Lavender & Fire

37. No Time Like the Present

Just as Rahn was considering her options on how to free herself from Gashi's hold, the door to the room opened again and a female interrupted him. "Gashi."

"Not now." He gritted out between clenched teeth.

"It's urgent."

"I'm busy."

"It's Daielle."

Gashi groaned and then let out a sigh as he released Rahn and took a step back. "I guess it is your lucky morning as well, my dear." He said to Rahn as he turned and walked out of the room. The room was silent as the male's boots clumped on the floor and the door closed, the sound of the lock sliding into place heard clearly.

"Are you alright?" Kahal asked Rahn as he looked at the fresh red marks on her neck.

She nodded as she coughed and cleared her throat, trying to rid herself of the pain the male had caused. Eventually she made her way over and sat on the floor with her back against the wall. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly before repeating the process. Taking long deep breaths and exhaling them slowly again and again.

"I thought you were through with all of this masked vigilante nonsense, Kahal." Joreth chastised his older brother. "You have too many responsibilities to-"

"Leave the fussing for mother, Joreth." Kietnan cut him off. "We have more important things to worry about right now."

"Yeah, like getting out of here?" Joreth responded dryly. If you haven't noticed, we've been stuck in these chains for days and haven't managed to get out of them yet." Joreth scowled and then looked over at Rahn. "Are you trying to calm yourself because you're upset with my brother for getting you into this mess?" Joreth asked. "I take it you've seen him in this outfit before, you didn't seem surprised."

"Joreth." She said calmly as she opened her eyes and met Kahal's eyes staring at her, before moving her attention to Joreth. "Please don't insult my intelligence. Of course I suspected it was him at some point." She closed her eyes again. "I am breathing this way to prepare myself." She then continued her breathing as the room fell silent again.

"Prepare yourself for wha-" Othen's words were cut off as Rahn pushed against the wall to pop her shoulder out of place and used the new range of movement that created to slip her tied wrists beneath her feet and to her front. She then stood and drew in a deep breath as she pushed her shoulder against the wall, popping it back into place as she let out a quiet grunt.

Rahn used her bound hands to remove her flowing pants that resembled the skirt of a gown to reveal her athletic shorts that went from just below the naval down to just above the knee.

She felt four pairs of male eyes on her as she reached into her inner thighs and unzipped a secret pocket in her shorts.

"What is that?" Othen motioned to Rahn's leg.

"A knife, obviously." She answered as she unzipped her other side and pulled out a little pouch of tools. The guards had searched her thoroughly, of course, but she had designed these shorts herself for this purpose. On her inner thighs there was a bit of padding, which wouldn't allow anyone to realize there was anything hidden in her pants if they were to pat her down during a search.

"Heavens above, Kahal. Where did you find this female?" Joreth asked.

Rahn turned and found Kahal watching her as she walked toward him. His face was blank as she approached him. She reached up and used the tools from her pouch to pick the lock at his right wrist. He turned his head and whispered for only her to hear. "Did you know before or after?"