The Iron Butterfly Read Free Page A

wooden door and along the support beams in the wall. I hoped he would bring the whole thing down.
    I stood watching him work until I had a prickling sensation on the back of my neck and I moved as fast as my feet would take me up the stairs and out the first door. Not bothering to notice that the stairs were empty of a body that was previously there, I hurried down the corridor to where the passageway split. To my left I could smell the air of freedom, but to my right down the other dark corridor, stood the huge metal door of the laboratory and possibly Cammie. I started to take steps away from potential freedom when Kael loomed up behind me.
    “No, leave it well alone. GET OUT of here!” he yelled, as he dragged the still form of an unconscious guard after him. The other guard must not have survived.
    “But Cammie could be down there!”
    “You get outside. I’ll go look for her.” He propped the guard against the wall and ran toward the laboratory room.
    Nodding my head in assent, I silently made my way down the opposite passageway, realizing that I wasn't eager in the least to travel the other one.
    I followed the dark passageway by feeling the wall with my hand, wishing that I had thought to grab a torch. The wood beams became sparse and the ceiling started to slant lower and lower, until I was feeling the cross beams skim the top of my head. Anyone taller would have to duck to traverse the same path. My hands started to get entangled in roots that protruded from the wall. The gloomy darkness of the passageway seemed to go on forever until it came to an abrupt end, and I encountered a wall of dirt.
    Feeling a moment of panic, I felt around in the darkness, for a door or handle, anything to help me escape. Something rough brushed against my face and I squeaked in surprise. Touching the object I found it to be a rope that dangled from the ceiling. Following the rope up with my hands I found that it was attached to a trapdoor in the ceiling.
    By now the darkness was slowly being lightened by the glow of red flames behind me. I pushed the wooden door and it barely moved an inch. I was so weak it took me three tries to push it open. But I still had to pull myself out of the tunnel. I could smell the smoke and it stung my eyes making them water as I desperately tried to lift my own bodyweight out of the trapdoor.
    “Come on!” I cried aloud. I scratched the ground for purchase trying to find any handhold to assist me. I finally dragged my chest across the dirt floor bruising my ribs in the process.
    I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I emerged, but I wasn’t expecting a stable. The trapdoor was carefully hidden in the back stall under straw. The whole prison and experimental lab was housed and camouflaged by a stable. The smell of the horses would definitely cover the smell of the prison, experiments and death.
    Standing to my feet I brushed my dirt caked hands on my shirt and looked around for a means of faster escape. I glanced back down into the trapdoor, looking for signs of Kael or Cammie. But the passageway was empty except for the faint glow of fire and a trail of smoke that was pouring out of it.
    There were eight wooden stalls in the stable, six were empty. I knew the Raven wasn’t here because Scar Lip had said so and I hadn’t seen any of the cursed Septori. Where were they? Somewhere close? Or did they build a stable out in the middle of nowhere for this purpose. No, I thought to myself, there had to be another building close by. I wasn’t sure but I didn’t think the prison seemed big enough to house all of the Septori and guards. If that was the case that meant they would see the smoke and soon they would be upon us.
    Two horses were still stabled and the signs that a third was here not too long ago. Tym was smart enough to grab a mount. The two horses were starting to panic as more smoke poured in through the trapdoor.
    Running to the wall, I grabbed the bridle from a hook and tried to put the