. Towards the castle he went slowly pretending the basket was heavy, but to the warehouse almost jogged. Soon not only the three slaves who in the afternoon also began to carry firewood to the kitchen got used to him, even the guards at the gate who after changing shifts came from the practice grounds stopped noticing the punished male-slave.
The only few occasions when Leo attracted everyone’s attention was when because of his clumsiness the neat firewood stacks fell and he had to pile them up all over. Of course Leo did it intentionally, but the guards didn’t know that and only laughed at the male-slave’s miserable expression.
Because of this trivial trick Leo was able to slightly relocate and create the new firewood stacks right next to the window. For now it didn’t have much use, but he hoped that the next time the stacks collapsed, he would be able to slip in unnoticed and it happened so.
Leo had long lost count how many times he ran to the warehouse, but when he noticed the manager getting impatient, he realized she was soon going to lock the place for the night. The sky was already getting darker and since he was out of time, he decided to go for it despite the fact there were quite a few people on the training grounds.
‘F*ck it! Let’s go!’ Leo took a deep breath and the firewood pile collapsed on top of him once again.
“Ouch … ouch … ouch …” He crawled out hurting all over.
Even though it was painful, he kind of had to stage this play and fortunately just like the previous times after a wave of laughter the guards ignored him. For a few moments he pretended to gather the firewood again, but then exhaled and dived in through the narrow window.
Leo had no clue what expected him inside and hoped it was only an empty room with tied up Lana in the middle. He did immediately land on a person though, a woman, but before she could let out a sound he immediately knocked her unconscious purely out of reflex. During the past months he had washed his seven masters enough and knew every part of their body by touch thus he immediately sensed that the boob his palm was on definitely didn’t belong to Lana.
Right at the same time Leo noticed a shadow dart through the room and hit something soft on the other side that fell down with a soft thud and a heartbeat later Lana’s stinky breath assaulted his senses – the poor woman probably hadn’t rinsed her mouth from the moment she was captured.
“Did you kill her?” Lana’s barely audible whisper brought Leo back to reality.
“N … no” He whispered back, but heard a person’s neck break right after.
“Go!” Lana whispered and pushed Leo upwards indicating he had to crawl back out.
For a woman who had endured two hundred lashes she was surprisingly energetic, but Leo had no time to think about it since after a slight push he found himself half way through the window. He did get stuck a little, but after slightly squirming like a worm he got out and began to pile the firewood up again as if nothing happened.
Only after verifying no one had noticed his brief absence, he lied down next to the window and stretched his hand inside that was immediately caught in an iron-tight grip.
‘I hope she won’t break it!’ Leo thought grimacing in pain and pulled her up.
Just as expected Lana’s body was way too burly to pass through the thin hole and after getting her head out she immediately got stuck. Since they were already at this point, Leo threw the caution to the wind and pulled her with all he had while pushing with legs against the wall. Neither of them made any sound, but Leo could swear there was a light cracking sound right before Lana’s shoulders got through. Even though her lower part was nice and round, it didn’t get stuck like her shoulders and few moments later Leo pulled her out and immediately rolled her body in the basket.
She did seem to be unconscious, but he didn’t intend to verify it and after brushing dirt off his clothes, Leo put the basket on his shoulder and with light steps proceeded to the castle gate. His heart was beating so wildly it felt like it could jump out from the chest at any moment, but he used the hundred and fifty yard distance to the gate to take deep breaths and calm himself down – after he’ll get through the gate the easiest part of the hurriedly planned prison break will be over.