Ricko Daggerheart's Arc

Chapter 15 of 18

The deep cells smelled of damp stone and rot. Ricko sat with his back to the thick wall, wrists raw from the shackles. One torch burned in the corridor outside the bars. Every hour the guards changed, and every change meant dawn was closer. Dawn meant the executioner's block. He turned Torin's last words over in his mind. Steal it anyway. But there was no tool here, no gap in the iron, no plan. Across the cell, T'Zaro Panthara crouched at the door. The panther had worked one claw loose from a seam in the floor, a thin sliver of rusted metal. He pushed it into the lock and listened. His green eyes never blinked. Ricko had seen him kill four guards and crawl out of a drain with a fever in his blood. If anyone could open this door, it was him. "Stop," Ricko whispered. "The hinges face the corridor. Even if it opens, they'll hear it." T'Zaro did not look up. "Then we move fast." The pick scraped. A pin clicked. He smiled with his teeth. "One more." Kelli pressed against the bars beside Ricko. Her split lip had scabbed over. She watched the panther work, her body coiled to run. In the corner, Jaina sat with her knees to her chest, still in her servant's dress, still bound at the wrists. She had unlocked the door that let them in. Now she had nothing to unlock the one that trapped them. The second pin clicked. T'Zaro eased the door. It swung open an inch without a sound. Then boots scraped in the corridor. A guard rounded the corner early, a lantern swinging in his hand. He saw the open door. His mouth opened to shout. T'Zaro threw the metal sliver. It struck the guard's throat. The man gagged and dropped the lantern. But the clang of metal on stone carried down the hall, and a second voice called out above. "They're loose!" the voice shouted. "Sound the bell!" Kelli was already moving. She tore the dying guard's sword free and pressed it into Ricko's hand. "Up the stair," she said. "Now, before they block it." Ricko pulled Jaina to her feet. The four of them ran for the stair as a bell began to ring somewhere above. They were out of the cell. They were loose in the palace, with one blade between them and the whole guard waking around them. Ricko reached the first step and stopped. Two floors up lay the reliquary. The jewel. The old man who killed Torin. The way out led down to the drains. The way to vengeance led up. "Which way?" Kelli asked. Ricko looked up the stair. "Up," he said. "We finish it tonight."