Page 127 of Tashama
“Cannot you see I am imprisoned, Balthazar?” Tashama responded.
The figure spoke further, but the boots clanking in the hallway made her hook the manacles over her wrists. The young Maldovian thief in his blue shirt grinned at her when the guards brought him to her cell.
After shoving him into the room, one of the guards manacled him to the wall near Tashama. The guard turned to her. “I hope your being here doesn’t upset the gods. I cannot imagine why Prince Loran would have locked up a woman of the order.”
“Free me and save yourself,” Tashama said.
The man shook his head and pulled the door shut, then locked it. “Better to be damned than lose my head.”
Tashama turned to the thief and smiled. “How did you ever manage to get here?”
“We were promised a bounty to turn you over to General Karam for safekeeping. The bounty still stands.”
Tashama shook her head.
The young thief pulled his tools out of his boot, then hurried to remove his manacles. When he walked over to Tashama, she set hers aside to his astonishment. “Hairpins. How did you manage to sneak those in?”
“I spent hours pick-pocketing the good citizens of Karthland as I was trying to get caught. They don’t figure a member of the thieves’ guild will pick pockets, so they never checked to see if I had any tools of the trade on me.”
“Release us and we’ll aid you,” one of the murderers said.
Tashama considered the two men. “All right, if you go the opposite way that we do, it’s a deal.”
She picked the lock of one of the men’s chains as the thief worked on the other. After they were done, he hurried to unlock the door. Jaran pulled the door open, and the four ran out of the cell. Tashama shoved her hands through the grate to Aleron, while the thief hurried to unlock the door.
She stared at the wizened old lady who lay quietly in the corner, then, as Aleron was released, Tashama said, “We must take the lady to see the healer.”
“Can we not come back later, my lady?” the thief said, but Aleron had already lifted the woman in his arms.
The two murderers watched them. “You were to go…”
“We wish to see you overthrow Loran.”
Tashama motioned to Jaran. “Unlock the other cells.”
While the thief unlocked another door, Aleron chuckled. “Seems you have a propensity to free prisoners.”
As Tashama handed out pins to several of the freed prisoners, she said, “Help the others now.”
One of them took the old woman from Aleron’s arms.
“What about the necklace?” Aleron asked.
“Safe and sound.” Tashama pulled the necklace from the black bodice. “Deloria sneaked it out of my room and sometime in the night, slid it through the grate.”
“Its purpose?”
“Why, sire, I’ve missed it ever since I left here ten years ago.”
Aleron shook his head. “I thought it had some magical powers that would aid us.”
Tashama smiled.
As the last of the prisoners were freed, the old lady pointed a crooked finger at Tashama. “You have returned, dear child. All will not be well.”
“She is a soothsayer. She predicted the return of the rule of the first house. All of us thought she was crazy, except Loran and Valmor. They locked her away so she couldn’t spread her tales,” the man who carried the woman said.
“Take her where she’ll be safe,” Tashama said, then with the thief and Aleron, she headed for Balthazar’s chambers.
