"There's a mistake! I'm Exempt!" Lady Grace's voice was shrill and too loud for the stone-roofed cave. It echoed loudly, pulling the attention of the others in here with us — including the fallowstock.

This lull of everyone getting along, it wasn't going to last. I knew it. It couldn't last.

This wasn't a ball anymore. This was the Funnel.

A deep, powerful feeling of foreboding hit me as I saw the weasel-faced fallowstocked man narrow his eyes at Lady Grace then whispered something to the woman. Even though he was a scrawny man hidden in a bundle of rags, he looked dangerous. And when a dangerous person defers to someone else -- like he was doing to the fallowstocked woman -- then I knew that he wasn't quite as dangerous as the woman likely was. She turned her head and I caught a glimpse of her face. Our eyes met in that uncomfortable way when you get caught staring at someone who really doesn't like getting stared at. Shit.

Unlike basically everyone else, my Exempt status meant I didn't have to go to the classes and training growing up, but I knew enough about the Funnel to know that no matter how much you relied on others, they could still kill you, loot your corpse, and who knows what else and in what order. All laws -- all rules -- well, in here you toss all of that over a cliff and down into the never-ending death grind below.

"There's a mistake!" Lady Grace shouted again, her flushed face upturned toward the ceiling. That imperious nose and forehead, shaking with rage. "Get me out of here! I. Am. Exempt!" Each word emphasized by stomping her foot.

My eyebrows of concern must have gotten to Joceline, because she stopped leaning over me and instead turned her attention to the noblewoman.

"Lady Grace." Joceline tried to say with her meek, gentle voice. "Lady Grace!" She said even louder and urgently, while shooting a furtive glance at the fallowstock man and now woman who were both eyeing Grace.

Joceline had gone over to pull the woman closer to me and away from the group. Good thinking. Just not nearly enough. While Joceline tried to get Lady Grace to simmer down, the woman was still pulling attention with her squawks and complaints.

I took a deep breath, coughed at the dankness, and sat up. I needed to do something. Part of me was rebelling the thought of interjecting and protecting her. Lady Grace wasn't the only Exempt that found herself in the Funnel.

I was. Exempt, that is. I could be peevish and whine about it, but clearly something had gone wrong with the summoning. Otherwise two people who were Exempt and were outside the summoning circle shouldn't have arrived in the starting area.

Joceline steered Lady Grace towards me, murmuring something to her that I couldn't quite hear. That was fine so long as the noblewoman just shut up and stopped drawing attention to herself.

No such luck.

"If I can just contact my betrothed. They will have to pull me out of here."

I don't know why I took pity on her, but I could see that once the others got annoyed enough, she might not be safe. And by extension, they might just move onto the other person wearing a ballgown in here. A sopping wet ballgown which would slow me down if I tried to run. I stood up, wringing out some of the water as I did.

Joceline was saying something about it being impossible to contact outside the dungeon. At least that's what I would have said if I was in her place. At this point, my friend was full on tugging the woman and pulling her toward me.

There was a really good reason.

I saw what Joceline had seen. Lots of activity over at the other side of the room. The cavern had to be about 90 feet in diameter. It was round and domelike looking like a natural cave with strange looking greenish mould growing across surfaces, but here and there were signs of artifice. Sconces built into the walls. Burning torches. A series of now empty wooden weapon racks that might have contained weapons.

The High Stock were at the far end where there was some kind of monumental doorway built into the rockface. At quick glance it seemed they were all trying to work together to pry open the door.

Their collaborative truce would probably end as soon as they got through.

It was our only way out. Or was it?

I looked back at the river and the dark low cavern opening whence it came and where it led.

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Well, I was already wet.

I reached into my soaking reticule to see what I could use. Not much really. A soaked lace fan. A small perfume bottle. A paintbrush. A coin purse with only a single coin I was supposed to use to pay for the fare back home when I slipped quietly away just after midnight.

With effort, I used my bare hands to dig in at the hole in my waist seam that thankfully I had not fixed before the night. Thank you mother for not noticing. I yanked on the hole, ripping the seam and then took the edge of the triangle coin with its ridges to cut into the thread and grow the seam. It was the most ineffectual sawing of anything I had ever done, but after a few minutes I had the fabric torn off at the waist. The knee high silk shift underneath still covered my thighs and butt, but it'd be easier to move than the long overskirt. I didn't want to waste the fabric I tore free so I wrapped it similar to how you'd twist a hank of wool and then stuffed down the front of my bodice.

The reticule, I tied to my belt. Tight as I could.

I looked up to see that the fallowstock had finally broken free. They were heading toward us. Fast. They were crossing that 90 feet quickly. The woman held manacles between her hands, holding the chain taut.

Joceline who was now trying to hush the lady was actually doing a decent job of getting the woman to move her butt toward me. "Shh. Lady Grace. We cannot draw the attention of others. It's dangerous in here."

Too late for that. Shit. "Toss me your rope, Joce."

She didn't even hesitate. She unhooked it from around her arm and tossed it to me. I caught it and I began to tie it into a round circle.

"What are you doing? Unhand me." Lady Grace said as they came to a stop right beside me. Joceline let her go.

"Can you swim?" I asked Lady Grace as I knitted the rope and tested it so that the tail of it moved. I circled around her so she was the one closer to the water's edge.

"What?" She shrieked, at least a bit distracted by the question and undoubtedly the rope itself as I wrapped the other end around my hand and wrist.

"Can you swim?"

"Yes, what does that—"

Suddenly, the fallowstock woman was there. She lunged for the closest person to attack with her makeshift garrote. That was Lady Grace. Joceline's years of training kicked in and she whirled, using the bulk of her backpack to slam against the fallowstock. It connected, but the woman just regained her balance quickly and she whirled around to attack Lady Grace again.

I reached for the only thing I had on me that could be used as a weapon. The wooden end of my paintbrush was tapered to a point. I'd poked myself enough with it by accident to know it could be a pain in the ass. I pulled it out of my reticule and stabbed at the woman's face handle side out.

It connected. It connected with this sickening swhick sound. The fallowstock woman screamed a bloodcurdling scream and blood spurted from her eye to hit me in the face. I gagged and let go of the 6 inch paintbrush and it just stuck there. The woman dropped to her knees, grabbing at the brush. Not dead. Okay.

Joceline had somehow knocked the man on his back. I hadn't seen her do it. No time.

We had to get out of here and now.

I widened the circle of rope, then dropped it over Lady Grace's head, shoved her arms up and the rope down so it went round her stomacher. I tightened the lasso and then I pushed her back in the water then dove after her, still holding onto my end of the rope.

When she hit current, it yanked me forward. I was ready for it and grabbed the rope with my other hand as well, using my legs to kick and control my movement through the water, pulling her back.

Joceline splashed in after us. Lady Grace howled, but above that I could hear the angry shouts of the fallowstock man, the cursing and howling of the woman, and then the clanking sound of metal against metal as the truce the others held evaporated just as quickly as it has begun. I couldn't see it, but I knew. They must have got the damn door open.

Death had just begun.

Joce and I were strong swimmers. We had to be. The current of the Vole River was strong and treacherous and during the spring drive for the past six years, I'd helped out with moving the ewes and lambs down from the wintering grounds to the valley where it would be cooler for them. Joce taught me how to make the lasso. She also showed me how to handle straggler sheep who were swept downriver. I'd never actually had that happen, but I'd practiced. We used her little brothers as the sheep.

This underground river moved smoothly unlike the Vole, but it led down into darkness. I didn't know how wide it'd be so I called out to both of them.

"Help me! Rope!"

Joceline responded in some kind of affirmation and she was close enough that I could kick and move toward her. I reached out and grasped onto her, catching her pack. I held on. She, in turn, looped the rope around her arm. We both pulled on it.

At the other end, Lady Grace tumbled and tossed above and below the water. Her skirts looked heavy when dry, but now that they were getting soaked, I could feel the current pulling her down. Joceline bore some of the weight. It still felt like my arms were being pulled off. I couldn't do this and swim at the same time. At least my legs were free for kicking.

If the fallowstock swam after us, then we'd be easy to drown.

We had to get her out of that funneldamned dress. She was going to kill all three of us.

"It's her dress!" I yelled above the rush of the rapids and the screams of battle behind us. "Too heavy."

"On it!" Joceline clenched a small dagger in between her teeth. A she dove down under the water, she let go of the rope so I felt the full weight of Lady Grace and her dress on my arms. I held on for everything. Whatever energy I had initially was waning and I needed to summon more of it. We would not die on the first day, nor on the first hour of the funnel. Not if I could help it.

I yanked Lady Grace upward where she surface, sputtering and gasping for air. Jocelyn worked swift, cutting the skirts free amidst the flailing of the noblewoman. It was getting darker. I could not see what went on beneath the water, but suddenly Lady Grace was so much lighter that I shot back in the water.

The two of them disappeared into the darkness beyond the touch of the light.

I let the rope pull me with them, but gave one last look at the scene behind us.

The fallowstock were not there.