"Well where do we start looking?" Marcy asked once everyone had calmed down a bit.

"I suggest Etincelle," Cephalus answered.

"Etin-what-now?"

"Its the capital of the fairies," Weland explained.

"Aileen is the Queen so it makes sense for her to take Adrastea and Adrianna there."

Chandra listened quietly. She knew something like this would happen. What was even worse was the fact that fairies never kept prisoners, especially if they know where the Rinopenya stone is.

"I think we're forgetting something," Chandra spoke up as soon as the who's and where's showed up.

"And what would that be?" Dagon asked, him being the closest to her.

"The noose. I should have said something earlier but I thought that maybe I was wrong. My father use to tell me stories of how a long time ago the fairies were chosen to protect the Chigaro mountain and keep the stone hidden. If anyone were to find out where the stone was the fairies were to get rid of them-"

"By way of the rope," Diomedes finished.

"They hang people?" Marcy asked, utterly astonished.

It did not come as a complete surprise to her, but hanging people was a bit drastic...even for that world. 

"What now? We can't just let Aileen hang them!" 

"Our only option is to find them before that happens," Cephalus told her.

"Um, Cephalus," Deirdrie spoke up.

"Yes?"

"We've forgotten another thing."

"What now?" Cephalus sighed.

Things never seemed to go right for the expedition. He started to feel that if they waited too long a giant bolt of lightning would explode the world.

"Laura's gone."

                 "Hey at least there's sunlight," Adrianna pointed out as they were being chained to the wall.

Adrastea pulled on the chains experimentally but they did not budge. Not that she thought they would. It was not likely that Aileen would put them in a half rotted cell.

"What do you think is going to happen to us?" Adrianna asked.

"Like I said earlier...I guess its my fault mostly. They'll hang the both of us because I know where the stone is."

Adrianna huffed and slumped against the wall, not liking the idea of being hung. It was such a slow way to die. This was one time in her life that she was hoping that lightning would strike her down before they made it to the 'town square' (It was not really an actual town square. More like a platform).

                         "Where did she go? Did anyone see her leave?" Cephalus asked, whipping his head around to look the others dead in the face.

Everyone shook their heads. None of them had seen her go.

"Well I think that's proof enough," Dagon said quietly.

"Yeah. I thought she  was suspicious," Marcy mused.

She had read enough mysteries to know when someone was not who they said they were. That was one quality Marcy prided herself on. 

"I think our best bet is to find Adrastea and Adrianna before our purple friend can get to them," Cephalus decided.

"What about her?" Angelica spoke up, nodding towards the Talpa.

"Let her go. All the damage she can do is already done."

Dagon nodded and walked over to their tied up prisoner and cut the ropes. The creature immediately shot off into the woods without looking back and everyone in the group was glad of that. None of them felt like getting into another fight. 

"Right, let's go. It will probably take half a day to get to Etincelle," Cephalus said, mounting his horse.

           The day passed slowly and Adrianna had taken to drawing patterns in the sandy floor. Adrastea was thinking of all the things she could of done back at her cabin if she had never come on this 'little' trip. She could have fixed the leak in the roof, replaced that rotting board by the wall, maybe even replaced a couple of her trapping devices for unwanted guests. 

Of course these were all thoughts to distract her. Adrastea knew that Cephalus and the others were trying to do the right thing and deep down she just wanted to help. Staying up in the mountains was fine but sooner or later the troubles of the world would catch up and strangle anyone who was in its path. 

It just caught up sooner than Adrastea had expected. 

"Did you hear that?" Adrianna asked, breaking the silence.

Adrastea snapped out of her daze and looked up at her cell mate saying, "What?"

"Footsteps. They're coming this way."

Adrianna got up and pulled as close to the door as she possibly could, trying to see through the barred window.

"Looks like the noose is ready," Adrastea muttered.

She thought that she would feel sad or angry, but to be completely honest there was not a single emotion in Adrastea's whole being. Everything was sort of just dull. 

A couple fairy guards came in and unchained her, leaving Adrianna in the cell and slamming the door behind them. 

Adrianna quickly rushed over to the other window that looked out over the main square and watched as the two guards led Adrastea to the scaffolding at a slow pace. She felt so helpless, just watching from a barred window at the proceedings trying to think of someway to stop it...which of course was useless. There was not a single thing Adrianna could do while she was chained to a wall inside a jail.

                    "Alright, they're leaving," Diomedes said quietly, peaking through a barred window. 

Dagon shifted uncomfortably, trying not to drop his brother who had found a comfortable position standing on Dagon's shoulders.

"Do they have anyone with them?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Not that I can see. But its hard to tell from this distance...And they're out the door. Let's go!" Diomedes answered, jumping off Dagon's shoulders.

His brother however was less spry as he rolled his shoulders and groaned. Chandra giggled a little and Diomedes laughed with her (Quietly of course). Dagon just rolled his eyes and threw a leather bag at Diomedes.

"Right...What now?" Marcy asked, utterly confused at that point.

Diomedes just bent down and pulled a glass bottle out of the bag along with his water catine and a blowing stick. He climbed up onto the sill of the window with some help from Dagon and started to carefully scrape around the bars, creating little pools around each one. Next he grabbed the bottle and, being careful not to spill any on his hands, and poured a few drops into the pools he had made. Waiting sixty seconds Dagon then poured two or three drops of water into each pool and as it started to smoke he blew through the stick and it spread the green liquid onto the base of the bars. 

Gathering the rest of his tools he jumped down and put everything back in his bag.

"And?" Angelica asked expectantly.

"Hold on, hold on. I put some acid on the bars. It should eat through in about a minute."

"Maybe we don't have a minute. They could be hanging them right now!"

"Calm down. He's working as fast as he can," Chandra said quietly.

Watching tentatively they all waited for the acid to do its thing, hoping that no one would notice the slight burning smell that was rising into the air.

"That ought to do it!" Diomedes said after a moment, scrambling back on to the ledge and pushing on the bars.

At first they only moved a little but once the acid got going they were pretty each to break free.

"I suggest only a few of us go in," Dagon said, keeping his voice low.

"I think that's a good idea," Marcy agreed.

"I'll stay here and the rest of you can go in."

Chandra giggled and the two shared a couple of elbow nudges before the others started to get annoyed.

"Dagon, Diomedes, you'll go in with Deirdrie and Weland. The rest of us will keep watch," Cephalus ordered.

The four nodded and quickly climbed through the window, landing on the sandy floor of the jail. It was not very big so obviously they did not expect a lot of business and it would be fairly easy to find the cell where they kept Adrianna and Adrastea. There were not any branches leading off in a different direction much to Diomedes' delight. He never liked splitting up and found that staying together usually had better results.

"Adrastea?" Dierdrie whispered quietly.

"Who's there?" Adrianna's voice answered.

They quickly ran over to the cell at the end of the corridor and Diomedes looked in through the barred door where Adrianna was standing.

"Hold on a second. We'll get you out," he said quietly.

Weland wasted no time in bending down and pulling out a his lock picking wire, sticking it in the keyhole and wiggling it around until the lock clicked. They all rushed in but were a bit shaken when there was only one person in the cell.

"Where's Adrastea?" Dierdrie asked frantically.

"Didn't you see? They already took her out."

Weland quickly unlocked Adrianna and they rushed out of the cell before any guards came back.

"Where's Adrastea?" Chandra asked, watching as they all climbed through the window.

"They already took her out. I'm going to go get her," Dagon answered, walking behind the building.

"I'm going with you!" Deirdrie called, running after him.

The two made their way around the building and down the bush covered 'platform' that led to the town square. Colorful houses stood in rows around the scaffolding where Dagon could see Adrastea being led up the stairs. 

They snuck up to one of the houses that had a clear view and watched as all the occupants left to go see the hanging. It was disgusting to see a couple kids going with the adults. 

Adrastea was at the top now and stood next to a Priest, staring straight ahead of her. 

"We'd better hurry," Dagon muttered.

Deirdrie looked around trying to figure out what to do. They were immensely outnumbered and it would not be an easy task.

Suddenly an idea struck her and she stood up, climbing in through the open window and looking around the room for an oil lamp. When she found one Deirdrie searched the kitchen for a bottle of wine.

Dagon watched through the window, knowing immediately what she was up to.

"When this get's going Dagon, you'd better go a get her or they'll yank that cord and...Well you know what's next."

"Right. Give me two minutes then start," Dagon instructed, not even waiting for a reply before heading down a back street.

Deirdrie tore the curtain off the window and poured the whole bottle of wine over it, tossing the bottle in a basket and lighting the oil lamp.

Meanwhile Dagon dashed to the far side of the square which was closest to Adrastea and waited for the house to go up in blazes. After about three minutes smoke started to curl from the windows and not long after live flames could be seen licking at the rim of the door and windows. Shouts started to fill the square and Dagon watched as Aileen and the rest of the town rushed over to the well and started hoisting up buckets of water, leaving the scaffolding with only two guards and a Priest. 

"Right," he whispered to himself in a low voice, taking a deep breath and rushing across the street and underneath the steps. 

One guard was posted at the bottom of the stairs and another next to Adrastea. Dagon snuck up behind the first guard and took a knife to his back, making sure to cover the man's mouth before he let out a scream. Dagon dragged the dead fairy behind the staircase and immediately tiptoed up the steps, doing the same with the second guard.

The Priest turned around and opened his mouth to scream but Adrastea was quick on the uptake and covered his mouth with her bound hands. 

Dagon put his knife back and drew his sword, saying a quick, "Sorry about this Father," before knocking the Priest over the head with the silver pommel.

"What are you doing here?" Adrastea hissed.

Dagon looked up at her and frowned. What was she talking about? It seemed pretty obvious to him.

"Helping you escape, what does it look like?"

"But why?...I never did anything for you..."

- Next chapter! Hope you all liked it. What do you think of this particular circumstance? I'd love to hear your thoughts and votes are appreciated. Thanks :D - Anna