Ten Arrows

Chapter 12

Turning, I looked in the direction the voice had come from - the relatively dark section of the room. Some of the shadows appeared to be moving slightly, and in a way that seemed a little reminiscent of-

"Connor?" I asked, dumbfounded.

"Shhh!" the voice hushed. Bricks twisted and shimmered unnaturally, and half of Connor's face appeared suddenly, as though he'd somehow been wearing a portion of the wall. His single visible eye glanced at the doorway, then back to me. "Yell some more."

"What?"

"He's still there!" he whispered, voice sounding anxious. "Outside the doorway, listening!"

"He . . . you-" My own eyes briefly darted to the doorway, then back to Connor, who nodded with unfeigned urgency. Though I couldn't see any sign of Borshank anywhere, I turned to the entrance and raised my voice. "Borshank! Get back here, you treacle-brained, whore-hopping bastard! I'll destroy you, do you hear me? Baal-be-damned, goat-kissing coward! You-"

I went on for a good, long time, using up every combination of weird, insulting language I could think of, hurling curses out the doorway and down the hall at him. About five minutes later, just as I started getting to the proverbial bottom of my barrel, I saw Connor waving to me from his crouched position in the corner.

"Okay, he's walked off," he said quietly, slowly getting to his feet, unable to hide a pained expression as he stretched himself out a bit. "We should keep our voices down in case he wanders back into earshot. He may still be listening from a ways away."

"You've been over there the whole time?" I asked in a disbelieving whisper.

"Three hours or so, yeah," he said, stretching out his back with a wince. "You've been out for a while."

"But . . . what are you doing here? Are you crazy? This is one of the most secure areas in the palace, Connor! How did you even get in here?"

Connor gave me a skeptical look. "You're kidding, right?"

Oh. Of course. Some days I forget how naturally burgling comes to him.

"You know," I said, a bit of an edge in my voice, "you could have made a bunch of things a whole lot simpler if you'd let me know that you could break in and out of the palace prisons at will."

"Well then, next time I guess you should keep me informed of your plans!" he shot back.

I scowled a bit at that, but half-heartedly.

"Alright, you've got a point. Regardless, I'm actually very glad to see you, Connor, because I could probably use your help leaving the palace. Just give me a couple seconds to grab a little something so I can get out of this cell," I said, already hunting for my loose brick in the wall, finding it a few short moments later. I raised my hand toward it.

"Stop!" Connor whispered urgently. "It's been trapped!"

My hand froze a few inches from the brick's surface. I looked a question at Connor.

"While you were unconscious. That older guy, Borshank? He was talking to another guy, who was doing something to that patch of wall." Connor pointed to the brick my hand was hovering over. "The guy told Borshank he shouldn't be in the room when it went off. For health reasons."

I slowly put it all together.

Damn. He'd almost got me.

I swore softly, partially because of my predicament, but mostly because I had allowed myself to get played like that. I honestly hadn't believed Borshank to be that clever.