Chapter 10
Tashama wasn’t about to release murderers or rapists from the cell.
“No, miss, there are only thieves among us.” The man shook his head, then leaned against the wall. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to free you and your friends.”
The man chuckled. “And the prince is afraid of you!”
“I’m serious.” She touched his wrists bound with sisal, then her fingers twisted at the rope.
“Who are you?” the man asked.
“Tashama.”
He nodded with no sense of recognition that she was the daughter of the royal family of Karthland, who had warred with his own kingdom for twenty long years. She smiled as the knot untied. “Now undo the others.”
“Are you not afraid of us? We have not been this close to a woman in weeks.” He ran his fingers through the strands of her hair, then lifted them to his bulbous nose. His smile stretched across his face. “Water lily.”
“You must free the other men, then ensure the rope is secured to the metal rung over there. You can slip down to one of the tower windows below and make your escape. From there, it’ll be your business to leave the palace.”
“The sewers—we know them well.” The man released Tashama’s hair. He hurried to untie the other men as he shushed them while they grumbled about his waking them in such a gruff manner.
Tashama crawled back to her bed of straw.
One of the others asked, “What’s going on?”
“She has aided our escape. As soon as the last man is untied, three of you will climb down to the farthest window we can reach. After that, bind anyone in the room. I’ll follow with the woman and the others.”
Tashama lay on her straw, then shook her head. “I’ll only slow you down. I can barely stay awake, and I cannot walk a step.”
“We’ll carry you then. You’ll be punished for helping us to escape, miss. We wouldn’t leave you behind.”
The youngest of the men knelt at her side. He touched her cheek. “She’s nearly asleep with the drug they gave her. We’ll have to leave her.”
The man motioned for three of the others to make the climb. “She’ll sleep in a bed as her kind should then. At least we can do that much for her, Jaren.”
“But they’ll know which window we’ll climb into. They’ll find her before very long.”
“Then we’ll leave her in a room several floors down.”
“She’ll get us caught for certain.”
“She made our escape possible in the first place.”
The man lifted Tashama. Her stomach muscles tightened into a knot. Heights and narrow spaces…both she dreaded.
The man made the arduous climb with her draped over his broad shoulder, and she closed her eyes.
When his feet landed on the wooden floor, he pulled her from his shoulder.
She opened her eyes and frowned as a man and a woman, bound and gagged with their shredded satin sheets, sat on their bed, wild-eyed in the large chamber.
“Fear not,” the big man said. “We’re only rescuing a damsel in distress.” He bowed slightly to the couple as they wiggled against their restraints, then he headed out the door with the rest of his gang.
The thieves climbed three flights of stairs before the man motioned his head at one of the doors.
With the tools of the trade, one of the thieves poked a long, skinny metal object into the keyhole.
Within a matter of seconds, the men entered the lavish apartment.
One of the men fingered a jeweled clock.
The others hurried to shred the sheets on the man’s bed. After tying him to his bedpost, the leader of the thief’s guild said, “The lady deserves a bed of luxury.” He touched the spongy goose-feather-filled mattress and smiled. “This one, in fact.”
After he laid Tashama in the bed, he turned his attention to the man. “Do not disturb the lady’s sleep. Advise the prince’s guards that the lady was taken against her will. She did not desire to join us.”
“He’s a clockmaker,” one of the men said and pocketed the clock.
The six men slipped out of the room like shadows in the dark. The door clicked behind them, and the clockmaker twisted his shoulders as he grunted, “Eh, eh.”
Tashama smiled as she squirmed to get comfortable on the goose-down-filled pillows. Soon she was running along the gray beaches at Galveston Island, breathing in the fishy fragrance as the gulf spray touched her cheeks. I am free! Free!
Within the hour, warning bells rang throughout the palace. Aleron woke from his slumber, and a guard rushed into his chambers. “Sire.” He bowed low.
The prince frowned at the interruption of his dreams and rubbed his bare chest as he glowered at the guard. “What is the trouble that you barge into my chambers like this without invitation?”
“The prisoners in the tower have escaped, my liege.”
Aleron scratched his head for a moment, then turned to his manservant. “Get my clothes!” Turning to the guard, he asked, “What has happened?”
The servant helped the prince with his tunic, and the guard said, “They escaped by climbing down a rope and dropping into a window three stories below their own.”
“The woman couldn’t have made such a climb.”
“She did, sire. She’s gone as well.”
“And the room where they entered? What of the occupants?”
“They were bound and gagged, sire, with their own bed sheets. We assume the thieves entered the sewers and have already made their escape.”
The servant helped the prince on with his sandals as Carissian appeared at the prince’s chambers.
“Sire.” He bowed low. “The lady and the rest of the prisoners have made a successful escape, I’m obliged to inform you.”
“She couldn’t walk. You said so yourself, Carissian.”
“The occupants of the room where the men first alighted said the woman was carried over the leader’s shoulder.”
The servant buckled the prince’s belt, and the prince said, “We’ve lost her then.”
“Yes, sire.”
“She couldn’t have helped the men escape. How did they do such a thing?” The prince paced across the floor.
“The tower guard tied the men to keep her safe from harm. Apparently, they found a way to untie the rope, though he was at a loss as to how they could have done such a thing. He assumed they took the woman against her will.”
The prince stormed out of his room, and the guard and Carissian followed him. “I want her brought back here at once!” He turned to Carissian. “Did the healer drug her?”
“Yes, sire, because of her injuries.”
“Did he not know how dangerous it could have been for the lady when she was drugged like that…to be left alone with the prisoners…defenseless?”
“The tower guard tied the men together to ensure they couldn’t reach her.”
The prince shook his head. “And they used the rope to escape and got to her anyway.”
“The men are searching the sewers as we speak, sire,” the guard said.
The prince stormed to the tower, and Carissian said, “The men would have taken her to their mountain hideaways by now. We won’t find her, sire.”
“Whose side are you on, Carissian?” The prince jogged up the stairs. “You say she’ll do injury to me.”
Carissian cleared his throat.
“Come, come, tell me what you’re thinking.” The prince scowled at his adviser.
“I believe the woman aided the prisoners as she aided her own people to escape.”
“But her clothes…they are unlike anything we have ever seen. She speaks strange sentiments. Are we certain she’s really one of them?”
“She has the same coloration as the Karthlanders, sire, yes.”
“She is not immortal.” The prince reached the seventh floor without missing a breath.
“No, sire, her injuries are very real.”
“And yet she swam when none of our people can do such a thing? Nor can hers, for that matter, and she blocks your thoughts. How can she do this? Even I, ruler of all Maldovia, cannot block your thoughts, should I wish to.”
The sorcerer shook his head. “I’ve considered she may be a sorceress.”
“A sorceress? Only one per royal house can exist. You know that. Balthazar was the sorcerer of Karthland. Though I’ve heard tell that his whereabouts have been unknown for some years. Valmor has taken his place.”
They reached the tenth floor, and the tower guard jumped to attention. “Sire.” He bowed.
“How could you have allowed the prisoners to escape?” The prince dashed into the room. He studied the hefty weight of the hemp, then leaned out of the window and stared at the dizzying height to the ground. “Show me the room where they entered from down below.” The prince hurried to the door.
While they jogged down to the next floor, the prince said, “Carissian, could she be a sorceress from a different region?”
“They only serve a royal family, sire. If she were a sorceress, she would not have been on her own like she was near the lake in any event.”
The prince rubbed his forehead as they reached the landing three stories down from the prisoner’s tower. “Would she have replaced the Karthlander’s sorcerer then?”
Carissian shook his head. “They don’t believe in using sorceresses any more than we do. The Karthlanders don’t trust a woman’s emotions—too volatile. Valmor is still their sorcerer, so I understand.”
“But she could swim.” The notion bothered him. He walked into the room where the thieves had taken refuge briefly. The husband and wife quickly bowed to the prince. “Tell me what happened here.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“They were like shadows, moving without sound in the dark. Before we knew it, they’d dragged my wife and me out of bed, then covered our mouths with their hands while another hurried to rip our sheets into strips.
Within seconds, we were bound like ancient Calathian mummies, then they tied us to the bed.
Two ran to the window and motioned to the others. Soon three more followed.
“The biggest one of the lot carried a golden-haired goddess draped over his shoulder. I couldn’t imagine where the men had come from, or where they were bound with the woman.
The big man said they had rescued the damsel in distress, then hurried out of the room with her.
About half an hour later, the bells sounded.
Within minutes, the royal guards barged into our room and found us tied and gagged. ”
The prince peered out the window and studied the rope still dangling before it. “I cannot imagine how they could’ve done such an escape without the aid of light.”
“They are thieves, sire.” Carissian joined the prince at the window. “They steal under the cloak of darkness. It is their way.”
“And they intended to carry the woman throughout the palace grounds?” The prince turned back to the man and his wife.
“It appeared so, Your Highness. He didn’t seem to want to give the woman up.”
The prince shook his head. “Then she would have slowed them down. To the sewers, men.”