It wasn't until mid-morning when Lloyd and Boyce finally awoke.
Boyce stretched and went to the window, catching sight of several
guards marching back and forth, occasionally looking up at their window.
Boyce smiled at Lloyd and pointed down to the ground.
He went back to the table and sat down.
"Well, Lloyd! What should we eat?"
Lloyd smiled at the ease by which Boyce took the situation and he
leaned over the table to him.
"You're calm enough to eat?" he asked.
"We need strength for later. So, while we still have this mock service
from these people, we should accept it in our own mock way.
Lloyd grinned from ear to tear then went to the door and opened it. He
thrust his head into the hallway and told the astonished guards to
bring some food and drink to the room.
It would be very difficult to leave the room this day. They had to
wait until dark before they could try anything but dark was many hours
away.
Dam Lehnar came around in the afternoon dressed in a snug, short white
dress with open shoulders, and she sat about with the two men for
several hours listening to Lloyd making up more details about who they
were and where they were going.
Finally, Lloyd took her hand and told her that all that they had told
her was nothing but lies. He told her that they were sorry for lying
to her but it was a matter of their safety and need to stay alive.
Then came a want for a favour.
"You told me the other night that you loved me? If you do, let us go.
Help my friend and me to escape the festival opening tonight." he
asked her.
"How do I help? My father has me watched, too!"
"Try to get our supplies to us and before the guards come, to take us
to the stages, divert their attention and we will try to make out way
out of the city."
"I may be able to get most of your things." she promised them. "I can't
recover your weapon, however. My father carries it with him."
"We don't care for the weapon as much as we care to take our leave from
the city." said Boyce.
There was silence in the room for a moment and Lehnar soon stood up.
"I promise you both that I'll see what I can do!"
With this Lehnar left the state-room and the two men sat back and
waited.
Sunset was just a couple of hours away and Lehnar had been gone since
the thick of the afternoon.
They were worried that she either couldn't get their supply packs or
she went against them by telling her father about their plans.
Regardless of their anxieties, however, they waited for her to come
back to them.
As the sky began to darken and the hours quickly gained speed, and
Boyce and Lloyd became more restless and nervous. However, their long
agitated wait was rewarded, for Lehnar had finally come back to their
room with just one of their packs. The pack was Lloyd's and much of
what was inside was still there. Only the telescope and its case was
gone but the change of clothing and the maps were still inside.
Lloyd kissed Lehnar and thanked her.
Boyce had also kissed her hand.
"Thank you so very much, Dam Lehnar!" gleamed Lloyd.
"There are no guards at your door. I told them that I will watch you
both and that you would still think that they were outside the door."
she said to them. "Leave the palace through the garbage chutes and
make your way in the shadows of the fire alley."
"Thank-you for your help, Lehnar." Boyce said graciously and she
smiled.
"That alley will take you to the southern plateau and don't stop until
you have reached the Divider's Ridge. My people still stop their
pursuit there, if they will follow you at all."
"You are as helpful as you are beautiful, Dam Lehnar!" Lloyd
complimented her.
"Take care, my friends!" she said, and the men made their way out of
the room and down the
hallway to a closet door, and they found that they inside of the closet
had no floor.
Lehnar came out of the room and after Boyce, and Lloyd, jumped into the
hole, she closed the door behind them then went to her own room.
They hit bottom in a pile of rotting fish.
"This stinks!" Boyce acknowledged.
They looked around themselves trying no to breathe as they saw the
mouldy pieces of bread and meat and other food-stuffs that have been
down there for a good lengthy time, which only God could know for
certain.
They exited the garbage stores and found themselves in a narrow passage
with an open ceiling.
This must be the fire alley that Lehnar spoke of, they thought, and
bent down low, they slowly but steadily made their way down.
A quarter-hour later they were at the end of the alley, and to each
side of them they saw the walls of the city extending in a forbidding
manner.
It was very dark now and only the stars were giving the men enough
light to run by.
The plateau spanned kilometres before them, and in the distance they
saw the small rise that Lehnar called the Diviner's Ridge.
They ran and kept running. Silently they covered countless meters of
ground with each breath that they took.
They had to make it quickly to the ridge but they also had to watch the
ground for holes and crevices. If one, or both, were to fall into one
of them, they would surely be caught and returned to Sedara.
Behind them they now heard a great commotion and the city of Sedara
became lit up like a sun.
Trephor was looking for them and they knew it. They were both tired,
almost to the point of expiration but they wouldn't stop, lest they be
caught.
It was very dark, and although the stars shone enough light to guide
them to their destination, they couldn't tell very well if they were
being chased by Trephor's army.
Sedara, behind them, emitted substantial light to produce silhouettes
of anyone following them, but because of the size of the outer walls of
the city, the two men couldn't see their pursuers until they were
almost upon them.
Their hearts beat heavily within their bodies.
The pounding was hard and they soon wondered if their hearts were
moving around in their bodies. First their chests throbbed, then the
sensations moved to their stomachs and legs, then into their necks and
head.
Over and over they were becoming weary and they felt like only the
beating of their hearts had been pumping their legs the few extra
kilometres to the rise.
Boyce looked back and then saw that they truly were being pursued.
With heavy breaths that wheezed and gagged he told Lloyd that they were
being chased, but Lloyd kept his head about his and was steadfast.
"Just a little further, my friend!" he urged.
"I'm with you!" Boyce assured him, in three short gasps.
With strength summoned from the deepest recesses of their souls, they
began to run faster and steadier, and the ridge that was once distant
began to move closer and closer with each
successive stride that they took.
Behind them, the light of Sedara shrank and the stars revealed a small
cloud moving in the same direction as the men.
The cloud was Trephor's army. Some were on horse-back but the major
part of it was made up of infantry, running as the men ran.
The faster that Boyce and Lloyd had run, the lesser ahead they thought
that they were going.
Lloyd turned his head for an instant and saw the small hermaphrodite
army, in hot pursuit, gaining ground with every second that expired.
In his heart Boyce prayed that they could make the crest of the ridge
before they passed-out, and there it was. The ridge.
"Oh God, lend us strength!" he gulped to himself.
The sounds of horses and feet grew louder and louder. The
hermaphrodites were nearly upon them. Abruptly the men lost the sounds
of the army as they lost their footing and they plunged into a drop in
the ground, then lost consciousness.