The Rakeshame's Fateful Discovery

Gustav was not a happy man.

"Ada, I don't like this." He whispered, his arms wrapped around the barrel of his musket. "You know how much I hate this, especially at night."

"Yes, Gustav, but we have to do it tonight. Archeus said that they would be holding a meeting in their castle tonight at 8 o'clock. We can't miss our chance." She replied as she peeked through the crack in the wall of the castle. "He said that there is a secret passage-way from here that leads straight to their throne room."

"I'm telling you Ada, this is risky. Archeus doesn't know what he's doing." Gustav continued to whisper, his body trembling with fright. "He's just some rich kid who thinks he knows everything and has too much time on his hands. You remember when he set fire to that farmer's barn because he couldn't find his dictionary?"

"Gustav..." Ada sighed as she looked over her shoulder at him. "We need the money. If we don't get paid soon, we're going to be thrown out of this town and back into prison." As she finished speaking, she turned away from the crack and went over to Gustav, putting her hands on his shoulders and shaking him gently until he met her gaze. "We'll be ok, Gustav. Archeus will realize his mistake before anything bad happens." She gave him a soft smile before turning away once more to peer through the crack once again. "Besides... if something does go wrong... you'll be able to fix it with your musket."

Gustav looked up at her with a confused expression on his face and cleared his throat before responding. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that if Archeus makes any trouble for us... you'll be able to protect us by shooting him." She answered slowly as if talking to a child. "You taught me how to use it last month when you were cleaning it after dinner. It was easy! I could shoot anyone right between their eyes!" The enthusiastic look on her face made Gustav feel sick to his stomach so he kept quiet while she kept looking through her spyglass and waited for eight o'clock to arrive.

***

*8 O'clock*

Gustav poked Ada on the shoulder and quietly whispered, "Do you think they're all in there yet?"

"Shh! Yes, yes! I think so!" She answered enthusiastically as she took one last look behind her before sneaking out of their hiding spot behind the bushes by their side of the castle wall and walking quickly towards the secret passageway entrance hidden in plain sight just beneath them against the wall of the castle where they had been waiting for two hours now since sunset with only one lantern lit by Gustav providing them with enough light to see by without being able to be seen from afar by anyone passing by in passing carriages or on horseback riding along the road leading up to the castle gate which was about thirty meters away from where they were standing now at this moment in time standing next to each other staring down at the metal grate covering up the entrance which appeared pitch black considering it was cast metal painted black so it appeared invisible against its surroundings and would blend in perfectly if it weren't for those two strange metal handles on either side of it where they were looking down at right now at the moment in time while Gustav continued whispering roughly just below a whisper almost too low for Ada to hear but loud enough for her to hear perfectly well while shivering coldly underneath her thick woollen cloak covered in small white spots due to age which she received as a gift from her mother many years ago before she passed away when she was very young as long ago as when she first started working for Archeus who was still young himself back then who spent all day keeping warm inside an old abandoned hut he found half broken down one day while out exploring alone without telling anyone where he went off on foot most days even though he was told not too but always did it anyway because nobody cared about him so no one really cared what happened to him anyway apparently according