A Jewel Among Thieves

Chapter 18: Waiting

Despite a few more half-hearted attempts by Rezo to talk to her, Safia kept her back to him. When the light from the cell's window was pale enough blue that there was no denying the sun was about to peer over the horizon, she heard him sigh. "I'm going to go upstairs to wait for Kasen."

She didn't reply, hoping her silence said it all. Each word felt like a weight hanging over the imaginary noose she felt around her neck. With them, she felt like her punishment was set. She'd do her best to escape, but from what Rezo had said about his brother, she didn't have high hopes. Safia was trapped between the mortar and the pestle, with nothing to look forward to other than the grind of the courts and gaol.

Trying not to pay attention to Rezo's second sigh and retreating footsteps, but once she couldn't hear him anymore, she turned back around. Safia studied her cell carefully. Her hand balled into fists as she realized this was her last chance. She hurried over to the cell door, kneeling in front of it.

She patted her whole body, but had nothing strong enough to pick with. She studied her fingernails, kept short to make it easier for her to feel things. If they'd been longer, she might have been able to bite off a piece... She shook her head. Now she was just being crazy.

Safia considered braiding a bit of her hair, but knew it would be pointless. Without anything to use as picks, the lock was hopeless. She crawled along the edge of the bars, trying to see if Rezo had left something, anything within reach that she could use. But her hands only found empty stone.

She stood up and decided to leave the door for now. She turned her attention towards the bars. She studied where they all joined into a long metal strip that was in turn bolted into the stone blocks of the ceiling. It looked solid, but just to be sure, she grabbed a bar in each hand and hung off them. But her weight was obviously not enough to make it move even the tiniest bit. She hissed and released the bars.

If she couldn't bring the bars down, maybe she could bend them. Safia stripped off Rezo's shirt and wrapped it around two bars and pulled, trying to bend them towards each other. Her arms trembled with the force she was exerting on her muscles, but the metal remained stubbornly straight. She pulled the shirt back and popped it back on. There was no point in using her body as a weapon now, not with what had already happened. And she didn't want Rezo to guess at her frantic escape attempts. She wouldn't give him that kind of satisfaction.

A quick try with her bare hands, then her legs had the same result. The bars were solid and she didn't think even Rezo with his hulking frame could bend them. The cell was solid, and something far too good to be in some lord's manor. She glared at the bars, wondering why the cursed thing had been built in the first place. The original builders couldn't have planned for catching thieves, could they?

Safia shook away the irrelevant thoughts. Her mind might be trying to escape the reality of her situation, but she couldn't afford to do that. There had to be some way out, some angle she hadn't considered. She moved back over to the cell's door and studied it again.

A sudden thought had her frowning. She'd never actually tried the door. What if Rezo had forgotten to lock it? A quick rattle of it dashed her hopes on that one. She looked over the hinges, briefly trying to lift the door, to see if they moved at all or seemed loose enough she could knock them out. But they wouldn't budge.

She cursed now, kicking the door lightly, knowing how much blow with any force would hurt. She'd made that mistake with a lockbox once. The gap between the cell door and the wall wasn't much more than that of the bars, only her foot able to make it through. Halfway to her calf and her leg was stuck.

It took a bit of wriggling, but she got her leg back out. She strode away from the door, then back towards it, pacing in front of the bars, eyes going everywhere. There had to be something. She refused to admit defeat. Not after everything she'd done to get this far. The worst part was she could see the puzzlebox sitting on the table right beside where she'd seen Rezo put her belt down. If she could get out of the damn cell, she could grab both and be away before either of them could find her again. Then she'd have finished the job, gotten her trunkful of coin, and could warn all her brethren about Rezo.

Safia shoved those thoughts, especially the ones about him, away. She needed to focus. She moved to the far end of the cell, away from the door, eyeing where the bars met the wall. Unlike the top, these were stuck directly into the stone blocks, and to her, held some promise. She grabbed one end and pushed and pulled on it. She might be imagining it, but Safia thought there'd been a bit of give.

She grinned and put more strength into it, trying to wiggle the end more. Maybe even get it loose. A few minutes of working at it and feeling the sweat beginning to gather on her brow, Safia had to release the bar and step back. It wasn't moving any more than her first attempt, without even the bits of rock dust she'd expected to see if she was really forcing it out at all. She was only deluding and exhausting herself. There was no escape.

Swallowing hard, she turned away from the bars to study the window again, the bit of sky she could see now the pale gold and light pink of dawn. Her time was up as was her hope. There was nothing left to do except wait for the guard.

Carefully brushing herself off, Safia retied her hair and did her best to erase any hint of her escape attempts. She couldn't do much about the sweat but to wipe it away, glad the shirt was dark and should hide anything that may have appeared on her back. She caught her hands shaking and crossed her arms to hide them.

Safia inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm herself, to bring back her professional mask. She wouldn't let either of the men see anything other than blank façade. She wouldn't let either of them know about the swirling emotions that made it almost impossible to think, each competing for dominance of her. Anger, pain, betrayal, fear, worry, and sadness all seemed to jump on top of each other, like beggars after a coin. But she refused to be the kind of thief who threw themselves on the non-existent mercy of the guards. She'd seen what that got people. No, she'd rather keep her dignity and pride, and at least earn some grudging respect.

And maybe Rezo had overestimated his brother's capabilities. Maybe affection had blinded him, and this Kasen would be easy for her to turn to her side. She wouldn't know until she tried. It wasn't like she had any other options.