City of Death (18 page)

After a moment, M
ā
ka straightened and rubbed her eyes. “I don't know what got into me.” She gave Scirye a smile of thanks for catching her.

Koko shuddered. “I wouldn't want to have to sit in one of these cells listening to another prisoner being questioned.”

No one pointed out the obvious: If they were re-captured, that would indeed be their fate. But it had to be in everyone's mind. Scirye tried to control her own trembling fingers as she tore a long strip from the expensive blue silk of her robe, fashioning a belt into which she tied the otter charm.

She thought of her mother and sister when they'd been battling Badik the dragon, trying to stop him from stealing the precious ring of Lady Tabiti, a treasure of her people. She had to be calm. She introduced her friends to the Pippalanta. Then, swiveling, she surveyed all the doors. “Are those all cells or is there another way out of here?”

“Not that I know of,” Kat said. “What next, lady?”

Scirye was surprised and pleased that the Pippalanta were now looking to her to solve the problem as they had once looked to her sister. She just wished she had a solution.

“Quiet.” Tute stood frozen, except for his ears, which turned this way and that, the tufts at the tips twitching.

“What—?” began Koko but shut up when Tute drew back his lips in a snarl that exposed his fangs.

When the badger fell silent, the lynx went back to listening, his ears rotating rapidly trying to pick up the strange noises only he could hear. Finally, he pointed his muzzle toward the third door from the entrance. “Yes,” Tute whispered, “there's definitely someone inside that cell. But the Questioner said that we were to be the first prisoners to be questioned here in a long time.”

Kat nodded to the door through which they had come. “But that's supposed to be the only entrance.”

“Which means whoever's behind there has another way in,” Wali said.

“And out,” Tute grunted.

Leaving the Pippalanta to guard the entrance, they followed as silently they could while Tute stalked toward the mysterious sounds. The powerful muscles on his shoulders and legs rippled beneath the hide. Though the lynx was only as high as Scirye's knee, his compact body was heavily muscled. Scirye would not want to be his prey.

As Tute paused outside the wooden door, Scirye thought she heard crunching noises. Tiptoeing next to him, Scirye put her hand to the door while her other hand clasped the otter charm. The lock clicked at her touch and she yanked the door open.

Koko's eyes widened and he sniffed the air loudly. “Hey! Potato chips!” The tubby badger charged past the startled lynx and dove into the room. “Dibs!” he hollered.

There came a high-pitched squeal of terror and indignation, and the sound of Koko thrashing about with someone.

Scirye sprang into the room, ready to save her friend from a life-or-death struggle. Instead, she found Koko lying on the floor of the cell, hugging a green bag of chips like a drowning man clutching a life preserver. With his other paw, he was fending off a foot-high akhu.

Koko squinted as he asked, “Fenimore, is that you?”

 

31

Leech

“Ah, good sir,” the rat said in accented but good English, “Pärseri has a third cousin by that name who lives in America.” Despite his friendly tone, the ratlike creature kept trying to reclaim his bag of chips. “How is he?”

Koko nodded. “Fenimore told me he had a big clan. He's doing fine on Alcatraz—that's a prison on an island in the San Francisco Bay where only the worst criminals get sent. Fenimore said the food may not be top notch but at least the garbage cans are full and there's no competition.”

“Pärseri's heart overflows with joy and such moments are rare in this wretch's life,” the rat said and dipped his head politely even as his paws flailed for the bag.

“My name's Koko.” He nodded at Leech and the others as he held off the rat. “These are my buddies.”

When Pärseri finally noticed them, he sidled over toward the bench, trying to block their view, but Pärseri would have needed to be as big as a hippo to screen all the food packed under the bench—candy bars, boxes of cookies, corned beef in tin cans, jars of pickled pigs' feet, and a whole ham.

“There are so many thieves about nowadays, and this place was always deserted, so I thought it would be safe to store my supplies here.” Pärseri wrung his paws. “But apparently not. Might Pärseri ask what you're doing here in his chambers?”

“Well, the place is re-opening for business—with us as the first customers.” Koko stuffed a pawful of potato chips into his muzzle. “But we were framed so we escaped.”

“Excuse Pärseri's ignorance, but shouldn't you escape by
leaving
the Chamber of Truth?” Pärseri asked, puzzled.

“We're working on it,” Koko said through a mouthful of chips.

“We're not hardened criminals,” M
ā
ka assured him. “You're safe with us.”

“But not Pärseri's property.” The creature wriggled a paw at Koko. “He'll have his chips back, if you please.”

The badger tipped the bag upside down and shook it to show it was empty. “Sorry. You should have spoken up sooner.”

Pärseri stared mournfully at the now empty bag. “Oh, woe is poor Pärseri.”

“Aw, what are pals for?” Koko wheedled.

“You are no friend of Pärseri's,” the rat snapped, “nor of Fenimore's. His letter complained about a badger who never paid his I.O.U.'s.”

Before Koko could get into a fight with the rat, Kles spoke up. “How do you get in here, Pärseri?”

Pärseri nodded to the drain in the center of the alcove. “That leads to the sewer, or as Pärseri's people like to call it, the Highway.”

The drain was at most nine inches square. Kles would certainly fit, but the rest of them would have to stay behind.

“At least we'll have supplies for a siege,” Koko said as he began to examine the contents under the bench.

The akhu stamped a hind paw. “No, no, no. They are Pärseri's!”

Kles sat on Scirye's shoulder as he studied the drain. “The cell's drain was probably used for the disposal of waste, but a torture chamber might need a much bigger drain, especially if several prisoners were being ‘questioned' in the same session.”

“We'll get lost in the sewers without a guide,” Tute said, grinning at the akhu. “But I bet you know the sewers like the back of your paw, Pärseri.”

Pärseri shook his head violently. “No, no. Pärseri will be much too busy taking his supplies to safety.” He gave a shrill squeal when Tute's paw clamped around the back of his neck.

“Pärseri, if you don't show us the other way out of here,” Tute said, almost purring, “you're going to treat me to dinner.” The lynx leaned forward so that his whiskers brushed the trembling rat. “And guess who's going to be the main course?”

Pärseri groaned. “Oh, pity poor Pärseri, kind sir. What harm has he ever done you?”

M
ā
ka squatted next to Pärseri and said in a soothing voice, “Let's help each other. If you lead us, we'll pay you.”

Pärseri perked up instantly. “Do you have chewing gum?”

“No, but you can use these to buy them.” M
ā
ka indicated the bells on the hem of her robe. “The bells are silver.”

“It's always wise to be kind to strangers.” Pärseri beamed as he rubbed his paws together. “Especially when they're bigger than you are. But you must help Pärseri carry his treasures to safety too.”

“Of course.” Scirye remembered then what the princess's steward, Nanadhat, had said. “Do you know the way to the caravansary of the Urak? It belongs to the kin of a friend of ours, and I think they would help us. It's on the edge of the kr
Ä«
tam near the Eastern Gate and it has a sign with two palms.”

Pärseri was only too eager to help now. His head bobbed up and down. “Yes, yes, everyone knows the home of the great and mighty Urak. Long may their trash bins overflow. Pärseri can take you kind, generous people there.”

With a nod of thanks to the akhu, Scirye turned to M
ā
ka. The bells were attached to a strip of cloth, and Scirye helped her friend tear it off. “Just a moment ago, you found the torture room. Do you sense things as well as cast spells?”

M
ā
ka folded up the strip with the bells. “Not as far as I remember. I really don't know what happened back there, but it was like the magic swelled inside me so I could suddenly hear and see and smell things much more strongly.”

“Maybe we've finally found what you're good at,” Scirye suggested.

“It's a gift I'd rather do without,” M
ā
ka said with a shake of her head.

Scirye gave her a little apologetic smile. “I'm afraid you may be stuck with it.”

M
ā
ka nodded sympathetically. “Just like you have to serve the goddess.”

Under the akhu's watchful eye, they stuffed his worldly goods into their clothes. Leech suspected that Pärseri knew to the last cracker what each of them was carrying.

The Pippalanta were still keeping watch at the door, but Kat turned when she heard them, raising her eyebrows when she saw Leech and his friends appear with their clothes bulging with food. “I didn't know the chamber had its own market.”

Scirye introduced Pärseri, explaining that they were carrying his supplies while he showed them another way out.

Oko shook her head in admiration. “You really do have Nishke's knack for getting us out of scrapes. And just in time too. They're looking for something to use as a battering ram.”

“They ought to use the vizier,” Tute observed. “His head ought to be hard enough.”

M
ā
ka fell into step beside them as they headed toward the other door. They still had the Questioner's ring of keys, but Scirye thought the otter charm would be faster. Sure enough, Scirye unlocked it as easily as she had the other doors. But this time, she took several long, calming breaths before she opened it. Chains hung from the walls but the torture devices had been removed.

Leech thought he could smell the stale odor of blood and sweat that still clung to the walls, just as M
ā
ka had earlier. And it felt like his feet could also feel the stones vibrating with the prisoners' screams.

No, no, I don't want to be here,
the Voice whimpered.

“This is still an awful place,” Scirye said, echoing the thoughts of the Voice and Leech. She put an arm around the cringing M
ā
ka.

“But they also had the courage to stop such dark practices,” Kles reminded her. “It's the vizier who wants to bring them back.”

Tute circled around a square metal grate two feet on each side. A huge padlock held it securely in place. It was hard to tell if the reddish-brown splotches on the grate and lock were blood or rust. Even if they had found the right key on the Questioner's ring, the lock looked so rusty that Leech wasn't sure the key would have worked. “Couldn't we hold this fascinating discussion somewhere else?”

“Yeah, like maybe a hundred miles away from here,” Koko chimed in.

The air that wafted up through the grate smelled of rot and decay.

Pärseri took a deep, satisfied whiff of the stench. “Ah, home, sweet home.”

 

32

Scirye

Scirye had been shaken by the torture room. It was the opposite side of all the heroic Kushan epics she'd read. She couldn't wait to leave this reminder of her people's dark past. Even so, she was reluctant to touch the padlock on the drain because of what must have flowed down into the opening in the past.

She glanced around and saw the others waiting expectantly. Ashamed, she told herself,
You can't be fussy when everyone depends on you.

So she put aside her own feelings of revulsion and with one hand touching the otter charm, she bent over and grasped the lock in her other. The insides of the lock creaked as it slowly opened.

After that, Wali took Oko's place guarding the entrance so the big Pippal could help Kat lift the grate, but years of debris had cemented the grate in tight.

“It's going to take all of us to get it off,” Kat puffed.

Scirye leaned over to help with the others, her skin crawling when she grasped the metal bars. From her friends' expressions, they didn't like the contact either, but together they began hauling at the grate. It took their combined efforts to heave the grate to the side.

As she gazed down at the noisome darkness, Pärseri pointed to one side of the hole. “Pärseri sees rungs on one wall of shaft.”

The rungs were spaced for adult humans, but the akhu had no trouble dropping from one to the one below.

“Let Koko go next,” Tute drawled. “He'll give the rest of us something soft to land on.”

“You're the one that looks like an overstuffed cushion with legs,” Koko shot back.

“If you're going to be so selfish,” Tute sighed. With his usual grace, the lynx slipped over the edge of the drain and down a few yards. “Come on, M
ā
ka.”

M
ā
ka seemed to have recovered some of her old spirit now that they were leaving the place. Lifting the hem of her robe, she lowered a leg. “Oh, dear,” she said as her toes searched for the next rung.

Tute clambered upward until his forepaws could guide her to the rung. For all of his sarcastic comments to his mistress, deep down he really cared for her. “Now you've got it.”

Scirye noticed the brown stains on the first rung. She hoped they were some kind of fungus and not dried blood. If she could, she would have gone down with her eyes closed. Kles rose into the air, hovering above her as she eased into the hole. She had to stretch her leg to find a rung.