Narrow Escape

	"--and fuck you--!!"

	There was another fleshy crack, cutting Sol'hrys off in the middle of his elvish profanity. The boy staggered, wobbling on his feet to keep balance under the eyes of House De'viir'duis even as blood oozed from his mouth over split lips. Hal'wyss was always ashamed to be included under that name whenever their father came calling from the main house. Standing at the edge of the gaggle gathering in the courtyard's shadows, unable to do anything, unnerved her to no end.

	"Don't say something stupid, Sol," she murmured under her breath as though her twin might hear her pleas. Sol'hrys's eyes flickered from their imposing sire to his sister for a moment. Father's eyes followed.

	It was strange to see them both like this. Despite being twins, Sol'hrys was the only one who looked so strikingly like their father Tal'olin, favored consort of the House's matron. Gently waving hair hung over sharp eyes that crested the curves of what promised to be strong and high bone structure of a perpetually smirking face. Budding adulthood had only exacerbated these similarities as Sol's gangly form broadened to match their fathers. As Sol grew, so did the taunts and teasing from others about "Tal's bastard doppelganger". It infuriated Tal, which only emboldened Sol. If the man spent all his energy on his son, then there would be none left for Hal.

	She shook her head, but Sol had noticed Tal'olin's attention slipping.

	"...was that it? Maybe you're getting weak in old age."

	Hal flinched as an open-palmed blow sent her sibling sprawling. Other members of the house--legitimate, full-blooded non-slaves-- began to snicker and jeer. She held her breath as the man approached her brother's painfully bowed form. Another consort blessedly approached and delivered the matron's summons before Tal'olin could plant his polished leather toe into Sol'hyrs's midsection. He regarded the letter and his undesired son before scoffing.

	"Perhaps if you wish to even see adulthood you should learn to hold your tongue." The rumble in his low voice belied the craving for a parting blow, but he refrained. No doubt he wanted to seem more above the matter than he was.

	Tal'olin turned on his heel and strode back inside, wiping his bloodied knuckles on a handkerchief. His departure signaled an end to the entertainment and others began to return to their tasks. Hal was jostled purposefully as she made her way to her twin's side.

	"Why do you egg him on--?"

	"Why do you always watch--?"

	The simultaneous questions lapsed into a momentary silence. The two regarded each other, heightened emotions mixing with the sweat and heavy stench of blood in the air. The stare broke suddenly, his going low and hers going high. The dark walls of the courtyard rose three stories up, spotted with arched windows lit from within, opening out into the void of stalactites and gossamer webbing that vaulted over Menzoberranzan. Staring too long made the opening feel claustrophobic. It gave the narrow opening the illusion of being a maw with teeth made of sharp windows, slowly closing on them. The slave brand on her wrist stung at the thought.

	Sharply, Hal heaved a sigh and began pulling Sol up, despite his pained protests.

	"I'm always going to watch out for you. Now don't be a baby," she chided loudly for any lingering ears to hear. Then softer, in common, "Mom can help you. We shouldn't be here if he comes back."

	Sol'hrys grimaced, but didn't struggle anymore as they hobbled together to find their mother.

	The slave quarters were little more than glorified stables, open on all sides with low partitions dividing it into cramped little "rooms". House De'viir'duis prided itself on its role in the slave trade, namely being how they broke slaves for drow use. The quarters on their estate were a mix of their own favored slaves--already sheepish--and those consigned to them for "training"--soon to be broken.

	Morwen was in a strange place, somewhere between the two states.

	"Oh, that cowardly twatmuffin, picking fights with a child. You're okay over there, right? Right, good. Come here, love." Sol clambered carefully into their mother's lap as Hal squatted nearby, out of sight of any overseer who might survey the area. "Let's talk about how to be good and not to make people mad, hm? Even if you don't mean it."

	Morwen had no name to pass on to the children, even if she had been allowed the privilege, but she still gave them what she could; the little wisdom that had kept them alive this long.

	Physically though, both children shared the shifting green of her eyes, the bold curve of her nose, the brisk, hushed tone of her laugh. While Sol'hrys was a spitting image of their begrudging father, Hal'wyss took more after their human mother. Her hair hung straight and thick around her heart-shaped face, lips dark with a prominent bow, keen eyes always observing in a way that mirrored Morwen's, though their colorings were a far cry from similar. She was likely to fill out into the appealing curves their mother possessed, a fact that worried the woman.

	Morwen was on the cusp of middle age, haggard from hard labor, but still possessing an unbreakable grace that Hal envied. She was unflappable and cool in the face of any threats or taunts the drow threw at them even when she became resigned. Once while tormenting Hal, Tal'olin remarked that she looked much like her mother when she cried. Hal'wyss had never seen her mother cry in her life.

	"...better?"

	"Yes. Sorry." Sol'hrys looked beyond embarrassed as the woman ruffled his hair.

	"Never apologize for standing up for yourself. Don't give them the satisfaction." She sqeezed Sol's head close to her breast and motioned for Hal to come closer. The young girl crawled into them, all long limbs and points. Her mother squeezed her too. "We won't be here much longer."

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	Sol'hrys found his sister tucked in the lower bowels of the smugglers' stronghold, near the tunnels that wound from their safehouse out beneath Blingdenstone. Her eyes watched others pass, a twitchy, fervant green beneath dark painted marks. Several eyed her back, not without reason. Hal'wyss had grown into and surpassed their mother's shape in little more than five years; she was lovely to look at (for a half-breed, many would caveat). On his approach, Sol found himself tracing the impressive swell of her chest or the shapely, leather-clad legs folded under her, ready to spring should the need arise.

	Like a rat, always prepared to flee, Ails liked to tease. Like the drow had any room to talk with how he fidgeted. Sometimes Sol wanted to smack the coin the older elf toyed with out of his hands, just to see if it would shut him down entirely.

	"What's going on?" Sol'hrys dropped down next to his sister with little announcement, now watching the crush of smugglers and thieves rather than her. She barely glanced up from the book in her lap.

	"Reading. Trying to read." She turned over the book momentarily to show the title, 'A Traveler's Guide to the Underdark'. "...I think it's satire."

	Sol groped the cover for a moment, eliciting a side eye from his sibling, then shook his head.

	"Pretty sure that's leather, Hal. No, I meant all the people."

	It wasn't unusual for the place to be crowded when there was a lull in skulduggery to be had, but this wasn't that. Drow and svirfneblin and duegar jostled each other, collecting supplies and shuffling maps from hand to hand. There was an air of harried dread hanging heavy about the dark corridors.

	"Ails got tipped off that House Duskryn is readying to raid us. Got your bug-out bag right here." She patted the thick canvas roll underneath her. "He wants us on the Gracklstugh route with Brood and his kids and Taenwi."

	"You hate Brood's kids."

	"Yeah." Hal finally closed the book in her lap and looked at her brother. There was a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. It made him grin wolfishly in anticipation for the quiet, accented common she followed up in. "So ve are not going vith his mongrel pack."

	"Fun. Vhere to?"

	She rose, and he grabbed the bags to follow her to a quieter corner in the shadows. Once they were just out of sight, Hal opened the book she'd been paging through; over the trawling undercommon print that Sol couldn't decipher, there was a crude ink map drawn in Hal's hand. He recognized it as Blingdenstone and the adjoining tunnels they frequented. He was only a bruiser, there to back up the others, but Hal studied Ails's trails and shortcuts for smuggling exotic goods closely since the kingpin kept his master ledgers and maps secret. He had no doubt it was an accurate rendering.

	"Ails took out his maps vhen assigning squads earlier. He's sending zhe bulk of shit down here, to zhe second hidey-hole for safe keeping, zhen groups down zhe routes here, here, here, and here." Her finger punctuated each hushed direction before tracing over to another, unnamed path. Sol'hrys didn't recognize it as one they had ever taken. "But no one here. It's from zhe master map, so it must exist. So--"

	"--it must be zhe surface route," Sol finished with her, eyes lighting up.

	"Yes!" Hal's face lit up, a shark smelling blood in the water. "Zhe Duskryns aren't supposed to be here until zhe morning, so ve have time tonight to scout it out tonight and be sure. If it is not some collapsed shit heap, ve bail in zhe chaos, and if it is--"

	"--zhe gremlin brood."

	Both made a disgusted face in mockery, then broke into grins and giggles. Her head tipped forward, and he met her halfway. For a long moment they sat quietly in the din of the room, forehead pressed to forehead. The odd feeling of completion stirred in Sol's belly while in the position. Their mother had always said that was because it was the same way they had been before they were born. She was always so sentimental.

	"Zhis vill be it, I know it." Sol'hrys grinned, optimistic. Hal just hummed. He knew that she thought him foolish for such ideals, but that just made it all the better on the rare occasions they came to pass.

	"Caution, Sol, ve don't vant to overplay our hand before--"

	His sister's words caught in her through as a rumbling ripped through the air and the ground shifted below them. Sol caught Hal reflexively, both bowing their head against the dust the rained down through the floorboards overhead. Everyone in the room had frozen, looking upward for a long, liminal moment. Undercommon whisperings erupted.

	"What the fuck was that?"

	"Ails said..."

	"It could have been from the marketplace, you know."

	"No fucking way..." Sol looked at Hal, who was still intensely staring upward, pointed ears twitching as she strained to hear something. "...Sol, grab the bags."

	"You don't think--"

	He never got to probe what she might have been thinking. A deafening blast cracked the air and the ceiling above them, raining smoldering debris and billows of smoke down into the crowded storeroom. Darkly armored drow dropped down through the hole, barking commands. Screams rang out. Sol'hrys stood, staggered, until his sister seemed to materialize out of the dust and grabbed him.

	"Sol, grab the bags! We have to GO."

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	"Go now. Stay low." Morwen nudged Hal's back, eyes locked on the guard stationed at the far end of the hallway. The girl skulked across the opening swiftly as the man's attention was down the adjoining hallway, crushing in against her waiting sibling. They stood in tense silence for what felt like minutes, but just seconds later, their mother scurried after.

	They had waited no more than a week, marking the day that the matron and her entourage would be out in the city, attending a festival being held in Lolth's name. The sound of revelry drifted over the spired gates of the estate, permeated by sounds of violence. They would be able to slip into the crowds and disappear easily. At least, that was the plan, assuming they could get through the cramped and foreboding estate.

	"Follow me. Very quiet, okay?"

	Hal'wyss could feel her heart pounding in her throat as she crept after her mothers muted steps. They carried their shoes with them, moving barefoot across the dark stone floor, avoiding lantern light and windows. Morwen had painted all their faces with dampened soot to swallow the light. It was mostly for her own pallor, though the act made Hal feel more secure. It was like a mask. If she wore it correctly, it might hide how afraid she truly was.

	She felt a light touch on the small of her back and jumped. She wheeled around quickly and caught her brother's hand. Sol'hrys smiled apologetically, sharing her unease. She couldn't be upset at him for trying to calm her. Instead held and squeezed his hand in silent gratitude.

	"Down!!"

	Morwen's harsh whisper cut through the moment, and both children fell into a crouch against the wall. Their mother pressed against the wall just as a line of guardsmen marched past in the adjoining hallway. The group of motley, trading barbs in undercommon and being restless as those left behind during the festival were expected to be. If they caught wind of escapees, they would be all to gleeful to draw out the torment of a chase.

	The threadbare trio stayed still long after the sound of armor clanking had passed. Hal could feel Sol's anxious breath on the cusp of her ear as the two huddled together, trying to be as small as possible.

	"...okay, I think we're okay." Morwen peeked around the corner to check, then looked to her doe-eyed children. "You're okay, really."

	"What if they catch us?" Sol piped up. Hal put a hand over his mouth to hush him.

	"They won't. They won't catch you." The woman knelt and gathered the twins close to her so there was no danger of being heard. She smiled but beneath her ashen mask, there was a tinge of sadness. "You're going to get out of here and out of the city and out of the Underdark. You're going to see the sun."

	"And the sea," Hal added quietly. He mother left an ash-colored kiss in her snowy hair.

	"Yeah. And the sea."

	She tugged the two along into the open hallway. As soon as she turned down their path, she froze. A lightly armored recruit approached, fussing with his helmet until it was straight. The parties stared at each other for a beat.

	"Hey, what are you all doing out here? Slaves are on lock-down when the matron--"

	Even as the man fumbled for his rapier, Morwen charged. Out of the corner of her eyes, Hal could see her brother cover his eyes as their mother took the guard down in a clatter of limbs and weaponry. Hal squeezed her brother's arm, unable to look away as the adults struggled. The man wasn't large, but Morwen was kept on a slave's diet, tired from labor. Her arms visibly shook as she wrestled with the drow, trying to keep his mouth muffled with a hand as she struggled.

	There was a flash of red and Morwen recoiled, a deep bite mark in the meat of her palm. Immediately the sentry began yelling for aid, wrestling to keep Morwen in his hold. She twisted looking to the children as she fought her way free.

	"RUN!"


________________________________________________________________________________

	"Run run run!"

	Sol'hrys could feel Hal's hands pressing his rough shirt into his back as she pushed and yelled; her pipe dream way of making him as fast as her. He couldn't move any faster with the crush of people around them anyway. He was certain that they'd already trampled over a dark gnome getting into one of the tunnels leading out of the city. They had passed into the decrepit service tunnels since, and the air hung thick with sweat and worry and sewage

	The people in front of him ground to an abrupt halt. Screams started to rise from the end of the tunnel. The Duskryns had found the exit. Chaos erupted as people were unable to move.

	 Sol looked to his sister. She looked up, as she was prone to when she was upset. Her gaze lingered so his followed.

	A manhole cover was a few feet above them in the low ceiling, unnoticed in the panicking maelstrom of bodies. Sol'hyrs dropped one of their bags and looped that arm around Hal. She began climbing him within his guarding arm. Both of them wobbled as they were jostled, but Hal found purchase straddling his face, knees on his shoulders. Blindly he tried to keep steady, swinging his free arm at whoever got too close. After a sweaty moment, Hal'wyss pushed off of him and he could feel the rush of fresh air. He looked up to Hal reaching for him through the opening. He thrust their remaining bag into her hand and leaped up to haul himself up.

	Hal'wyss grabbed him and dragged him out of the grip of the panicking thieves that clawed at his legs up onto the packed dirt street. Screams rang out through the open cover, drawing attention immediately. Hal seized his hand and the two began running. Sharp orders followed after them.

	They raced into the labyrinth of Blingdenstone, knocking what few gnomes and merchants were still daring to walk the winding tunnel roads out of the way. Lavender and gold shop lights shot past in Sol's peripheral. He suddenly thought of how their mother had described the night sky. He ran faster.

	"Why aren't ve just fighting??" He could feel his blade banging against his hip more sharply than his breath was coming.

	"We don't have to if we just get to the tunnels--!"

	They turned a corner and Hal clipped someone hard, wrenching her hand for Sol's and nearly going sprawling. He could see the anger on her face, insults bubbling in her throat until she saw who it was. The young drow guard was handsome, well-built even by Sol's standards, and accompanied by two other drow in full helms. After a split second of analyzing the disheveled duo and their bag, he seized Hal by the elbow. Fury bubbled in Sol's gut.

	"Watch where you're going, mongrel," he sneered as Hal twisted in his hold.

	"You can kiss my mongrel ass."

	It made the man grin, strengthening his grip as she writhed. His other hand left his sword, catching her arm more firmly. His gloved finger traced the partially exposed brand on the inside of her wrist, peeking out of her glove. He ripped the glove off with a grin.

	"De'viir'duis, huh? I'm certain they would be happy to get you back."

	"Hey."

	The guards and Hal all looked in Sol's direction just as the pommel of his blade met the man's skull with a reverberating crack. His sister wasted no time, dancing away and drawing a knife from her boot and ripping the spherical charm from the hairstick holding up her ponytail.

	"I got right!" she called, hurling the ball at the ground. Thick black smoke erupted. Sol'hrys grinned and dipped left, his blade telescoped out with a flick of his wrist.

	Sol had no armor, and so he had to keep them at bay with the length of his weapon. The guard charged, he parried, tripped him, backing up out of the growing line of smoke. He raised the glaive for a finishing blow, then stalled, hearing more footfalls.

	"Hal??" He looked around just as the other guard stumbled back out of the smoke, Hal straddling his shoulders, holding by his hair as she punged her knife into his exposed neck over and over. The drow gurgled, tripped over his companion, squashing him down to the ground again. Sol swiftly tugged his sister out from under the bloody mess, hauling her up just as another squadron rounded the tunnel. "Go, we have to go!!"

	He dragged her, pushed her ahead, then felt the wind leave him as something struck him in the back. It stung, burned; a poison arrow probably. He kept running, following the streaking white trail of Hal's hair through the low corridor. They had entered an area outside the city now, wholly unknown to him, and he had to trust that his sister knew where to go.

	Another arrow struck the stone a few inches from his feet and he dared a glance back. In the dark absense of shops and city lights, he could just make out the figures of five separate figures. They trailed perhaps 30 meters back; too close for comfort.

	"Hal--"

	"The big brown pouch," she rasped out, still winded from their fight. "Pull it--"

	Sol'hrys had already ripped the little bag from his sibling's hip in one deft motion, releasing a burst of caltrops scattering across the stone floor of the tunnel. Within ten seconds behind them there was a peal of pained yelping. Their pursuers were slowed just a bit, but the twin kept running full haul. The tunnel had no branches past this point. If this wasn't the way out...

	"There!" Hal slapped his chest, pointing to an outcropping in the side of the tunnel. The faintest light shone through the narrow opening in the stone. It was rough, maybe a foot across at its widest and less than a foot deep, leading into a narrow passage that climbed steeply upward. "I think we'll fit..."

	Curses rang up the tunnel. Sol shoved his sister forward.

	"No time to think. Hurry."

________________________________________________________________________________

	"HURRY!" Morwen was screaming, pushing Hal along, smearing the blood on her hands into the girl's shabby clothes.

	Hal didn't think she could run anymore, let alone any faster, when they cleared the doors into the front of the estate. The gate loomed over them as they drew close.

	"Go through! There!" Their mother shoved Hal forward, stumbling, to where a shallow hole had been dug into the dirt under the nefarious spikes of the wrought iron fence. It had been a months long endeavor by their mother on grounds duty no doubt, but it looked small at the distance.

	"I don't think I'll fit...!!" Hal squealed, stealing a look at her mother behind her. Torchlight was already spilling out the front doors and the baying of dogs filled the air.

	"You'll fit, just GO!"

	Sol fell to the ground before the hole and squeezed his shoulders through. Hal'wyss and Morwen both shoves on his hips until he wormed under with a pained groan. Their mother immediately started pushing on her, but as Hal dropped to her knees a pack of dogs burst out of the house, followed by the kennel master. The dogs, each with two heads equally drooling and slobbering, locked onto the fleeing slaves.

	"GO!" Morwen pushed Hal'wyss toward the hole, brandishing the dagger she'd pulled from a guardsman behind them.

	"Mommy--"

	Hal was pushed into the dirt as her mother's shielding body was jarred back into her by the dog that charged right into her knife. The girl began digging and crawling, squeezing her malnourished frame under the fence. Her brother's hands were there to receive her and drag her from the mud.

	As soon as her legs were clear, both children looked around in anticipation for their mother, huddled together. For a long moment there was nothing. The sound of struggle, of yelping dogs, panged at their nerves like an instrument strung too tight. When Morwen's arm shot through, they both jumped before seizing it.

	Bitemarks dotted their mother's shoulders, frothing, pink slobber smeared on her skin picking up dirt as she shimmied her chest through. The older woman was panting, haggard, eyes more tired than they had ever seen them. She didn't even seem surprised when the children could pull her through no further.

	"You have to go south. There's a man at the gate with a black wagon--"

	"We just have to pull harder!"

	"--show him this and he'll take you out of the city." As she began to remove the brass phial tied to her wrist, she was suddenly yanked back. Both children screamed. He arms caught on the fence, struggling against the force dragging her back. Hal and Sol both groped and tugged at her fruitlessly.

	Sol blindly pulled at one of his mother's arms, yelling something unintelligible. Hal gripped her other forearm, but had stopped pulling.

	Their mother was crying, tears running tracks in the dirt on her face.

	"Just go."

________________________________________________________________________________

	Hal barely squeezed through when Sol was finally able to see their pursuers again.

	"Come on!!" Hal'wyss stood just on the other side of the opening, eyes wide in uncharacteristic worry. There were glistening scraps across the tops of her breast from her squeeze, and she was smaller than he was. He felt sudden doubt. She reached a hand out and tugged his arm through and he began to shove himself into the crack. "Suck it IN!"

	"In to WHERE?" Sol'hrys held his breath though as his chest gave in as much as it could. He could make out the drow's words now as they drew closer.

	"Come on, come on, come onnn!" Hal seized his belt and pulled. He actually began to slide through until a sharp pain shot through his shoulder.

	"OW no, stop!"

	He could barely turn his head in this position, but he could make out the feathered end of an arrow just in his periphery. In the rush of adrenaline, he'd forgotten the arrow in the back of his shoulder. The notched end of it rattled against the rock, driving the tip in deeper. Sol cursed.

	"...you have to go, I'm stuck."

	"What? No!"

	"They're coming, go!

________________________________________________________________________________

	"Go. GO!"

	Hal'wyss squeezed her mother's arm, but it did little as the woman was yanked under. Both children clung the best they could; Sol's face bashed into the fence, busting his lip; Hal fell back, her mother's bracelet in her small hands. They could hear Morwen still screaming for them through the thick steel. Sol was beginning to cry, to try and go under the fence, but Hal grabbed him and pulled him up.

	They ran.

	She didn't even see anything that was happening, aware only of her brother's hand in hers. The music and silks and people blended together in whirl, only barely registering when they were jostled. South, south, south...

	The older drow with the black wagon knew who they were before Hal'wyss shakily proffered the phial. He didn't say anything, but thumbed them into the back and through a heavy blanket over them and the barrels of mushrooms he was transporting.

	They held each other in the dark. Sol cried, but Hal couldn't.

________________________________________________________________________________

	"Shut up, just push!!" Hal'wyss was loud in his ear, awkwardly close.

	"Hal, you have to just go--!" He cut off in a pained yelp. The perfunctery cracks of her knife against wood and stone were too close to his ears for comfort. She was blindly stabbing into where the arrow was lodged against the wall. "Hal--"

	"Just push!"

	"Hal, they're coming--"

	"Thanks, push!"

	"I don't think--"

	There was a wooden cracking just as Sol'hrys made eye contact with the drow archer. Hal yanked on his collar and Sol fell through, unbalanced, and the two collapsed into a heap. The drow were in the opening in an instant, but their armor prevented them from even wedging themselves in.

	"Go, go!" Hal scooped up their pack and the duo began scrambling up the hill as quickly as they could. An arrow whizzed by Sol's ear, and then they rounded the bend.

	The light was blinding.

	Hal was still pulling on his hand, so Sol ran blindly after her, feeling nothing but warmth and wind turning his sweaty skin into a rain of pin pricks. He could hear some animal crying and smell salt. As everything came into focus again, he saw why: a wide expanse of water, out to the bright horizon.

	The sea.

	Hal'wyss was still running, breath coming in spurts. The light caught the pink in her grey cheeks in a way he'd never seen in the dark. Staring at everything, he wasn't watching his step; the misstep made his legs give out like jelly in exhaustion, and he brought Hal down with him.

	The two collapsed in the dry grass, heaving and sweaty. Hal barely managed to roll onto her back before letting out what sounded like a sob. Sol'hrys piqued immediately. His sister hadn't cried in front of him in years, but the tears were there.

	"Hal...?"

	She held out a hand to stop him, covering her face with her arm as the sob turned to a laugh. She was grinning when she finally looked at him.

	"Let's make all this sound cooler when we tell people."