“Get a cage!” their leader shouted.
Another man grabbed me and pulled me aside. A cage was procured from the wagon, and Ramaro was pried off the Ironshore. He tried to latch onto a new arm, but they tossed him into the heavy metal cage. The wounded man bled everywhere, despite the best efforts to patch up the wound.
“Get him on the wagon and get them to the prison!” the leader snapped.
The wounded man grabbed the cage from his compatriot and tossed it into the wagon, where it struck the front wall. Ramaro was thrown about in the rough landing and landed limp on the bottom of the cage. “That’s what you get for biting me!”
Marc and I joined Ramaro inside the wagon, where we were directed to sit on opposite benches, and the vehicle soon rolled down the road, leaving some of my courage behind us.
Chapter 36
“This is intolerable!” The complaint came from the cage. Ramaro rolled onto his legs and turned around, though the cramped space meant he slapped himself in the face before he finished the circle. He wrinkled his snout and snorted. “The brutes would hurt their own grandmother.”
“You’d make an ugly grandmother,” Marc quipped as he tugged on his collar.
That looked familiar to me. “Isn’t that what Jaeger put on you?”
“Just the same.”
“Can you get it off without transforming?”
Marc jerked his head toward the front of the wagon. “I don’t think our friends listening in would appreciate that sort of conversation.”
A peep slot slid open, and the barrel of a whisperquill poked out. “Try it and it’ll be the last thing you do.”
“If you’re in a talkative mood, might you tell us who told you we’d be out there?” Marc inquired.
The hidden man scoffed. “Guess until you’re hanged, pirate.” He slammed the slot shut.
“What about one of those little brats you’re always trusting?” Ramaro suggested.
“I’d trust them with my life.”
“What about your death?”
“They’re not the ones who betrayed us.”
His choice of words piqued my curiosity. “You know who it is.”
He leaned back and pulled on his handkerchief. “Who else could it be but Theo. It would explain why he was so insistent that I wear this handkerchief outside of my disguise.”
My mouth dropped open. “Theo? But why?”
His eyebrows crashed down. “There’s a large bounty on my head, but he could have claimed that years ago, so it must be something else.”
“Something to do with Dolios?” I guessed as my heart sank. “But how could he do such a thing?”
“Money’s a great motivator,” Ramaro piped up as his skin pulled back in a sneer. “And humans love money.”
Marc’s eyes twinkled with some life. “So you’ll finally tell me where you hid that necklace?”
“Never!”
Marc leaned his head back and closed his eyes as a smile played across his lips. I shifted atop my bench, and his voice startled me. “You’re worrying too much.”
I jerked my head toward the front of the wagon. “We’re not exactly in a good position.”
He peeked open his eye at me. “You haven’t lost trust in me, have you?”
