Reyn was still digesting all the reasons why he must die when he realized the man was leaving. He asked almost reflexively, “What’s your name?”

“Puugi,” the man said as the door opened. He left and disappeared, taking the lantern with him.

“Wait! Let me live. I will do anything you say,” Reyn said loudly.

Puugi appeared again. “A tempting proposition,” Puugi said, “Tempting. If there was another way, I would take it. But there is not.”

“Find someone to smuggle me in a barrel or wagon or ship. Please.”

Puugi shook his head and left.

The door slammed shut. The footsteps receded.

“If I live, I will kill you,” Reyn yelled, a small wisp of fire leaving his hand, splashing into a stone wall and disappearing.

Darkness returned. The faint murmur of rain could be heard.

Reyn had lied. He had said he would kill Puugi, but he knew he would not, even if he escaped.

Codinor was to blame, not Puugi. Or, maybe it was Puugi. Reyn couldn’t tell who might be to blame. It could be himself. Reyn felt slow and stupid. He’d be a bad sorcerer too, he knew. He didn’t know anything about it.

Reyn had nothing to do, so he flopped into his bunk, his feet hanging out the end. He stared ahead tirelessly into the darkness. Knowing these were the last few hours of his life, he felt alert. He thought about writing a letter to his father to explain what happened to him. Reyn knew his father would look for him soon, and yet, he also knew his father would be too late.

If only he had known he was a sorcerer earlier. If only he had run. He had so many opportunities to change in his present position. Reyn decided to knock on his door to try to get paper and pencil.

He knocked. No response. He pounded. No response.

He laid back down to think.

After five minutes a voice answered, “Yes?”

“Could I get paper and pencil to write a letter to my father?”

“Give me a minute,” the anonymous voice answered.

Reyn waited. A small opening at the bottom of the door appeared, and a small lit candle was slid through first. After, a pencil and three small slips of paper followed.

“Thank you,” Reyn said. There was no acknowledgment.

Reyn moved his writing supplies to the far corner of his cell and sat down. He quickly started writing and lost track of time. He was on the third slip of paper when the cell door opened.

An elderly lady entered. She barely fit through the wide doorway. She smiled at Reyn when she saw him writing a letter. She held an entire tray of fruit, bread and pastries of all kinds. She also carried a folding table which she quickly set up and laid the tray on.

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“Up all night, Reyn?” she asked.

“No ma’am, just the last few hours.”

“Oh, I'm so glad to hear it! So many of the prisoners now-a-days don't sleep a wink the night before their hanging, and you know what? They're very unhappy when they’re led to the gallows, which is no way to go at all!”

Reyn could hardly believe the enthusiastic nature of the bubbly woman before him. She seemed to really care.

“Oh, but you do look like you’re lost. They told you your sentence, didn’t they?” she asked.

“Death?”

“Yes indeed,” she smiled. “Don’t worry. Eat.”

Standing up, Reyn sat on the bunk next to the tray.

She continued, “Sometimes the condemned don’t know. I remember one time when an old gentleman had thought they were escorting him back to his home. He was guiding himself right up the stairs with his cane when he looked up and realized he was walking up the gallows. He fainted right there and bumped down to the bottom. The guards didn’t know what to do, but after a while they figured it out.”

She rearranged a few dishes for Reyn as he ate, but didn’t say anything else.

“What happened?” Reyn asked.

“Well, the crowd was getting rowdy, and those judges like a nice, cleanly prepared subject. We don’t hang limp bodies either. A subject who deserves to be hanged, deserves to feel his last few seconds.”

She stopped again and watched Reyn eat.

“How long did they wait for the old gentleman to wake up?”

She sighed, “Oh, not long. They had the crowd waiting, and some started shouting about him faking it. After a few seconds of hesitation, they hung him anyway.”

“I thought you didn’t hang unconscious people.”

“Well, he could have been faking it.”

Shaking his head, Reyn continued eating, although thinking his death lessened his appetite.

“Couldn’t you sneak me out?” Reyn said.

“No,” she said.

Silence followed.

The food was plentiful and the lady was patient with him as he ate to his heart's content. When he slowed down, the lady started moving the saucers of food—empty or not—into a bag that Reyn had not noticed before. Soon there were no more saucers of food. The lady folded up the tray, grabbed the bag, and stood up.

“Wait. My letter. Can you mail it for me? I’d ask the guards, but I think they might throw it away.”

She looked at Reyn, “Give it to me.”

Reyn grabbed it, looked over the letter quickly and gave it to her. He said, “They have my address, just ask them for it.”

“I’ll mail it for you,” she said. She then turned and knocked on the door twice. The door opened and shut leaving Reyn alone.

The candle had grown considerably shorter, but it still offered some comfort. He sat in the bunk feeling particularly lonely when the door opened again.

A gargantuan man stood in the doorway and barked, “Come.”

Reyn obeyed. He exited the cell and saw that there was also an average-sized man who in comparison looked tiny. The average one said, “Don’t struggle. Don’t do anything foolish. You can’t get away now, so don’t even think about running. If you do anything funny, I’ll just strike you down right then and there.”

The smaller man held a wand in his hand. He also looked like he had currents of air racing around his body acting as a shield. Reyn assumed the man was a sorcerer. He had met a lot of sorcerers in the last day.

They led Reyn down a long row of empty cells. Every single one was empty. Reyn thought about how dangerous this town must be when all the criminals are dealt with in such quick fashion. Then Reyn noticed that one of the cells wasn’t empty. The man was dressed in fine clothes and mouthed the unmistakable word ‘run’ to him. He repeated it.

The guards had not seen him look at the cell, and so they had no idea of what the man had mouthed to Reyn. Reyn thought about running. If he could just get away a little bit, he was a fast runner. He had almost made it out last time.

They arrived at the door at the end of the hall, and it was then that the gargantuan man put a firm hand on his shoulder. Reyn tried to position himself better to make a break for it, but the hand gripped even tighter instead.

The grip never lessened as they went through door after door until finally a narrow iron door opened.

“My name is Vor,” the gargantuan man said. “Go ahead and try to run. It’ll make it more fun for the crowd to see you struck down and then hung after.” He showed a sword sheathed on his waist.

The grip lessened, and the trio stepped out into the bright morning light.