“What are we doing?” asked one man.
“Escaping. I will tell you my plan. There is no debate. If you come with me, you follow orders, without question. If you won’t, you stay behind with Zirga and the guards. Is that understood?”
Every man nodded or muttered agreement.
Tal said, “Put on as much clothing as you can comfortably wear. You will be wet and cold before we are through.” Tal turned up the wick on the lantern, and the room was illuminated. He pointed to a large pile of clothing in the corner.
Most men threw off their filthy rags and put on two or three pairs of trousers, and multiple shirts. “In those chests are boots. Try to find a pair that fits.”
In less than ten minutes, the men stood dressed, and every man wore sturdy boots. Tal said, “Weapons,” and indicated the racks behind the men.
All the political prisoners, as well as Captain Quint, picked swords. The others picked cutlasses, falchions, and short swords. Masterson, the huge murderer, favored a large ax, and Tal considered he could probably cut a man in half with it.
Will found a pair of shoulder belts with loops for daggers and put it on, then filled the loops with six or seven blades. Tal chose a rapier, and a baldric with scabbard he could set on his right hip. He said to Quint, “I wish I had practiced more with my left hand back at Masters’ Court.”
Quint chuckled. “We’re armed and outfitted, but how do we get off this rock?”
Tal motioned for everyone to follow, and they quietly moved to the pantry. He pointed to a pile of bundles and whispered, “Each man takes one.”
They did so, and he led them back into the kitchen. “Open them,” he instructed softly.
Inside each bundle was flint, steel, twine, and other useful items, as well as a handful of jerked beef and hard-tack. Tal went to a barrel of apples and quickly tossed two to each man, then said, “Will, get the waterskins.” While Will did that, Tal quickly went through the stores and added another half a dozen food items to the men’s bundles.
Masterson said, “Why all the skulking around? Why don’t we just kill Zirga and the others?”
“And risk injury? You want to be left behind with four corpses and a broken arm?” Nobody spoke. “Quint’s the only man here fully fit. We’re going to need every man if any of us are to have a chance.”
Baron Visniya asked, “Shouldn’t we carry more food?”
“How far are we going?” asked another.
Tal said, “Silence!” When they all stopped muttering, he said, “Either follow orders or return to your cells. Questions are over.”
No man said another word, and Tal motioned for one of the prisoners to help Will pass out the waterskins. “Fill them outside at the well.”
They followed him outside, and once the waterskins were filled, Tal led the group to the north beach. They went down a steep path, and when they reached sand, Tal motioned for them to keep close, lest anyone get lost in the darkness. All three moons were down, and Tal could barely find the small cave he had discovered two years ago.
A few minutes later, he found it. “Move those rocks,” he said.
Some of the men moved a few small boulders that were keeping a pile of driftwood in place, and when that was removed, the cave opening was revealed. It was shallow and low, and two men had to kneel to enter. A few feet back, they found long poles and shorter logs, along with bundles of ropes, a small cask of nails, and a hammer.
“What next?” asked Havrevulen.
“Build a raft,” said Tal, “and we have less than four hours in which to do it.”
He gave instructions, and the men laid out the logs that Tal had painstakingly cut and hauled down to the beach. He had scraped himself, dropped logs on his feet, fallen down the trail and earned bruises, twisted muscles and splinters, but over the past two years he had managed to cut down eight trees, strip them, and drag them down the trail from the woods above. The poles had proven far easier, since he had discovered them in storage in an abandoned warehouse near the outer wall. The wood was old, but still serviceable. Those he had got to the cave in a week.
A few of the men lashed the poles on top of the logs, and when they had done that, a frame lay on the sands. Tal raised a single mast, held to the center by four interlocking boards, nailed fast to the two center logs. The sail was a bedsheet, folded over and sewn to form a triangle, tacked to the top of the mast. It could be pulled open at the bottom and tied to the rear pole.
“We can’t all stand on this thing,” said one of the men.
“We’re not,” said Tal. He said to Will, “There’s another pile of driftwood over there.” He pointed in the dark. “Take some men and move it.”
Will did as instructed and returned with large folded bundles of oil-treated canvas. It was laid on the left side of the raft. “Put all your bundles into the canvas, along with your weapons.” After this was done, Tal said, “Tie it securely, then lash it to the poles.”