Crown of Renewal(55)

With no one to guard those children’s backs … he could imagine the mage-hunters hurrying across the roofs after the children, catching up, maybe even pushing the children off, dropping them like sacks of wool onto the alley below …

He had to move. The pain in his side was worse now, but he ignored it and rolled back out of the hole, over the fleeces. The yelling below intensified, but he heard no feet on the ramp yet. “Boy,” Arvid said in close to his normal voice. He could not remember the name. “Boy—”

Cedi.

“Cedi—listen—bad men are coming. I can get you out the top—with the other children—please, come out right now, come with me.”

Silence in the loft, and below, voices arguing. “Them mages—”

“That weren’t mages; that were knives. Some men—”

“How’d they get in? There’s no way out—”

“Broke through t’roof, maybe. Blood’s still wet; we can catch ‘em—”

“How many men? I’m not goin’ up there with nothing but a hauk and a dagger, and it might be a dozen—”

“And where’s Bin and Fenis?”

“Just one couldn’t have taken five men out—must be a lot of ‘em—go down and get the others, Jamis.”

“What about the door?”

“Damn the stupid door—some gang’s already got the childer, and we need a way out ourselves! We can set a fire behind us.”

Footsteps ran downward, and the muttering below continued. Arvid drew a breath that hurt more than the previous, and said again, “Cedi, please—let me help you out. The bad men will hunt for you and then burn the warehouse—”

And if they burned the warehouse, the man he’d made a prisoner would burn to death in it, helpless under that wool sack. He should’ve killed him first.

No.

Have sense, Gird, Arvid thought. He’d have died fast and easy, and I wouldn’t have to worry about him now.

Free him. Find the boy.

Right. Before the men below came up all in a bunch, free one of them, find the boy, make it to the top floor and out the window and along the ledge and over the roofs …

You’re wasting time.

Arvid pressed a hand to his side and found the little hole in his leather jerkin where something narrow had gone in. He walked around the end of the wool-sack piles, past the dead body, toward what he hoped was the right canted pile under which he’d stowed a prisoner. Had he really put the wool sack on top of the man that crookedly?

And something landed on his head and skidded down his front, claws pricking through his clothes. That damned cat! It hit the floor with a slight thump. Arvid grabbed the end of the wool sack and pulled … something tugged back. He gave a strong yank, gasping as the pain hit him again, and uncovered not only his prisoner but the boy Cedi.

“What—never mind. Cedi, come on. Help me get him out.”

“Bad man!” Cedi said. “Want Da!” In better light here, he looked less like an innocent, scared child and more like a boy who would pull cats’ tails and lie about it.

“Cedi, more bad men will be coming upstairs any minute. We need to go up and get out and across the roof.”

“You could kill him.” The boy’s eyes gleamed.

“I could, but I won’t.” Arvid leaned over and pulled the man onto his back. “You—don’t even try to talk. You’re alive by Gird’s direct command.” He cut the thongs binding the man’s feet. “Get up.” He yanked on the man’s shoulder.

“Don’t want him!” Cedi said, pushing the man back down. “He wants me dead.”

“Stop that,” Arvid said, yanking on the man’s shoulder again. Cedi’s hand, he saw, was now glowing brightly, and the man’s eyes widened. “Gird wants him alive for no reason I can understand, but we have to give him a chance to get away when his friends start the fire.”

The man stood now, a little unsteadily at first, looking back and forth from Arvid’s face to the boy’s hand.

“Walk,” Arvid said. “That way—” He pushed; the man stumbled forward. “Come along, Cedi.” The boy reached up and grabbed his cloak. The cat, he was not happy to see, marched in front of them, tail high.

They made it to the upward ramp; the man stopped, shook his head. Arvid pushed him. “Walk or I’ll stick you. I don’t trust your killer friends to set you free in time to escape the fire they’re planning—” A faint smell of smoke came from below, followed by the sound of running feet. “Hurry!” Arvid said. “Cedi—let go of my cloak and run up!” The boy took off up the ramp; the cat ran after him. The man resisted. “Have it your way, blockhead,” Arvid said. He kicked the man behind the knee and swung him around at the same time; the man fell full length and rolled down the ramp. Arvid hurried up to the top floor, the pain in his side growing with every step. Once there, he found the little door open and the older boy, Vol, helping Cedi through. The other children were already well away.