Chapter 9: The Escape

A Proper Young Thief

M.K.Barry

Chapter 9: The Escape

Ella quickly untied Lissa. She brought her a blanket and some of the soup that had been cooking.

“So, you do remember me, don't you?” Ella asked.

“I...I Think so.” Lissa said softly. “You're not really my aunt though... are you?”

Ella laughed. “No no, I'm not. Just a close friend of your father's.” She sat back, and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Why are you here? Once things settled down a little, I went back to the house, but no one was there, so-”

“You were caught though.” Lissa said, “They took you away! You escaped!? Where's dad?”

“Your father's not here.” Ella said, “I don't know where he is. I haven't seen him since that day.”

“Why not? What happened?”

***

After you and your mother were taken from the rooms, we were quickly surrounded. You probably don't remember much about that night. Let's see... There was general Adams, that much I'll never forget. He had no less than a doze armed men with him. He told us that if we tried anything, you and your mother would be killed. None of us wanted that. We're not really family, but you and your mother... You were really the closest thing we had to a family. Your mother knew we were all thieves, but she never said anything.

Anyway... I'm getting off track. Adams told us that if we struggled, you and your mother would be killed. So we let him have his men tie us up. General Adams commandeered a wagon from the village, threw us in , and started bringing us to the capital, to Rawlins. We were... fairly screwed. We had just managed to piss off the royals, which is why we were caught with a little more speed than we would otherwise have been. We were told that we were going to be brought back to the castle, questioned, and then killed. I can still see Adams, pacing in front of us, smirking... What an ass.

They started moving. To keep us down, to keep us from getting up and, I don't know, hopping out of the wagon, Adams had gotten a... I honestly don't recall, some kind of metal bar. I didn't know what it was then, and I never bothered to ask anyone. Anyway, Adex was with us... Do you remember him? He had an ivory hand back then. His old hand was crushed under the wheel of a wagon back when he was a real drunkard. He smashed his ivory hand against the meta a god few times, and eventually it broke apart. I guess it was old. He was able to slide his hands out easily then, the rope just slid over the stub he had at his wrist, and then he untied the rest of us very quietly so that the guards outside wouldn't hear us.

There were too many guards to allow us to just jump out, and there was no way of just sneaking out of a moving wagon, unseen by the guards surrounding us. We figured the only thing we might be able to do would be to wait until we got to Rawlins, and then try to escape. But to be honest... A lot of us thought we were done. What we had done was kind of a big haul so to speak. A grande Finale in all our eyes. We figured that your father believed so as well when he said that we should visit you and your mother. I think most of us were planning our final words. Heh. I remember planning to shout, “Eat it, cocksuckers!” from the gallows.

Our plans were half-assed and poorly thought out., more concerned with figuring out how we can cause more trouble for our captors than actually escaping. Your father was quiet though. We figured he had given up altogether. We tried to make our plans even more outrageous... Jesting a little, trying to cheer him up. We weren't really used him to being so down, so quiet.

We got tired though. You can only talk so much about a crazy escape when there's nothing you can do. Twilight came, the guards lit torches, and in the distance, we could see the outline of the city against the pale sky. Normally, it was a view I liked.

They stopped to eat, guarding us carefully, in shifts. Then, one of the younger guards came up, to talk to the other guards, I think. I'm not sure.

We didn't even notice that your father had done anything. We were concerned with other things. We were hungry by that point, and very thirsty. He moved quickly. Grabbed the guard, took his torch, and set the wagon alight.

Well, that got us moving! The roof caught fire surprisingly quickly, and we jumped out. The guards ran to put out the fire, and in the confusion, it took them a second to realize that we were out and untied. We had no weapons, no advantage. Your father, however, was armed with a flaming torch. He was swinging that thing around setting everything on fire, scaring all the horses. He didn't say anything to us, but we knew the situation for what it was. All the guards were focused on the one, half-crazed man running wild with a torch and trying to set everything on fire. It was very easy for us to slip into the woods and escape.

And... I guess that was that. We felt a bad, of course, for leaving him, but there wasn't anything we could have done. Unarmed and outnumbered as we were? We were lucky just to get away. We hid away in the woods until everything cleared up. We went back, and there were only the charred remains of the wagon we had been confined to. We made our way back to Rawlin- well no. I made my way back to Rawlins. Adex came with me, but the others didn't. A couple decided to go home, to their own “families” to see what was left of them. To their homes, a couple went to the islands. I think a couple even tried to go legit. I think one of the guys opened a shop or something in Rawlins. I've seen him a couple times in Rawlins, chatting to merchants, but I've never seen his shop.

And this is what I've done. I've built up a new gang of thieves.

***

“And you're not heard... from my father?”

Ella shook her head, “No... We looked though. Went to Rawlins, and went to every source I have. Nothing. I had assumed they'd have made a big fuss about his execution, but after a year, I stopped looking. I figured if he was still alive, he would have come looking for us.” She sighed, resting her gaze on Lissa, “I had one hope. You and your mother were gone. I thought maybe we went back and got you guys out of there. But I suppose that's not the case.”