The two men who emerged both wore Armsmen green, though their uniforms were somewhat the worse for wear after the long siege. They stood blinking in the lantern light. Abby raised an eyebrow, glanced at Principa, and beckoned, and the men shuffled silently past her and back toward the stairs.
“Um. .,” the guard said, standing in front of the now-empty cell. “What about me?”
“Stay here,” Winter said. “I’ll come and fetch you directly.”
–
“Make sure Jane doesn’t punish her,” Winter said, once they were out of earshot.
“I’d punish her,” said Giforte, “if she were in one of my prisons. Everyone knows you don’t release a prisoner without written authorization, and never without a signature. That way everyone knows who’ll catch hell if someone goes missing.”
Abby laughed and touched her father’s arm. “We’ll have to bring you in to train all our jailers.”
“Is this a prison break, then?” said Captain d’Ivoire. “Or has the council decided something?”
“The council can’t decide what to have for breakfast,” Winter said. “Jane feels you two would be safer elsewhere.”
“She can’t exactly let you walk out into the mob,” Abby said. “They’re ready to throw stones at anything in green.”
Giforte winced. “What about the rest of my men?”
“Most of them have already gone home,” Abby said. “The rest changed out of their uniforms and joined up with the riot.”
“Danton has that effect on people, apparently,” Winter muttered.
“In any event,” Abby said, “it would be better for all concerned if you. . slipped away. We’ve got a boat waiting down below.”
Giforte frowned but said nothing. They walked in silence for a while, down the spiraling central staircase and past the landing where Winter and Cyte had fought the night before. The light of the lantern showed wide brown splotches on the stones, and Winter’s gorge rose.
When they reached the bottom level, the gentle lap of water at the little dock became audible. Captain d’Ivoire stopped suddenly and caught Winter’s eye.
“I think,” he said, “we should give the two of them a moment alone.”
Winter looked at Abby, who shrugged. She and Giforte continued on a short distance, while Winter and Marcus retreated to the stairwell. There was only one lantern, which faded to an almost invisible glow as soon as the other pair had gone around a corner. Winter put her back to the cold stone wall and waited. The captain was only the vaguest of shadows.
Shit. She’d known this was a bad idea. He hadn’t recognized her the night of the raid, but since then he’d had plenty of time to think it over. I should have sent someone else. Stupid, stupid-
“Ihernglass,” Marcus whispered. “It is you, isn’t it?”
And there it was, stark as a skull. She took a deep breath. What the hell do I do now?
“I knew the colonel sent you on some secret mission,” he continued, “but I hadn’t imagined it would be anything like this. I don’t want to blow your cover, so we don’t have long.”
Winter let her breath out and blinked. This was not how she’d imagined this conversation going. If he tells me that he’s always known I was a girl, I swear to God I’m going to scream.
“I just thought,” Marcus went on, oblivious of Winter’s expression in the darkness, “that this might be a good opportunity. If there’s anything you want to pass along to the colonel, I mean. It can’t be easy to get messages to him.”
There was a long pause. Eventually Winter shook her head, realized he couldn’t see it, and said, “No message in particular. Just tell him what happened here, and make sure he knows I’m all right. I’ll be here with Jane if he wants me.”
“Right. I can’t speak for the colonel, but you can take it from me you’re doing a hell of a job.” Marcus sighed. “Better than me, certainly. He sent me to guard a prison and I end up locked inside it. Twice.”
“I think we made the best of a bad situation,” Winter said. “And thank you. Sir.”
Marcus’ shadow nodded. “I know it can’t be easy, even if being with Jane’s lot means you get to wear trousers.”
Winter paused, then ventured, “Sir?”
“Passing for female. Damned convincing. You’d have fooled me for certain, if I hadn’t known better.”
There was another long silence, this time while Winter tried desperately to fight down a spasm of mad laughter that seemed determined to burrow its way out from her lungs. She’d almost lost the battle when a frustrated shout from down the corridor brought their heads around.
“I think we’ve left them alone for long enough,” Marcus said. “Come on, before they kill one another.”
“Did you know about Abby and the vice captain?” Winter said. She covered her mouth; the laughter had transformed into hiccups. “Her being his daughter, I mean.”
“I hadn’t the faintest,” Marcus said. “But he filled me in while we were in the cell. Apparently they don’t get along.”
“I will not.” Abby’s voice came to them at a volume usually reserved for opera sopranos playing to a full house. “Will you get in the damned boat?”
“That may have been understatement on his part,” Marcus said.
As it turned out, no intervention was necessary. Abby stalked past them, lantern in hand, sending wildly swinging shadows up the walls of the corridor. She rounded the corner and, to judge by the light, stayed there. Winter and Marcus glanced at each other and continued on to the dock, where Giforte was already sitting in the little two-man rowboat.
“Let’s get out of here,” the vice captain muttered. He caught Winter’s eye as Marcus carefully stepped from the dock, making the little craft sway alarmingly. “Please try to take care of her?”
“I’ll do my best,” Winter said. “Don’t worry. Jane takes good care of all her people.”
Giforte nodded, reluctantly, and took hold of the oars. Once Marcus had settled himself, Winter undid the line, and the little boat splashed and bumped its way out into the tunnel, bound for the friendlier docks on the North Shore.
Abby was waiting in the corridor, just out of sight of the dock. It was hard to tell in the bad light, but it looked as though she had been crying.
“Are you all right?” Winter said.
“Just furious.” Abby dragged a hand across her face. “He always makes me that way.”
“What did he want?”
“To go back with him, of course.” She waved a hand. “It was all well and good my slumming it for a while-that’s what he says now, though at the time he threatened to disown me-but things are getting dangerous. So I need to come home and be locked in a tower behind barred windows.”
“I’m not sure I blame him,” Winter said. “If I had a daughter, I don’t think I’d want her out here. Hell, I’m not sure I want to be here myself, sometimes.”
“He’s a thickheaded old fossil,” Abby said. “And I told him so. If anyone should be locked away, it’s him. At his age he should be sitting behind a desk signing papers, not trying to hold a fortress wall against the notorious Mad Jane and her mob-what?”
Winter had started to chuckle, mixed with the occasional hiccup. She shook her head until she got control of herself again.
“Nothing,” she said. “I’m in a strange mood, that’s all.”
“Come on,” Abby said. “I need a drink.”
Now, Winter reflected as they climbed the stairs, I’m a girl pretending to be a boy pretending to be a girl. At least as far as Marcus is concerned. Just the thought made her giggle. Janus probably planned it this way. She still hadn’t figured out why he’d put her with Jane in the first place, unless it was purely to fulfill the request she’d made to him on the shores of Khandar. I very much doubt that. Not that Janus wasn’t the sort of man to keep his promises, but she was certain he would find a way to arrange matters so that he himself derived some benefit. I suppose I’m just too simple to see it. Though it would help if I knew what he wanted.