Rubbing her face with the back of her hand, Asura picked up the cloth and liquid. In her current state, she wouldn’t be able to focus enough to use her Talent without potentially hurting the other children in the cell with her, so that option was out. 

Instead, she would rely on the weakened state of the bars, and the strength of the children. The only thing that was missing was something to twist with. She dug through her bag and pulled out her dagger, still sheathed in its leather. 

This will have to do.

She laid the cloth out on the rough floor, and uncapped the bottle. While it wasn’t water, it wasn’t alcohol either, and should perform the way she expected it to in this situation. It slid out of the bottle like watery honey, soaking the cloth. She capped the remainder of the liquid, and wrapped the cloth around two bars, and tied the cloth in a knot. 

She threaded her dagger behind the knot, and began to twist until she groaned with effort. Noticing her struggle, Quinny placed her hands on one side of the dagger, their hands touching, and assisted with pulling it to her. 

“Cliff!”

As Cliff pushed and pulled with the two young girls on the dagger, the bars began to creak, flakes of rust falling on their strained faces. The taste of blood and salt made their way into Asura’s mouth, her teeth grinding with the effort.

Elise still carried their shared cup of water, and after watching the older children’s efforts, poured it over the twisted cloth. Her willingness to help encouraged them to push and pull desperately, as hard as they could. 

A far away yell and the sounds of distant footsteps set Asura’s heart pounding, as she poured every ounce of strength into moving the bars. 

Seconds later, their efforts were rewarded, and bars began to contract. With renewed vigor, Cliff, Quinny and Asura frantically worked to widen the gap. When the bars seemed to stop altogether, they let go with stinging hands. 

Asura tested their work by pushing her head and shoulders out through the gap, breathing a sigh of relief when she could wiggle through. 

“Okay! One at a time.” 

She held her hand out to Quinny, who was looking at her with an indiscernible expression. After a second’s hesitation, she took Asura’s hand and inched her way through the gap they had made together. Cliff and Barry both went over to the sick boy, each placing one of his arms over their shoulders. The boy’s feet staggered a few steps before they went limp, his eyes rolled with his head, and fell unconscious. 

Five more.

Elise took the little boy’s hand, and Quinny took their hands while Asura guided their heads through the gap one at a time. Elise went first.

Four more. 

A clatter echoed, a little closer than before, the shouts of men coming from all directions. They had to get out of the cell before the slavers came. Asura hoped that Kiln was still alive, buying them as much time as he could. 

Ignoring the way the floor tilted, she grasped the bars, focusing on guiding the little boy through. When his feet were next to hers, she untwisted the dagger free from the cloth and put the soaked fabric back in her back, slinging it over her shoulder. 

Three more. 

She placed the dagger in the band of her pants, and reached for the three older boys coming up to the gap. 

All that could be heard now were the gasps of the children’s breath, high on the escape. Cliff came through first with a struggle, and needed to be pulled by Quinny and Asura to get through. He stumbled through, bruised but free.

Two more.

Asura helped support the unconscious boy, pulling him through the gap as gently as she could. The heat of his skin was so hot the sweat poured off him felt like a warm bath, dampening her own clothes. When he rested heavily upon their shoulders, Quinny began to help the last boy, Barry, out of the cell. 

One more. 

She didn’t need to tell them to hurry, the shouts and clanging metal and the thuds of footsteps told them all. 

Hurry. Hurry before we’re caught again. 

The mental mantra buzzed in the air among them, until Barry’s foot passed through to the other side. 

“Here.” She passed Barry the limp arm of the burning child, and took out her dagger. None of these children had the strength to fight. Even the older boys were struggling with the weight of another, panting and trembling with energy they didn’t have. 

Asura jogged to the edge of the craggy corridor, each bounce jarring her brain, and peeked around it, scouting a path for the children. In all the noise, she thought she heard other yells, like the wailing of animals coming from the opposite end, further into the tunnels of darkness. 

She saw nothing save for the writhing flames of the torches lighting the way in curving recesses. The cacophony of a fight pounded in her ears, and she crouched along the wall, past two, three torches before the yell of a man startled her, freezing her in place. 

Clank! Thud!

The man fell backwards on his back, to the left of Asura. Before he could get up, she drove her dagger into his chest, immediately killing him. It appeared slavers didn’t wear much armor, if at all. 

Who would, when you’re trafficking defenseless children?

Thanking a man’s pride for her small grace, she pushed forward to find three more men surrounding Kiln. Bodies were littered here and there; Asura counted four. When she raided the slaver’s base in her previous life, there had been a total of seventeen guards, it seemed this time would be similar. 

In her pause, two of the men exchanged a glance, and one of the three men lunged toward her, hand outstretched with intent to use her as a hostage upon recapture. 

Whoosh!

Kiln kicked out a leg, kicking him the ribs. The man fell to the floor holding his side.

“Ough…” He ground out, holding his side.

Squelch!

A small dagger plunged into the groaning man’s neck, and he shoved her off in his final throes, his hands struggled to stop his escaping life force. She hit the side of a crate filled with booze, the glass clattered inside, sending painful waves of stars through her vision. 

“Useless cunt!” One of the men spit at the now dead man, his eyes never leaving Kiln. 

Swoosh!

Kiln lunged low, stabbing the man in his thigh and then dove to the side, tackling the other and driving one of his daggers through his chest. 

Fffft!

Taking the dagger out, he whirled in a graceful movement and sliced his dagger across the neck of the one who had spoken. Both men lay dead at his feet. 

Kiln quickly walked over to Asura as he sheathed a dagger, helping her to her feet. He was covered in dark spots, glimmering in the wild light with the rapid rise and falls of his chest. Some of it even spattered his face. 

She let herself be led back the way she came, coming upon the children, in the same spot she had left them. Fear shone through their eyes, only thinly veiled with relief upon seeing Asura and Kiln round the corner. 

Asura grabbed the arm over Barry’s shoulder, fighting the tears stinging her eyes from the glare of the torches. 

“We’ll take turns.” 

With a wordless thank you, Barry took one of the children’s hands, and gently led them along with the group. For such small children, they hardly complained, a testament to how profoundly abusive their experience in these caves had been. 

“Wait.” 

Quinny approached Asura and pulled her dagger out. She cut two pieces of the cloth from her pant leg, exposing a bruised and scratched leg. She then tied one around Elise’s head, making a blindfold. When she had done so for the little boy as well, speaking to him in gentle words, she picked up Elise and tucked her head into her shoulder. Cliff did the same for the little boy. 

“Okay.” Quinny’s gaze held a steely resolve that Asura had always respected, and her heart swelled with pride.

Kiln led the way back to the surface, kicking bodies out the way so the children could step freely, halting them every few yards to listen for anyone else. The echoes of wailing animals and beasts still sounded behind them, blanketing the movements of the group. 

It also disguised the sounds of an approaching man. 

Carrying the limp and scalding body of a boy her size was a struggle. She had only been training for a few weeks, after all. Her muscles couldn’t carry out what they remembered until they bulked up more, so she gripped his damp shirt as hard as she could, and pulled on his wrist in an attempt to distribute his weight on her back and shoulders as effectively as she could. 

It was only when she looked down at her feet she saw an extra shadow behind them.