“What now?”Apollo whispered.
They crouched between the wagon and the external wall, and above them, the white walls of the tower rose high.Few people occupied the inner courtyard, and the sparse crowd made his presence there even more dangerous.
“Couldn’t you have done this at night?”Apollo asked.
Temple pressed his hand against the stone of the fortress, hot in the summer afternoon.Ragstone, Caen stone, mudstone.They gave him strength even if he couldn’t do much with them other than build up his own energy.The iron in the tower had been set long and well; he doubted he’d find any rust.Didn’t matter.
Not with this new potion.He pulled the bottle from his pocket.
“What’s that?”Apollo sounded annoyed now.
“An alchemist secret.”The courtyard was clear, and Temple darted across it toward a tower door.
“This is mad!”But Apollo ran after him.“Do you know where she’s being held?”
“No idea.”Temple thumbed the cork off the bottle he held, downed the potion, and threw the empty container to the floor.He reached out for iron, felt it everywhere.
“Don’t you think your wife will be terribly upset if you die today?Damn it, man, she’ll blame me!And this time, I’m not at fault.”
Nearby, an iron bar on a window, three of them.He strode to the window and wrapped his hands around two of the bars.They glowed.It was working.He could melt through the setting, dissolve it entirely, leaving the iron in the bars ready for shaping.He yanked them out of the stone and began to forge them together in one hand while he removed the third bar from the window.
“How did you… That’simpossible,” Apollo whispered.Then, “Hell.A guard is coming.”
Temple continued working the third bar loose and added it to the first two.He shaped a hammer—long handle, light but strong; a head small but heavy.
“Halt!”a guard cried, jogging across the dim interior of the tower toward them.
“Be ready,” Temple said, sending a bolt of cold through his body and into the hammer to harden the metal.
“So the plan is to either slam a hammer into their heads or make them fall in love with us?”
“Who are you?”the guard asked, stopping before them.He eyed Temple’s hammer nervously, kept his distance.“Hand that over.”
“Tell me where Lady Knightly is being kept.”
The guard tensed.“You can’t be here.”
Temple swung the hammer back.
“Wait!”Apollo threw his arm out, pushing Temple back, then he uncorked his bottle and splashed some at the guard, who winced and wiped the stuff off his face with the back of his hand.But a drop of it curved over his upper lip.He licked it off.
“What in hell… are… you…” The guard blinked, his face softening.“Who are you?”
“Your best friend.”Apollo grinned.“Now why don’t you tell me about Lady Knightly.It’ll keep the devil here on your good side and his hammer out of your head.”
“Lady Knightly?Nice woman.The king took her.”
“What?”Temple barked.
“Stand down, Cerberus.”Apollo flashed him a glare.
“Where did King William take her?”Temple demanded.
The guard shrugged.“Just took her.Earlier today.”
A chill swept through Temple’s body, and he swiped his thumb across the back side of his ring.Warm.If she were… surely it would be… cold.
He swung around and headed out of the tower.Behind him, the rapid beat of footsteps that must be Apollo.
