A smile

Dakar brought Rey to the same chamber she had spent her first night in.

Nearly a dozen men awaited her. Most smaller than Dakar, though one man dwarfed even his mighty frame.

Rey smiled at what she saw.

Dakar said, “Tomorrow, I will show you the Hall again,” and left.

And then, the swing of a heavy stick. A sound like thunder.

The biggest approached Rey first. Rey spoke, calm as windless sand. “You will defend me with your life.”

He stopped midstride and straightened. “I will defend you with my life,” he said, a toneless recital. All became chaos as he turned on the other men.

Quick, Rey ran to the drummer, standing in silent shock. “Show me the way out, and do not stop beating those drums.”

They fled into the tunnels. She heard her first defender fall to the combined effort of the other men. Rey focused her mind and pushed the air itself into a focused line, attacking the dirt walls. The tunnel collapsed behind them.

But that was just one tunnel, leading to one room, in a maze of tunnels and rooms. Rey heard foot steps as men converged behind her through the many tunnels still standing.

She collapsed three more tunnels in an attempt to slow her pursuers. Turn after turn, endless tunnel after endless tunnel. Her lungs burned keeping pace with her drummer.

At last, natural light. They were perhaps a hundred paces from the stairs leading out when the drums stopped beating, the drummer felled by an arrow to the eye. Rey yanked the drum from his dead hands midstride, continued the beat with one closed fist.

Dakar stood tall, guarding the exit. His face a mask of rage.

Rey passed the last branching tunnel and collapsed it behind her.

Only Dakar now stood in her way. Bow in hand, arrow knocked.