“How can you get us inside?” Nikon asked, a bit of hope mixed with a lot of wariness in his tone.
“We do like we did around town. You take me to jail and act like you’re there to bring me in. Once we’re inside, we find Kaius and Zoe and break them out.”
He grunted. “It’s not going to be that easy.”
“We can’t not try.” Because every moment that ticked by left them trapped longer.
“What if it means they figure out our plan, capture you and take you back to Antonia?”
I gulped. What would she do to me? I wasn’t certain I wanted to find out, but it ended with me being either her slave or dead. Then again, why had she let me live at the house by the waterfall so long if she wanted me dead? Something to puzzle over later. I was more concerned about not being able to find my parents, but I had to try. “Even then.”
“I don’t like it,” Nikon said.
“Of course you don’t. The truth is I don’t either, but we owe it to our friends to try our hardest to get them out of this situation we put them in.” If only things had gone differently.
“You’re right, though I hate to admit it. How are we going to get out, once we’re in? With two more people added in?”
That was a problem I hadn’t thought of. I’d only thought of getting us in.
“I’m in disguise so they won’t realize it’s me. I might be able to convince them I’m taking you all to the capital, but I doubt it.”
There was a tightness to Nikon’s voice and had been since he got there. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“I don’t think you’d want to hear.”
With the tone of his voice, I definitely wouldn’t, but I had to. “Sand it all, I want to, despite that it could be the worst news. They’re not already dead, are they?” The thought left my throat clogged. They wouldn’t kill them. Would they?
“No, but…the warriors are trying to torture information out of them. Their screams were distinct outside the jail, and some warriors were talking about it.”
A chill scampered through me, making me shiver despite the afternoon heat. I shook my head, not wanting to believe it. “All the more reason for us to get in there as soon as possible. We can’t leave them like that.” How could any one person treat another like that? “How do we get out once we have them? Any ideas?”
“We fight our way out. It’ll be tight, though, and more likely to end up with us caught than them saved.”
“There’s a chance, though, right?”
“A small one. There is a door in the back that only opens from the inside. They use it to let in supplies and warriors. If we can get to that, we can make it,” Nikon said.
“You have your sword?”
“Among other things.”
“What other things?” I asked. “Wait. No. I don’t want to hear. I have my fighting sticks, as long as they don’t take my cane. What do we do with Tewy?”
“As much as he’s clinging to us today, we’re not going to get away with anything but taking him with us.”
Good. I didn’t want him in peril, but I also didn’t want to leave him behind. “Fine then. We stick together. When can we go?”
“The sun needs to be a little lower in the sky, before we can make our way there.”
I hated waiting. I desired to do something useful in the meantime, but I had left my crocheting hook and yarn back at the house. It didn’t seem right to be working while our friends were being tortured. “Why wait?”
“Because it will make our escape easier. It’s already going to be hard. The lower the sun is, the easier we’ll be able to hide if we make it out.”
The if gave away his lack of confidence that this would work. I didn’t have any either. I clenched and unclenched my fists. The worry and tension bubbling up inside grew worse and worse. A distraction was called for. “Nikon?”
“Hmm?”
“What was your life like, growing up?”
“Is now really the time for that question?”
“It would be good to distract me from things we can’t control. Otherwise, I’ll go mad, thinking about what they’re doing to Kaius and Zoe.” Though I doubted his words would release me from the fear and concern bouncing through me.
He grunted. “I understand that, but you don’t want to hear about my childhood.”
“Why ever not?”
“It wasn’t… interesting.”
I had a feeling that wasn’t what he’d been about to say. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?” I asked. Interesting or not, it had to be better than lingering thoughts of my friends being tortured.
Nikon seemed to agree, because he said, “My parents were single-minded. It wasn’t their fault they had things they wanted to get done. It didn’t leave much time for paying attention to us. For a long time, I thought it was something I did wrong, but I realize different now. But it was the way they were.”
“What did they spend so long focusing on?” I couldn’t imagine what would take someone from their children. My parents were busy with work and other things, but they’d always made time for me.
“Oh, lots of things. Matters that weren’t important to me as a boy. It doesn’t matter now. What does is that it changed something in me. Made me less willing to open up to people. You’ve taught me it might be a good thing to do at times, though.”
And yet, as he said that, it was easy to tell there were things he held back. We all had matters we didn’t want to speak of. I wouldn’t push him to share his, though I was wildly curious about it.
Tewy pulled on my hand. I flipped it over for him, palm up. Something tickled my skin. “What’s that?” I asked.
“What’s wha—No, Tewy!” Nikon grabbed my hand and the tickling on my skin disappeared. There was a stomping sound that made me hope Nikon was right about the owners of this home being gone. If they weren’t, they for certain knew we were here now.
“Are you all right?” Nikon asked.
“Fine. Why?”
“Tewy gifted you a scarab.”
I shuddered. That monkey of mine… “At least it wasn’t a scorpion.” The scarab was said to be bad luck, but the poisonous critters weren’t something I ever wanted crawling around me.
Before I became blind, and even more recently before I left my house by the waterfall, I wouldn’t have been as superstitious, but since finding out things like the neczar and the sphinx were real, it was hard not to believe.
The sphinx—that was another problem. I had one chance left to give her the correct answer to her riddle, but I didn’t have a response. Too many problems, and I should focus on the one at hand. Luck, whether good or bad, would come as it would. No bug could change that. “Where did you grow up?” I asked.
“Here and there. My parents traveled a lot.”
“That sounds difficult,” I said.
“When it’s what you’re used to, it’s no problem at all. I met a lot of people that way. Made a lot of connections.”
He did seem to have a lot of those. “Are your parents alive?”
“No. They died some time ago.” His voice was distant.
“I understand how hard that can be.”
“You’d get it better than most.”
I would, after believing my parents were dead for years. “How did they die?”
He grabbed my hand and cradled it in his own. “If you don’t mind, I’d prefer not to talk about it.”
“I understand.” But it did make me wonder what had happened to them.
In the silence that followed, my fears for Zoe and Kaius came winding their way back in, until they were tight around my heart, squeezing it with a pressure that made it difficult to breathe. “Is it time to go yet?”
“Not until more people get off work and head back to their homes. Then it will be close to the guard change.”
“What difference does it make?”
“Hopefully, it’ll bring in more confusion.”
I hoped to the sands it would work. If not, there’d be nothing I could do for my friends as they were tortured for information about me. The thought left my stomach whipping about like a sandstorm.
This had to work. “Should we make more of a plan than what we’ve got?” I asked.
“I wish I had any ideas. I was hoping you did.” His fingers tapped against my skin. “We’ll have to see how things go. There’s so much we can’t prepare for. Improvising will have to do.”
“And if it doesn’t?” I choked out the question.
His voice remained calm, but his fingers tightened. “We’ll be under the whims of the Reding and Vading, and won’t be able to do anything.”
“There’s always something we can do.”
“If captured? No. We won’t be able to escape again. Once they have us, they’ll put more warriors on us than ever before.”
That was a sobering thought. “Thank you for being willing to do this, Nikon. Zoe and Kaius are worth it.”
“Which is why we’re going to rescue them, and beseech the sands that this works.”
I clenched my teeth, unwilling to say more. I let the time pass, while Tewy scampered about nearby. Who knew what he was doing, bounding about, but at least he was getting some of his monkey energy out. There was nothing to do with my energy except clasp Nikon’s hand, which I did. I clung to him like someone was trying to separate us. The calluses were so familiar and comforting, they left my heart beating more calmly than before.
To his credit, he didn’t say a word, just squeezed right back, grasping me like I clung to him. There was too much unknown coming, and we both seemed to feel it.
The sound of people below slowly faded, though it never ceased completely. I settled in for waiting, dealing with my anxiety by taking deep breaths and focusing on Tewy.
“It’s time to go,” Nikon said, startling me.
I hadn’t been ready for him to speak, and now that he did, I would have preferred he’d take it back. After all that waiting, I wasn’t as ready as I thought.
“Last chance to get out of this,” Nikon said.
“I’m not taking it.”
“Then to the jail we go.”
And if we couldn’t save our friends and lost our own freedom, so be it.