“I—I don’t know about any Emparch,” he stammered.
“Liar!” My heart pounded a frantic beat. “You’re wearing his coat.” And he looked awful in it, with his arms stuffed into the sleeves like sausages. He was broader and shorter than Markos. “If you hurt him, I swear I’ll kill you.”
“He killed six of our men!” Philemon struggled in Nereus’s hold. “Good, able-bodied seamen, they was. You’re gods-damned right I hurt him!”
“Where is he?” I pressed my pistol into his neck.
“Perhaps we took his fingers off. An Emparch don’t need fingers, do he?”
I schooled my face into stillness, refusing to let him know how his words upset me.
The blood in Philemon’s mouth gurgled as he laughed. “Perhaps I cut his eyes out and gave them to the gulls to feast on. Guess he ain’t so pretty now.”
Nereus dug the blade into his cheek. “Shut up, you. The Emparch. Now.”
Philemon glared, blood trickling down into his beard. Then he nodded toward the end of the corridor. “The tower,” he growled. “But you’re too late. It collapsed, and the stairs is broken. Whole bloody thing’s coming down.” He leered at me, showing a chipped tooth. “All you’ll find down there is a corpse, girl!”
I swallowed down my rage. They had left him in there to die.
“I’ll go with you,” Kenté said.
“You heard him.” I loaded my pistol. “It’s not safe. Ma’ll murder me if anything happens to you.”
“Oh, and she won’t mind at all if something happens to you.”
I laid a hand on her sleeve. “Stay with Nereus and keep an eye on this fellow in case he’s lying. I’ll be right back.”
She squeezed my arm in return. “Current carry you.”
The ruined tower creaked and trembled. Somewhere tiny crumbs of mortar and stone trickled down the wall, and the air was thick with dust. Stepping cautiously through the door, I tested the first stair. It didn’t seem like it was about to drop out from under me.
Bracing myself on the wall, I took the curved staircase one step at a time. The ghostly moan of metal made me squeeze my eyes shut. My pistol shook in my hand. The staircase descended much farther than I had thought possible. Surely I’d gone right down into the hill itself by now.
Something fell with a tremendous crash, causing the whole tower to quake. My legs went out from under me. For a long terrifying minute I huddled on the steps, clinging to the stone. I bit back a whimper. Markos was down there. He might be trapped under a fallen stone. He might be hurt. I forced myself to go on.
The stairs ended in a fifteen-foot drop into darkness. I gasped, scrambling back to safe ground. My heart raced as I flattened myself against the wall. I’d almost gone over.
The room below was not totally dark. A flicker of lamplight dimly illuminated the pit. I leaned over the edge, cold sweat prickling my neck.
Sitting in an inch-deep puddle of water was a chair. And tied to it with many thick turns of rope was the one person I’d never expected to see alive again.
“Markos!”
He squinted up at me. “Caro?”
His left eye was blackened, and a cut on his chin had spilled a thick trail of blood down his shirt. Other than that, except for his hair looking greasy, he seemed more or less unharmed. I was so relieved to see him that all I could do was grin helplessly.
He grinned back, which looked truly gruesome what with the state of his face. “Nice hat.”
A moth-eaten tapestry hung on the tower wall. Unwinding a length of heavy brocade from the rod, I gripped it in both hands, took a deep breath, and swung. Halfway down, the tapestry tore and I fell the last few feet, landing with a splash.
Markos twisted against the ropes. “I heard the cannons outside and hoped it might be you. Where’s Daria?”
“You mustn’t think much of me, if you think I’d bring your sister into a place like this.” I sliced through his bindings, careful to hold the dagger well away from his wrists. “She’s safe on the ship.”
He winced, sucking in a breath.
“What’s wrong?” I cried in alarm. “I didn’t cut you?”
“My hands,” he managed. “I can’t feel them.”
I knelt before him, pressing his hands between mine. They were limp and cold. I slapped and chafed the skin until he gasped in pain.
“Gods.” He rocked forward. “It’s just pins and needles, but it hurts like a … Well, I can’t say that in the presence of a lady.”
“You don’t mean you’re counting me as a lady.”
I was suddenly too aware of his breath on my hair. The last time we were together, I’d kissed him as if I was never going to see him again. Well, that was cursed awkward now. I dropped his hands and scrambled back.
He got slowly to his feet, stretching each leg in turn. I inhaled sharply. The crusted blood on his shirt wasn’t from his chin. His left ear was a scabbed mess. It was the one, I queasily realized, where he’d worn the garnet earring. That jewel was missing.
He saw me looking. “Yes, well, I would say you should see the other fellow, but unfortunately I admit I got the worst of it.”
“It was ten to one!” My hand hovered near his ear.
“More like twenty, once the men from Alektor arrived. Please don’t touch it.” He swatted me away. “It’s finally stopped bleeding. I’d like to keep it that way. Who’s out there firing cannons? When the tower got hit the first time, that’s when the stones started to fall. The Black Dogs all ran out and never came back.”
“It was the Bollards. Wait, the first?” Concerned, I asked, “How many times did they hit this tower?”
“I counted three. You brought the Bollards? You didn’t even know I was alive.” His left knee buckled and he clutched his side, as if he had a cramp. “Ow!”
“The Black Dogs tried to swindle the Theucinians.” I offered him my arm. “They want to ransom you back to your family in Valonikos, or maybe they were just going to collect the money and then kill you. Only they hired a Bollard ship as courier, so Ma found out about it.”
I gave him the brief version of what had befallen us since we parted, secretly enjoying the warmth of his body as he leaned on me for support.
“How typical,” he said when I was finished. “You were stealing pirate ships and having adventures while I was tied to a chair. I was forced to concoct all manner of fancies to pass the time. I admit most of them involved you.”
“Markos Andela—” I began sternly, to cover my blushing.
“How do you know that name? Daria, I suppose.” He gave me a rakish smile. “Well, I’m not entirely sure I should allow you to take such liberties.”
“That’s funny,” I said. “You talking about taking liberties. Stop flirting with me. This tower’s going to collapse on our heads.”
“You have a plan for getting out of here, don’t you?”
I shrugged. “The way we came?”
“You jumped down from a doorway fifteen feet up in the air,” he said, “with the help of a tapestry that is now torn and no doubt will not bear our weight.”