Jailbreak

The jail was an annular room with various cages stacked indiscriminately—a few even hung from the ceiling. The jail room was cold and smelled of dried blood. I didn’t want to think of how many spirits had found themselves tortured here. I heard laughter from a side passageway on my right. That must be the jailer's quarters. I slinked through the room counterclockwise as I scanned for Luna and Marisa. They were stuffed in a jail at the opposite end of the entrance, sleeping.

“Psst. Luna, Marisa, wake up.”

I set down my backpack and nabbed a few pebbles that were next to my foot, tossing them at Luna and Marisa. My pebble assault managed to rouse the two of them from their sleep. They rubbed the sleep from their eyes and sat up.

“Ferdinand, is that you?” said a sleepy Marisa.

“Who else would it be?”

“Now is not the time for jokes. Pray tell, what manner of trickery did you use to get in here?”

“I’ll tell you later, but at least I know you’re all right. Here, let me open the cell.”

With the two of them now free, we could start planning our escape. It would be too risky to leave the way I came in with the guard on the other side of the door. But if there were no other exits then we might have to fight our way out.

“Have either of you two seen an exit besides the main door behind me?”

“We’ve only see the jailer enter from that passageway over there. There might be a way further into the mountain through it,” Luna said.

“Luna, do you still have your invisibility cloak?”

“Alas, it was confiscated when we were apprehended.”

“You two wait here, I’m going to do some reconnaissance on the jailer’s room.”

I crept over to the passageway and peered around the corner. It was a long hallway with two paths that turned off at the right. The first had a strong light source emanating from the room, the other was lit with the light from a distant wall torch. Carefully, I poked my head out and examined the room. There were two frost giants sitting over a table playing a game of cards. It would be risky if we tried to sneak past them, but there was still the issue of their missing equipment. I rushed back to Luna and Marisa to discuss what to do.

“There are two jailers inside a room in there. How I got in here was that I tricked the guard out front by telling him I work for Boreas—”

“You played a fool of the guard? I know not how such things betide, but... Really?” asked Marisa.

I couldn’t tell if this was her attempt at humour or she genuinely doubted me.

“Yes? You think I didn’t get in here on my own?”

“I do not know what it is you imply, but see here, we have no time for foolishness! Make haste with your plan of how we shall flee this den.”

“My plan...” I snapped my fingers as inspiration struck. “Wait here in the cell, I’m going to get some torture equipment. Trust me, it’ll make sense soon enough.”

I closed the cell and strode over to the jailer’s quarters.

Announcing myself, I said, “I understand one of you is Juerg. Your compatriot at the door let me in.”

The two frost giants put their playing cards down as they shifted their gaze to me.

“He did what?” said one of the jailers.

“Juerg, I don’t like the look of this fella. Let’s squish him.” said the other.

“I wouldn’t do that unless you want to be in trouble with King Boreas. I’m here on official business to interrogate the two prisoners.”

“Official business from King Boreas? Dats the first I’ve heard of such things—ain’t it, Reiner?”

“Yeah, I ain’t never heard of small-one being sent to interrogate the prisoners.”

“Your friend at the door also didn’t believe me, but I have an official medallion from King Boreas himself. See here,” I showed the medallion once again. “You can check with the guard out front if you don’t believe me.”

“I could just crush you here first and check later,” said the one called Reiner.

Their intelligence was working against them here, and making this task more difficult than it should be. I put the medallion away before they could examine it too closely.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. King Boreas would be mighty displeased to find that one of his servants and medallion were crushed. Look, how do you think I knew you were called Juerg?”

“Hmm, I dunno know.”

“Well, only a spirit on official business would know that, right?”

“I suppose so,” Juerg said as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

“Now, I’ve been delayed long enough and I must get to interrogating the prisoners. Show me where your torture devices are.”

“You can find them in that chest over there,” Reiner said, pointing to a chest in the far corner.

I retrieved from the chest a few pliers and nasty looking devices that were appropriate for someone my size.

“Have either of seen a torture before?”

“We capture lots of sylphs after battles and I get to work plucking out their wings—right bit of fun it is.”

“This isn’t going to be simple wing plucking. It's far more gruesome. However, I can’t reveal my secret torture techniques, so I’ll need you both to leave and wait outside.”

“Aww, but we enjoy a good show.”

“You’ve never seen a torture like what I’m about to do, and frankly, if you did see it, you’d have nightmares for the rest of your lives.”

They both looked at each other, unsure of what to do. I only needed a demonstration of my prowess to push them over the edge and get them to leave.

I shrugged and said, “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Have fun sleeping tonight.”

I walked back to Luna and Marisa, tools in hand and opened the cell.

“Quick, I need both of you to sit down in those chairs so I can pretend I’m torturing you.”

“Ferdinand, what is this about? What is your plan?” Marisa inquired.

“No time, do it.”

They hurried into the chairs and loosely fitted the restraining straps to their limbs.

“Can either of you use your magic to amplify your scream so it sounds unimaginably horrible?”

“I would be able were I not parched for water. But, Ferdinand, what is it you wish to do?”

“I need to make those two frost giants think I’m conducting the most heinous torture they’ve ever heard so they’ll leave the jail. Luna, start screaming in pain while I get some water for Marisa.”

Luna started shrieking in pain as commanded. I sprinted over to my backpack, got my water flask from it, returned, and gave it to Marisa. She cleared her throat and told both of us to cover our ears. She then let out a bloodcurdling scream more frightening than I had anticipated. I signalled for her to make an abrupt stop to the screaming.

“Oi, little-one, just what do you think you’re doing?” asked Juerg.

I turned around to see the two frost giants sticking their heads out from the passageway.

“Unless you want to be my next victim, I suggest you both leave and don’t interrupt me!”

“Aye, aye. Come, Reiner, let’s go.”

The two of them scurried out of the jail. I could hear the front guard begin to ask them what was going on before the door closed.

“Marisa, I need you to scream like that again a few more times. Luna, follow me, we’re going to get our stuff.”

We ran to the jailer’s room while Marisa continued to scream. We promptly found the travelling gear stashed away in a nearby chest. I told Luna to wait there while I went to check the pathway at the end of the hallway. As I suspected, it wasn’t a dead-end and the route went deeper into the mountain. I rushed back to Luna and told her to start making her way down the hallway. I returned to the jail room and signalled for Marisa to join us. Together, we made our escape.