Sentinels: Forsaken Knight by B.H. Savage

in the king's ear now. He won't listen to a word I say. He's already threatened to strip me of my rank and throw me in here with you for sympathizing with you on more than one occasion."
                "That's why you haven't been here," she said. "Glenn, are the rumors true? Am I to be executed, even without a trial?"
                Glenn took a deep breath and slowly nodded his head before answering. "I'm afraid His Majesty has been...different, since your return from Mitus. I don't know what it is but he wouldn't be like this if he, and Her Grace, were simply in mourning. Amador has done something to affect him, but without proof I can't do anything about it, rank or not."
                "Is that why you've come, then? To say goodbye?" she asked sadly.
                "No," he told her. "I'm here to get you out."
                Anye stepped back in shock as Glenn lifted a key out of a pocket underneath his armor and opened the door to her cell. Her eyes swelled with tears as she could not contain her emotions. She immediately broke down and ran out to hug him. She hit him hard enough to knock the air out of him.
                "Come on, we don't have much time," Glenn explained. "The guards are sure to have reported my actions to Amador by now. We need to get you out of here."
                Anye backed away and dusted herself off. "But how? All of the corridors are patrolled, and if the king is going as mad as you say he'll have doubled the patrols."
                "He already has, but there's another way. Come on," Glenn told her. He took her hand and a torch off the wall. "There are other passages throughout this castle that aren't patrolled. You just need to know where they are to use them."
                The pair ran through the halls of the dungeon, ignoring the foul smell and moaning life-long prisoners that dwelled there. The darkness would have engulfed them had Glenn not taken the torch from the wall to light their way. Eventually they reached a dead end. The only thing around them that Anye didn't recognize was a large statue of a dragon against the wall resting on top of a stone altar.
                "Glenn, this is a dead end," she said to him as she frantically looked for a door. It took her a second before she noticed Glenn wasn't looking around, but rather kneeling in front of the statue. "What are you doing?"
                "Paying my respects," he explained as he got back to his feet. "The door is here, known only to very select few. Watch."
                Glenn gripped his lance from the sling across his shoulders and rested the tip at a circular point on the statue's chest. With a heave, he pushed the lance forward and the circle on the statue gave way, acting like a keyhole for the weapon. He turned it clockwise until the sound of a click echoed from behind the walls.
                Anye heard hidden weights slide against the stone within the walls as a panel on the floor in front of the statue slid away, revealing a staircase covered in dust and cobwebs. "Glenn, where does this lead?" she asked.
                "To the cave beneath the eastern wall," he told her. "There is a horse, clothing, and...a weapon waiting for you there. You must take them and go."
                She looked at him questioningly. "You're not coming with me?"
                "I can't," he said. "I need to stay and find out what Amador is up to."
                "I need to help!" she told him. "Amador framed me, I need to-"
                "You'll be killed on sight, Anye. You need to leave!"
                Anye stared at him. Her emotions stirred around; fury, sadness, understanding. She knew why he told her she needed to leave and she understood that if she didn't she would be killed without a second thought, but leaving her closest friend to fight this battle