“Like we practiced,” Emeric said. “Put the pin into the lock and feel around for the tumblers.”
She nodded and inserted the pin. Emeric had made her practice this for hours on her manacles with a sliver of wood he’d found in the corner of the cellar. The splinter hadn’t been strong enough to open the manacles of course, and had snapped eventually, but it had given her the feel of how a lock worked and ways to manipulate it.
Her fingers slick with sweat, she shifted the pin around as Emeric had taught her, feeling the mechanism inside the lock. Finally, there was a click and the door swung slowly open.
Heart hammering, Lily peered through. There were no guards outside the door. She had maybe a minute before the next shift came to check on the prisoners. She glanced back at Magnus and Emeric who gave her a reassuring nod, then she darted out.
She found herself in a narrow passage with several doors leading off, all thankfully shut. She heard voices from behind several of them. Biting her lip to try and calm her thundering heart, she moved as quickly as she could along the passage towards the heavy front door.
“Stop idling and get to yer post!” Alice’s voice came through the wall. “And check on the prisoners!”
Lily’s heart jumped into her mouth. She reached the door and threw the heavy bolt just as one of the doors in the corridor creaked open behind her. Lily let out a gasp of fear. Without looking back, she jumped down the three steps into the street and ran.
“EVERYONE IN PLACE?”Oskar said, his voice low.
Bryn nodded. Then he grinned suddenly. “This is just like old times isnae it?”
Oskar just scowled at that. He peered around the corner of the building. Ahead, across a patch of open ground, reared the high walls of the gaol. The gates were closed and two torches burned on the walls, casting it in an eerie glow. He guessed it was somewhere past midnight and the streets of the city were quiet but for the odd cutpurse or drunk.
Oskar swallowed, Lily’s face materializing in his mind.
I have to do this, he told himself.I have to.
He cupped his fingers to his lips and let out three shrill whistles. At his signal, members of Bryn’s crew materialized out of the darkness at the base of the gaol’s high wall.
One by one, the men unstrapped grappling hooks from their backs and began to throw them at the wall, the hooks biting deep into the stony surface. With practiced ease, two of them scaled the wall, disappearing over the top. A second later, Oskar heard a brief scuffle, a couple of thuds, and then the gates were swinging open.
He waved a hand and darted from his hiding place, Bryn and the rest of his crew following behind. Torches flickered as he entered the yard and spotted the gate-guards unconscious and tied to a post. So far, so good.
Oskar glanced around at his men, a group of seasoned fighters with not an ounce of fear in their faces. He made a series of gestures, indicating for them to spread out and take out any more guards that they found. Then he turned left, sprinted along the inside of the wall with Bryn and a group of hand-picked men behind him, and approached the low stone building that housed the prisoners.
The entrance to the cell block was guarded by a lone sentry, but he didn’t have time to cry out before Oskar’s fist crashed into his face, laying him out cold. Oskar took the guard’s keys, opened the door, and led the way inside.
The cells were illuminated faintly by weak moonlight filtering in through high, narrow windows, casting long, distorted shadows across the roughly hewn walls. The stench of sweat and urine was overpowering and the second Oskar and his men entered, the inmates came rushing to the bars, stretching out grasping arms and bellowing to be let out.
Damn it! They were making enough noise to bring the city guard running.
Oskar and his men hurried down the cellblock, struggling to find their quarry in the chaos of desperate prisoners.
He approached the final cell. It was smaller than the others, with bars that had been reinforced with iron bands. Inside, a single man sat hunched in the corner, his face obscured by shadows.
“Ah, Oskar,” said Alfred Brewer, lifting his head. “So good of ye to come visit me.”
“Shut up,” Oskar snarled.
He unlocked the door with the keys he’d taken from the guard, grabbed Alfred Brewer by the elbow, and dragged him out of the cell. The man gasped in pain and Oskar saw that he had a fresh splint and bandage on his broken leg. He recognized it as Lily’s handiwork.
He detailed two men to carry Alfred, then led the way back into the yard outside. The men stumbled out of the gaolhouse, Alfred clinging to the two who were carrying him, grunting in pain with each unsteady step.
Oskar could hear the distant sound of boots pounding against the ground, and the clanging of the alarm bell. The city guard was coming. They didn’t have long.
He glanced at Alfred. “Keep yer head down and stay quiet,” he ordered. “Come on.”
Oskar sprinted across the yard, his boots scraping against the rough stones. The wind whipped at his hair and his tunic didlittle to shield him from the biting cold of the night air. Alfred, clinging to his two bearers, was almost a dead weight, causing them to stumble and slowing their pace.
“Hurry, damn ye!” Oskar hissed at the man. “Do ye want to get caught and end up back in that cell?”
In truth, that would suit Oskar just fine, but if that happened there was no telling what Eberwyn would do to Lily and the others.
