Escape

“The staff is in the kitchen,” Saul had apparently checked before arriving at Islana’s room.

That didn’t surprise her, the house slaves would be working on the tasks that were better to do with the Lord out of the house, like polishing the silver or cleaning the cupboards, possibly doing a thorough cleaning of the floors. The few servants that didn’t go to the festival would be supervising.

The hierarchy of the household dictated that the slaves weren’t allowed to attend the festivals unless they were working for Vasant during that time. Mostly he just took servants to it, the other servants (being the paid people hired to work in the house or on the property) either had the day off or were part of the very few who decided to stay behind. It left very little in the way of people to have to avoid, and much easier to get out.

The two discussed the escape for only a moment, apparently, the other guard working with Saul had already agreed to help to get Islana out of there. This was surprising to Islana as she had barely met the man but there wasn’t time to question it.

Saul left Islana to get what she needed, while he did what he had to as well. The redhead first snuck into the room of the now deceased Lady of the manor. On top of the shelve, in her wardrobe, was the wooden box. It was plain, small and not much to look at but as promised when opened the money was there. It wasn’t much but enough for the one thing she needed for survival that wasn’t accessible here.

Quickly, the money went into a little pouch that all the slaves got for carrying food and such things if they had to work during meals. On the young slave's way down the hall, the pull to stop at the Lady’s portrait was too much to ignore. Green eyes stared into the deep blue ones, even in her portrait Elydis looked kind.

“Sorry, I failed you.” Islana’s feelings of always being to blame, even for things that weren’t her fault were deeply rooted by now. While she felt that not being able to find any evidence had failed Lady Vasant, it wasn’t really what been promised The real promise had been to escape. Those pervasive thoughts of not being good enough, however, would stick with the girl for a long time

The office where so much time had been spent, there was a feeling to stay longer, to try to find something, anything to prove what was being planned but there just wasn’t time. The bow, quiver and arrows were right where they always stood, in the corner, seemingly forgotten. Then it was out the backway to the back gate. Saul was waiting and explained the other guard was keeping the dogs busy.

He handed her his cloak and a small basket of food, similar to the one that he had the first day they had met. When she said she couldn’t take the cloak, he refused to accept that. Shoving it into the girl’s petite arms, telling her she had no choice.

“Thank you, for everything.” Islana quietly spoke from her heart.

“You’re more than welcome,” Saul responded. “I’ll miss you but I don’t ever want to see you again.”

That got a small smile from the girl before her face turned serious. “You won’t.” For she would rather die than ever have to return to that Lord.

With dark clouds hanging in the sky and the day getting close to sunset, the not-quite sixteen-year-old slave Islana Annora went through the gates, into the woods and became a fugitive. Freedom would become a wonderful and terrifying place to be.