Krondor_ The Assassins Part 24

James stepped on William's shoulders, balancing like an acrobat. "Now," said James, and William stood, holding James's ankles.

"Let go," instructed James and William felt the weight vanish from his shoulders. After a moment, James said, "Just reach straight up with your hands outstretched now and I'll pull you up."

William had to leap three times before James caught his wrists and pulled him up. Treggar followed. When all three were sitting, stooped over, in a low and shallow s.p.a.ce above the rock ceiling, William said, "What is this place?"

"I don't know," said James. "Sometimes stone has flaws. Water leaches holes."

"Water would have to come from somewhere, and last time I looked, there wasn't a lot of water in this region," said Treggar.

James spoke: "We're below the surface, and maybe the water level in the well was higher years ago. I don't know. But at some time in the past the ceiling here gave way, and here we are."

William said, "There's close to fifty feet of rock between this level and the surface. There might be some upper chambers."

"But you said you didn't find any stairs," said Treggar to James.

"There are those two rooms we found at the west end of this place, with the rockfall. Maybe those hid stairs?"

"What now?" asked William.

"We wait," said Treggar.

A few moments later, they heard footfalls pounding through the hall, and light could be seen. Men hurried along beneath them, weapons ready, holding torches. All were wearing black armor, save one who brought up the rear, who wore the robes of a priest.

When they had pa.s.sed, the three fugitives could hear them searching nearby rooms. No one said anything until the sounds of the searches grew faint.

James said, "I saw some loose stones above us when those torches pa.s.sed by."

William asked, "You were looking up?"

"Old habits," said James. "When you're running around in the sewers or up on the roof at night, if a light suddenly appears you look away, to avoid being blinded."

James ran his hands along the surface above him. "These are man-made," he said. "They're each a foot and a half square."

"Sounds like we're under a floor," said Treggar.

"Help me push this," said James, as he experimented with one of the stones above him.

Treggar duck-walked two steps and sidled up to James. He reached up and they pushed. Mortar and dust rained down as the stone moved upward with a crack. James stuck his hand experimentally through the hole. "It's a room," he said.

The other stones were set far more solidly so it took some work, but they got two more up and moved, allowing them enough room to climb through. James said, "Step this way. I don't think those stones directly above where we hid would support our weight."

The air was musty and stale. The darkness was total.

James added, "Don't move until I've had a chance to scout a little and see how big this chamber is."

William and Treggar stood still, while James stepped cautiously away, moving slowly through the darkness. His tread was light, but in the silence of the room they could tell roughly where he moved. "I've found a wall," he said after a few moments, his voice coming from about twenty feet away. They then could hear him moving along the wall, measuring as he went. "The floor feels solid, except where we broke through," he said absently.

William said, "Let us know if you find a light. This darkness is tedious."

James said vaguely, "You get used to it. Ah!"

"What?" asked Treggar.

"A door. Wooden. Closed."

A few seconds later, a spark was struck. "We have light," James said, igniting an old torch he had found in the wall-sconce. Putting away his flint and steel, he said, "Let's see what we have here."

The room was forty feet square and the walls were lined with empty weapons racks. Two racks stood in the middle of the room, empty of the long spears that had once waited there for a call to action.

"If the armory is below . . ." mused James aloud.

"Then this is where they kept spare arms close to hand," finished Treggar.

James returned the torch to the wall-sconce, and went to the door. "This should lead to the marshaling yard above."

He tried the door. "It's jammed." Examining it, he said, "Let's try the hinges."

William and Treggar pulled out their daggers and worked at the ancient iron hinges. "If we had some oil," said William, maybe.

James said, "I'll get some."

"Where?" asked Treggar.

"Down there," said James, moving back toward the hole in the floor.

"You're mad," said Treggar.

"Probably," answered James as he ducked out of sight.

After he had left, William and Treggar looked at one another and sat down to wait.

Time pa.s.sed slowly, then suddenly James's voice sounded in the dark. "Give me a hand." William hurried over and lay down, lowering his hand through the hole. After a couple of misses in the darkness, James seized it and came up.

"Here," James said, handing a jar to William. "Oil." William said, "I didn't even hear you until you spoke." James replied softly. "You weren't supposed to. A couple of disagreeable men were trying to find me, and once I shook them I didn't want them hearing me climbing up here."

"What's it like down there?" asked Treggar. "They're into their second sweep. They probably have someone above at the top of the old well, and since no one came up, then they figure we must still be in here somewhere. They probably think it's your Pathfinder Edwin loose down here, killing their men. But sooner or later one of those bright lads is going to suspect there may be a pa.s.sage up to this level and then they're going to start inspecting every inch of ceiling."

"Eventually they'll find us," said William.

"Almost certainly," said James. "Being caught was never my first worry."

"If that wasn't, what was?" asked Treggar.

James pulled out a heavy crowbar, two feet in length, and said, "Oil." He nodded toward the hinges. As William poured oil on the upper hinge, James continued. "Getting caught before word got to Arutha. As long as we're running around in here, those down below are going to be too concerned about catching us to prepare well for Arutha's arrival. If everything works out, those coming back will have Krondorian soldiers hard on their heels, and will run right into a barred door, with those inside slow in getting it open for them."

"That's your plan?" asked Treggar.

"It's the old plan," said James. "If this door leads where I think it does, I have an even better plan."

With the oil and crowbar, they got the pins out of the hinges. Treggar inserted the bar between the door and jamb and pulled hard. A dull sc.r.a.pe sounded as the door moved a fraction, then stopped.

"Whatever's jamming it is holding it tight," observed the soldier.

"Captain, may I?" asked William.

The captain relinquished the bar to the broad-shouldered younger man.

William looked at the door, then moved the bar to a position slightly above his shoulders. He pulled hard, and downward, and the door moved. William yanked hard again, and the door moved again, and he fell backwards with the release of the bar.

James and Treggar leapt away as the door seemed to fly off the jamb, spinning as it fell with a loud crash to the stone floor. Clouds of fine dust filled the room, as thick as smoke, and the three men came up coughing.

"Look," said William.

The original room had been excavated just below the surface of the ancient fortress's marshaling yard. Behind the doorway, a ramp led up to the surface, and at the top of the ramp, parallel to the floor, was a barred trapdoor. The release bar for the trap was set across it in such a fashion that it could be pulled free by two ropes or chains. The iron eyelets were still intact, but any ropes had long since rotted to dust. James inspected the trapdoor. "Clever," he said at last. "It's hinged here and there-" he pointed to the far end "-so that when it falls open it lands atop the ramp."

Treggar said, "Old Keshian trick. I've never seen it, but the old Knight-Marshal, Dulanic, once told us of a fight here in the desert where they took a fortification. As they crested the walls, it seemed the defenders were all dead. They got inside and set up camp, and that night the Keshians seemed to come out of nowhere." He glanced around the room. "He mentioned we should always inspect for hiding holes like this if we found ourselves in a similar situation."

Treggar climbed the ramp next to James and put his hands up to examine the door. "There's probably a piece of canvas and some dirt spread out over this old wood. Enough so that if you're walking across it you'd have to be listening for the hollow sound to know that ramp is there."

"Add to that a few centuries of dust," muttered James, testing the weight of the door on the bar. "This isn't moving unless we can tie a pair of ropes to it."

'We'd need horses to pull that bar out with all the weight on it," said Treggar.

James sat down. "Maybe." He inspected the bar again and finally said, "Unless we can loosen those brackets."

William held up the crowbar and said, "I can give it a try."

He set to with purpose, and after a minute said, "This wood is very dry. It's splintering easily." He worked at it until the first of the two brackets fell away, striking the stone ramp with a loud clatter. He then turned to the second bracket and shortly had it free. The bar followed, crashing to the floor and bouncing down the ramp, causing James to have to leap over it. William sprawled on his back, and Treggar leapt to the side.

William lay motionless for a moment, expecting the doors to swing down upon him, but instead nothing happened. He rolled and crawled a little way, came to his feet and then stepped to the bottom of the ramp.

"Shouldn't those doors have swung down?" asked William.

"Supposedly," answered Treggar.

He started to move back up the ramp, but James's hand restrained him. "I wouldn't. It could give way at any moment."

Treggar shook off the squire's hand, saying, "I don't think so." He moved to what would be the closest edge of the opening where the door jamb met the door itself and inspected it. He then pulled out his dagger and stuck it between the door and the jamb, and pried something out.

He returned to his companions holding out a sliver of something brown.

"Mud."

"Mud?" asked William. "Here?"

"It doesn't rain much in this region," said Treggar, "but it does rain. And over the years dust has settled upon that door, then gotten rained upon, and then the heat returns."

"Brick," said James, taking the sliver from Treggar. 'The door is covered by a slab of this stuff, maybe two or three inches thick."

"But what's holding the door in place?" asked William.

"Suction," said James. "I've had to pull more than one heavy object out of the mud and if you don't break the suction first, you're doing it the hard way."

"So we're stuck?" asked William.

James looked around and said, "Not necessarily." He moved to one of the large racks and said, "Help me lug this over to the bottom of the ramp."

They did so, and after it was where James wanted it, he said, "Now move that bar over here." Quickly he had the bar jammed in to the bottom of the trapdoor, braced against the heavy rack. "This won't prevent the trap from falling on top of me, but it should slow it enough for me to get out of the way if it starts to go."

"What are you doing?" asked Treggar.

"I'm going to cut away some of this mud, enough so that any weight above it should release the door."

"You're mad," said Treggar.

James said, "You're only coming to that conclusion now?"

He moved up the ramp and said, "Stand back. If this goes, I want a clear path down that ramp."

He worked diligently and carefully, and after a while William turned his attention to the hole in the floor, watching and waiting for them to be discovered.

After an hour, James said, "That should be enough."

William glanced at James. "For what?"

James smiled. "For it to give quickly when I want it to."

"Another plan?" asked Treggar.

"Always," said James with a grin. "Now, do either of you have a good guess as to what time of the clock it is?"

Treggar said, "I put it near midnight, give or take a quarter of an hour."

"Good," said James, sitting. "Then we wait."

"For what?" William asked.

"For the half a dozen men set to watching the well above to get bored and sleepy."

James hugged the wall between two large sets of shelves, trying by force of will to become one with the slight shadow between them. A single guard was stationed near the well, absently cutting the skin from an apple as he glanced around from time to time.