Chapter 38
‘Agatha?’
In the morning, the bed is empty. The bathing chamber too. After a peek out of the window, I find only two guardsmen standing in the rising sunlight. Did the rest trail Agatha?
My jaw tightens. That’s inconvenient. The only thing I woke up certain of is that we’re getting out of here and away from Atlas.
Agatha’s got five minutes before I go after her.
After pumping water from the well behind the cabin, I haul the pail inside and dump it into the shower bucket mounted on the wall. Water sprinkles out of the shower head. It’s freezing but not brain-numbing enough to forget about yesterday or the way Marian looked at me like I’d stabbed her.
I grip the wall. She’s right – I need to go. If the roles were reversed and I had to watch her kiss another man, leave with him to spend the night together – spend every night together from then on …
Raw pain lashes me, and blood pounds in my head. I run a hand over my face, trying to pull myself together. No, leaving is a mercy, and it’s the least I can do after I collect Samuel and Levi. And … Agatha. Somebody else can try to outplay Atlas and salvage this coal dea–
The shower curtain is ripped to the side.
‘Hands up,’ shout multiple guards. Two hold out swords, while one aims a bow at me. A fourth throws my trousers at my face. ‘Get dressed. Someone wants to speak with you.’
‘Why the aggression?’ I ask, as I’m marched deep into the back end of militia territory with untied boots, no shirt and not a weapon on me.
Atlas wouldn’t request a meeting out here, which is why I’m cooperating.
Despite everything, I can’t help but hope this is Marian summoning me.
‘The terms of my contract with Atlas are fulfilled. I’m not a prisoner. ’
‘You shot Soren from close range,’ says a spindly guardsman with a broken tooth. ‘Don’t mind us for being careful.’
My wariness grows as we reach a rickety multi-floor tower.
It’s similar to the one from the archery competition and overlooks the same cliff, just further back where nobody would find it.
From my count, there are over a dozen lookout posts surrounding Notting territory, but they only keep about half of them manned. This isn’t one of them.
‘Your visitor is inside. In the back room.’
It’s getting harder to believe Marian sent these goons, which puts me on edge. I step inside and Broken Tooth lights a lantern. I’m hit with a foul stench in the chilly air – someone’s been using this building as an outhouse. On my right is a decrepit staircase to the second floor. The lookout.
Bad vibes roll off this place, like it’s filled with ghosts. ‘Marian?’ I call out. I wait one second. Two. Then turn back and make a break for the front door.
Boots pound behind me. One guard grabs my arm, yanking me back.
I’m slowed enough for the others to swarm.
I land a kick. Throw a right hook and gift Broken Tooth a broken nose.
He cries out. But I’m outnumbered. They work together, wrestling me to the back room, and before I know it a metal cuff is clamped on my ankle.
They scurry away, and I lunge after them but jerk to a bone-jarring stop as the metal around my ankle snaps tight.
With a snicker, one retrieves the lantern and hangs it on the wall.
‘This is a breach of our deal!’ I shout at their retreating backs. ‘This voids our coal contract. You tell the Commander he’s getting nothing!’
‘He don’t care about that any more,’ Broken Tooth mutters, then slams the door.
‘That Commander is a slimy one,’ mutters a deep voice from the far corner.
I turn to the huddled form and chuckle darkly, unsure what I did to be this cursed.
‘What happened?’ Rufus asks, shifting, rattling his own chains.
I examine the shackle on my ankle. ‘I believe you happened. You sold me out to Atlas. Did you sell the location of my people too?’
‘No. I told him I couldn’t remember, because it wasn’t about that. Crazy as it sounds, I was actually trying to help you. You think I couldn’t have told him about Kingsland long ago? I’m not heartless. I’d never sell out the homeland of my kid.’
I raise a brow. ‘So you waited until I was here to do it?’
‘I never told him the location – are you listening? I was trying to do something nice for you. Make up for … a lot. You said you still had to ask your girl’s father for her hand in marriage, and once I realised it was the Commander, I knew I could help.
The man isn’t the type to let you run off with her …
not without an incentive. That’s what I gave him – a nugget of information that doesn’t hurt anyone so you two could be together.
How was I to know he’d make you marry the other girl? ’
I don’t think I can trust a word he says. I scan the room for something to pick the lock, but find only a leaky bucket to piss in. On the far wall, there’s a concerning rack of weapons and tools. The whip there looks curiously like Marian’s. Everything’s too far to reach.
‘Ryland, you have to know I didn’t mean for –’
‘Let me ask you a question,’ I say, cutting him off. ‘What’d you get out of it? For the nugget of information?’
He looks away.
‘Yeah, that’s what I thought. You don’t have an honourable bone in your body. It’s a miracle we share any genetics.’ I try pushing against a board in the wall, then another. Nothing gives. I resort to kicking it until it’s clear that won’t work either.
‘I agree,’ Rufus says. ‘We are different. But you’re a good kid. A good man. A father would be very –’
‘Please,’ I beg. ‘Unless you have a way out of here, I don’t want to hear it.’
He nods and bows his head.
Hours pass before someone comes again. I jump to my feet as the front door creaks open.
‘You going to whip me again?’ a woman spits.
Marian.
‘Only if you give me a reason,’ Soren says. Then she’s shoved into the room, collapsing to her knees. Her hands are tied together.
I launch forward and the chain snaps tight around my ankle. ‘Stop! Don’t touch her!’
Marian’s hair has fallen into her face. She pants like she’s in an incredible amount of pain. She looks … injured. Broken.
You broke her too, just in a different way.
Suddenly, Marian kicks out and cracks her boot into Soren’s shin. He yelps, and his eyes darken dangerously as he grabs a scrambling Marian by the hair and drags her forward. She cries out, clawing his hands.
‘Stop,’ I shout, straining to rip my chain from the floor.
He throws her into the wall, and the whole room shakes. Her arms shield her head as she crumples to the floor. He points at me. ‘That one was for you.’ Then he dives for her.
‘The lantern!’ Rufus calls.
‘Get off her,’ I roar, as Soren tries to chain her ankle with another rusty cuff.
Marian comes alive, shoving him hard. She climbs on top of his back, then rains down some vicious elbows to his head. With a loud grunt, he bucks and spins, but she’s faster and uses her tied hands like a noose around his neck, strangling him.
‘That’s it,’ I encourage, my heart beating out of my chest. ‘You’ve got him.’
Panic spreads across Soren’s face. His skin goes from red to something darker.
‘Fire!’ shouts Rufus.
Marian’s listing to the side, her face a grimace. She’s hurt and struggling.
‘Hold on,’ I shout.
Soren reaches around and punches her in the ribs.
It breaks her hold, and he slips out. With another shot, he knocks her to the floor, then dives for the cuff again.
Too fast, there’s an ominous click as it locks, clamping around her leg.
He springs off her, breathing hard, fingers repeatedly dabbing at his nose as he backs away.
‘I’m going to kill you,’ I promise Soren.
‘There’s a fire!’ Rufus calls again.
Rufus’s words finally register, and I see the broken lamp that fell off the wall when Soren threw Marian. A fire has started, spreading surprisingly fast across the floor.
Soren stares, then looks around with alarm, unsure.
The dry timber of the tower begins to snap and pop as the fire licks up the wall to the right of Marian.
‘Hey, you have to free us!’ Rufus calls. ‘We’ll die if you don’t.’
Soren seems frozen, his gaze locked on Marian, who’s struggling to push herself up. Leaving would kill the Commander’s daughter.
Yes, help her.
But then he glances at me, and any sliver of compassion is wiped from his face. ‘Not sure how I’m supposed to free you if you’re going to kill me.’
Rufus releases an animalistic scream as Soren runs from the room.
‘Marian?’ She’s closest to the flames, but they’re spreading across the floor.
She manages to push herself into a sitting position, back propped against the wall. Her chest rises and falls hard.
‘Marian,’ I urge, reaching for her. My chained foot feels like it’s ripping off. ‘Look at me.’
Her head rolls my way.
‘Good. Now try to free your ankle.’
Her eyes widen at the fire, as if she’s only just noticed it.
‘I know. Ignore it,’ I say. ‘You have one job right now – get yourself free. Check your ankle, love.’
She gives the cuff a firm tug, confirming my fears – it’s secure. Her face twists with confusion as she looks back at me. ‘But what about you? Why aren’t you trying?’
There’s no saving me. ‘Don’t worry about that. Do it again,’ I urge.
She fiddles with the metal. Then fights with it, yanking hard.
She’s as trapped as we are. I drop my head, wincing through the panic as I try to think.
Rufus starts screaming, ‘Help! Someone help us!’
Smoke fills the air, and Marian coughs.
‘Get lower,’ I tell her. ‘The air will be better closer to the floor.’
We both lie down, and Rufus does the same. But the fire is spreading too fast.
‘I’m sorry,’ she says. ‘I couldn’t –’
‘You did everything right,’ I say firmly, locking eyes with her. ‘You fought well.’
She coughs again, eyes darting around. The fear on her face guts me. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t give to save her right now. ‘Just look at me,’ I say.
The flames are growing so intense that I’m sweating. The room is becoming an oven; the smoke, even down low, is painful to breathe.
‘Ryland,’ she calls. ‘I need to tell you something. Atlas – he’s heading to Kingsland.’
I struggle to make sense of what she’s saying.
‘He’s using Agatha’s bombs to attack. He’s going to raid them.’ She stops to cough long and hard. And I do too. ‘They won’t stand a chance.’
The smoke is making my eyes water, and it’s difficult to hold them open. ‘Don’t worry about that. Pull your shirt over your nose. Try to breathe. That’s the key.’
‘But you don’t have a shirt.’ Her eyes go unfocused.
‘Wait a minute – what did you say? That’s the …
key?’ Then she’s moving, hands patting her trousers.
Her shirt. Her movements slow as she carefully pulls something small out of her breast pocket with her bound hands.
‘Benedict, I love you,’ she says, holding up an ancient-looking key.
‘Try it,’ I urge.
She inserts it into the lock on the cuff, while I grit my teeth against the blistering heat.
‘It’s not a fit,’ she cries. ‘It’s too small.’
My eyes close. I can’t watch her die.
‘But maybe … maybe I can …’ She plays with the lock, fiddling and twisting. Suddenly there’s a pop and her chain falls with a clatter to the floor.
We both gasp, then cough as we scramble to our feet. In seconds, she has the chains falling from me as well. ‘Get out of here,’ I command her, taking the key to free Rufus.
Since the fire was started closest to Marian, it’s less of an inferno over here. But somehow it’s smokier, and – what the hellfire did she do to make this work? I continue twisting the key that’s too small for the keyhole, ramming it at different angles. Nothing works.
‘I’ve got it,’ Marian says, appearing beside me.
She takes over, while I switch to untying her wrists.
I loosen the rope and get it off her. The lock pops – already?
I almost kiss her forehead. Then we’re up and running, clearing the prison room.
My hand hovers close, ready to catch her, carry her if I have to.
But she’s strong, leading the way to the front door.
We all spill out, hacking and trying to catch our breath in the fresh air.
I brace my hands on my knees but spot Soren standing in the trees. Looks like he stuck around to watch us burn. An alarm blares in my head as he seems to make a decision, drawing his knife.
He left the Commander’s daughter to die.
He can’t leave witnesses.
A fresh surge of adrenaline hits as he breaks into a sprint, charging at us.