She took a step forward, fast enough to startle the guards. All of the fired at once. Just like she expected. By the time they pulled the trigger, she was down in the ground, in a roll. She leapt between to guards and bolted out of the room. She ran through corridors, the guards on her heel.
After minutes of running, she found a corridor ending in a large, open window. She leapt out. Where to go now?
She made a gamble and went up. Instinct told her to go down, closer to freedom, but the guards hadn't seen her go out the window; if she went up, she would have time to make a plan of escape while they would be searching the lower floors.
She easily scaled the wall. She went past the next window, out of caution, and also because it was closed. But the one above that was open. She threw herself inside. The lights were on, and there was a woman sitting at a desk, with some sort of book in front of her. She barely had time to turn to the noise, and Emily was already in her face, with one of her knives in her hand.
"Listen," she whispered. "I'm not here for you. Stay quiet, and I'll be out of her soon, alright?"
The woman's eyes widened as she pressed the knife to her skin, but she didn't cry out. She whispered something, barely audible.
"What?" Emily asked.
Then something grabbed her wrist, took her knife, and pulled her back a few paces, quicker than she could react. Her arms were pulled above her head, and something had grabbed her ankles. She looked up and down, and saw that her wrists and ankles were bound inside what looked woody vines, or maybe tree roots, growing from the ceiling and floor. Now, looking around, she saw that the whole room was full of vines and roots.
She tried to pull free, but it was as if she somehow got stuck inside a tree; she couldn't move a single finger or toe. It was magic, of course. She suspected a pretty simple counterspell could break her out, but even the most basic spells were beyond her ability.
"You like it?" the woman asked. "I've had the gift since I was a little girl. My father has it too, actually. We don't make it a public thing. It saved his life a couple of times now. The assassins were not prepared for that."
"I'm not an assassin."
"I know. You're the thief Robb wanted to catch so desperately. Looks like he failed."
Robb? As in Lord Robbert Modray? That meant that the woman was Lissen Modray, the heir to the castle and the Modray estate. She was around the same age as Emily, dressed in only a shift, her thick black hair undone behind her back.
"My brother," Lady Lissen continued, "wants to impress father by catching you, no doubt. I have no interest in that. I think you should lay low here for a while, until they stop searching you, then you can go on your way. It's so rare I have a visitor like you anyway"
"Thank you," Emily blurted, very confused about this woman.
"But if you change your mind and rather be captured by my brother, just shout. The guards are everywhere by now, I have no doubt, you can make yourself heard."
"Won't they here you talking to someone?"
"The door is thick. We can talk, just not too loudly. Now, before we get comfortable, I have to take some precautions.
She took Emily's belt. She had half a dozen throwing knives on one side, and a dirk on the other. They were the weapons that Emily could draw the quickest, but also the ones she expected to be taken from her in a situation like this. But Lady Lissen was not satisfied. She reached into Emily's boots, and fished two small knives out of them.
"I hope you're not shy," she said, as she started unlacing Emily's tunic, "but it's just us ladies here."
Emily didn't protest. There was no point. On her tunic, the lacing at her chest was a bit looser. Enough for her to put in a hand quickly. Either Lady Lissen noticed that, or she was just careful. But she was right. When she opened the tunic, she saw the two blades resting inside the inside of the tunic's chest. She took those as well, and the ones at Emily's thighs that she found when she unlaced Emily's hosen.
Then Emily felt a tugging. She looked down, and saw that two tiny vines started undoing the seams of her undertunic.
"What are you doing?" she asked. "I've got nothing under this."
"I'm sorry, dear. You just can't be too careful with these things, you know?"
The vines worked really fast, pulling the thread, and soon her undertunic had a vertical slit through the middle of it. Lady Lissen opened it, looked at the inside, and was satisfied that she was indeed bare-chested under the garment, with no more weapons to hide.
Emily wasn't shy, but she still blushed a bit, when Lady Lissen left her tunic and undertunic open. At least she was grateful that she did not feel the need to strip her of her breeches as well.
"Now will you let me out of these?" she said, sounding maybe a bit more eager than she wanted.
"Let you out? I didn't say anything about that. I said you could stay here until they stopped looking for you. Have they stopped?"
"I don't think so..."
"Then you'll stay. It's time to play."
She opened her drawer, and took out a clean quill. She pulled Emily's clothes to the side, to expose her left breast and armpit.
"Now, don't forget," she whispered into her ear, "too much noise will attract the guards."
She started to draw circles with the feather under Emily's arm. She jerked away, but with her wrists bound, she couldn't do so much. Lady Lissen pulled her back, and continued to dance the feather over her armpit. Emily's face shifted into a grotesque grimace. She didn't want to laugh, afraid of the guards, but it was really hard not to make a sound.
Heavens. She's going to tickle me all night, she thought.
The lady continued to drag the feather up and down on her armpit for a few minutes, then she switched to the other side. Emily fell into a silent giggling, with an out-loud chuckle escaping every now and then, though she managed to keep those quiet. Then, after five minutes of the feather, Lady Lissen got bored of it, and dug her thumbs into Emily's armpits, attacking both at the same time.
"EEEeeeek," she squealed.
"Sssh," Lady Lissen shushed her, as she switched to scratching her armpits with her nails. "Remember, keep your voice down."
"Please," Emily said. It took her all her will to keep herself from laughing. "It tickles so much."
"I know. That's the game." She wiggled her fingers a bit. Emily tried to get away again, but the vines tightened their grip.
"Fine," Lady Lissen said. She showed Emily a white linen cloth, crumpled into a ball. "I can stuff your mouth with that, if you really want me to. But, if I have to, we'll have to make the game more fun for me as well." Suddenly, vines slithered over Emily, poking her belly, her ribs, the back of her knees. They withdrew as fast as they appeared, but she knew that the lady could make them tickle her all at once at any time. "So I really hope we don't have to do that."
With that, she got back to the tickle Emily. But she seemed to have grown bored of her armpits. This time, she chose another target.
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