I slipped it into my bag. I’d look for them.
I could feel the eyes of the prisoners on me, but I didn’t care. I continued going through his belongings, searching the pouches at his side. Food, water, a candle. A key, blue in color.
I took the key, putting it in my pack, and carefully made my way over to the crystalline walls of the cells.
“—hear me?” I caught the voice of the woman. She was a bit muffled, but audible. I watched every step as I approached, and just in case, I scanned the ceiling as well. I found a few more trap panels on the floor, but nothing visible on the roof.
“I can hear you,” I said at normal volume. She nodded, and the black-haired man finally moved, approaching the corner of his cell where he could get closest to us.
“Good. Don’t do anything yet.” She looked like she was talking loudly, nearly yelling. I could hear her a little better now that I was close. “Don’t touch the walls.”
I had been just about to touch the walls.
“Okay,” I said. “What’s going on here?”
The masked man tapped a fist on the inside of his wall. “Crystalline structure. Nearly unbreakable. I could manage it, but the cells are warded. If I broke mine, the wards on the other two would trigger defenses.”
Warded?
I glanced at the crystalline walls more carefully, narrowing my eyes. I wasn’t attuned yet, but I could see some hints of blue energy within the crystalline structure. They looked almost like hovering letters.
Yep, warded.
“Listen closely,” the woman said. “I’m Vera Corrington. If you help me get out of here, I can help get you nearly anything—”
“You should help the kid,” the man cut in. “He’s been unconscious for nearly two days. Dehydrated, most likely.”
“Don’t be a fool.” Vera glanced at the masked man. “The child has no chance of making it out on his own, and the key is only going to work once.”
I frowned, looking at Vera. “Exactly which key do you mean?”
Vera folded her arms. “The blue one you found on that poor bastard’s body. There should be locks outside each of our cells, but these things eat keys. You won’t be able to help all of us.”
The masked man walked to the center of his cell, tapping a part on the wall. I could just barely see a keyhole there, now that he was indicating it.
Resh. One key, three locks.
Was this a part of the test?
It easily could be seen that way, if I broke it down into component parts. A dead body to indicate the traps. I could only free one person. The obvious option — the child — might already be dead, and a waste of a key. A man and a woman were the other options, maybe to appeal to people of the opposite gender?
Or, of course, it could actually be a prison.
Had I found a place in the tower I wasn’t supposed to be?
It seemed unlikely. The goddess was supposed to observe everything in the tower and guide our paths. At least, according to legend.
Was it possible that the prison was real, but that the goddess had guided me here? To give me a chance to free one of them, or maybe all of them?
There were too many things I didn’t know. I had to treat the situation as real — meaning that I was actually being given a chance to free someone who was trapped in the tower.
Someone like Tristan.
“Has either of you met someone named Tristan? Another prisoner, maybe?”
The two adults looked at each other, and then both shook their heads.
The masked man spoke. “Others have come and gone, but I haven’t heard of anyone by that name.”
Vera jerked a thumb at the man. “This guy would know. He’s been in here for weeks, if you believe his stories. And he can survive longer, too, which is why you should free me.”
I sighed. Shouldn’t have hoped for anything this soon. I just need to stick to the plan and make the climb to the top.
In the meantime, maybe I can help someone else.
I scratched my chin. Truthfully, I wasn’t certain I should free anyone. If they were here, wasn’t that the goddess’ will?
Thinking that way wasn’t going to get me anywhere, though. If everything here was part of the goddess’ plan, freeing them was just as likely to be what Selys wanted. And if the goddess wanted people my age to bleed out on the floors of her towers, well, I wasn’t certain I could trust her judgment.
It was a blasphemous way to think, but Tristan’s disappearance had changed me.
I looked at the masked man. “Not making any argument for me to free you?”
He shook his head. “That child is dying. Vera is right when she says it may be too late, but I wouldn’t want it on my conscience if he died when he could be saved.”
I nodded. I couldn’t disagree with that reasoning.
“Tall dark and shady over there has a point, but he’s not mentioning another possibility. He’s not all that attached to me. Might be that if you free the kid, he’ll break out of his own cell and make me dead.”
The masked man shook his head. “You’re paranoid.”
She tilted her head to the side. “A few days stuck with you and anyone would be.”
“What are the two of you doing in here, anyway?” I folded my arms. “What is this place?”
Vera sighed, running fingers through greasy hair. “Stepped in a place I shouldn’t have. Happens to delvers all the time.”
I frowned. “Delvers?”
The masked man spoke next. “A fancy term for looters.”
Vera gave a crooked smile, highlighting a scar across her upper lip. “I prefer ‘treasure hunter’.” She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, there are traps all over these towers. Some of them are merciful enough to be fatal. Others set off alarms, or drop you into places like this. It was the first for me, the second for this Keras over here.”
Keras bristled. “If by ‘dropped’ you mean ‘teleported’. I wouldn’t get caught in a mere pit.”