Chapter 29

––––––––

Ralion listened to the sounds of movement, leaning against the cell bars near the lock and he recognized Sadek’s voice too. He looked over to the man they’d left to watch him. “What’s going on out there?”

The man shrugged. “No telling.”

Ralion heard the door open that led to where they had Dynan and then he shrugged too. He sat back down on the cot, waiting. “Why don’t you go find out?”

His guard shook his head. “Orders. I have to stay in here with you. They aren’t going to do anything to him. Orders again. They just want to talk to him. Find out why he’s here and what all the talk is about. Personally, I don’t believe it. You say it’s true, about where you’re from, but it all sounds a little too crazy to me.”

Ralion had found the guard a talkative sort and they’d spent the last hours doing that. He was relaxed about his duty, up to a point. He was likeable enough and not so different from Ralion, except for being on the other side of the cell door. Ralion didn’t think he knew what was going on beyond what he’d been told. What he’d been told didn’t correspond with what was happening. If all anyone wanted was a friendly chat, there wouldn’t be any need for a locked cell, and it wouldn’t be happening in the middle of the night. The guard didn’t see it that way, didn’t see any danger in this situation when Ralion felt it the moment the cell door closed.

He listened to muffled voices, straining to hear what was said through two sets of doors. There was a wide room between the two cellblocks, a place where the guards met for their duty assignments. Another door off that hall led to what Ralion guessed was the Captain’s office. Kint had gone that way after leaving Dynan and then left the building.

Voices neared his door, but didn’t come through it. He heard a grunt and muttered complaints. Sadek was there, telling them to be quiet and get on with their job. The grumbling stopped and they moved toward the back of the building. They weren’t going out the front door. Ralion wished for windows, guessing that the back wall of his cell was the outside wall of the building. A few minutes passed and then he heard the crunch of boots on a gravel road. He heard a man say something about him being heavy. Judging by the creak of wood, a load was put into a wagon and then a horse pulled away.

Sadek was in the next room, explaining something and the word moved was used. Ralion glanced at his guard. The man was immersed in reading the local bulletin, unconcerned or oblivious to the conversations next door. Those had the tone of coming to an end. A moment later, the front door opened and closed. Someone muttered that Sadek was a pompous ass and they’d like to be rid of him.

“Can you get me a drink of water?” Ralion asked.

The guard nodded without looking up, reading as he moved to the barrel. He wasn’t paying attention when he dipped the cup in and spilled some water on the floor on his way over. Ralion didn’t get up to get the water until the guard put his arm through the bars.

He grabbed the cup and the guard by the arm at the same time, tossing the cup on the bed so it wouldn’t make noise falling. He got his hand clamped across the man’s mouth next, hauling him backward into the bars. One arm went around his throat. Ralion could have snapped his neck, but didn’t, waiting until unconsciousness descended from lack of air. He let him down to the floor. The guard would recover soon enough, with a bad headache to show for his stupidity.

They hadn’t found the laser cutter in his boot and he used it on the cell lock. He didn’t have to worry about fixing it this time. They hadn’t found the two daggers up either sleeve either, but Ralion didn’t want to use those unless he had to. The moment to ignore Dynan’s orders had arrived, but Ralion recognized that he was right about not spilling a lot of blood, or any if he could at all help it.

At the door into the main hall, he listened to the other guards talking. There’d been four of them when they were brought in. Other than Kint leaving, there hadn’t been any coming or going until Sadek.

Ralion cracked the door, pulling the latch slowly so it wouldn’t make any noise and saw them sitting at a central table, playing a game of some sort that involved the use of small cards. They were talking quietly about the day’s events and how it would put a big damper on High Day if there was a hanging in the morning.

Ralion went through the door and walked over to the two men with their backs to him. He had them by the neck and cracked their heads together before the other two could get to their feet. One got his sword half out of its scabbard before meeting Ralion’s fist. The other started backing away, thinking to escape out the back. He thought about yelling next, but Ralion got to him quicker.

“Where’d they take him?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t say.”

Ralion nodded, decided not to waste time, and knocked the man unconscious. He found his sword and Dynan’s stored in a cabinet, and took them both, along with a belt that held a comboard, a knife, and a lamp box. The control pad to the ship wasn’t there. He was out the back door a moment later, following after the cart.

The streets were quiet and dark. He saw an occasional guard posted at a corner. Ralion stayed to the shadows, straining to hear, and thought he could just make out the steady clip of hooves. It seemed to come from above him. He remembered the hill Crey stood on. He followed the sound, but couldn’t catch up to it, always a distance behind. He reached the top of the hill and started down the other side, chasing echoes.

He was held up on a street, coming out between houses, by a pair of guards who were talking about the strange day they’d had. Ralion willed them to move on, losing the sound of the wagon. He didn’t know Crey, but it seemed that all the official buildings were behind him. There weren’t any good reasons for Dynan to be taken this way.

The guards finally moved on. Ralion hardly waited for them to get out of sight before he crossed the road behind them. He saw a large pond spread out in a dip of the hill. A shadow moved along its periphery, a horse and a cart. They stopped by a stand of trees, moving furtively and keeping quiet. They pulled something out of the back of the cart and heaved it into a boat drawn up on the shore. Ralion didn’t look anymore, but started racing down the hill.