Azure bonds - Kate Novak [159]
"I mean, are there any guards?"
"Let me check. GUARDS!"
Olive toppled backward in shock. Scrambling to her feet, she sought desperately for a bolt hole. She could run farther down the corridor or back up it. The crafter's cry echoed back to her from both directions, but the sound of human feet did not follow it.
"Sorry. No guards. I think they're away. That way." The graying crafter pointed farther down the passage.
Prakis warned you the fellow was mad, Olive-girl, she berated herself. Obviously, he wasn't joking.
"Where are the locks?" she demanded.
The crafter's eyes became sharp points. "There are no locks here."
"How did they put you in there?" "Through the bars."
Olive cursed. She didn't have time to play riddles with crazy people. "Must you be so cryptic?"
"As long as I'm here, yes. Otherwise, I'd shed light on the subject for you."
Olive considered continuing down the passage to search for Cassana's hoard and then leave when she'd found enough treasure to keep her in flight for a year. But the hoard might be similarly barred, and who knew how many Fire Knives were stationed to guard the end of the tunnel?
The light from her torch, dropped when the madman had bellowed, fizzled out and died. Only the magic light of the demon statues illuminated the corridor now. Light. Shed some light on the subject, she thought. What was the subject? The bars. Of course!
It took the halfling several tries to climb up the smooth walls. Reaching behind the head of one of the demon figures, she found a glass sphere, cold as ice, but with a magical light that shone with more brilliance than any candle or torch. Olive withdrew it gently and jumped down.
She held the light in front of Akabar's cell. "Nothing's happening," she growled, putting the sphere down to retrieve her sword.
"Why should anything happen?" the madman shrugged. "You're just standing there."
"So I am," Olive nodded. She stepped forward-and passed right through the bars.
"Hey, that's great. Thanks," she called back to the crafter. She set the sword on the floor and checked on the mage's condition. He was still breathing, but she would never be able to lift him off the hook. She might have tried climbing up the mage's body and picking the locks on his manacles, but the wrist bindings had been welded, not snapped on.
"Need some help?" a voice beside her asked. Olive whirled around and would have skewered the speaker if he had not so agilely sidestepped her attack.
The halfling gasped. The crafter stood next to her in Akabar's cell. She had set the glowing sphere down in such a position that it had shed light on the bars of his prison as well. He held the globe now in one hand.
"Keep back," Olive ordered, brandishing her sword.
The crafter's lips curled up in a wry smile. His eyes were now clear and piercing. He stood straighter and looked stronger. "If I keep back, how are we going to get your friend down?" His voice was now firm and reasonable.
Olive wrinkled her brow in puzzlement. "You're not mad."
The crafter harumphed. "So I have always maintained."
"I mean… well, you're different than you were a moment ago."
"The cell I was in works a spell of enfeeblement on its occupants."
"Oh." Suddenly remembering that the crafter was still one of Alias's would-be masters, Olive took another step backward and held out her sword. "Why should you want to help?"
"Look, are you going to stand there all day demonstrating your incompetence with a short sword, or climb up on my shoulders and unhook this unfortunate southerner?"
The halfling frowned at the insult, but the crafter had a point. She sighed and set her sword down behind her, then approached him cautiously.
The crafter stooped, set the sphere of light on the ground, and made a foothold for her with his hands. Olive put her hand on his shoulder and stepped up. He was a big man, as tall as Akabar, and even broader at the chest. She climbed nimbly to his shoulders, and he stood up smoothly.
"When