Dragon's Fire

Talon grew silent, remembering that time. It wasn't fun, being in a dungeon, and that one was worse than most. Which kingdom had it been? One of the far western ones, but she wasn't sure which. Manacled to the wall, she was barely fed, and when she was, it was stale bread and extremely small amounts of water. Her mind shied away from memories of the torture sessions she went through as the King attempted to find out every single crime she had ever committed, and of course, her own Lord King refused to acknowledge that she had ever been an employee of his, and wouldn't even consider admitting that she had been a trusted advisor. The months had stretched on endlessly, and she heard stories from the questioners about the means of death the King was creating for her. As she heard it, he had been announcing her execution for several weeks, throughout several kingdoms, so that there would be an extremely large audience to watch her die painfully. Stripped of everything but the most basic of clothing, left without anything usable as a lock pick, she despaired at ever getting free, and began to accept her death. Miraculously, however, just days before her execution was scheduled, another thief was caught and imprisoned in the cell next to her. The guards had been lax in their search, and the thief quickly surrendered his smuggled lock pick to the more skilled thief, with the agreement that she would free him as well. She could remember telling him that she had "damn well better free you as well, because there's no way I'm gonna walk out of here on my own." The agreement was made, the young thief passed Talon the lock pick, and she quickly freed herself and the young man. As soon as he was free, Talon's knees gave out, and he was forced to catch her. He lifted her arm over his shoulder, supported her weight, and began helping her to walk out of the dungeon. On the way out, they had several near encounters with the King's employees, and if it hadn't been for quick thinking on the part of the young rogue, they would have been caught. When they finally made it out of the dungeon and the castle, the young rogue lowered Talon to the ground a safe distance from the castle to rest.