~ ~ ~ The Silenni looks back over his shoulder at the woman, and asks "Tessa!  Got everything?  Get the rope from your horse and the knight's dead horse.  We'll drag the supports out with the horse." ~ ~ ~ 

 ~ ~ ~ Hi'el grabs the minotaur, and tells him "Riddik, get out of here.  Start back toward Elmshade.  Tessa!  Where the hell is that rope!"  He looks back up the ramp toward the waning afternoon sunlight and shadows on the trees. ~ ~ ~ 

 ~ ~ ~ The Silenni swiftly takes the rope from Tessa at the base of the ramp, and feeling the tell-tale signs of an iminent attack of claustrobia, quickly ties the two ropes together with an overhand knot then a large loop at one end with another overhand knot.  Starting to breathing a little more rapidly through flaring nostrils as the walls seem to begin their inexorable grinding advance, Hi'el desperately looks at her with the whites of his eyes beginning to show.  He hands her the free end with the loop, and with his ears laid back and through gritted teeth, hoarsely tells her, "Back the horse up to the cellar entrance.  Settle the loop over the horse's head and neck upon his shoulders.  Run a second loop about the saddle horn."  He turns, his tail snapping from side to side in distress, and rapidly begins tying off the rope at the junctures of the cross beams and the supports, starting with the ones nearest the exit and working his way deeper into the cellar. ~ ~ ~ 

 ~ ~ ~ Racing from the cellar, Hi'el bounces off the hindquarters of Tempest, and sent staggering backward, almost falls to the ground.  He leans over, and retches a few times, his sides heaving from the effort and his face damp with fear sweat.  Swallowing hard, the Silenni stands up, and blinking rapidly, sucks in several deep draughts of air, his chest rising and falling with the panting rythym.  He slowly turns to Tessa, and walks over to her, hoarsely saying "Mount up.  We're leaving.  Stand in the stirrups until the rope rips the braces out of the cellar then cut the rope."  He looks up at the sun, shading his eyes with his hands, and tells Tessa "Four hours until sunset, full darkness an hour after that.  No stopping except to switch mounts every half hour.  It will be a hard ride.  Hold tight."  Hi'el, the scent of his equine sweat strong in her nostrils, waits for her to mount up with a spare length of rope to spook her steeds into a quick charge.  The rope would snap taut about twenty paces from the cellar ripping out the deepest support. Five paces later, the next would go and then five paces after that, the last would go. ~ ~ ~ 

 ~ ~ ~ Hi'el nod to Tess then moves forward to where she sat mounted on her horse, and with a quick eye, checks each of the cinches on the two horses.  He also checks there hooves, and once satisfied that nothing would stop or slow them before they began, turns the west-southwest jogging away from the destroyed farmhouse.  He slowly picks up speed to the point where his hooves are flashing over the ground with each long league eating striding.  Tessa's light riding horse could easily out distance the Silenni, but by keeping them at a trot she was easily able to keep up with her companion, who was running all out back towards the safety of Elmshade.  As he'd explained to her, every thirty minutes he stopped to let Tessa switch mounts and merely stood by sweating and lightly panting as she did so. Throughout the remainder of the afternoon, the pair travelled dodging through the forest until the Silenni led her out on to the east west merchant trail passing near where they made better time back to Elmshade. ~ ~ ~ 

 ~ ~ ~ Trembling in his arms and legs from the run, Hi'el stares at her slightly panting and completely drenched in sweat.  Where the Silenni's equine scent begins and that of her horses' ends is almost beyond her ability to determine.  He nods at the words she speaks, and replies saying in a breathless whisper with his own underlying sadness tinging his tone "I will report to my High Priestess about what has transpired, and return on the morrow when you've had time to examine the contents of the sack."  He lightly grips her shoulder, turning her about to face him, and softly asks "Will you be alright?  I can return sooner if you desire company." ~ ~ ~