“Hurry,” Jeran signs to me.
My fingers slip on one of the knobs as I go. It resets a few of the others. I curse under my breath as I start over again.
Jeran glances down the hall, listening carefully for the sounds of the guards returning. Their laughs come from farther down the corridor, but they won’t stay away for long.
“You try it,” I sign to Jeran in irritation as the knobs slip again.
Jeran bends down to the lock and begins again, his slender fingersworking as rapidly as he can. But he’s less familiar with the way Karensan locks work, and I can see the frustration on him as he puzzles out how to slide one knob after another.
Inside the door, Adena shifts restlessly. “Can we cut this open?” she signs, glancing at me. Jeran looks up briefly from his work to read her hands. “Your wings work, don’t they?”
But I shake my head. “Too loud,” I sign back. My blades hitting this kind of steel on the bars would send echoes screaming down the corridor.
“We can fight the soldiers off,” she signs.
“Word will get back to Constantine that we were inputting a code,” Jeran signs before looking back down at the lock. “He’ll guess that Talin helped us.”
At that, Adena’s eyes widen slightly. “Talin helped you get the code?”
I nod.
Adena’s hands tighten on the bars. Beside her, Aramin turns to look down the hallway. “The direction of their chatter’s changed,” he signs.
Aramin’s right; I can hear the shift of their boots on the floor in the distance, know that they’re starting to make their way back here.
Jeran stands up. “Help me with the last one,” he signs.
I stoop to look. Damn these confounded designs. I watch as the last knob slips again, resetting the few before it. Jeran grits his teeth.
I try again. We’re so close. Talin delivered this to us on pain of death, risking her mother for us. We have to get it open.
And then, at last, the final knob slides into place. There’s a tiny, satisfying click before the lock falls open into my hand. I look up to give Jeran a triumphant grin.
And that’s when I hear a voice behind us.
“Red? Is that you?”
I whirl around to see the wide eyes of a young Karensan guard, his gun in his hand, pointed straight at me. He blinks as he meets my gaze.
“I—I thought I saw you walking by,” he stammers out.
Danna. I know him immediately. The boy I’d been on the same patrols with, had been friends with, had served together in Basea right up until the night I’d failed to shoot Talin. The boy who stayed silent when I needed him to speak up for me.
All this time, I’d been looking out for soldiers who might recognize me, who had served with me—how could I have missed Danna?
He opens his mouth, sucking in a breath in order to raise the alarm. That’s when I bolt toward him and before he can yell, I clamp a hand hard against his mouth and shove him against the bars of the holding room. He lets out a grunt, his entire body contorting in agony.
I glance down the hall, momentarily at a loss. The other soldiers may be drunk and listless tonight, but they won’t stay away from their posts forever.
“Yell,” I hiss at him, “and I will break every bone in your body. I swear it. What are you doing here alone, without the rest of your patrol?”
He shakes his head, his eyes wide with terror. I stare at him until he looks like he’s calmed down, and then move my fingers slightly so he can choke out a whisper.
“I just—thought I saw you,” he croaks. “My patrol’s not on rotation yet. I came down here on my own. I—I—”
I shake my head, furious.
I can’t set him free. He’ll simply alert everyone else.
