Chapter Five: Escape

When Siannon awoke the next morning, she knew that something was wrong. The shutters had fallen off the window, but the light outside was gray and dim. Bad weather was a constant reality in Macnylleth, but this looked different. She looked out the window. The sky was flat and gray, and the dimness seemed to have drained all the color from the world.

She dressed quickly and pulled at the bedroom door, but it refused to move. She checked the bolt, which was open, but the hinges wouldn’t budge. She called out for Malcolm, but he gave no response. Siannon assumed he had awakened earlier and had gone to seek something to eat. She could wait for Gwen to come to her, as she surely would, but the strangeness of the morning filled her with the urge to escape her room before it began to feel like a prison.

Dylan had designed every bedchamber with a secret door in case the family was ever in danger. Erik’s was in the back of his closet. Siannon pushed aside her clothes and pressed a small stone. She heard the latch release and pushed open the door.

The corridor was dark, and she had no candle to light the torch. “No worries,” she thought. She had traversed these secret corridors hundreds of times, so navigating them in the dark wouldn’t be a challenge. Every other door she encountered, however, was tightly shut, and none of the latches would release as they were designed.