Page 38 of Night of the Witch
Verpiss dich, jäger.
Sweat pours down my face. The manacles bite angry raw circles around each wrist.
I have never cursed someone so much, so repeatedly, in mylife.
Verpiss dich, jäger.
My legs are liquid by the time I have a stack high enough to reach the opening in the ceiling.
I’m exhausted.
I’m hungry.
Every muscle aches.
But I climb, wobbling, sweat burning my eyes where it slips past the rim of my wool hat, and when I heave my body up out of the cellar, I shriek in victory.
If he thought he could manipulate me with that nonsense about trying tosavepeople…
If he thought I would just buckle under my fatigue and grief…
He waswrong.
My lips curve into a smile, hair sticking to my face as I splay out flat on my back and collapse there, panting. The blistering cold of this room makes me shiver and shake, cooling the sweat on my skin, but my smile stays, my victory too sweet to let go of just yet.
I lie there for a moment, gasping, willing my heartbeat to slow. No matter what kind of lock the kapitän has on the door to this building, I’ll break it, and—
My thoughts tumble to silence.
Lying here, staring up at the ceiling, I see a ladder out of the corner of my eye leading to another opening for the second floor. I see some kind of pump, likely connected to the aqueduct tunnels down below, but I see nothing giving off the soft light that filtered down into the cellar, that is even now setting this room with a soft gray glow. It’s coming from the second floor, not this one.
I bolt upright.
The wall in front of me is flat, unbroken by a window or door. And when I shove to my feet and turn in a complete circle, I see the same on the other three walls.
No windows.
No door.
I’d assumed the cellar was only one floor beneath the first level, and that I would be able to escape onto the street from here. But the jäger put me somewhere deeper in this house.
My jaw grinds so tight that pain shoots across my scalp.
Damn him.Damn that man.
But at least this level has a ladder, thank the Three.
I trudge over to it and scramble up.
Ah, finally—a single window big enough to maybe be a door, shuttered, but with a gap running along the base, the source of the light that still pulls me with embarrassing drive.
Outside, that light says.Freedom.
I stumble across the room, not even bothering to stop and study my surroundingsGet out, Fritzi. Get out.
I grab the door’s handle and pull.
It rattles but doesn’t budge.
