Chapter 36
“This is intolerable!” The complaint came from the cage. Ramaro rolled onto his legs and turned around, though the cramped space meant he slapped himself in the face before he finished the circle. He wrinkled his snout and snorted. “The brutes would hurt their own grandmother.”
“You’d make an ugly grandmother,” Marc quipped as he tugged on his collar.
That looked familiar to me. “Isn’t that what Jaeger put on you?”
“Just the same.”
“Can you get it off without transforming?”
Marc jerked his head toward the front of the wagon. “I don’t think our friends listening in would appreciate that sort of conversation.”
A peep slot slid open, and the barrel of a whisperquill poked out. “Try it and it’ll be the last thing you do.”
“If you’re in a talkative mood, might you tell us who told you we’d be out there?” Marc inquired.
The hidden man scoffed. “Guess until you’re hanged, pirate.” He slammed the slot shut.
“What about one of those little brats you’re always trusting?” Ramaro suggested.
“I’d trust them with my life.”
“What about your death?”
“They’re not the ones who betrayed us.”
His choice of words piqued my curiosity. “You know who it is.”
He leaned back and pulled on his handkerchief. “Who else could it be but Theo. It would explain why he was so insistent that I wear this handkerchief outside of my disguise.”
My mouth dropped open. “Theo? But why?”
His eyebrows crashed down. “There’s a large bounty on my head, but he could have claimed that years ago, so it must be something else.”
“Something to do with Dolios?” I guessed as my heart sank. “But how could he do such a thing?”
“Money’s a great motivator,” Ramaro piped up as his skin pulled back in a sneer. “And humans love money.”
Marc’s eyes twinkled with some life. “So you’ll finally tell me where you hid that necklace?”
“Never!”
Marc leaned his head back and closed his eyes as a smile played across his lips. I shifted atop my bench, and his voice startled me. “You’re worrying too much.”
I jerked my head toward the front of the wagon. “We’re not exactly in a good position.”
He peeked open his eye at me. “You haven’t lost trust in me, have you?”
“No, but the picture is a little bleak.”
“That’s just the paint they use in these things,” Ramaro mused as he glared at the dank interior. “Gray with a dash of torture.”
Marc winked. “Keep your courage. They’re not as tough as they look.”
The ride was both long and short, as I oscillated between hope and fear. The wagon rolled beneath a stone arch and into a courtyard. The temperature seemed to drop, especially when the door was flung open.
“Get out of there and bring the creature!” someone barked.
“Who’s the creature?” Ramaro grumbled.
Marc picked up his cage and stepped out first, and I followed.
The bleak courtyard was ringed by a tall structure built from black stone, roughly cut but meticulously stacked.
Not even an ant could have gotten between the slabs.
Short, narrow windows broke the monotony, but not the atmosphere.
A dark portico ran around those three sides, casting the three different entrances in almost complete darkness.
A gate slammed down behind us, shutting off our only exit and making me jump. One of the men yanked the cage from Marc, while two others grabbed one of his arms. They turned away and dragged him toward one of the doors.
“Marc!” I shouted as I tried to follow.
One of the men grabbed the crook of my arm and yanked me back. Marc looked over his shoulder and grinned at me. “Don’t worry!”
“Ya better worry, miss,” my captor whispered as he sneered at Marc’s retreating backside. “That pirate has a date with a short rope.”
“Take the woman and the creature to the upper cells,” their leader commanded the man.
He nodded and pulled me to the door opposite where they had taken Marc.
The portal led into a dark landing, and a set of stone stairs on the left seemed to sink into the very earth.
The air smelled damp as we made our way down the steps to a cellar below ground level.
There was a hall in front of us, and a corridor leading from left to right.
A large desk sat at the intersection, and a short, grimy fellow sat in the chair.
He looked up at our coming and his sharp, beady eyes stared hungrily at me. “A little sweet midnight snack?”
My captor leered at me. “This one’s for the cell, but you never know about later.”
“Did you check her for anything?” the jailer questioned my captors.
“I was just getting to that,” the man argued as he patted me all over. I shuddered at the pawing and was partially glad when his attention fell on a lump in my pocket. He drew out my whistle and looked it over. “What’s this?”
The jailer pushed a box full of junk toward him. “Probably just a toy.” He plucked a key from a pegboard and handed it to the man. “Go on. Get her into number fifty.”
“The one at the end,” my captor mused as he tossed the key in the air and caught it. “Good idea.”
The jailer glared at him and jerked his head over his shoulder. “It won’t be if you keep blabbing about it, now git.”
Our captors led us down the central hall to the end, where another corridor ran perpendicular to it. We turned right and went to the very end, where the Ironshore opened the last cell on the deepest wall. The other guard tossed the cage, and I was pushed inside.
The men shut the barred door behind us and grinned. “Hope to see ya later, missy,” one of them mused. They burst out laughing and sauntered away.
“Not if I have anything to say about that. . .” Ramaro grumbled as he righted himself. He turned his butt toward the gate, and his tail slithered out through the bars. The tip held a small file in its curl, and he began to play with the lock.
Hope sprang in me as I hurried over and dropped to my knees in front of him. “Where did you get that?”
“Quiet!” he hissed as he worked away at the lock. “Just let me do-ah!” The lock sprang open, and he kicked the cage door with a back foot. The door swung open, and he sauntered out. “They haven’t even bothered to change the locks on those things. Now, to fix this mess you two couldn’t escape.”
My eyebrows crashed down. “I didn’t see you in the fight until it was over.”
“There wasn’t much chance of us winning there, not when they had whisperquills,” he pointed out as he strolled up to the cage and looked down the hall. “But since they don’t know who I am, I have a chance to free you both.”
“How?”
He twisted his head around and his tail whapped against the floor. “The captain is so good at escaping these cells because he always has me on hand. There hasn’t been a lock invented yet that I can’t pick.”
“What if there’s magic to it?” I pointed out as I joined him at the cell bars.
“There’s a lockpick for everything.”
I dropped my gaze to the pick still in his tail. “Where did you get that one?”
He opened his mouth, and his snake-like tongue slithered out and curled up, revealing a pouch with a jumble of lock picks. “I always carry these around in case I need them.”
“Remind me not to kiss you. . .” I murmured as I leaned out between the bars as far as I could. “So, how are you getting out of the jail? Or at least to Marc?”
He nodded at the corner opposite ours. “Through there.”
I squinted and noticed a small black hole.
“What is-” My question was answered before I finished, as a large rat stuck its head out.
The creature wriggled its nose before it halfway across the hall and surveyed us with hope.
We were a new source of food. I only hoped it was considering just our plates and not us.
“That’s the signal for me to get out of here,” Ramaro told me as he looked me up and down. “You’ll be okay until I get that fool out of the deeper dungeon?”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I replied, though I didn’t take my eyes off the red-eyed rat. “How did he know to find us?”
“My scent. And don’t mind him, he’s just my guide,” Ramaro revealed as he slipped through the bars. The rat squeaked and turned tail, running toward the hole.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Your guide?”
Ramaro stopped at the hole where the rat had already disappeared through. “He works for cheap cheese. I’ll be back soon.” He dashed into the hole, leaving me all alone.
I sighed and plopped down on the hard bench that was the only bed. My eyes roamed the small room and discovered only dust, cobwebs, and a really disgusting lack of hygiene around the discolored chamber pot. I turned my face away and sighed.
“Please hurry, Ramaro. I really don’t want to use that thing. . .”
It felt like an eternity before I heard footsteps, followed by the rattle of keys. I shot up and my head snapped to the empty cage. My heart pounded in my chest as I yanked off my coat and threw it over the carrier.
The guard appeared and paused, a questioning look in his eyes as he looked at the coat. “What’s that for?”
“My pet was frightened, so I threw it over him,” I told him.
The guard shrugged before he unlocked the door and opened the portal. “Get out.”
My pulse quickened as I stood. “Why?”
“Somebody’s here to take you to the Admiral. Seems you’re pretty important to him, now get out.” I stooped to grab the cage. “Leave it. You can come back for it.”
All the better. Nobody would bother it there. I slipped through the door and was led down the hall to the front desk. All my hopes were dashed when I saw who stood at the desk.
It was Theo.