Ricko Daggerheart's Arc

Chapter 13 of 18

The iron door swung wide. Gold light spilled down the stone stair. Ricko raised his knife. T'Zaro crouched to spring. Kelli pressed flat against the wet wall beside him. All three braced to kill whoever stepped through. A young woman stood in the doorway. She held a small lamp. Blonde hair, green eyes, a plain servant dress. She was no guard. She saw T'Zaro and her whole face changed. The fear dropped away. She stepped down fast and reached for him with both arms. "T'Zaro," she whispered. "You came back. I knew you would." Ricko lowered his knife. He stared. This girl knew the panther. She knew his name like she said it every night. T'Zaro caught her wrists before she could touch him. "Jaina. Wait." His voice was soft, nothing like the cold blade he used in the dunes. "Look at me. I'm covered in filth." Jaina stopped. Her nose wrinkled. Slime from the drain streaked his red vest. Mud caked his arms. She laughed, quiet and shaky. "You smell like the bottom of the world." "I crawled through it to reach you," he said. Ricko understood then. This was why they had a key. This was why someone unlocked the iron door from the inside. T'Zaro had a girl in the palace. A servant who could open sealed doors. The panther had never said one word about her. Kelli stepped out of the shadow. Her eyes went hard. "This is your inside hand?" she asked. "A palace girl?" "She's trustworthy," T'Zaro said. Jaina lifted her chin. She looked at Kelli, then at Ricko, then back. "I unlocked the cellars like he asked. The guards rotate again at the next bell. You have little time." She pointed up the stair. "Two floors. The jewel sits in the sultan's reliquary. I can take you to the stair, but no further. A servant seen up there dies." Ricko watched T'Zaro's hand still holding her wrist. The hardest man he knew had a soft place, and it stood right here in a servant dress. That was a weakness. It was also their only way in. "Then take us to the stair," Ricko said. Jaina nodded. She squeezed T'Zaro's filthy hand once. Then she turned and led them up into the warm gold light, away from the rot. The cellars opened above the drain. Clean tile. Oil lamps in iron brackets. Ricko breathed incense instead of slime. They had passed the sealed door. The maze was behind them for good. But as Jaina stopped at the foot of the upper stair, a bell rang somewhere above. Not the rotation bell. A fast, sharp clang, again and again. Jaina's face drained white. "That's the alarm," she said. "Someone knows."