‘Let me help,’ Lant said, taking his arm, and Spark leaned in to look at his face, asking, ‘How badly is he hurt?’
‘I don’t know. Fool, I feared you’d eaten the poison I gave you. You didn’t. Did you?’ A horrible thing, to wonder if he had swallowed it just before we arrived.
‘I couldn’t. I wanted to, but I couldn’t. Not while they have Bee. I can’t die until I’ve made it right, Fitz.’ Fresh blood was flowing from his nose. He snuffled and then said proudly, ‘I did for two of them. I think. I got to Coultrie’s chambers. I had to hide on his stairs, and thought that I might as well climb the rest of the way, and leave him some small mementos. He wasn’t there. I think I did it right. On the lip of his cup. In his wine, to be sure, and a powder rubbed into his pillow and linens. More on the latch of his door.’ His voice was uneven as we walked him out of the cell.
‘That should do it,’ I muttered. It sounded as if he had deposited enough poison to kill a dozen people. ‘Thorough,’ I added. And then, ‘How did you kill Symphe?’
‘Not Symphe. Capra. She was groaning when they dragged her back. I think I killed her. I put a knife in her belly twice.’ He swayed, leaned on me, then determinedly straightened. ‘I lost that knife. And the butterfly cloak.’
‘Acceptable cost,’ I said.
‘I found a hogshead of water. I don’t know how clean it is,’ Per announced worriedly.
‘Water? Clean or dirty, give me some!’
We walked him over to it. There was a dipper hooked on the edge of the barrel. Per filled it for him, and he drank. The next one, he poured over his head and rubbed over his face. With his hair slicked to his skull in the dimness, he looked very old. ‘More,’ he said, and we waited for him, without speaking. When he paused, Spark asked, ‘Besides the bruises we can see and the split brow, are you hurt?’
He grimaced, showing bloody teeth, and then spat. ‘They hit me with sticks. A lot. Some kicking, too. Brutal, but not precise. They were reserving that for Capra’s pleasure, I think. But I hope she’s dead. Fitz, my hurts don’t matter. We have to get to Bee. The last time I saw her she was held in the upper cells, on the roof of the stronghouse. And Prilkop is here, somewhere. I thought they would put him here with me, but they didn’t.’ He stopped to breathe, holding his ribs. He coughed, and I winced with him.
‘I told you, Motley found her for us.’ I wondered how many blows to the head he had taken.
He was silent, then said, ‘Of course. She should have been our first spy.’
‘Per thought of it,’ I said and the boy grinned briefly when I glanced at him. He had dragged the guard’s body away from the table and now set the chair out for the Fool. I nodded at him, acknowledging his work. We seated the Fool and Per went back to the water to wash his hands, and then drink. I set my attention back on the Fool. ‘We’re going after her now, Fool. We can’t smuggle her out over the causeway. With Symphe dead, the Servants have shut it down. We are trapped here, unless you can find the entrance to the tunnel that goes under the causeway.’
He squinted at me, trying to master his thought. ‘How did you get here then?’
‘We came in through the waste chute that dumps into the bay. But we can’t go back that way. The incoming tide will flood it. Unless we can find Bee and conceal ourselves until the next low tide.’
‘Half a day from now?’ He shook his head. ‘They’ll come back for me long before that. They’ll find us here.’
‘What was your escape plan?’
‘Butterfly cloak and the causeway.’
‘One is gone and the other closed. We are back to trying to find the entrance to the tunnel under the causeway.’
He gasped a laugh. ‘I liked mine better. How do you know Symphe is dead?’
‘They announced it, and hung a black banner from her tower.’
He shook his head and it turned to a wobble. ‘Not my doing.’
Spark broke in. ‘Dawn comes. We need to go get Bee. Now. Before the castle awakes.’
‘And Prilkop, too. Please.’ The Fool tried to sit up straighter, failed.
‘If we can.’ I would make no promises. Once I had Bee, all my efforts would go toward keeping her safe and getting her out of here. ‘Fool. How much can you see?’
‘In this light? Not much.’
‘I killed the guard here. Do you know if or when others will be sent down?’
‘I don’t know. She was the only one I saw. Fitz, in hundreds of years no one has moved against the Servants. With Symphe dead, my attack on Capra will have alarmed them. Expect to encounter a lot of guards.’
I nodded. ‘I’m going up after Bee.’
‘They may have moved her. I know they were going to move Prilkop after they saw me there.’
‘Well, that’s where I’ll start. I want the rest of you to stay here with the Fool. Try to find the entry to the old tunnel, the one they took the Fool out of when he “escaped” the first time. Now I must go.’
‘Not alone!’ Lant objected. Per said nothing. He simply stood and came to my side.
‘Let me think,’ the Fool replied breathlessly. ‘We should go up one level. There are more cells there. A dozen of them, and some will almost certainly be occupied. It is their … their main place for torment and imprisonment. They held Prilkop and me there for a very long time. Perhaps he is there.’ Unwillingly he added, ‘And perhaps Bee is, too.’
I was not sure if I hoped to find Prilkop or not. If he had been as badly treated as the Fool, would we be able to get him out of Clerres? A useless question. We would be unable to leave him. ‘The stairs past the water barrel? Are those the ones we want?’
‘Yes. The door will be locked.’
‘Not for me,’ Spark bragged. Fleet as a rabbit, she sprinted ahead of us and up the steps. I saw her bend to examine the lock, and then she rummaged in her small pack to find her picks. While she worked on the latch, I had a more thorough prowl of that level, and quickly came back to my companions.
‘If there is a door that leads to a passage under the causeway, I don’t see it.’
‘The door to a secret tunnel would be well concealed,’ the Fool reminded me. Unwillingly he added, ‘And it may not be on this level. I was moving in and out of awareness when they freed me from here. Fitz, I know you think I will slow you. I know you fear for Spark and Per. But behind that door, there will be more guards. Possibly more than you can handle alone.’
‘It would be excellent if we could find that tunnel.’ I let his other words go by me.
Per looked thoughtful. ‘It would most likely be on the wall that faces the causeway.’