The guard shrugged, and that only fueled the sergeant’s anger.
“With his bare hands?” he asked with a tinge of sarcasm. When the men didn’t contradict him, he narrowed his eyes at them. “That’s impossible.”
There was shuffling and whispering in the cramped corridor, and the turnkey stepped forward holding out the two broken pieces of the lock for the sergeant to inspect. He huffed and waved him away, as if not ready to accept the proof.
“And the woman? Did he break the lock to her cell as well?”
At this, the men fell silent. Rune, though pretending he was detached, was listening intently, and he felt a smirk tug at the corner of his lip. Seraphina had gotten away. He hadn’t seen her run through the gates with his own eyes, too busy letting the watchmen overwhelm him, drawing them away from her, but he’d hoped she’d done the right thing, even if she hadn’t wanted to leave him behind. Rune had made sure not to give her a choice.
“Why so quiet all of a sudden?”
The sergeant was on the verge of losing his temper. Rune saw his right hand going to the short saber hanging in a leather scabbard at his belt.
“She was in his cell,” someone said in a weak voice.
“Who? The woman? In whose cell? Speak plainly, man.”
The man in question waited for someone else to say something, but the others stepped back, doing their best to shrink in the shadows.
“Seraphina Bell was in the creature’s cell.”
“What?!”
It was as if the whole prison vibrated with the sergeant’s indignation.
“She was put into his cell,” the guard said, his voice shaking slightly, aware that he was digging his own grave.
Rune didn’t recognize his voice. He realized that all the prison guards and watchmen working at the gatehouse knew that he and Seraphina had been sharing a cell for the past two weeks. Word traveled, he guessed. Still, no one had told their superior. Snitching was worse than not respecting regulations.
“Why?”
“For... fun?”
The sergeant opened and closed his mouth. His face twitched, and it made Rune think of a fish out of water, though he couldn’t say he’d ever been close to a body of water or seen a live fish. The image was burned into his brain, so it came from somewhere. From the depths of his being where memories were stored, some quiet and faded, others loud and bright, some fitting well together, others contradicting each other.
“Whose fun?”
The guard remained silent, and after a minute, the sergeant knew he wasn’t going to get an answer to that question.
“Seven days’ pay, forfeited. All of you standing here, and anyone who knew and said nothing.”
There were murmurs and grumbles, but no one dared to speak up in protest.
“Now get out of my sight.”
They didn’t wait to be told twice. They filed down the corridor, and the sergeant waited until he could hear their boots thudding up the steps to the ground level. He paced the cell – there was only enough space for three small steps to the right and three to the left – both hands on the hilt of his saber.
“We’ll find her,” he said, eventually.
That confirmed she had gotten away, and Rune allowed himself to relax. He leaned back, letting his head rest against the damp wall. His eyes – as blue as the clear summer sky reflected in the stillness of the sea – followed the sergeant’s boots as he moved back and forth.
“As for you,” he continued, “I should tell you that two witnesses have now stated that they saw a man on the night of the crime, around where the body was found. They both described a well-dressed man, well-off, maybe even of some wealth. They said he was fair of skin and fair of hair. Whenshown a sketch of your face, they shook their heads, said they’d never seen you before.”
Rune hazarded a glance at the man’s face. The sergeant cocked a bushy eyebrow, and Rune looked away.
“I see. I must say, I don’t know what to think, but it’s not up to me to think anything of it. I’m only here to do my job.”
He stepped forward and checked the iron cuffs, pulled at the chains to make sure they were perfectly secured, then straightened his back and kicked an empty bucket that had been pushed into a corner closer to Rune.
