I awoke to the sound of Sarah’s voice, she was talking with someone whose voice I did not recognise.
“…but what could King Galam want with Ground Seal?”, the stranger’s voice replied to Sarah.
King Galam… hmm, could we be in Galam?
“This prison is a dump!”, came yet another unfamiliar voice.
Prison? Galam Prison? What on Rune were we doing there? I groaned – my head still hurt.
“Bowie! You’re alive!” exclaimed Sarah, but I could not see her. I assumed she was in another cell.
“We’re discussing Ground Seal,” said Jaha, “come join in.”
I slowly got out of bed, only to fall flat on my face.
“Owww”, I groaned. No-one had told me there was a stool beside my bed.
I started to get up, when I noticed something pink under the stool. Looked like a pair of sandals. Someone must’ve left them there. I picked them up, then went to sit beside my friend Jaha to hear what they had been discussing.
“It must be the Jewels”, said Sarah through the cell wall.
“Mmmmm”, agreed Jaha, “whoever stole those Jewels is to blame for all these terrible things!”
“Why would Galam, one of our allies, be going to war with us?”, pondered Chester.
War? That was the first I’d heard about any war. I must’ve missed that part. My mother! Would she be safe?
“We can’t just stay here”, I piped up, frustrated.
“We need to escape”, agreed Jaha.
“But how?”, Sarah asked, “we’re just kids!”
“We’re more than just kids now, Sarah”, I said, intensely, “We’re more strong than people think… we’re… we’re…”
“The new Shining Force“, concluded Kazin, Chester and Jaha altogether.
A hushed voice came from the cell next-door.
“I can get you out”, he whispered, “I’m Slade, a thief… just a moment…”
Silence followed, interrupted only by the sounds of Slade utilising his skills as a lock-picker. Within seconds he was outside our cell door, doing the same to ours as he had done to his own. The wire rattled in the lock, which promptly opened. Quietly, the rat opened the door, and urgently whispered to us: “Go on! Hurry home and save them!”
Sarah then came through to us from the cell next door with quite an unusual look on her face. It was half happy, but half suspicious. She turned to the rat, and asked none-too-politely:
“Why are you helping us?”
