Adykon eventually came to a locked door made of mahogany wood. Thinking nothing of it, the warrior ran past the seemingly normal door when he heard Aerta's voice, not in his head, but with his own ears!
"Adykon! I've sealed this door from my side! Can you hear me?!"
"I'm here! I'm right on the other side of the wood door!" He knocked on the door several times, hoping to get a response from within. After a knock back, he knew that at long last, he was but a few inches away from his goal.
"Aerta! Can you get this door open? I'm here! Don't worry about-"
"Stand back!" No sooner than she had said this, the door began to grow very hot, and several magical runes, all of which had been invisible just moments ago, showed up on the door, glowing red. Adykon jumped back from the door, which exploded in a burst of flame and smoke. Aerta had placed protective runes on the door in case the enemies tried to storm the palace.
Stepping outside, Aerta ran over to Adykon, and gave him a quick hug. Neither of them had time for introductions.
"Alright, Aerta. Do you know the fastest way out of here? We can always go back the way came if-"
"Just follow me! No time!" She took off, down the halls, running faster than Adykon had expected her to. Then again, she was only wearing the standard females clothing the dracons wore, while he had a whole suit of heavy metal armor. It was easy enough for him to catch up, though.
Suddenly, Aerta began to slow down, and stumble. It wasn't a long run, but then again, she wasn't just trying to escape on foot; the archmage was also maintaining the force-field as she was fleeing the palace. Without a word, Adykon ran over to her, and offered to help her up. Surprisingly, she reached over to him, putting her right arm around his left, and put her left leg over his right arm. Within a moment, he was carrying her.
"I think this is best. I can keep the field up longer if I'm not using energy trying to run."
"Well, which way should I go?" This was not exactly what Adykon had envisioned when he had imagined meeting her again. Even as distracted as he was by all the violence and fighting, he still was able to appreciate her beauty.
"Start running down this hallway. Keep going straight and do not stop until you see a statue made of emerald. Oh, and the wall on the far side of the hall is an illusion, only maintained by a force field which emulates the solidity of the wall. I'll lower the field when you get near it." Adykon took off, running down the hall, his claws tearing the carpet in his mad dash. Even with Aerta in his arms, he was still quite fast.
Closing his eyes as he ran through the illusionary wall, the mercenary saw the emerald statute not more than 20 paces from the illusion.
"Alright, put me down here. The statue has a reserve of magic in it for me to use. If we're going to teleport out of here, we need this power." Adykon set Aerta down on her feet, somewhat unsteadily. She moved over to the green statue of a dragon and put her hands to it, absorbing more magic.
"How long will this take?"
"About a min-"
BOOM!!
The wall to the left of them exploded as three dracons from the enemy army appeared. Two of them were warriors, one was a mage.