by Lisa Daniels
“Do you understand what I’m trying to do here?” I asked, getting up to retrieve the dish. “Your mouth isn’t going to let you drink from a flask, and I don’t want to pour the liquid all over the floor. I’m not sure how much you can drink because I don’t know much about your species. I’ve heard you can’t have grapes, so not only is the grape juice out, but the wine, too. The only other stuff I have found was the water and several other things that smell like alcohol. And I’m not about to get you drunk. That means making the most of the water.” I put the dish back in line with the others.
Better Bryce stared at me as he again flicked the dish away. He moved to the next, never breaking eye contact. His nose moved down, then he flicked it away. Repeating this, Better Bryce made it through several before he put his mouth down and picked up a small bowl. He padded over to me and dropped it at my feet.
I picked up the bowl and sniffed it, knowing full well that it was pointless given my sense of smell was only human. Giving the wolf a faint smile, I said, “I hope you do understand what I am trying to do. You will still need to be a little patient with me because I want to make sure that this is safe for your water.” There was a flash in the eyes that could have been amusement or maybe something else. With a shrug, I knew that I was attributing my thoughts to the wolf’s actions.
“Give me three days and we will be out of here. One way or the other, I will make sure you make it to safety.” I sat down and began to stroke Better Bryce as I pondered just the best way to go about getting a wolf out of a dungeon.
Over the next few hours, I studied the bars until my eyes hurt too much. Whether because of the injury or because I had not used them, I wasn’t sure. What was obvious was that I would have to use them only when it was necessary. The bright light of the outdoors would be bad enough.
Lying down, I placed my arm over my eyes. “I guess that pretty much means escaping at night. There are definite pros and cons to that. The pros—there will be fewer guards skulking about the place and they will not have any better eyesight than me. Much worse than yours,” I peeked out from under my arm to see Better Bryce walking toward me. He lay down beside me, his body touching my own. I placed my hand on him and began to stroke his softer fur as I draped my other arm over my eyes.
“The seduction route would be easiest.” Better Bryce let out an unexpected growl. Sitting up quickly, I looked around me. There was no one there. “What are you doing?” I asked as I roughly rubbed his fur. “Scaring me like that is not a good idea.”
I got as comfortable as possible, then picked up where I had left off, “Easy as it may be, I’ve never resorted to it before and I’ll be damned if I seduce someone for freedom. I doubt any of them will care if I get sick, unless… hmm.” I began to get lost in my thoughts as I started to work out a plan in my head.
It was only when Better Bryce stood up and moved to place his head on my stomach that I realized that I had internalized my thought process. “Sorry, boy, but I can’t share the ideas with you just yet.” I scratched his ears. “Don’t want anyone to overhear my musings.” I laughed at the idea that others overhearing me was the reason for me to keep quiet.
I must sound completely insane talking to myself.
At that thought, the beginning of my plan began to form. It was going to be a difficult sell to the guards, but they obviously didn’t regard me as a person. That was definitely something I could use to my advantage.
The sound of something striking the floor startled me, bringing me out of my thoughts. Sitting in the middle of the floor were a few dishes full of some of brownish sludge that I could only imagine was supposed to be a combination of food and drink for me and Bryce. Sure enough, the dishes were those that Better Bryce had discarded.
I put my arms around Better Bryce’s neck. “Sorry for doubting you, boy. Obviously you did understand what I was doing. I have no idea how you learned to speak my language halfway around the world. Actually, you probably understand intentions. I would never admit this if original Bryce were here, but I feel that his words against humans were fairly accurate. You are far smarter than almost any human I have ever known.”
Better Bryce gave a low rumble, showing his teeth a little. It would have been terrifying if he hadn’t immediately gotten into a playful position afterward.
Looking around, I turned. “You want to play, huh? Alright, you asked for it.”
If you had told me a year ago that I would be romping around a cramped cell with a wolf, I would have said you were crazy. Yet that was exactly what I was doing. Better Bryce seemed to enjoy it nearly as much as I did. He nipped me a couple of times, always grabbing onto my clothing instead of my body. Wrestling with him on the floor, I felt that the world had more to offer than I could have considered if I had been alone.
I had a purpose. I had someone who depended on me. And Better Bryce was easily among the best companions I had ever had. Almost as good as original Bryce, the treacherous thought crawled into my mind. Sweeping it away, I put an arm over Better Bryce. “You are much better than original Bryce. You won’t leave me until we get out of here, will you?”
He licked my face, then put his head down on the floor near my head.
I rubbed his head, “Goodnight, Better Bryce. Thanks for playing with me.” Those golden eyes stared at me as I closed my eyes.
Chapter 8
A Wrench in the Plan
The next day went by with very little out of the ordinary. If you could call being in a dungeon in a faraway land with a wolf ordinary. To be honest, I didn’t have the best baseline for what an ordinary life looked like, so it made as much sense to me as anything else that had happened in my couple of decades of memory.
I began to tell Better Bryce my plan. There was a lot of head tilting and surprising yips, but all of that amounted to me feeling that he really knew what I was saying. It was more likely that I was just desperate for anyone to give me some encouragement. I had never needed it in the past. But then I always had a country that I could marginally consider home, and people with whom I had some kind of attachment. Better Bryce was the only person—or more accurately, creature—who seemed remotely interested in anything I had to say.
I poured out a small bowl of water as I began to get into the details. “It may be a bit of a cliché, but considering how the people here think of me, some savage from the other side of the world, I think that they will buy it. Even if they think I’m from that wretched Scythia,” I muttered under my breath.
Better Bryce moved forward and began to drink. I watched those golden eyes, feeling a strange sense of calm in them. “I want you to stay hidden. Don’t come out when I start making loud noises. The guards have already proven that making enough noise will attract attention, drawing them down to see what’s happening. While I expect they are ready for fake illness and fights that turn into attacks, they aren’t going to expect much from a lone ranting woman. More importantly, they will notice original Bryce is gone. That will draw them to the cell more than anything I could do. When they appear, run. Don’t wait for me, just run.”
Better Bryce tilted his head. I waved away the perceived question, “I can handle myself against a couple of guards. Especially as they will be shocked at your presence. That’s going to put them off kilter. If you want to add to that by maybe knocking one of them over, that would be all the better. Even if you don’t understand that, just running past them will be enough. I’ll try to teach you over the next day. As clever as you are, I doubt you will need more than that.” I rubbed his head, and he gave a little yip. “What else? Oh, I’ll have to incapacitate them so that they don’t chase us down. I will lock them up, then come find you. It will be a challenge, but I’ve no doubt that the two of us can outsmart this lot with little to no problem. Just don’t get between me and the armed guards. You may be able to take down an unarmed or unwary human, but these guys are going to be far too dangerous for you to take. Leave the guards who, um, have their guard up to me. Thank gods you a
ren’t human to appreciate how poorly worded that was. I suppose I’m going to have to find some way to keep you behind me after the initial escape. In the end, it really depends on how much you understand me. Hopefully it is more than I had been led to believe animals could understand.” I wrapped my arms around Better Bryce. “I really hope you understand enough to stay safe. Whatever happens.”
Releasing him, I moved to the other side of the small cell. “It seems a bit ridiculous, but I need to make sure that you understand what to do when I say go. I’m sorry it isn’t much room to practice, but I can’t offer better at the moment.” I smiled at Better Bryce, only beginning to fully appreciate the task in front of people who trained dogs. How was I supposed to even begin to get my idea across? I considered it, then decided that only I could really demonstrate my meaning. I held up a hand. “Go,” I said and ran across the short distance. I put my hands up in time to stop myself against the stone. I turned and held my hand up again. “Go,” I said, but before I could do anything, Better Bryce began running around the cell. After a few moments, he stopped, sat down, and looked at me.
I tilted my head, “Go.”
He immediately started running around.
“That was a lot easier than I thought. Okay, now to understand direction.” I pointed toward the far corner. “Go,” I said and ran to the corner. When I stopped myself, Better Bryce ran under my outstretched arms, then sat down. I pointed toward the cell door, “Go.”
He immediately ran over to the door. To my surprise, he squeezed through the bars, turned around, and came back into the cell.
“Show off,” I said, bending down and patting him. “I guess you already know everything, so there is nothing left for me to teach you. Hopefully, you will understand what to do when the time comes. Though if I could, I would send you out to freedom without me. I can’t squeeze through the bars, but that doesn’t mean you should be trapped.”
Better Bryce moved forward, knocking me off the balls of my feet and onto my rump. “Ouch!” Surprised more than hurt, I looked at him. His golden eyes were right in front of my face. A long pink tongue flicked out and licked my nose. Before I could react, he knocked me on my back. “Why, you little brat!” We wrestled for a bit, but I quickly realized that we were getting a little too loud.
“Alright,” I said, standing up and brushing the dirt and straw from my dress. It looked completely different than it had when I had first put it on that fateful day. “That’s enough of that. If you stay with me when we get out of here, there will be plenty of time to play. For now, we need to focus on preparing. There is still plenty of food and drink left. We should probably take some of that since we are going to need to get as far away from this place as possible. No stopping for food or drink. Well, you will probably be fine. I will be obviously out of place in this.” I pulled at the dress. “There’s no making this look presentable now. It would essentially be a new dress by the time all of the rips and tears are fixed.”
I moved over to the place where the food and drink were stored. It was one of the few things that I knew with any certainty about the dungeon. Since original Bryce had disappeared, no one had come to empty the bucket. I had been dumping the food out of a small window in the wall, but the dishes from the feedings had stacked up outside of the cell. Someone must have come around for them at some point since the cell was crowded by empty dishes and the bucket wasn’t overflowing. Not yet, I thought, looking out the window at a cloudy day.
Staring at the sky, I muttered, “Though I suppose it is good that they haven’t come. They would surely notice that original Bryce is gone. And more concerning, they would see you. Though I suppose we are good on that front.” I knelt down and pulled out some food and a couple of flasks. The handkerchief was tied around my head, keeping my hair out of my face. For a second I considered putting the food in it, but I couldn’t bring myself to dirty it further by crushing crumbs into it. Instead, I tore the cleanest part of the dress. Tying the food in it like a little sack, I began to look around to find some means of carrying it out.
Better Bryce stood in front of me, a small string in his mouth. I looked at the string, then at the wolf. “Where did you find that?” I asked as I took it from his mouth. To my surprise, he presented his back. That was when I noticed that the string was long enough to go around his body, providing a very convenient way of getting the food out of the cell. “I have said it before, but I have no problem telling you that you are so much smarter than most of the humans I have known. Sad that all it takes is figuring out how to get food out to accomplish that. Hardly seems like a compliment to you.” I smiled and knelt down to pat his head. I turned to do something else, but he grabbed my dress. I looked down at him as he grabbed at the string. “What?” I asked.
He whined at the food, then looked at the string.
“I understand, but I don’t want you to be uncomfortable all night. If I tie it to you now, it could get loose. Or you would have to sleep standing up. I’m not going to do that to you. It can wait.”
He grabbed my dress again and repeated the motion.
“No, Better Bryce. I’m not going to do that now. Later. After we sleep.” I held my hands together, then put my face against them to indicate sleeping. “Sleep first.”
He hung his head as if I was the one who failed to understand, but he didn’t try again. Instead, he sat down and watched me moving around the small cell, finalizing the plan. There was a lot being left up to chance, but that was true of pretty much every plan I had had to follow. There were so many variables that no plan had more than a 30% success rate. My primary focus was on getting Better Bryce out, and I was not about to fail him.
After checking, rechecking, then triple-checking everything, I decided it was time to try to sleep. “Don’t know when we will get another chance to sleep. Probably not for a couple of days. Even if they don’t regard me as a person, they are going to be angry about me escaping their dungeon. That will give them a reason to hunt me down. You should be fine, though.” I stretched a hand out and felt the soft fur. Stroking the wolf, I continued. “You aren’t on their registry, so once we are out of here, I want you to run for the nearest forest. Be wary of farmers, of course. They will be a much greater threat than the guards once you are out those doors. Once you are free, I want you to live a long and full life. Have a lot of little kids, or cubs. Whatever wolves have. Maybe think about me every once in a while.”
Better Bryce crawled over close to me. For the first time, he lay along my body, his head nuzzling against me. I hugged him. “Don’t worry about me. Whatever happens. I’m not like you. Without a country or a purpose, there really isn’t much for me out there.”
He whimpered as he rubbed his muzzle against me.
“Oh, stop that,” I said, giggling. “We discussed this. And I have not come up with a single thing for me to do once I’m out of here. The only thing that makes any sense is trying to find passage back to Shingyon. At least I can die fighting for whatever is left of the country. It was small, and not very old, but I find it impossible to believe that they could entirely wipe out everything. There must be a core group of people fighting for our people. Or people whom I can save from slavery. There really isn’t anything else for me. I can’t return to any of the places I have been because they will have figured out that I was a spy. No one is going to take me in now. I don’t blame them either.” I ran my face in the soft fur, almost as if it would make me forget everything. “At least I have a purpose going forward. It isn’t any more or less than the way I lived before everything went to hell.”
Better Bryce licked my hand as if to comfort me. “Goodnight, Better Bryce. Best get to sleep now. Big day ahead of us.”
I closed my eyes and slept fitfully for a few hours.
It was still dark outside when a voice whispered, “They are coming.”
This startled me awake. Unsure if it had been real or if my dream had merged with reality, I stood up and looked at the door.
“Where is your master?” Glaring at me through the bars was a very angry-looking guard. There were two guards flanking him, and I could hear other guards coming toward our cell.
Someone had raised the alarm.
“Gascho Nga!” I screamed. I began looking around the cell, but Better Bryce wasn’t where I had been sleeping.
The guards became agitated. “What did she say? Was that a curse?” The door swung open.
Hoping that Better Bryce had managed to escape before they arrived, I lunged forward. This was obviously not something that the lead guard had anticipated. Taken completely by surprise, it was easy to wrench the sword from his arm. Giving him a swift kick to the seat of his pants, I hurled him forward head first into the bucket that had not been emptied for a while. There was no time to watch his reaction as the guards who had been behind him were now coming at me. One had his weapon drawn. I moved to the side, striking out with the sword and slashing his arm. The sound of the sword clattering on the floor caused the other guard to lose his composure. Still trying to get the sword out of the scabbard, I quickly slammed the hilt against his head.
Too slow.
I had managed to take out the three who had been the immediate problem, but now the guards who had been coming down the corridor had reached the cell. All of them were at the ready, not sure what they would find. Behind me, the one who had fallen into my makeshift toilet was beginning to get himself together, and he was furious. I now had enemies able to come at me from two sides. I grabbed the sword from the ground and leveled a sword at the conscious guards in the cell and the ones at the door.
“I’m not afraid to die!” I yelled at them in my native tongue.
