Sitting huddled against the cold stone wall deep beneath the battlements of the castle I could hear the cries of slaughtered soldiers from both sides, the yells of pain, grief and rage. I felt like a coward hidden amongst the barrels of rum but I had sworn to my father that I would remain hidden here until he came for me. I would never break a promise to the king. Ever since my brother had been murderd to a band of rogue knights he had been adamant that I stayed away from any harm, however being under siege makes this much harder. I found that focusing on the sound of rats scurrying past or the drip, drip, drip of the water seeping through the roof distracted me from the horror above but I was never able to get rid of the fear that my father was among one of the slaughtered soldiers.

I don’t know how much time passed when I heard them but I was beginning to feel sleep creep up on me. The sound of the footsteps echoed off the walls, longing for it to be my father I raised my head slightly to see who it was but I was surrounded by nothing but darkness. It was then I heard the voices “Where is she?” a deep rough voice asked. “She’s not down here, I told you” fear and relief ran right down my body- my father. He was alive but the opposition had him and he sounded pained. “ Tell me or we will find her ourselves and makes sure that you watch as we drive your sword right through her heart”

“I don’t know where she is…please!” he begged. I heard the boot hit him presumably in the chest and the cry of anguish that followed. I sat shaking uncontrollably as the footsteps steadily came closer. I closed my eyes not daring to move. “She’s not here! Listen to me I beg of you! Please!”

“Silence him!” Cried the voice of another solider. Before I had full processed what was going on, I leapt up knocking a barrel of rum over in the process and charged screaming towards my fathers would-be-murderer. I lunged my fist into his face causing him to stumble into the soldier behind him who was holding a fire lit torch. The shock of what happened caused him drop the torch into the rum- spilled floor. There was a second of silence as the soldiers around me realised what had happened, then flames erupted from the floor and spread through the basement the heat scorching our skin . As the flames gushed through the basement like water gushing out a broken dam I heard my father cry my name in a fierce but injured voice. I wanted to run but I couldn’t focus my head rung with the desperate voices of the soldiers and the smell of their burning flesh. “Father!” I tried to cry but more smoke filled my mouth and I coughed uncontrollably desperately trying to breath in some air. “Father!” I spluttered one last time before the remaining barrels exploded in a fury of flames.