Krondor_ The Assassins Part 21

"It won't open," said James. He ran his fingers around the edge of the door, then up and down the wall on the right side.

"Why won't it open?" asked William.

"If I knew that, I could open it," snapped James.

Treggar said, "If it slipped your notice, squire, we are at the end of a very long hall with no place to hide. If you can't open that door in the next minute, we will have to return to one of the corridors we pa.s.sed and seek another way out of here."

James was focused, but there was urgency in his movement. "I don't know . . ."

He quickly moved to the left side of the door and continued his inspection. After a moment, he said, "Let's go."

He headed back down the hall and turned left at the first corridor. "Where are we going?" asked William.

James said, "I don't know, but I know in a fortress this big there are almost certainly some empty places where we can lie low."

"Why this way?" asked Treggar.

"Because it's in the opposite direction from where we were."

Treggar said nothing, content with the answer.

They left the spa.r.s.ely-lit corridor and turned into one that was pitch dark, and again James lit his taper.

"How do you do that?" asked William.

James said, "If we find a place to hole up, I'll show you."

They moved along in silence for a while, turning a couple of times as James sought to move as far as he possibly could from the temple. Suddenly he stopped. He held the taper down close to the floor and said, "Dust. Not a lot of traffic through here in a few years." He straightened up and they moved forward again.

Before long they came to what appeared to be a room once used for storage. The door frame was rotting and the hinges had fallen off. Whatever had become of the door would remain a mystery.

James entered the room and held the taper aloft. The flickering light illuminated the s.p.a.ce: roughly twenty feet wide and half again as deep, the actual dimensions hidden by a fall of rock.

James said, "Come over here," and motioned for them to sit in a corner, as far from the door as possible. "No one may have come this way in a while, but Ruthia-" the G.o.ddess of Luck "-is a fickle woman at times and I don't want some pa.s.ser-by to notice a light in an unused room."

Treggar looked at the fall of rocks and said, "It's unused because it's unsafe. Look at those timbers."

James moved his light a little closer to a fallen lintel and said, "Dry as paper." He pushed aside a few pieces that had fallen so he could sit on a large rock.

"I thought old wood got harder," said William.

"Sometimes," said Treggar. "I've seen old buildings where the timbers are as hard as steel." He picked up a small piece and crumbled it between his fingers. "Sometimes it just gets old."

"What do you judge the clock to be?" asked James.

Treggar said, "Near dawn."

"I wager our friends over there are likely to sleep during the day. Their trade is usually conducted at night. I'm going to slip out and look around. If I can't find another way out, I'll look at that door again. We can't stay here long."

"See if you can find some water," said William. "I'm parched."

James nodded. It had been hours since they had left their equipment and found the newly-carved entrance to this ancient place. "I'll see what I can do."

"Before you leave: what is that trick with the light?" asked William.

James handed over the lit taper and said, "Watch." He reached into his belt-pouch and pulled out another long taper, it looked like a thick punk of slow-burning wood, the kind used to light fires and torches. "These have a substance rubbed into them." He then produced a small vial of liquid and poured a drop onto the punk. For a brief instant nothing happened, then a flame burst out on the tip. "I bought these from a street magician in Krondor a while back. Very handy and you don't have to strike sparks with flint and steel-even works in high winds."

William grinned. "I thought maybe old Kulgan taught you that finger-fire trick of his."

"Hardly," said James. "I'd leave these with you, but I may need light more than you do. Sit tight." James stood up, stepped through the doorway and was gone.

William held the burning taper James had left behind, until Captain Treggar said, "Better put that out, lieutenant."

William obeyed and plunged the room into darkness. "If you don't mind, I'm getting flint, steel and tinder out, just in case."

"I don't mind at all."

William could hear him moving in the dark, then Treggar said, "Here's some of that wood. If you need to make a torch in a hurry, it should catch quickly."

'Thank you, captain."

A long silence followed.

Treggar spoke. "That squire is an unusual fellow, ain't he?"

William said, "From everything I've ever heard. I've only spent time with him occasionally when my father brought me to Krondor on visits. You've been in Krondor for years. I would have thought you knew him better than I do."

"Hardly," said Treggar. Another long silence followed, then he said, "He's the Prince's squire. 'Pet Squire,' a few call him, but not to his face. Lots of special privileges."

"From what I know, he's earned them."

"Seems that way, don't it?"

William said, "Captain?"

"What?"

"Just want to say I plan on pulling my duty. Not being around the first week . . . well, it wasn't my idea."

"I'm getting that impression."

Again silence.

William said, "Well, I really didn't want duty in Krondor, actually."

"Really? Why not?"

"I'm not really related to the Prince. My father was adopted into his house by Lord Boric, years ago."

"Makes you a member of the royal house, boy."

"So I've been told. But I just want to soldier, captain. I want to earn my way."

"Soldiering is a hard life," said Treggar after a moment. "Lots of n.o.ble boys come to the palace and train with the swordmaster and then take their commissions and go home to their families. They show up on state occasions, in s.h.i.+ning armor, riding a horse the like of which I'll never sit on in my life, and they get. . ." He fell into silence.

"And you feel overlooked?"

"You could say that. I started off as a soldier, enlisted during the first years of the Riftwar. I was with Dulanic's garrison and got run up to the front in Yabon when Duke Guy came to the city."

William had been a baby when that had occurred, but he had heard the story before.

"Your Squire James was a brat thief in those days, and I was a scared soldier, holding a pike and standing next to other scared soldiers watching those Tsurani maniacs charging us with no fear in their eyes."

William said nothing.

"Anyway, it was a long war and a lot of lads didn't make it. By the second winter up there in the mountains I was a sergeant. By the third I was a lieutenant, and because I was in the Prince of Krondor's garrison, that made me a 'knight-lieutenant.' He was silent for a moment, then said, "Talking about myself. I don't do that much."

"I'm glad for the sound of your voice, captain. It makes the darkness less oppressive."

"I'm the oldest bachelor officer in the garrison, Will."

William took note of the use of his given name. It was the first time Treggar hadn't addressed him by rank. 'That must be hard, captain."

"I'm the officer who doesn't get invited to the dances, to meet the young girls. I'm the officer who isn't connected by birth to anyone. My father was a dockman."

Suddenly William realized the captain was afraid. Revealing that there was something beneath the mask of bully was his way of sharing that fear. William didn't know what to say, save, "My father started off as a kitchen boy."

Treggar laughed. "But he didn't stay one, did he?"

William chuckled. "That's the truth. If you had your choice, what would you do?"

"I'd like to meet a woman. She doesn't have to be someone of rank. Just a nice woman. I'd like a post where I'm in charge. Where I'm not always looking over my shoulder to see if the swordmaster or knight-marshal, or a duke or anyone else, is watching to see if I'm going to lose my temper and beat some young cadet over the head. I just want to do my job. Even somewhere like that little outpost we refit near Shandon Bay. Fifty men, a sergeant, chasing smugglers, thumping bandits, home for dinner."

William laughed. "If we get out of here, I'll be happy to go with you and just be left to do my job. I just found out last week the Prince expects things from me."

"That's a burden. Being royal family, I mean."

"So they tell me."

They lapsed into silence.

Finally, William said, "I wonder what James is doing?"

James was crawling on his stomach, as silently as he could. He had found one route past the perimeter of the closest population of a.s.sa.s.sins, but he knew William and Treggar would never be able to win past it undetected; it had taxed his considerable skills to avoid being seen. Now he was trying to find another route, and a broken sewer pipe was providing the way, as long as it got no smaller.

The structure was ancient. Kesh had abandoned the fortress centuries ago, for reasons lost in history. A revolt in the interior of the Empire, or down in the subject nations of the Kes.h.i.+an Confederacy. Perhaps a power struggle in the heart of the Empire itself.

In the scant light from the taper he lit from time to time, James had seen enough to wish he had more leisure time in which to investigate fully. He had found a room full of ancient bones, many obviously dumped there recently. James a.s.sumed the present occupants of the fortress had moved them there.

He had also found stones from above, weathered and sun-bleached, piled in several larger rooms-one he judged an officer's mess, and three barracks rooms-which surprised him. He deduced that the a.s.sa.s.sins had found some remaining structure from the ancient fortress above ground and had labored to remove traces of their lair.

James saw light ahead and moved even more cautiously. He inched his way until he was directly under the light. The upper portion of the pipe was broken below a large hole in the floor. James was below the level of the floor, lying on his stomach. He slowly turned over and then sat up even more slowly.

The room was empty. He got up.

He was in a guardroom of some sort, with cell doors in three walls. The guardroom door let out into another long dark hall. James peered into the nearest cell through a small barred opening in an iron door. A solitary man sat against the far wall, wearing only a white linen breechcloth. "Hey!" James whispered.

The man's head came up and he blinked as he tried to make out the features of the man whose head blocked the small window. "Who are you?" he whispered in the King's Tongue.

"James, squire of Krondor."

The man scrambled to his feet and came to the window, where James could see his features. "I'm Edwin of the Pathfinders."

James nodded. "I saw them sacrifice your companion a few hours ago."

"That was Benito," he said. "They killed Arawan the night before. I'm next unless you get me out of here."

"Patience," said James. "If I let you out now and they come and check on you, they'll know we're in the stronghold."

"How many of you are there?"

"Three. Myself and two officers. We're waiting for the Prince to arrive."

"So are the a.s.sa.s.sins," said Edwin. "I don't know what they're planning, but I understand enough of their speech to have some sense they know His Highness is on his way and are preparing a welcome for him."

"The demon," said James.

"A demon?" whispered Edwin. "I knew it was some sort of dark magic . . ."

"I'll be back," said James. "If they plan on sacrificing you tonight, that gives me the better part of a day to find a way out of here."

"I know a way out! They caught me at the eastern edge of their fortress. They've opened an ancient gate, probably a sally-port. Hors.e.m.e.n could ride through it two abreast."

"We found another way, a footpath cut deep into the rock next to the ancient main gate. But I can't figure out how to open it from inside."

"I can't help you, squire. What do you plan to do?"

"Tell me first about the entrance you found." 'There's an underground stable where they keep their animals, next to an armory. From there a short but large hall leads to a drop-gate across a small dry moat. There are look-out positions, cleverly disguised, along the eastern face of this escarpment, and anyone approaching that way will be seen long before he reaches the gate."

James considered. The overall layout of the place was coming into focus. "I'll be back to get you. How long before the sacrifice will they come for you?"

"An hour. They feed us-me-once a day. That should be in a couple of hours."

"Eat. You'll need your strength. We're leaving before they realize you're missing."