Theo grabbed the crook of my arm and bowed his head. “Thank you.”
“Hmph,” came the reply as the jailer went back to tossing a die on his desk.
Theo led me up the stairs. I walked so stiffly that I tripped over several of the steps.
“Careful, Miss Larkin,” he whispered as he helped me back up. “I would never forgive myself if you were killed.”
I jerked to a stop and glared at him. “And what about Marc? He might still get killed, and it’ll be your fault for betraying us.”
Theo looked aghast. “Me, Miss Larkin? Why ever would I do such a thing to the professor’s own nephew?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but doubt lingered in the corners of my mind. “You tell me.”
“I will certainly tell you the truth,” he promised as he guided me up the steps. “But first, I must get you out of here.”
We soon arrived at the courtyard where Ironshores lingered everywhere. More than one cast a leering look at me. Theo held me close against his side and scooted me over to the archway. The gate was down, and a guard stood nearby with a door behind him.
Theo smiled at him. “Good evening, sir. I’m ready to leave with the sick prisoner.”
The guard eyed me with a sharp look. “You said she was deathly ill. She doesn’t look sick at all to me.”
Theo grasped my shoulders. “She is very ill, sir. That’s why she must go with me so I can give her the correct medicine.”
I let out a dry, wracking cough and shook my whole body. The guard stepped back and sneered at me. “Alright, but it better not be catching, or neither of you is coming back.”
Theo bowed his head. “Thank you, sir.”
The guard eagerly slipped through the door, and the gate rattled open. The man stayed inside his gate room until we were long past. My heart still pounded in my chest as I looked over my shoulder. The gate shut behind us, shutting me out from where Marc was.
“You did wonderfully, Miss Larkin,” Theo congratulated me as we hurried down the street.
“I wish Marc were here to see it,” I mused as we turned into a dark and narrow alley.
“I’m sure he would have been proud of you,” Theo assured me as we neared the mouth of the alley. He tucked a hand into his pocket as he stared ahead. “Now we need only reach the safety of my office and everything will be as it should be.”
I blinked at him. “What do you mean? We still have to save Marc and Ramaro.”
Theo’s hand shot out of his pocket, and he shoved a cloth over my mouth and nose. I gasped and inhaled a foul-smelling odor. My head began to spin, as did the rest of the world.
Theo’s voice floated over me as though I were in a dream. “My sincerest apologies, Miss Larkin, but this must be done.”
And then everything went black.
God, my head hurt. Every fiber and web of my brain felt like someone had tried to string a piano with them, and all they ended up doing was a lot of stretching of my cells. Even my arms and legs felt stiff. I tried to stretch them, but they wouldn’t budge. My confusion forced my eyes open, and my heart nearly stopped.
I sat in a plain, heavy wooden chair. My wrists were bound to the wide arms, and my ankles were tied to the legs. The chair was located in a small dirt-floor basement. The windows had been blacked out with thick wooden boards, so the only source of light was the gas lamps that hung overhead. The floor was earthen, filling the small room with a bitter scent of must. A stairway ten feet beyond the table led up to a plain wooden door. The portal was slightly ajar, allowing me to see a bland white hall with shiplap walls.
A table stood five feet away from me. The top was covered by neat piles of papers and books, all separated by ample gaps and tucked into heavy tabletop shelves. Even the pencils and pens were laid out in a long row, ready for use.
A man stood at the table with his back to me. He turned at the creak of the chair and smiled. “Good evening, Miss Larkin. I hope you slept well.”
I glared at him. “I wasn’t supposed to be sleeping at all. Why did you knock me out and bring me here? Why’d you take me out of the prison?”
“All of those questions can be answered with the same explanation: that I wish to extract the magic of your voice.”
My mouth dropped open. “Come again?”
“You have an extraordinary voice, Miss Larkin,” he mused as he strolled over and inspected my bound wrists. “Miss Dolios is in desperate need of such a rejuvenation, and your voice will fit perfectly.”
