Old Maudie

When they arrived at the kitchen Alessa and Juniper found old Maudie, the master cook, busy with her work. Maudie had heard all the commotion as the gates were breached, but refused to treat it as anything but another normal day in the life of a castle cook.

"Maudie, the castle is under attack!" Alessa exclaimed. "You need to get out of here. They'll kill you if they find you."

Maudie smiled at the young Princess. "Now, now child. Old Maudie here has survived more things than you can possibly count on all your fingers and toes. Life has been good to me, and I am truly blessed. If it is God's will for me to die here today, then so be it. But I won't run from a place I have been thankful to call home for the last forty years. You, on the other hand, are the one who is in real danger being here." She picked up two backpacks, and handed them to Alessa and Juniper. "Besides, someone has to stay behind to seal the exit so no one follows you." She took Alessa into her arms, and hugged her. "Just remember the sacrifices everyone makes here today, and make us all proud."

Alessa couldn't hold back any more as tears began to fall from her eyes. She was about to lose everything. Her family, her friends, and life as she had known it. Losing a life of luxury was no big deal to her. It was losing the people she loved, and cared about that mattered the most. Of all the royals throughout the land, she was the most down to earth royal. She acted more like a commoner than spoiled royalty. That was in part due to her upbringing, and her friendship with her body double Rayne.

Maudie lightly patted her on the back. "It's good to cry, but this is not the time." The sound of the fighting was growing closer. "Come on, we must hurry!" Through the kitchen Maudie led them right to the stock room where cured meats and smoked fish hung from raters, and bins of vegetables lined the walls to one side while casks of meade, wine and ale were on the far wall. Maudie stepped up to a shelving filled with meade, and pulled a bottle in the center out, and twisted it. Slowly it began to move, swinging inward. Once it was open, it revealed a flight of stairs leading downward. It was dark and foreboding, but the air was pleasant and not filled with the scent of niter. It was almost as if the passage had been well maintained. "Take these with you," she said, pulling out two tinderboxes. "There are plenty of torches down there. Two that i can light from up here, so won't be stumbling around in the dark." She pulled on a small chain to the left of the stairwell, and two torches sparked to life. Now go quickly, so I can destroy this room."

After two more long hugs, the two women left and disappeared in the darkness below. "Godspeed to you both," Maudie called out after them. "May He bless you as much as He has blessed me." She twisted the bottle, and pushed it back into the rack, and it closed as if it had never been disturbed.

There was one job left that Maudie had to do. That was destroying the stockroom. She hurriedly walked back to the kitchen entrance, and pulled on a chain just inside the door. She stood and watched as the ceiling collapsed, burying the entire room in rubble. Then, with a smile over a job well done, she returned to her kitchen duties as if nothing ever happened.