As Geller walked back the way they’d come, she spoke over her shoulder. “There were both. Two skeletons had arrows what might have come from crossbows mounted to a post just like this one. They weren’t bolts, though, so….” She shrugged because she just didn’t know for sure. “Th’ other three bodies were more or less all piled together with no bolts in sight, tellin’ me someone killed ‘em to keep ‘em here. Maybe they’d been the ones to set th’ traps, and whoever built those walls didn’t want them ever coming out again. And what does that tell ya, Shiv?”

  There was nothing Ailith enjoyed better than talking tactics. It was something at which she excelled, and most of the time, to her own mind, anyway, she didn’t excel at much. “Well. They’re tryin’ to hide somethin’, I s’pose, or maybe they need to keep things locked up because there’s somethin’ in here they don’t want let out.”

  “Like what?” All the while Geller was asking questions, she was studying the area and formulating a plan.

  “Well, when me village came down with th’ Deathbell Disease, th’ rest of th’ villages sent archers what circled our land, and any time folk tried to run a’fore they came down with th’ fever, they’d kill ‘em. So, I s’pose when th’ walls were put up, maybe there were a fever or somethin’ what needed locked inside? What’s yer word fer it? Ya ken? A bad fever what spreads and kills.” She looked over at Jenx with raised brows.

  Jenx supplied the answer. “A plague.”

  “Aye, a plague.” Ailith knew all too well the dangers of a plague, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Her voice held more than a little fear when she said, “Fowk, Prime. Do ya think…?”

  Geller was an experienced enough leader that she knew she needed to take time to reassure her shiv before Ailith’s imagination ran amuck. “Think about it, Shiv. We came in through a hole in th’ roof, aye? Don’t that tell ya that folk from th’ Codpiece—nobs, pidges, skellis an’ nints—been coming in and out of here for a while now? Have ya seen a plague in th’ Codpiece since ya been here?”

  Ailith relaxed and mentally kicked herself for not thinking of that on her own. “No, Prime. Yer right, it’s just that th’ fowkin’ plague….” She shook her head.

  “When somethin’ scares ya like that, always take th’ time, if ya can, to think. Ya knew th’ answer up there in that hardheaded noggin of yers. It just took me asking ya to think before yer imagination got th’ better of ya. When ya become a Blade, Ailith, yer not gonna have Jenx or me around telling ya to think. So, start thinking on yer own, aye?”

  “Aye, Prime.” Ailith rubbed the back of her neck to ease some of the strain she felt creeping into her muscles.

  Geller started forward again and, after not too many more steps, held her torch over a skeleton. “Now, what can ya tell me about th’ bones? What do ya see?”

  “Can I come close?”

  “Aye.”

  Ailith stepped forward and squatted. Dead bodies didn’t bother her. She’d seen her share during her time in the army and had carted untold numbers of the dead, many of them her friends, to the burial pile where they could be burned and sent on to the Gods. “He were a soldier, see?” She pointed to a metal brace hanging loosely around the forearm bone. “An archer what were left-handed, judgin’ by the fact he’s wearin’ th’ cuff on th’ right arm.” Quite often, if an archer had some extra coin, instead of using a leather brace on their forearm, they’d pay to buy thin pieces of metal they could wrap around their arm to protect it from the bowstring. Ailith tilted her head back but couldn’t see far enough into the dark to find the crossbow that had shot the arrow lying inside the ribcage. “But—” She squinted at the arrow. “That’s no a bolt from a crossbow.”

  Both Geller and Jenks held their torches higher, allowing them to see a fully loaded crossbow strapped to a post. This time, it was Jenks who asked the question. “According to legend, Ailith, this building’s been closed up for centuries. Why do you think the straps binding those crossbows and the bowstrings haven’t rotted out by now?”

  “Well, I were thinkin’ that same thing about th’ tripwires, too, and th’ answers in th’ name. Wires. They used wires instead of leather thongs, twine, or rope. They wanted this place locked up fer a long time, and they planned against th’ rot.”

  Geller handed her torch to Ailith, unstrapped her sword belt, and handed that to her as well. “I’m goin’ up to see what I can find. I figure if they set th’ traps, they had to have a way back down, even if they were walled up in here afterward. They probably didn’t know settin’ these traps were th’ last thing they’d ever do fer their masters.”

  Ailith opened her mouth to say something and then thought better of it and shut it again.

  Geller noticed and wanted to reinforce the fact that Ailith had actually thought before blurting out the first thing that came into her head. “Yer thinkin’, Shiv. That’s good. Now tell me what’s on yer mind.”

  Ailith looked up into the darkness. “Yer not gonna like what I’m thinkin’.”

  “Nothing new ‘bout that. But I asked ya what yer thinkin’, and I expect an answer.”

  “I’m a better climber than you are, Prime. I should be th’ one goin’ up.”

  Geller’s eyes narrowed. “Do ya think I’d send a shiv up into th’ rafters full of crossbows aimin’ every which way, locked and loaded, instead of going meself?”

  “No. That’s why I shut me mouth.”

  Geller reached behind her back to shift the knife sheathed there into a more comfortable position for climbing. “The’ two of ya stay here. Don’t go wanderin’. I’m bettin’ there’s more of those tripwires scattered about.” She walked to one of the walls where the irregular pattern of the ladder-blocking between the studs allowed her to climb while maintaining control of the torch.

  Most of the beams and trusses holding up the roof were exposed, and Ailith tried to figure out how the Prime was going to get across to the loaded crossbow she’d pointed out earlier. It was a lot like climbing through a forest, she decided, moving from one tree to the next until you arrived at your destination.

  When Geller reached the first exposed ceiling joist, she swung a leg over, giving herself a platform from which she could survey the immediate area around her. The darkness was absolute up in the rafters, and lifting the torch high, she started at her far right and carefully moved it slowly across her body. As the torch reached her centerline, she took it with her left hand and illuminated the area to her left.

  Ailith called out, “There, Prime, did ya see it?” She pointed to where the light from the torch had glinted off what she thought was probably a steel wire.

  It was too dark to see much of anything, but Geller squinted towards where Ailith was pointing. “I don’t see nothin’, Shiv. What are ya seein’?”

  “I’m no sure, but I think it’s th’ tripwire.” She ran her hand from left to right, tracing the path the wire would take if it continued in a straight line.

  Geller shimmied forward on the joist, trying to find what Ailith was seeing. “Stop me if ya see somethin’ I don’t. Th’ more eyes we have on this, th’ better.”

  Ailith called up to her. “Yer almost right on top of it.”

  Geller leaned to the side. “Aye. Now I see it. Good spottin’, Shiv.” She inched forward, holding the torch high and moving it along the wire to see where the other end was attached.

  It was Jenx who called out this time. “There, a crossbow. Do you see it?”

  “Aye, I see it. Not th’ one that hit th’ lad before he were a pile of bones, then. It’s pointin’ away from both of ya, so I’m gonna trigger it so I can move forward.” Bracing against a cross beam with the hand holding the torch, Geller retrieved her belt knife and leaned over so she could reach the wire.

  She’d just placed the blade beneath it when Jenx shouted, “Stop!”

  Geller froze.

  “When you moved the torch up to grab that beam, I thought I saw the light reflecting off another wire going off to your right. Up high, just there.” With one finger following the line she thought she’d seen, she traced an imaginary line so Geller would have a better chance of seeing the wire.

  Growling to herself about the “Fowkin’ bastards what set th’ traps,” Geller replaced the knife in its sheath and looked down at Jenx to see exactly where she was pointing. When she had her bearings, she looked back and switched the torch from her left to her right hand. Slowly sweeping the torch in an arc to her right, she froze when she saw the wire. As the light followed the wire’s path, it illuminated something that made Geller’s blood run cold. She quietly muttered, “Fowk.”

  Not ten paces away, a second crossbow was aimed directly at her chest. She scooted back on the beam until the bolt would cross in front of her instead of slicing through her body. No use tempting fate by staying in place to think. She looked down at the other two women. “Jenx, do ya see that pole over to th’ right? It’s one of th’ support beams rotted and fallen to th’ floor.”

  Not in the least surprised that Geller had a back-up plan, probably two or three back-ups if she knew her Prime, Jenx obediently looked to her right and saw the partially rotted beam lying on the floor. “I see it.”

  Being accustomed to heights still didn’t make it any less dizzying to stare down from the height Geller had climbed. She scooted back some more and leaned against a stud. “I need ya to very carefully walk over to that pole and grab it. When ya have it, bring it back to Ailith. I’m sorry to say it, but she’s th’ better climber, and I need her to bring that pole up to me.”

  Jenx started after the pole, carefully sweeping the torch in front of her to check for any more wires. “No need to be sorry. Everyone knows Ailith is one of the best climbers in the Temple, and with something as critical as this, my ego has no say in the matter.” She slowly walked to the pole, relieved that she encountered no tripwires along the way. Grabbing it, she returned to where Ailith waited.

  Ailith took it, and the two walked the same route that Geller had taken to the wall. She set the butt on the ground and climbed until she reached the pole’s other end. She then hauled it up one-handed by jerking it up and then sliding her hand down and grabbing it at a lower point. Setting the butt on one of the lower cross posts, Ailith was able to repeat the process over and over until she reached the beam Geller was seated on.

  While Ailith had been climbing, Geller had been looking for more traps. When she was satisfied there were none, she took the pole and carefully calculated the angles of both crossbow bolts. “Nobody move.” She lowered the pole onto the wire and pushed down on it. Instantly, three bolts sailed through the air and embedded themselves in whatever stood in their way.

  The first was from the original crossbow, the second was from the secondary one that had been pointing at Geller’s chest, and the third came from a crossbow hidden in the rafters. This one was aimed directly downward to where someone would be standing if they had a pole long enough to reach up to trip the wire.

  Ailith gasped and whispered, “Fowk.”

  It was only pure luck that Jenx had moved five paces away from the wall instead of remaining directly below the crossbow. Without saying a word, she quietly raised her gaze to the Prime, who, for the first time in Jenx’s life, had gone ghost white.

  For her part, Geller stared down at her with wide, rounded eyes. Her voice was hoarse when she said, “Me apologies, Lass. They must have run that wire up th’ backside of th’ stud where I couldn’t see it. Th’ fowkin’ bastards what set these traps knew what they were about.”

  She turned to Ailith. “Climb down now, and I’ll follow. At least we’ve taken out three of th’ blasted things, and we ken two of those skeletons took out two others. We’re no far from th’ gate. I have a feelin’ that if they knew they might need to come back in through that gate, they either had a way to take out th’ traps or, if some of th’ builders left through th’ gate, then they had a way to set the traps on their way out.”

  “Geller?” Shirin’s voice called out from the hole in the roof where they’d first come in.

  “Aye, Commander. Don’t send nobody in. There’s traps we’re havin’ to set off so’s we can get to th’ gate.”

  “I understand. We really need the healer here, so be as quick as you can.”

  “Aye, Commander.” When she and Ailith reached the ground, they retraced their steps.

  As they passed the spot where the bolt had embedded itself into the wall of a dilapidated livestock pen, Ailith bent to examine it with a critical eye. “Rammed in halfway up to th’ fletchin’, see?” Without touching the bolt, she ran her finger through the air along the length of the shaft.

  Geller absently nodded, acknowledging Ailith’s point. “Aye, makes me think differently about th’ five bodies. Th’ two what had th’ arrows still in th’ rib cage couldn’t of been crossbow bolts then because that bolt would’ve gone clean through a body. Makes me think that th’ three that were piled up had somehow tripped one of th’ traps they weren’t supposed to trip. Then, their friends piled them into a pile once they were dead. So that makes me want to redo my count. There’s six crossbows accounted fer now, not five, and that’s better odds fer us.”

  To Ailith, that was faulty thinking, and she said as much. “I don’t think so. I mean, yeah, I think yer right about those three havin’ th’ bolts go straight through ‘em. But yer wrong when ya say that means three other crossbows was tripped. Well, I mean yeah, they was tripped, but if th’ other workers knew they was tripped, which they did because they piled th’ bodies, wouldn’t they have climbed back up and reset them before they left, or before they thought they were leavin’, if they ended up been walled up in here?”

  One thing Jenx was always bragging about to the other handlers was Ailith’s logical mind when it came to problem-solving. Once again, she caught Geller looking at her, and she allowed a bit of her pride to show through.

  Geller continued to wave her torch back and forth, looking for crossbows or trip lines as she approached the wires they’d first run into. The three wires were sagging now, and she used the pole to move them out of the way. Getting this far had taken longer than she’d hoped, and she worried the punt bringing the healer had already passed by the gate.

  As they approached the gate, their torches illuminated a full metal plate bolted in place, making it impossible for someone from the inside to escape. Jenx walked up and rapped the wooden door frame with the hilt of her sword. “The frame’s rotten, probably from the moisture of the tributary. Maybe three hundred turns past this would have held, but the wood’s rotten now, and I think we can hack it away enough with our swords to be able to pull at least one side of this plate free.”

  Geller and Jenks use their swords to hack at the upper portion, while Ailith used her belt knife to chip away at the wood surrounding the lower bolt. Faster than Geller could have hoped, they were able to get their fingers in behind the metal, and with Ailith bracing her foot against the wood in order to put her large, muscular thigh muscles into play, the three managed to rip the left side of the plate off enough to give them access to the outer gate. Once they had access, it was easy enough to remove the locked hasp holding the gate closed.

  The gate hung from a slider, and when they pushed it to one side, they discovered the punt up against what used to be the dock, bucking wildly as Blades held onto whatever they could get their hands on to keep the boat in place. The two men with poles stood on either side of the bow with their poles stuck deep in the mud. They, too, were trying to keep the punt from moving downriver.

  As soon as the door opened, the captain, who’d been ready and waiting for just such an occurrence, tossed a rope to Geller. She caught it, quickly ran inside, and tied it off. The captain ran to the stern where he grabbed a second rope he had coiled and ready and threw that one to Jenx. She tied that one off as well. When the punt was secure, all of the Blades, who were soaked in both tributary water and sweat, sat back to catch their breath.

  There was still a small gap between the punt and the gate, and the two pole men released a plank secured to the side of the wheelhouse and settled it across the gap to make it easier for Haria to step across. Soirin straddled the gap with one foot on the punt and one foot on the rock floor of the abattoir. Jenx straddled the other side and each held one of the Master’s hands while she walked across the plank.

  While she didn’t need the help, the second healer, Kara, handed her packs to Jenx before accepting Soirin’s hand and hurrying across.

  Once they had the healers inside, Geller instructed them to walk directly behind her. She ordered Jenx and Ailith to bring up the rear. “Ailith, ya carry th’ stretcher. Now, th’ rest of ya, stay in th’ punt, and if ya need to come inside fer some reason, ya don’t come no further than th’ gate. There’s more than a few traps and tripwires scattered about. If ya don’t want a crossbow bolt through yer chest or yer eye, then ya do as I say.”

  Since no Blade would ever go against Geller’s orders, they all settled in to wait.

  CHAPTER 5

  It seemed to everyone waiting in the alley that whole candlemarks had passed since Geller, Jenx, and Ailith had been sent to the river gate. Sábria had tried her best to keep Caitir conscious and talking, even if her Blade was still convinced she was surrounded by a flock of birds. At least she hadn’t started slurring her words. Sábria had seen head injuries quickly go from bad to worse, and one sure sign of things getting worse was when the patient suddenly became unable to pronounce words or string entire sentences together.

  “They’re coming!” Shirin stationed herself directly inside the hole and called out as soon as she saw the reflected light from the torches on one of the interior walls.

  Sábria was seated on the ground with her back against the wall. She’d managed to slip her arm behind her Blade’s back, allowing Caitir to rest her head in the crook of her arm. When she heard Shirin call out, Sábria’s head whipped around to stare at the opening. Sela had once again taken up the pick, and she and Barta were still hammering away at the hole, wanting to enlarge it enough that a stretcher could go through without having to tilt it one way or another. “Are the healers with them?”