The Blackthorn Key

I’d got Martin off me for the moment, but my head was still spinning. I used the side of the chair, now lying on the ground, to push myself up. Dazed, I stumbled, jamming my knee painfully against its oak rungs. My back spasmed horribly, threatening to seize up on me.

On the floor, Martin blinked away tears. His eyes had gone flaming red, the umber powder still dotting his cheeks. He bled badly from the wound I’d given him, scarlet running down his jaw and staining his collar. He began to pull himself up, too. His hand groped in his belt for his knife.

I grabbed Oswyn’s lantern, now toppled over on his desk. I swung it wildly. Martin ducked. The lantern whistled past him harmlessly, but it put him off balance for a moment. He stumbled and fell into the corner.

I ran.

I’d planned to go back the way I came. Instead, I skidded to a stop. Thirty feet down the passage, the Elephant stopped in his tracks, too. We stared at each other for what seemed like forever. Oswyn’s lantern swung from my hand. A knotted rope swung from his.

I turned and ran the other way.





CHAPTER


25


MARTIN DARTED OUT OF OSWYN’S office as I fled past it, eyes wild, face bloody. I sprinted forward to the end of the hall. There was another exit right by Oswyn’s office. I had no idea where it went. On the other hand, “where” was “elsewhere,” which had to be better than “here.”

The arched door sheltered a narrow spiral staircase. I bounded down as fast as I could go, each step shooting pain across my injured back. Martin followed, his leather heels scraping on the stone, the Elephant’s footsteps clomping farther back.

As I ran, I realized the lantern I was carrying wasn’t going to be much of a weapon. But I could use it for something else. Halfway down the stairs, I threw it behind me. The glass shattered. Oil splashed everywhere, amber dripping over the steps.

It worked even better than I’d hoped. Martin leaped after me, trying to close the distance. His heel slipped in the oil. He slid off the steps and pitched face-first into the wrought-iron railing. It gonged, like someone was ringing a church bell. He tumbled down.

I didn’t stop to watch. Martin was out of it for a moment, but the Elephant was still stomping after me. At the bottom of the stairs, the narrow passageway opened into another corridor on the second floor, going north. I ran, trying every door. All of them were locked.

I heard voices behind me. Martin, swearing. The Elephant, shouting back. I turned to the right, down one hall, then left, into another. I found more steps and went down them.

I ended up on the ground floor, in a chamber I recognized. The clerks’ offices, where Oswyn had told me to stay. And past that, the courtyard. I ran outside and skidded to a stop.

Wat was waiting at the entrance to the Hall.

I froze. He coiled, as if to chase me. He didn’t. Instead, he scanned the empty windows. “He’s here! Down here! In the courtyard!” he shouted.

It took me a second to realize why he wasn’t coming after me. He didn’t have to. He’d covered the only exit. All he had to do now was wait for Martin and the Elephant. And he wouldn’t have to wait long. I could already hear them on the steps.

There was nowhere else to go. I turned and ran into the laboratory.

I’d been here once before, after my test, when the masters had shown us around the Guild Hall. There was one main entrance to the lab complex, which contained three different rooms. The central chamber, for general preparations, was a cluttering of workbenches covered with bins, casks, barrels, and pipes. A doorway on the right led to the distillery, which pumped the scent of alcohol into the prep room. Another doorway on the left held the ovens of the cook room. Each of the three main chambers, I recalled, had a smaller storeroom attached to it, holding various ingredients.