Keeper of the Black Stones (41 page)

He was also filthy and obviously very hungry, but held himself with pride and confidence. I'd been right about his heritage, then, I thought.

“May I ask your names?” he asked, looking from me to Tatiana.

“Jason,” I replied. “And this is–”

“Tatiana,” she interrupted, casting me a quick look of warning. I nodded slightly – she was right to be nervous. We had no idea who this man was, or whether he was a friend. He might have been some part of a trap from Dresden. Regardless, we didn't have time to sit around talking.

“Jason and Tatiana … unusual names, but I like them. My name is Sir William. However, since the three of us are locked in this cesspool together, let us dispense with the formalities. You may call me Will or William. I promise I won't take offense.”

“Why are you here? Did you kill someone?” I asked suspiciously.

The man barked with laughter. “Now I know you are strangers! No, killing someone would not have led me here, and certainly would not concern
Dresden
.” At the name, his voice turned ugly and sneering.
Obviously no love lost there,
I thought. Then the man continued. “No, I am here because I had the misfortune of being born second.”

“Excuse me?” I asked.

William paused, and I got the feeling he was sizing us up before he replied. “May I inquire as to why
you
two are here?” he asked suddenly, redirecting the question toward us.

I pressed my lips together, thinking, and Tatiana answered for me. Evidently she'd given up on the idea of caution, because she gave William a straight answer. “Jason's grandfather is the Earl of Oxford. Lord Dresden is holding us hostage.” This wasn't necessarily true, but the reason for our detention was semantics at that point.

William coughed at that – a deep, racking cough, that shook his entire body. He took a moment to recover, breathing heavily, then apologized. “I have been here for some time, and this air is hardly good for breathing.” He paused again, then continued. “The Earl of Oxford, eh? I have met the man once or twice. The last time I saw the sky, he was allying himself with the Tudor boy to fight against King Richard. I was not aware he had an heir.”

I sucked the thick air in through my teeth, already frustrated with the slow, measured speech and this conversation, which was getting us nowhere. “Yeah, well, I'm his heir and we're here to help him fight Dresden. But first we need to get out of here. Doc – I mean the Earl – is in terrible danger, and if he dies Dresden wins, and then we're all in a lot of trouble. You're here, so I expect you like him even less than we do. Who are you, man, and how the heck do we get out of here?”

I began to move around the room, searching for weak spots in the wall and feeling for the stone. If I could just find it again…

William chuckled again as I searched. “You are right, I do know Dresden, though it has not been a … pleasant experience.” He went on to tell us his
story, between fits of heavy coughing. He was the second son of one of the oldest families in Great Britain–powerful and wealthy due to his name, but subject to his brother's orders due to his birth.

“I am my brother's second-in-command, since we are close, but it falls to me to do the less rewarding jobs,” he told us. He'd been sent north to gather archers for the coming battle, and had been discovered and arrested by none other than Lord Dresden.

“So you see,” he finished, “I am in the same position as the two of you. Held as a hostage until someone sees fit to pay for my ransom.”

By the time he was finished talking, I had completed my circuit around the room. I hadn't found a stone out of place, or even a window or slit to shout through. If we were going to get out, it would have to be through the door.

Listening to William's story, though, I'd started to build a plan to do just that.

An hour later, food–if that's what you wanted to call it–arrived at the grate in our door. It was little more than gruel, and I had no intention of eating it, but it came with a guard and a torch, and that was what I needed right now.

In the last half hour I'd discovered who William was–Lord William
Stanley
–and explained to him what I knew about his brother. When he'd heard about the demands Dresden had placed upon his brother, and the fact that they would come at the price of Doc's life, he'd jumped at the opportunity to join us.

“We must get out and warn them!” he'd muttered, pacing aimlessly. “Warn them
both
, and stop Dresden before it's too late!”

“Welcome to my personal mission,” I answered. “And you only know half of it. The question is, how do we get out?”

The appearance of the solider with the food had interrupted us then, and given me a chance to look around. When he first arrived, of course, I drew back, thinking that he was there to take Tatiana or me for the aforementioned torture. He slid the food through the grate, though, and turned to leave without a word, forgetting his torch in his rush.

I dove toward the door after he left and peered out the grate, anxiously studying the hallway outside our cell. There was nothing there to help us: cold, weeping walls, an uneven dirt floor, and the gate that led out to the main hall. As I pressed my forehead to the door, though, wondering how long we had, I felt warmth begin to trickle through my veins. Behind that came the tickle in my throat, and the glowing feeling behind my eyes. I smiled quietly. The stone had found me again. Thank God.

And it had information. We had one hour before the guard came back for me. When he did, his instructions were to make sure that I gave up whatever information I had. Regardless of the cost.

Turning, I strode quickly toward Tatiana, who was looking at the gruel on her plate as though it was a toad with three heads. I kicked it away, knelt down in front of her, and pulled out Doc's old watch to glance at the time. My heart twinged at the now-familiar feeling of the engraving on the back, but I pushed the emotion away.

“Tatiana, we have a small problem,” I started. “I can't tell you how or why I know, because you'll never believe me, but we have an hour–one hour–before that guard comes back to take me away. I don't know if I'll be coming back from that trip. That means we have to move fast.”

Tatiana nodded, her face calmly intense. “I believe you, Jason. I assume you have a plan.”

I smiled, grateful for her confidence, and nodded. “As a matter of fact, I do. But it's going to be a bit … tricky.”

She paused for a moment, thinking, then shot me a quick grin. “I'm game. What do you have in mind?”

“To start with, do you have a full charge on your iPhone?” She'd come equipped with something I'd never seen before–an iPhone charger that
worked off solar power. I'd laughed at it before, as something only rich people could afford. Now I hoped she'd been using it, as my own phone had died the night before.

She gave me an odd look in answer. “Yeah, it's been charging whenever we've been in the sun. Why, do you need to make a phone call?”

I ignored her question and answered with one of my own. “Would you mind if I recorded you screaming?”

She nodded again, frowning. “Not a problem. Would you mind letting me in on what you're up to?”

I outlined my plan quickly, going through the main points and what I hoped would happen. “After that,” I finished, “we run. And hope to God we can find the tunnels I know are down here somewhere.”

Her face broke into a clear smile. “Brilliant,” she answered. “I'm in.”

Suddenly William appeared next to us, glancing from me to Tatiana. “As am I,” he added. “I presume the two of you are planning our daring escape. What do I need to know?”

“Either I'm about to get us out of here, or I'm about to get us killed,” I replied.

“At this point, either choice is acceptable. What can I do to help?” he asked, frowning.

I took a deep breath. “I'm going to do a little bit of magic, but I swear to you that it's only a trick, and I'm not a sorcerer or a wizard or anything like that.”

William laughed. “You are an odd duck, my friend. But I do not believe in witchcraft, and you have my trust. Magic us away.”

I nodded, went quickly through the plan in my head again, and then glanced at Doc's watch and did some mental calculations. Finally I looked at Tatiana.

“Okay, we have forty-five minutes. Get ready to scream for me. William, get ready to act terrified and run.”

The jailer and soldier were sitting together on the crumbling staircase when they heard the girl scream. Seconds later, her scream was joined by another.

Both screams cut out as quickly as they'd started, leaving utter silence behind.

The men jumped to their feet and ran toward the back cell, swords and cudgel at the ready. What they saw when they arrived stopped them in their tracks.

“Look upon me, foolish mortals, and witness the depth of my power!” I shouted, my voice as deep as I could make it. I hit ‘play' on the iPhone and held it up next to my face so that they could see the screen.

The men in front of me slid to a stop, their faces masks of fear and disbelief.

“Witness the woman who wronged me as she lies in the palm of my hand!” I opined loudly, turning the phone in the jailer's direction to reveal Tatiana's fifteen-second recording. It was nothing more than her screaming at the top of her lungs, but I knew it was more than these men had ever seen. I was counting on that to be enough. The jailer and the soldier who stood beside him watched, terrified, as Tatiana's image screamed in anguish and begged for her life.

Suddenly William broke in, playing his part with a ragged, frightened voice. “Listen to him and do as he says! I saw him place the girl in that box with my own eyes! He is the bastard son of Merlin, the devil himself! Do as he says if you value your life!” He emerged from the shadows with a look of horror and pressed his face against the iron bars, pleading to be let out.

His timing was perfect, and I pushed him roughly to the side. “Open this door, mortal, or I will shrink you down and place you inside my box for all eternity!” I commanded. I turned my flashlight on and projected the thin
beam of light through the bars and onto the soldier's chest.

He didn't move, though he looked down at the light on his chest and started blubbering in fear.

“Do as I say, or join the girl in the depths of hell!” I screamed. “Open this door, lay your dagger on the ground, and release me!”

The man tore his eyes away from the beam of light on his chest and moved quickly toward the door, reaching out to unlock it. I tumbled out as the door swung open, and both men retreated, doing everything they could to avoid touching me. The flashlight drove them toward the back of the hall, giving William and Tatiana time to get out of the cell and through the door to the stairway. Once my friends were out of the cell, I gestured for both the soldier and jailer to take their place. They obeyed without question.