The tall Leila had to stoop slightly in these low-ceilinged tunnels as she guided Selima downward into the mountain through a series of back corridors where they encountered no one. Finally they reached a particularly dark and gloomy section that Leila said was the perimeter of the dungeon.
“We’d better be careful that the guards don’t hear us,” Selima whispered.
“There’s only the one key master,” Leila explained. “No one’s ever dared challenge the king’s authority to lock people away, so they don’t have more than one guard down here at a time. You wait here and be quiet; I’ll take care of him.”
As Selima obediently waited in the dark and empty corridor, Leila walked boldly out into the dungeon’s antechamber and spoke to the key master, a dim-witted man slow to comprehend any change in
