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could easily support their weight. Better, it had thick, open legs that he could tie a knot around without anything hampering the line.
    Sarvell unslung the line of rope from around his shoulder and quickly set to work. He knelt in front of the desk and wound the rope around it in a sturdy, retrievable knot. It was a bit risky using a retrievable knot in any circumstance while climbing (after all, if only a few shakes would free it, what happened if he jerked it too much while rappelling down?) but in this circumstance, he had no choice. They couldn’t leave clear evidence of how they escaped and he might need the rope later while navigating that rock face below. Sarvell cast a quick prayer that the knot would not come loose until he needed it to.
    Standing, he reached for the priestess and guided her to his back. “Climb onto my back and hold as tightly as you can. We’re climbing down.”
    She put both arms tight around his shoulders, gripping so that she wouldn’t choke him, and then wrapped both legs around his waist. “Like this?”
    With her in this position, she wouldn’t hamper any of his leg or arm movements. “Perfect. Can you hold on?”
    “Of course.”
    She’d have to, as he wouldn’t have the spare strength to hold her and climb. Taking the next section of rope, he wrapped it quickly around their waists, between the legs, and around again, forming a moving harness. With a deep breath, for courage or in preparation, he wasn’t sure which, he climbed onto the windowsill.
     

Chapter Three
    Rialt was having an absolutely fabulous time.
    Granted, it was no as much fun as dodging Daath patrols, seeing as how you were killed if caught, and this did no have the same hard edge of excitement. Still, he would take this as a good substitute. He had been rather crabbity when Elahandra had come and shaken him awake to harry off to the rescue. The Ramath had a long and unhappy history with the capitol and their policies, which made Rialt very reluctant to offer a hand to anyone here. Seeing as how Elahandra had given him a beautiful opportunity to tweak their noses like this, however, he felt his irritation with herself ease. A night giving these people the runaround was enough compensation for him to rescue a pathetic girl.
    The entire castle guard screamed for his blood, working in groups to try to block or cage him. He could see them becoming more desperate with each failed attempt, their ideas becoming wilder and less workable.
    His body felt good and warm after all of this exercise. The guards following after him were wheezing for breath, soaked in sweat, and worn down to a desperate scrabbling pace. They had only followed him from the ground, up one set of stairs to the battlement, all around the perimeter edge, down to the secondary level’s battlements, around again, and to the main courtyard. That amount was barely good for a warm-up, by Ramathan standards. What were their pathetic officers doing, to let their men get this out of shape?
    Rialt was far enough ahead of the crowd that he took a moment to open all of the cell doors, just for the sheer evil pleasure of it. The men imprisoned there were no his allies, but they were certainly no friends of the guards, and they cheered him on as he broke open the locks. Just to add more mayhem to the madness, they tumbled out of the cells and started running around.
    The already panicked guards were nearly beside themselves as they were forced to divert a good portion of their men to dealing with the escaped prisoners.
    Rialt laughed boisterously as he went up the stairs again. He would take another lap around, just to keep them busy, maybe throw in an obvious attempt to get out of the castle in a few minutes just to keep them on their toes.
    What a fine night this was turning out to be!
    ~*~*~*~
    They weren’t very far down the rock face at the back of the castle when Jewel realized that leading a castle full of guards on a merry chase might very well be the