The steps of a single person could be heard outside after about half an hour. I tensed up. My arms and legs were good enough for now.

I would try to talk to him and offer him to give up, but letting him stall us made no sense for us with the approaching force. I extended my lesser claws.

The door opened and someone entered with heavy footsteps. Then the door closed again while steps closed in to the desk.

I got to my feet and looked at chubby man with white short hair. He was wearing a pompous white robe. He had stopped in his tracks and stared at me with wide eyes.

“Surrender!” I stared into his dark eyes.

“What? No! Never! The powers of Light will strike you down!” He put his hand inside his robe.

“Then get what you deserve.” I put my right hand on the desk and leaped in front of him.

Tilly came up from behind.

He pulled a thin white stick out of his robe.

“Beam of Light!” He pointed the stick at me.

I started to crouch and saw that the stick followed me down.

“Cobawanga!” I jumped up and forward with all I had.

Tilly jumped and crashed her elbow at the back of his neck.

Then a bright magical light hit the spot where I stood a moment before. A wave of heat washed over me, causing my clothes to go up in flame.

The stick was still in his hand, so I sunk my right claws into his forearm while crashing into him with my shoulder. I heard some ribs breaking.

He went down, dropping the stick next to him.

My shoulder was throbbing a bit, but I started to drag him away from the thing. With Tilly’s help it wasn’t much of a problem.

He was knocked out cold.

I dropped to the ground and started to roll to quench the flames. Tilly took one of the carpets and threw it over me. Soon the flames were smothered. The robe was covered in burn marks.

“This is quite a burn mark.” Tilly looked at the about forty centimeter black spot on the floor.

“It was definitely warm.” I checked my skin, but there were were no burns and it wasn’t hurting much.

At least nothing serious. I went to fetch another robe from the bedroom.

“Let’s search him, we need hints where our stuff is.” I started to tear his robe apart.

“Do you really want to see him, emm, naked?” Tilly looked at me shuddering.

“No, but he deserves it for putting us into theses cells. What were you wearing?” I frowned at the man in front of me.

“Well.” Tilly shook her head.

“Look! His belt is magical!” I unbuckled the belt.

“Show me!” Tilly grabbed the belt.

I took the shreds of this robe to tie the abbot up. There was still a heartbeat, so he could wake up eventually.

“Anything suspicious outside?” I sneaked a peek into the bedroom.

“No. The people approaching came a bit closer, but no one inside seemed to have noticed anything.

“I can’t figure out the belt.” Tilly threw it on the desk.

“He had no keys though, which is suspicious.” I looked down at the abbot.

“Should we hide him somewhere?” Tilly looked at me rubbing her chin.

“We could carry him down to the cells, but he’s too heavy. It’s not worth it.” I shook my head.

“What about that stick. Its magical as well, but the aura is strong and a bit strange.” She walked over to the stick.

“And it starts doing something.” Tilly went back a step.

The stick had started to glow in a white light.

“That’s not normal for a magical item.” I glowered at the stick.

The light faded after a few moments, leaving a burn mark in the carpet. Fortunately the carpet was not set on fire.

“Leave it alone for now and focus on the belt. I watch the door.” I went over to the entrance to this room.

“It’s a storage item, but it’s somehow still connected to the abbot. Has anybody ever mention his name?” Tilly looked at me with a frown.

She was sitting on the chair behind the desk.

“I don’t care for his name.” I shook my head.

It took some time for the others to return. They were packed to the brim.

“We’ve added supplies we found and stocked up our provisions.” Milly smiled at me.

“Then let’s gear up, it will be easier to carry everything.” I smiled back at her.

“We still have a problem with this belt.” Tilly pointed at the belt on the desk.

“What’s wrong?” Alenae looked at the item.

“It’s still connected to the abbot and I can’t use it.” Tilly frowned.

“Show me.” She went over to the desk.

We started to gear up. Loraline came as well. It wouldn’t hurt to leave the window alone for a few minutes.

“Did you wear it?” She looked at Tilly.

“ Ah. No. Now I can see the inside.” Tilly buckled up the belt.

“It’s a protection from thieves, it helps if he’s unconscious.” She pointed at the abbot.

“Let’s keep going. Hand out the things we need.” I looked at Tilly.

“There’s a key ring. And our other stuff is in there as well.” She handed Caroline her mace.

We sneaked a peek out of the window. We had needed more time than I had estimated. The knights were approaching the gate.

“We leave. Now!” I headed to the secret door.

Tilly locked the door to the office while Milly touched the wall with the mirror.

The backpacks were filled to the brim and they had found one for Alenae as well. Loraline hadn’t packed that much in hers, but it wouldn’t help anyone if the collapsed on our way.

My legs were still protesting, but it was bearable. We had closed the secret door behind us. There was no other way than trying the exit Alenae mentioned.

Finally we reached the bottom of the staircase. There was a small room and on the far wall was a heavy metal door.

“The door is magical.” Tilly rang with the keys.

“Do you have an idea which key is the right one?” I looked at Alenae.

“Not really. I never had keys in my hands.” She tried to shrug.

“We have the keys from the other man. It’s probably one he doesn’t have.” Caroline got the other key ring from her pockets.

“Let’s compare them.” Milly gathered the keyrings.

I used the gem to light up the room a bit more. We put down our backpacks. There were half a dozen keys which were not on the other’s key ring, but there were some which the abbot didn’t have.

“There’s only one of them which looks like it would fit into the keyhole of that door.” I took the key.

“Are you going to try it?” Alenae looked at me with wide eyes.

“Pamper me up if I get roasted.” I put down my halberd.

I put the key into the keyhole and turned it. Audibly some mechanism clacked. As the door didn’t open I pushed gently and the door opened into a long hallway.

“The floor is covered in magical patches!” Tilly looked over my shoulder.

“It looks like we can avoid stepping on them.” Milly looked at me.

“We should do that. It’s probably a trap.” I nodded at her.

“I can’t see anything!” Caroline looked down the hallway.

“I take point and we alternate between someone able to see where to step and one who don’t. Focus on following your lead!” I fetched my backpack and my halberd.

Milly fastened the magic mirror to her ear, using a scarf.

“We don’t want to miss interesting conversations.” She grinned.

“I’ll take the rear.” Caroline got ready as well.

Loraline filed in after me. Tilly and Alenae were next, followed by Milly and Caroline.

Caroline closed the door after us.

“It had locked itself again.” She grinned.

The path through the about two and a half meter wide hallway went from side to side and even back at some times. The hallway turned left after about thirty meters and right about an equal distance.

After that was a passageway into a cave going down with barely smoothed walls. There were stairs at the steeper parts, but it all looked like it was rarely used.

I noticed that Alenae was clearly struggling with the backpack.

“Let’s have a small break.” I put my backpack down.

“You’ve no idea where this ends?” Milly looked at Alenae, tilting her head.

“No. I’ve only a few words I gleaned from the abbot.” She groaned and sat down on her backpack.

“Well. The way out of the gates was blocked, that’s all we have.” I rubbed my lower legs.

“I don’t like caves. Most of the times they were nasty.” Milly frowned.

“Fighting those knights was no valid option.” I shook my head.

“I know.” She crossed her arms below her chest.

“As long as they’re not waiting at the other end.” Caroline drank a swig of water.

“It will hopefully take them long enough. We’re going down quickly and the mountains are not very hospitable to horses.” Alenae looked down the cave.

“Down in the valleys they’re faster, but they have to use the road to get down.” I got back on my feet.

“Break’s already done?” Tilly looked at me.

“We can rest later, but I guess we won’t be able to rest much until we finally got rid of these horsemen.” I grinned at Tilly.

“I don’t like that.” She frowned at me.

We followed the cave downwards, illuminated by my light gem. We had frequent short breaks, but I could see that the descend was taxing.

We reached a small cavern at some point.

Everyone was exhausted, and I was hungry as well.

“Let’s have some lunch, we have some space to sit down for a while.” I put the backpack on the ground.

“It’s been a whiles since I’ve had something decent to eat.” Loraline spread out a blanket.

“Don’t eat too much, you might get sick.” Milly got something to eat from her backpack.

“I’m going to check the belt.” Tilly sat down on the blanket.

“Did you hear anything interesting?” I looked at Milly.

“I did. For now the abbot is still unconscious and they didn’t find the secret door. The man we left in the prison is officially missing now.” She winked at me.

“Okay. Keep an ear on it.” I smiled at Milly.

“The abbot is in his bed, and there are guards in front of the door. They’re not really talkative.” She shrugged.

“We’ve some wine now, plenty of coins, jewelry, food and a strange looking stick.” Tilly looked at me.

“Fine. Let’s leave that stick alone as long as we’re in a cave. The rest won’t help much at the moment.” I looked at Milly.

“I agree.” She nodded at me.

Tilly pouted a bit.

We ate sparingly. After about an hour we got back on our feet again. The next hours we spent climbing down the cave.

“No wonder no one went down here for a while.” Alenae groaned.

“Let’s hope we make it today.” I chuckled.

“There were fewer stairs than in the last hour.” Tilly looked at me with a wry smile.

“We’re going to rest soon?” Milly looked a me.

“We should. The next days will probably be tough.” I nodded at Milly.

We found a stretch of cave which was level enough for a camp.

“Anything new from above?” I looked at Milly.

She shook her head.

“We should set up sentries.” Till looked at me.

“I take the first one with Alenae.” I nooded.

After dinner the others went sleeping. Milly gave me the mirror.

“Still happy going with us?” I looked at her.

“Well. It was a taxing day, but I still think it’s the best I can do.” She tried a small smile.

“It will get worse for the next days I think, but it will get better if we make it.” I watched her closely.

“I give all I have. I don’t want be a prisoner for the rest of my life.” She furrowed her brows.

“You always have to fight for freedom.” I looked her in the eyes.

“I not going to vanish like all the others!” She frowned.

“I’d like to known a bit more about you.” I tilted my head.

She looked down at her feet.

“And all you know about this Dragon Order as well. I’ve got the feeling we are going to meet them again sooner or later.” I pulled my knees to my chin and wrapped my arms around them.