Chapter 3: Window Escape

“Check the doors. How many guards are there?”

Sharon called out, sitting down on the throne as she pondered what was happening. 3 skeletons went to one door each and observed. What wasn’t known to the general public was that these skeletons had a ‘field’ surrounding them making them aware of anything, since they had no natural human senses in the conventional way, with missing the necessary organs etc. Thus they could sense the presence of how many guards were behind the doors.

“Hmmph, so about a dozen or so on each one?” Sharon pondered once they returned and signaled the amount.

“I don’t think even you guys can manage that. We’d easily be surrounded if they realize we try to break through one door.”

The room was rather barren, with a fancy carpet leading from where they had entered up to the throne she was seated on, but no other furniture.

“Now why would that fiend wish to drug me? Surely he must know my father and the king would be furious about this. How would he think he would get away with this? Surely a mere ransom couldn’t be it, he’s the richest man in the kingdom besides king Minos.”

The skeletons were wandering about, doing what they could to inspect the walls and floors, but they didn’t have anything to report on. They were truly imprisoned.

That was until a colored sunbeam lit up the room.

Sharon looked behind her and noticed the stained glass windows again.

“Orpheus, please open a window.”

The wooden throne crashed through the middle window and Sharon heard a splash. She got the skeletons to lift her up so she could see outside and she realized they were facing the river. The castle wall went down to the side with no real ledge or anywhere to land on. The height was too much to survive a fall and the river too fierce at this point to land in safely.

“WHAT’S THAT NOISE!?”

Sharon looked over to the door Malvein had escaped to.

“NOTHING! JUST BEING A WELL BEHAVED PRISONER!”

She could hear murmurs as the guards deliberated over what was said.

“Alright, well, we can’t just jump out. But what’s this?”

She urged her skeleton to lean her out some more and she then realized that below the window was another one to a lower floor.

“Tie those tapestries together, then have half of you hold on to it as you carry me down through that window!”

Sharon observed as her skeletons did just that, tying the the three banners securely. Sebastien picked her up carefully and she held on tightly as he grabbed the makeshift rope and began descending down the stone wall on the outside.

The breeze was brisk but not causing any danger to the pair, with the 6 skeletons holding onto the rope tightly. Sharon got a chill from seeing the river flow fiercely beneath them and hugged Sebastien tighter as each descent made them both bounce from the impact. Eventually they reached the window and a second Skeleton, Leonard, climbed down with them, grabbing hold of Sharon before Sebastien jumped through the open window. Once inside Sebastien reached out and Leonard handed Sharon over.

“Thank you. Now where are we?”

That was obvious at a glance. It was the kitchen. It was rather messy but seemingly from having been too busy to clean a recent mess rather than long time neglect. The oven had a fire going strong and ingredients were out.

“Grab what you can of our supplies and come down here! We’ll anchor the tapestry down here!” Sharon ordered through the window.

With Leonard joining them in the kitchen the two skeletons tied the tapestry to a supporting beam, and one after another they were joined by another skeleton, each carrying with it something, be it its own weapons or carrying with it a chest of sorts with Sharon’s luggage.

“SIR! THEY’RE ESCAPING THROUGH THE WINDOW!”

The guards upstairs had dared to open the door and peeked inside, spotting the escape attempt. 3 skeletons remain as they try to hurry down. However, with nothing to attach the tapestry to in the throne room, each remaining skeleton had a harder time to carry the weight. With two of them managing to climb down to the kitchen, only one remained, but the guards were on it.

Being unarmed it did its best, helped somewhat by the guards inherent fear of the skeleton, but they were soon pushing it towards the window. Looking down it and then at the guards, halberds surrounding the poor skeleton, it grabbed onto the tapestry and leaped out the window.

Sharon saw her dear servant fall past the kitchen window and then come to a sudden stop once the tapestry length ran out and tightened against the window sill. Sharon gasped at the sight of her poor skeleton smacking into the hard stone floor with such intensity that it lost its grip and fell into the river below.

“Orpheus!”

Her calls went unheard and she looked up from the window and made eye contact with a guard looking out. Both stared for a second before Sharon stuck her tongue out and darted back inside.

She took a deep breath, realizing that there was no time to worry about Orpheus as he fell into the river.

“Alright, they know we’re down here. The doors aren’t locked so we can leave but they’ll be on high alert. We need to be able to leave here without being paid attention to…”

Sharon hoped that speaking it out would somehow point her to the solution but at the moment it seems she simply switched one prison cell for another, at the cost of one of her servants.

Then she heard footsteps.

“Come on now, hurry up! With the castle in high alert we’ll need to be in here for the time being!”

Through the door entered a dozen cooks, all dressed in large aprons and wearing large impressive cook’s hats. They went to their stations in a tunnel vision before they stopped, realizing that their place of work was currently occupied.

“L-lady Sharon! So-so nice to see you…” the head cook quivered.

Sharon counted the cooks, then her skeletons. She grinned as she stared at the workers who shook in fear.

Moments later there were 12 workers disrobed, bound and gagged in the larder, with their work uniforms now being adorned by 11 skeletons in a goofy but serviceable disguise. They had made an effort to tie some rags around their necks and faces in a somewhat passable way of looking inconspicuous. Some hasty mops and hay on some of their heads gave a facsimile of hair.

“This should be enough… we just need to get out of the castle and then on our way home post haste!”

There was no outfit for Sharon though. After asking her servants for suggestions one of them picked up a bag of potatoes and emptied it.

Sharon shuddered but relented, stepping into the dirty burlap sack and had Bjorn pick her up, hanging her over his shoulder, resting on his back.

“Alright, now make your way out the door, towards the exit. Remember to carry our supplies so it looks like we’re making a delivery. Uniform march, don’t bring attention to yourselves, heads down so they don’t notice your skulls as easily. If someone wants your attention just keep walking same speed, pretend you didn’t hear them.”

The skeletons nodded and opened the door of the kitchen confidently and marched out.

Turns out the kitchen was to the corner of the grand hall they they had walked through just moments ago, not that Sharon was aware of it. Guards and servants were running amok on the stone floor looking desperately for the escapees. The skeletons followed their orders to the letter though and marched over towards the main entrance.

People ran past them, shouting orders to one another, running into each other but thanks to their confident strut no one paid attention to these cooks walking with all these cooking supplies.

They reached the large front doors and managed to open it. Guards were stationed outside who looked but the first Skeleton was carrying large crates in front of him, obscuring his face, so the guard relaxed at seeing it was only cooking staff.

“Be on the lookout for the Acheron brat! She’s somewhere in the castle!”

The front Skeleton Sebastian gestured a nod from behind his crates before moving forward.

Sharon could hear the change in acoustics and ambient noise as they exited, filling her in that they were outside now. She let out a breath she had been holding since leaving the kitchen but then took another deep one.

They were still far from free.

The skeletons marched down the few steps and towards the town, retracing their steps from their arrival in the treacherous environment.

‘Thank goodness for their focus,’ thought Sharon. ‘I’m not sure any human could keep up the facade this long without breaking character or making a mistake.’

Towns folk were looking towards the castle with curiosity. An internal alarm has been raised but the townsfolk weren’t privy to it. All they’re seeing is guards running about outside and several sticking their heads out of windows to look about.

Thus little attention to their little traveling line up as Sharon and company made their way through. They’re almost at the outskirts!

“Hey, you!”