Chapter Eighteen

We left the Order and went to the city's main jail. It was a place I had always hoped to avoid, but part of me was resigned to the fact that I'd likely die there. I just never expected to be caught so soon. I was dragged through the front gate and down multiple hallways before the guards stopped and one of them unlocked a cell door.

It was cold and dark, but so was almost every building I'd ever lived in. I was tossed in unceremoniously, and only just managed to not land on my hurt wrist. In an instant I was on my feet, facing the door and the guards, though I knew I would be powerless if they decided to hurt me. I held my injured arm near my body where I could protect it. Vaguely, I was aware of a few other people in the cell with me, but I could only deal with one threat at a time.

The two guards didn't close the door right away. Instead, the one who seemed to be the leader stood in the doorway, while the other leaned back against the metal bars that made up one side of the cell. By the way they were eyeing me, I knew they were hoping I'd give them a reason to beat me. It was well known that bored guards would turn to petty criminals for amusement.

"That lord told you to leave me alone," I pointed out, managing to disguise the nervousness I was feeling.

The two guards exchanged a glance and then began chuckling. "Do you even know who that lord was?" the leader asked me.

I shook my head. "No." After a moment's thought, I timidly added, "Sir," hoping that it would please him.

"That was Lord Tandrix of West Draulin. I highly doubt he'll want to waste time with the likes of you. He'll probably ask us to question you ourselves."

Probably not, but I kept up the scared prisoner look. It really wasn't difficult. "Oh, is he important?" The less I seemed to know, the better. Despite the pain radiating up my arm and the way the guards were looking at me, I had to think ahead.

"Is West Draulin important?" The leader laughed, and it took him a moment to continue. "The closest you'll ever get to royalty, boy."

"Maybe the closest we'll ever get," the second guard added.

"We could very well guard for the king."

"Well, yes. But he probably wouldn't talk to us personally as Lord Tandrix did."

"I suppose so," the leader said.

"So..." I said carefully. "So if he's so important, and he told you not to hurt me, you probably shouldn't risk it. It seems to me that someone so close to being royalty could easily have you two arrested yourselves if you displeased him. Couldn't he?"

The two guards looked at each other, but this time I detected a sense of uneasiness. Without another word to me, they turned away. The door clanged shut and the lock snapped closed, and they walked away talking quietly to each other.

Once their footsteps had faded away I rushed forward. There was no telling how long the guards would be gone, so I had to be quick. I reached my good arm through the bars and ran my fingers over the lock, trying to understand what it looked like. Until I could move the fingers of my right hand, I wouldn't be able to pick it, but at least I would be prepared.

"Can you open it?"

I'd almost forgotten about the other people in the cell. Startled, I spun around. There were three other men locked up with me. They were all Native. Two appeared to be around Tannix's age, one of them possibly part Telt, and the third...

"Arow."

"Finn."

I glanced at the bars behind me. "I can try to open it."

Arow scoffed. "You can try? We've all tried." He looked like he'd been in the cell for a few days, and I tried to remember if I'd seen him around the lower city recently. Of all the people to be locked up with, it was just my luck to end up with the one man who hated me personally.

"I'm a thief," I replied. "Not a lock picker."

"Picking locks comes with the territory, I thought."

"Sometimes."

Arow got to his feet. "You did well, scaring away those guards."

I shrugged, feigning indifference while I watched Arow and his companions warily. "The lord who arrested me said I wasn't to be hurt, and the guards told me that he's important. I assume no one would want to risk angering him."

"He's threatening you, Arow," one of the men said.

"Look at him. What could he possibly do to us? But he's quite the thief. We should see if he's got anything good on him before the guards come back and check him."

"It was a threat." I sounded braver than I felt. "The lord wants me for some reason. If the guards were afraid of angering him, you should be too."

"You seem to have a lot of faith in this lord," Arow said. "You know he probably just wants to beat you himself?"

"Maybe he does, but that probably won't happen for days," I said. "I'd like to hold out as long as I can." Arow had moved a little closer to me while we were speaking, so I sidestepped away from him. "Arow, our energy would be better spent trying to find a way out of here. I am not looking forward to being hanged, and I don't think you are either." I spoke slowly, trying to maintain some sort of peace. I backed up a little more, fully aware that he was driving me into a corner. "I think, together, we could come up with something. You know I'm the greatest thief in Zianna. I'm very good at sneaking around places I shouldn't be."

Arow narrowed his eyes. "Let's see what you come up with. Don't think getting me out of here will pay off your debt, though." He walked back over to the others, and settled down on the floor. "If you don't have a good idea by tomorrow..." He let the threat trail off, which only gave my imagination free rein to make up the ending.

I didn't sleep at first. Instead, I stayed huddled in my corner of the cell, as far away from Arow and the others as I could manage. I used a strip of cloth ripped from my cloak to bind my wrist as well as I could. At the very least, it kept me from moving it and hurting myself even more. Wiggling my fingers was painful, but I was satisfied to know that I could move them if I had to. I continuously moved them throughout the night to make sure I still could. Arow and the others talked amongst themselves for a while before going to sleep, at which point I finally calmed down.

Moonlight shone through the small, barred window set high into the wall. It lit up a patch of the stone floor by my feet, and for a long time I stared at it as it slowly crept across the cell. I didn't want to look around the cell. A quick glance earlier had shown me letters scratched into the walls, none of which I could read, but I understood them well enough. People wrote their names to leave some sort of record of themselves.

Maybe they had the right idea. I picked up a small stone and used it to carefully scratch the four letters Tannix had shown me into the stone at my feet. It felt like it had been days since I'd watched him write them out with his fancy quill. I drew each letter carefully and as accurately as I could. It might not have been correct, but I felt better having done it.

It was getting colder, so I drew my knees up to my chest and tucked my cloak around my legs, all the while trying to gently cradle my wrist. Although I didn't want to sleep, I could feel my eyelids getting heavier and my thoughts wandering in strange ways, so it was only a matter of time.

"Thief, get up."

I flinched away from the bars, suddenly awake. The first thing I saw was Arow and the other two standing over in their corner, too far from the bars to have been the ones to kick them. I knew who had spoken. Keeping my gaze downcast, I got to my feet, not wanting to seem too familiar with him.

"I didn't say move away from the bars, did I?" Tannix asked dryly.

"I'm sorry, sir," I said timidly, moving a bit closer but still refusing to look up.

"Look at me."

I glanced up quickly. He had his arms slipped through the bars and his hands clasped together on my side. He'd come down in full regalia, the deep blue cloak draped over a light tunic and dark pants. Sword and dagger both strapped to his belt, rings glinting on his fingers. I wondered whom he was trying to impress. Or intimidate.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"Finagale, sir," I replied. "I'm a..."

"Thief, I know," Tannix said. "Are you hurt?" There was a cold disdain in his voice that didn't match the way he was looking at me.

"No more than I was last night."

"Good." His eyes flickered over Arow and the others, before returning to me. "So tell me, Finagale, why would a thief just happen to show up at the same time as two assassins?"

"Bad timing, sir," I said.

"It certainly seems like it," Tannix said with a nod. He stepped away from the bars and crossed his arms. "Guards, I'd like him taken to a solitary cell so I can ask him more questions."

They were the same two guards from the night before, and they instantly moved to obey Tannix's instructions. They stormed into the cell, and while one grabbed me, the other yanked my hands behind my back to shackle them together. I tried to not put up too much of a fuss, but Tannix must have noticed me wince when my right hand was grabbed.

"Careful with his wrist," he added sternly.

"My apologies, my lord," the guard mumbled. He still pulled back my arm and clamped the manacle shut around it, but at least he tried to be gentle. Together they dragged me from the cell, though one of them would have been more than enough. They brought me to stand in front of Tannix. I kept my head down, and tried to ignore the throbbing in my wrist.

"I'll take him from here." Tannix reached out for me. Just as his hand closed around my shoulder, a loud clang echoed down the stone hallway and I pulled away from him, startled. At the end of the hallway, a door had just been slammed shut. Three men were purposefully walking towards us. The one in the lead looked vaguely familiar, and was dressed up much like Tannix without the cloak. The two men who flanked him were clearly guards.

Tannix followed my gaze, glancing over his shoulder and then fully turning around. "Director?"

Suddenly I knew why I recognized the man. He'd been the one climbing after me as I'd fled back to Tannix's room. I jerked against the guards involuntarily. "Tan... Lord Tandrix..." I stammered.

Tannix waved his hand at me dismissively, but I was sure he understood the reason for my panic. "My lord, what brings you here?"

"The thief you arrested," the director replied, his gaze sweeping past Tannix to land on me. He kept walking, forcing Tannix to step out of his way. "I will be conducting his interrogation."

"My lord, he's my prisoner," Tannix protested. "I plan to question him myself."

"You are shaken up by your ordeal." The director slipped his hand under my chin and forced me to look up at him. I glanced quickly at Tannix.

"I've been trained to deal with such events," Tannix said. "When I'm in the army I'll have to handle interrogations after even more taxing ordeals. I need practice."

"You will get your practice. We'll give you another prisoner."

"Would it not be better if I practice on one I arrested myself?"

The director let go of me. He spun to face Tannix, getting close in an attempt to intimidate him. "Are you arguing with me, Lord Tandrix?"

Tannix hardly batted an eyelash. "Yes, I am, my lord," he replied steadily. He had really grown into his power over the last four years, and it didn't hurt that he was a little taller than the director. "I arrested him, he's my prisoner." He glanced over at me. As much as I was grateful, I knew that if he got himself in trouble there would be no chance of him getting me out. I shook my head, hoping he'd understand.

"That said, my lord," Tannix continued slowly, looking a little confused at my reaction. "Maybe I am a little shaken up by the attack. I might make a mistake." He took a small step back. "I apologize for my behaviour, my lord."

The director didn't look entirely pleased, but he seemed satisfied as he turned to me again. "Guards, we'll take him to a private cell. I doubt this will take long."

"My lord," Tannix said again. "May I observe the interrogation?"

The director shook his head. "Not this time. You need to rest. In time, killing will become easier for you, but those two were your first and it is never easy." He clapped his hand on Tannix's shoulder in a paternal gesture. "Come speak with me later."

Tannix nodded. "Yes sir."

The director motioned to his two guards, who took me away from the others. They followed him as he started walking down the hall, half dragging and half carrying me between them. Almost every movement jolted the manacles around my wrist and shot pain up my right arm, but I did my best to not react or give them any signal to show that I was hurt. I didn't want to remind them.

I tried to keep track of where we were going, I was usually good at mapping out spaces in my head. Building panic and the constant jarring of the manacles against my wrist made it nearly impossible to pay attention. We walked down numerous hallways, most of which were lined with cells. Some were empty, but many of them had one or two occupants, occasionally more. The other prisoners shouted insults and curses, some muttered prayers to themselves, and others were silent. It was unnerving and I couldn't help but imagine being in a cell as long as they had been. The thought terrified me.

When we finally stopped in front of a cell, it was different. The hallway was almost perfectly silent. There were other cells, but they all looked strange. Instead of a wall of bars, there was only one solid metal door with a small barred window in it. Beyond, the room was pitch black. The director unlocked the door with a large key from a ring on his belt, and pushed it open. It seemed to take some force; the door was heavy.

He picked up a torch burning beside the door and used it to light two torches within the room before the guards pulled me in. There was a wooden chair in the centre of the room, with old leather straps on the armrests and two front legs. My terror was overwhelming and I couldn't even struggle to protect myself as the guards led me to the chair and briskly strapped me in. When I was firmly attached they retreated to stand by the door. The director stood in front of me. The three torches caused his shadow to flicker oddly on the wall behind him. I didn't even recognize all of the tools that were hanging on the wall. I closed my eyes, trying not to look at or think about them.

The director chuckled. "Calm down, boy. I do not intend to use any of those on you unless you drive me to it, but I think you want to cooperate. I know you left that letter in my office. All I want to know is what you know about this assassination attempt. Unfortunately, the letter does not provide enough information for me to take any action." I could tell that he was slowly circling me as he talked. "But you will give me everything I need, yes?"

"I don't know anything," I said quietly.

He hit the back of my head, but it was surprisingly light given that he was probably going to kill me later. "Maybe looking at the interrogation implements for a few hours will help you remember something." I heard him walk away. The door swung shut, thudding heavily against the stone frame. The unmistakable sound of a lock clicking followed, and then only silence.