Ashwyn put her shoulder to the barred door and slowly eased it open as quietly as possible. Tilting her head for Daana to follow, the orc slid soundlessly out into the empty hallway. Daana tiptoed close behind, attempting to mimic Ashwyn’s confident movements. Truth be told, having Ashwyn assume the lead was something of a relief, actually. Daana knew they were supposed to be traveling downwards, utilizing the same staircase that brought her to this floor, probably. The problem was she didn’t know where to find it.

Ashwyn padded on ahead with the confidence of someone who had either done this hundreds or times before, or was simply very, very good at faking it. Several empty lantern hooks hung above the dark passageway as they passed row after row of empty cells. They were nearing the bend that Daana suspected housed the stairwell when Ashwyn held out her palm and pressed flat against the wall.

Daana sucked in her breath and held it, pressing her shoulders against the stone passageway. Either her heart had ceased its rampant pounding or her ears had learned to tune it out, because it wasn’t long before she heard the sounds of slapping feet moving swiftly up the stairwell towards them. The footsteps stopped just shy of the entrance.

After a moment of unease, a familiar voice rang out from around the corner. “Daana, if that’s you, you’d better say something else I’m gonna clear that hallway with a powder charge!”

“It’s me, Snag!” She pushed free of the wall and moved to the front, waving her arms. “I’ve got Ashwyn with me.”

The footsteps started up again, faster than before. Snag’s voice called out ahead of them, “In that case, I suggest you move before you get trampled.”

A willowy shadow burst from the dim stairwell and doubled its speed in their direction. Taking Snag’s advice, Daana threw herself flat against the wall and out of Ellisar’s path. The elf leapt the remaining distance, sailed through the air, and landed like a fully sprung net trap. Her arms and legs latched around Ashwyn’s body, knocking the orc a step backwards. Realizing it was not a matter of what, but who had hit her, Ashwyn dropped her chair legs and pulled her wife in for an uncomfortably passionate kiss.

It might have been romantic had Ashwyn not pulled away seconds later, sputtering, “Your breath! Dear goddess, Ellie. Why does it taste like you ate a raw onion for lunch?”

“An onion and a bulb of garlic.” A devious smile cut across Ellisar’s normally expressionless features. It was somehow more unnerving than her glare. “Word of advice, don’t bet against Snag when you’ve run out of money. He gets rather creative.”

“You could have at least brought a mint. Brushed your teeth beforehand, maybe?”

Ellisar snaked her arms behind Ashwyn’s head and pulled her closer. “Less talking. More tongue.”

Daana averted her eyes, watching as Snag’s scraggly shape moved towards them at an unhurried pace. It was probably intentional with the way the two women were going at it next to her. Snag’s left leg still dragged a little, but if it bothered him, he never mentioned it. “Oi!” he hissed. “Can you two keep it in your pants until we’re free of the creepy crawly dungeon?”

Fighting the elf’s pawing hands, Ashwyn dropped Ellisar back onto the ground and proffered a winning smile. “You must be Snag.”

“And you must be the sane half to” – his clawed fingers gestured vaguely in Ellisar’s direction – “this.”

Ha! As much as Daana wanted to correct him, she decided it would be best to let Snag draw his own conclusions on the matter.

“I know we haven’t officially met, but I feel like we’re family already. Ellie writes all about you in her letters.” Ashwyn must have noticed the repulsion that crossed his grizzled face because she lifted her palms into the air with a laugh. “The clean parts, I mean.”

Snag’s glistening eyes shifted from Ashwyn to Ellisar as a needled smile formed across his face. “That’s not very fair. The dirty parts are the only bits I get to hear. I think that entitles me to some embarrassing stories. Tonight, preferably. When we’re miles and miles from this wretched place.”

“Sounds like a date.”

Ellisar followed Snag towards the stairwell. She twisted around, shooting her wife a silencing glare whilst mouthing ‘over my dead body’.

They descended the spiraling staircase with Ellisar leading, Snag and Daana in the middle, and Ashwyn bringing up the rear. The trek was carried out in silence. Ellisar was slinking down the last few steps when a bolt struck the wall behind her and ricocheted across the room.

“Shit!” She retreated several steps behind the protective curve of the wall. “Snag, I thought you said you got all of them!”

“No, I said I got all the ones at the front,” Snag hissed back. “You were supposed to sweep the corridors!”

“Drop your weapons!” a shaky voice called from beyond the stairwell. “That’s the only way out. Try to run and I’ll pick the lot of you off.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Ellisar looked over her shoulder at Daana. “Sounds like it’s time to deploy our fire starter.”

“Are you trying to get us all killed?” Snag snapped at her. “No! We agreed never again. Using Daana is not an option.”

“When did you become an old stick-in-the-mud, Snag? You used to be fun.”

“You want a repeat of Alkurth? Because this is how you get a repeat of Alkurth!”

Ashwyn’s tall form leaned over Daana’s shoulder, whispering, “I think I may have underestimated you, Peaches. You got some sort of specialty I’m not aware of?”

“Oh, uh, not really,” Daana stammered. A flashback overcame her and, for a moment, Daana recalled the smell of smoke as red and orange embers danced on the wind, illuminating the night sky above as the city burned below. She blinked the image from her eyes, forcing the memory back into the dark, unvisited recesses of her mind. “It was an accident, actually. They aren’t ever going to let me live it down, I don’t think.”

Daana returned to Snag and Ellisar’s conversation in time to hear the tailend of Snag’s plan. “That bolt came from a crossbow. Which means the fucker’s got to waste time to reload. You throw a little distraction his way and I’ll clear the room with a charge, yeah?”

The edges of Ellisar’s mouth turned downwards. “You’re already leading in points. If I’m the bait, then you get the kill.”

“Should have swept the corridors then, hmm?”

“Hold on you two.” Ashwyn squeezed past Daana, placing her hand on Ellisar’s shoulder as she navigated the cramped stairwell. “Stay here. Let me take care of this.”

“Armed with what, exactly?” Snag said.

“Admittedly, it’s been awhile since I’ve done this. Might be a little rusty.” Ashwyn spoke as though she hadn’t heard Snag’s question. She looked to Ellisar, who merely imparted an impassive shrug. With her spouse’s seal of approval, Ashwyn whispered to Snag, “How many did you take care of at the guard shack when you came in?”

“Three.” He glanced worriedly between them. “Am I missing something? What is the plan here? You can’t just stroll down there and–”

“It’s fine, Snag,” Ellisar replied. “Let her do her thing.”

“Oh, good. She’s as mad as you are. Glad we established that early on. I will adjust my expectations for survival accordingly.”

Ruffling Ellisar’s hair as she slipped past, Ashwyn started down the stairs with her shoulders pressed to the stone. Her voice reverberated off of the grime covered walls below. “Winston, love, I know it’s only you down there. You can talk a big game all you want, but no one rang the alarm. The next shift isn’t due to come in for another three hours. Help isn’t coming, mate. But that doesn’t mean this has to end in blood. You’ve always treated me fair and I’d like to return the favor.”

She was near the bottom step now, still pressed flat to the wall. “You’ve got three babies at home and a fourth on the way. I’m not intending to rob those rascals of their father, but you’re going to have to work with me here. First things first, I need you to understand these people don’t mess around. You fire off another bolt and I won’t be able to talk them out of making your wife a widow.”

“I c-can’t let you leave. If they find everyone else dead and not me, they’ll–”

“Which is why I’m going to knock you unconscious.” With her palms raised, Ashwyn stepped free of the protection of the stairwell. “You remember when Big Brutis took a swipe at you in the yard? Who was it who dropped him with a nerve pinch? And he came back around with all his faculties, didn’t he? It’ll be just like that. Except that when you’re out, I’m going to break your arm to make it more believable.”

“What?”

Ashwyn didn’t flinch at his response. She edged further into the room until she had disappeared from the entrance of the stairwell altogether. “I’ll do it clean, I promise. I’ve got a healer with me back on the stairs. He’ll give you something so you won’t wake up in agony, alright? At the end of all this, you still get to go home to a wife and the little ones and the boss is going to be none the wiser. You’re just the lucky sap who got a bump on the head during a jailbreak and lived to tell about it.”

Daana strained to catch the soft words of the guard, but was unable to make sense of his reply. Her gaze flickered to Ellisar, whispering, “She can’t be serious. For the gods’ sakes, she’s not even armed!”

“Enchanting, isn’t it?” A second smile split across Ellisar’s stoic face. There was a dreamy, far-off look in her eyes that made Daana want to shy away in terror. “This one time we got held up on the road by bandits. We were outnumbered four to one and they were looking for an excuse to draw blood. By the time Ashwyn was done with them, the whole gang was ugly crying as they took turns writing letters to their mothers apologizing for the way they turned out.”

After a moment of quiet deliberation, Daana turned away, shaking her head in disbelief. “I can never tell when you’re fucking with me.”

Before Ellisar could reply, Ashwyn’s voice called from further away. “He’s down!”

With her eyes as wide as saucers, Daana skirted down the remaining steps behind the other two. True to her word, Ashwyn stood with her hands locked on her hips, peering down at a still guard. “Snag, I might need your opinion here. Where’s the best place to snap someone’s arm so it’ll heal straight?”

“You’re…not just going to kill him?” the goblin ventured, sidling closer as he wrung his clawed hands together.

“I meant what I said. It’s the only way the whole convincing thing works.”

“Is it a form of magic?” Daana asked. She hadn’t sensed any, but she hadn’t exactly been looking for it, either.

“Nothing like that, no.” Ashwyn dismissed the idea with a wave of her broad hand. “In the end, all most people want is to make it through one more day. I’m just giving them the option, is all. It’s how I won Ellie over.”

“You drugged and abducted me!”

“Arrested you,” Ashwyn corrected with a pearly smile. “I still get the flutters thinking of you hogtied and thrown over the back of my horse.”

A sudden sense of awe filled Daana. What she had originally mistook as yet another violent lunatic was shaping into something else entirely. Nothing about her new life came easily, but the realization that she could learn to navigate the path ahead of her without having to needlessly end lives was an opportunity too good to pass. “Can you teach me?”

“Oh, Sweet Peaches, there’s nothing to it.”

“Really?”

“You just ensure their hands and feet are tied real tight first. The horse does most of the work, honestly.”