Escape

Xanth stood by the window and watched as the last embers of the fire bowl out in the courtyard died down. The whole castle was silent, save for the howling wind which came in every now and then, and the occasional neighing of the horses in the shed. The last guard to patrol the courtyard had passed well over an hour ago, so Xanth concluded that they had retired for the night.

“We are in the clear Syrana,” he said to her, still standing cautiously by the window and looking over everything in case he had missed something. He hadn’t. He moved aside as she walked up to the window.

She looked out onto the courtyard as she grabbed the window bars with each hand, then she closed her eyes as she began to whisper softly. Underneath her palms glowed where she held the iron bars and the white energy sipped from her fingers and beneath her palms, it flowed into the iron bars, wrapping around them and growing until the iron bars had been completely illuminated by the white energy, and then slowly,