He found me first, thank the Four. Dredger, a heavily bearded man built like a bull, waved from his post near the stone gatehouse.
“Ellie, so good to see you, my sweet,” Dredger said a little too loudly as I approached.
I smiled through clenched teeth. “You don’t need to announce it to the whole city, darling.”
He coughed, his cheeks like two red apples. “Right, er, I’ll take my supper now.”
“What, not even a kiss first?” I said teasingly.
Sweat poured down the man’s face beneath his helmet. “Uh, of course.” A few of the other guards snickered. “Somewhere a little more private.”
The other guards whistled and cheered as Dredger towed me into the narrow gatehouse.
“Is there really going to be a battle tomorrow?” he asked in a desperate whisper, clutching my basket. “My wife, my children... This city can’t burn. I just want the gods-damned Wolves gone. And?—”
“Enough,” I hissed, frantically looking over my shoulder as I scurried around the winching mechanism. The metal gate was enormous, anchored by thick chains. “We’re helping free the city right now, you and me. Now watch my back.”
I crouched on the musty floor where the gate disappeared into a crevice. The meager lamplight showed two huge square metal rods skewering the gate against the wall.
Gods damn it, the pins were thicker than I thought. More like metal branches than the slender twigs they’d seemed in Everett’s sketch.
They were also bent upward at the end, like twin snakes ready to strike. I tested one, and it didn’t budge—the iron stubbornly clinging to its home in the gate.
I would just have to sever the metal where it sat against the stone floor. But perhaps that was for the best.
“Hurry,” Dredger muttered from where he peered at both entrances of the gatehouse. “Mankmen is watching the other side, but the captain could come by any moment.”
“Keep talking as though you’re murmuring to Eleanor,” I whispered. “Drown out any noise.”
And keep you from talking to me.
Dredger muttered nonsense to himself while I grabbed my knife. I set the glittering blade as close to the gate as possible and started sawing through one locking pin. It was like slicing a tough steak with a butter knife. Much more difficult than the prisoner chains.
Sweat gathered under my warm dress. My face felt sticky. Gods damn it, if my makeup melted, the other guards would know I wasn’t Eleanor.
I gritted my teeth and strained. Finally, my knife sank through to the stone with a light squeal. I caught the metal handle before it could fall.
Holding my breath, I waited for any cries of alarm as Dredger’s amorous mumbling increased in volume.
No one came.
I carefully laid the severed handle next to the rest of its body, aligning them to look whole.
There. That’s the best I can do, Everett.
Scratching at my sweaty cap, I hurried to the other pin.
“Hey, Dredger, did Eleanor bring you those berry muffins again?” someone called from the other side of the gatehouse.
I jerked upright, my wide eyes finding Dredger’s.
“Leave him alone, Wottel,” said a gruff voice. “Give the man a minute with his wife.”
“Ah, come on, Mankmen, you know you want one as well,” Wottel said cajolingly. “Eleanor’s cooking is the only good food left in Aquinon.”
I flew over to Dredger and flung my arms around him as if we were in a passionate embrace. The poor man’s arms shook as he held me tentatively.
“Later,” Mankmen growled.
