The man, like the woman, wore the Archon's blue under ribbed black leather armour: bracers, vest and neck-guard. He was cleanshaven and handsome, and he waited behind the bars as the female guard approached to pass him Locke's papers.
"Captain Orrin Ravelle," she said. "And boatswain. Here with orders from the Archon."
The man studied Locke's papers at length before nodding and passing them back through the bars. "Of course. Good evening, Captain Ravelle. This man is your boatswain, Jerome Valora?" "Yes, Lieutenant."
"You're to view the prisoners in the second vault? Anyone in particular?" "Just a general viewing, Lieutenant."
"As you will." The man slid a key from around his neck, opened the only gate set into the wall of iron bars and stepped out toward them, smiling. "We're pleased to render any aid the Protector requires, sir."
"I very much doubt that," said Locke, letting a stiletto slip into his left hand. He reached out and gave the female guard a slash behind her right ear, across the unprotected skin between her leather neck-guard and her tightly coiffed hair. She cried out, whirled and had her black-ened-steel sabre out of its scabbard in an instant.
Jean was tackling the male guard before her blade was even out; the man uttered a surprised choking noise as Jean slammed him against the bars and gave him a sharp chop to the neck with the edge of his right hand. The leather armour robbed the blow of its lethal possibilities without dulling the shock of impact. Gasping, the guard was easily pinned from behind by Jean, who immobilized his arms and held him in a grip like iron.
Locke darted backwards out of the female guard's reach as she slashed with her blade. Her first attack was swift and nearly accurate. Her second was a bit slower, and Locke had no trouble avoiding it. She readied a third swing and misstepped, tripping over her own feet. Her mouth hung open in confusion. "You… fucker…" she muttered. "Poi… poi… son."
Locke winced as she toppled face-first to the stone floor; he'd meant to catch her, but the stuff on the blade had acted faster than he'd expected.
"You bastard," coughed the lieutenant, straining uselessly in Jean's hold, "you killed her!"
"Of course I didn't kill her, you twit. Honestly, you people… pull a blade anywhere around here and everyone assumes straight away that you" ve killed someone." Locke stepped up before the guard and showed him the stiletto. "Stuff on the edge is called Witfrost. You have a good, hard sleep all night, wake up around noon. At which time you'll feel like hell. Apologies. So do you want it in the neck or in the palm of your hand?" "You… you gods-damned traitor!"
"Neck it is." Locke gave the man his own shallow cut just behind his left ear and barely counted to eight before he was hanging in Jean's arms, limper than wet silk. Jean set the lieutenant down gently and plucked a small ring of iron keys from his belt. "Right," said Locke. "Let's pay a visit to the second vault."
4
"Ravelle didn't exist until a month ago," said Stragos. "Not until I had you to build the lie around. A dozen of my most trusted men and women will swear after the fact that he was real, that they shared assignments and meals with him, that they spoke of duties and trifles in his company.
"My finnickers have prepared orders, duty rosters, pay vouchers and other documents, and seeded them throughout my archives. Men using the name of Ravelle have rented rooms, purchased goods, ordered tailored uniforms delivered to the Sword Marina. By the time I'm dealing with the consequences of your betrayal, he'll seem real in fact and memory." "Consequences?" asked Locke.
"Ravelle is going to betray me just as Captain Bonaire betrayed me when she took my Basilisk out of the harbour seven years ago and raised a red banner. It's going to happen again… twice to the same Archon. I will be ridiculed in some quarters, for a time. Temporary loss for long-term gain." He winced. "Have you not considered the public reaction to what I'm arranging, Master Kosta? I certainly have."
"Gods, Maxilan," said Locke, toying absently with a knot on one of the lines bracing the vessel's relatively small mainsail. "Trapped out at sea, feigning mastery in a trade for which I'm barely competent, fighting for my fife with your fucking poison in my veins, I shall endeavour to keep you in my prayers for the sake of your hardship."
"Ravelle is an ass, too," said the Archon. "I" ve had that specifically written into his back history. Now, something you should know about Tal Verrar — the Priori's constables guard Highpoint Citadel Gaol in the Castellana. The majority of the city's prisoners go there. But while the Windward Rock is a much smaller affair, it's mine. Manned and provisioned only by my people."
The Archon smiled. "That's where Ravelle's treachery will reach the point of no return. That, Master Kosta, is where you'll get your crew."
5
True to Stragos's warning, there was an additional guard to be disarmed in the first cell level beneath the entrance hall, at the foot of a wide spiral staircase of black iron. The stone tower above was for guards and alchemical lights; the Windward Rock's true purpose was served by three ancient stone vaults that went down far beneath the sea, into the roots of the island.
The man saw them coming and took immediate alarm; no doubt Locke and Jean descending alone was a breach of procedure. Jean relieved him of his sword as he charged up the steps, kicked him in the face and pinned him, squirming, on his stomach. Jean's month of exercise at Caldris's whim seemed to have left his strength more bullish than ever, and Locke almost pitied the poor fellow struggling beneath him. Locke reached over, gave the guard a touch of Witfrost and whistled jauntily.
That was it for the night shift, a skeleton force with no cooks or other attendants. One guard at the docks, two in the entrance hall, one on the first cell level. The two on the roof, by Stragos's direct order, would have sipped drugged tea and fallen asleep with the pot between them. Thed'r be found by their morning relief with a plausible excuse for their incapacity — and another lovely layer of confusion would be thrown over the whole affair.
There were no boats kept at Windward Rock itself, so even if prisoners could conceivably escape from iron-barred cells set into the weeping walls of the old vaults and win free through the barred entrance hall and lone reinforced door, thed'r face a swim across a mile of open water (at least), watched with interest by many things in the depths eager for a meal.
Locke and Jean ignored the iron door leading to the cells of the first level, continuing down the spiralling staircase. The air was dank, smelling of salt and unwashed bodies. Past the iron door on the second level, they found themselves in a vault divided into four vast cells, long and low-ceilinged, two on each side with a fifteen-foot corridor down the middle.
Only one of these cells was actually occupied; several dozen men lay sleeping in the pale-green light of barred alchemical globes set high on the walls. The air in there was positively rank, dense with the odours of unclean bedding, urine and stale food. Faint tendrils of mist curled around the prisoners. A few wary pairs of eyes tracked Locke and Jean as they stepped up to the cell door.
Locke nodded to Jean, and the bigger man began to pound his fist against the bars of the door. The clamour was sharp, echoing intolerably from the dripping walls of the vault. Disturbed prisoners rose from their dirty pallets, swearing and hollering.
"Are you men comfortable in there?" Locke shouted to be heard above the din. Jean ceased his pounding.
"We" d be lots more comfortable with a nice sweet Verrari captain in here for us to fuck sideways," said a prisoner near the door.
"I have no patience to speak of," said Locke, pointing at the door he and Jean had come through. "If I walk out through that door, I won't be coming back."
"Piss off, then, and let us sleep," said a scarecrow of a man in a far corner of the cell.