by Jon F. Merz
“No.”
Kan-Gul frowned. “Did you see the manner in which your friend was killed? The act of killing his physical body was awful enough, but the truly horrid aspect is that the man once known as Vargul now has no soul. He is well and truly dead, unable to journey to the afterlife or come back in another body. He no longer exists on any plane. Can you imagine the terror of such finality? Do you appreciate the final fate you all face?”
“You made it abundantly clear what would happen to us,” said Ran. “Why is she so important to you, anyway?”
Kan-Gul smiled. “Surely you have sensed her power. She is percolating with unbridled and untrained magical energy. It drips from her pores like some delicious wine. I can taste it emanating from her any time she is near me. Such power will prove useful to me.” He licked his lips. “She has other amenities as well and I will certainly avail myself of those. But her magic . . . that is power I shall have, and it will come in handy once my friends from the far north arrive.”
Ran frowned. “Friends from the far north?”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Kan-Gul smiled. “I’ve made an alliance with the large army massing up there. They are looking forward to conquering the lands in these parts, including Nehon and your beloved Gakur. With my magic magnified, it will be much easier.”
Ran couldn’t recall hearing any reports about large armies to the north. As far as he knew, the lands to the north were sparsely populated frozen wastelands. “What happens if Jysal refuses to marry you?”
Kan-Gul stared at Ran. “You will all die the same way Vargul did.” His face vanished from the bars.
Ran moved closer to the door and peered out. He couldn’t see much, but he sensed that Kan-Gul was gone. Ran looked back at Kancho. “I really cannot wait to kill that man.”
“You may have to wait in line,” said Kancho. “Is what he said even possible? Could he actually use Jysal’s power to complement his own?”
“It’s possible,” said Neviah from behind them. “It’s not an easy thing to do, but I’ve heard of others who have done it successfully. And as a result, their power was magnified exponentially.” She shook her head. “What such power would do for Kan-Gul is something I would prefer not to even think about.”
“We’re not going to let him do it,” said Ran. He looked back at the door. As much as he would prefer to not do what needed to be done, he saw no other way to get them all out of there and escape to freedom. And given that Kan-Gul had ably demonstrated his preference for death and mayhem, Ran knew he would have to be the one who led them out of this place.
He reached into his belt and extracted the only other thing that had survived the shipwreck and Kan-Gul’s magic: a long thin wire that had been sewn into the belt he wore around his waist. Ran felt Kancho’s eyes on him and looked up. “This might just work.”
Kancho’s mouth was grim. “You can pick the lock on the door?”
“I haven’t done it in quite some time,” said Ran. “But the skill was taught to me when I was a young boy.” This was a lie, of course; Ran was an expert at picking locks. But he hoped to stave off any questions from Kancho about his own background for as long as possible.
He moved closer to the door and peered out through the bars. Torches still flickered in the passageways, but he couldn’t see much beyond the cell door. And that was the truly risky part. If he got to work on the lock and a Chekhal guard happened by, they would take the wire and then Ran would have no other options left. But as risky as it was, Ran believed he had no other choice. So he set to work, snaking the wire first through the bars and then down to the lock itself, testing to see if it would reach.
He felt a moment of relief when he was able to reach the lock with the wire. He quickly withdrew the piece and nodded at Kancho. “It will work, I think. Provided I haven’t forgotten any of the things I was taught.”
“Who taught you how to pick locks?” asked Kancho. “Such skills are normally reserved for thieves and other criminals.”
Ran busied himself with fashioning the requisite type of pick he thought the lock would need. “My father’s brother was a common thief at one time. He hid out in our home after a robbery that he’d committed, and while there he took me aside and showed me the skill. Perhaps he wanted his nephew to become a thief like him, I don’t know. I was only a boy.”
“What happened to him?”
Ran shrugged. “He was caught by the Murai and boiled alive for his crimes.”
Kancho nodded. “Justice was served.”
Ran eyed him. “He was still family. I would have preferred justice be swift and deliver him to the afterlife a little quicker than six hours of torturous pain and eventual death.”
Kancho frowned for a moment and then nodded. “It is a rather barbaric form of punishment. He must have done something truly awful to warrant such a sentence, however.”
“I never knew,” said Ran. “Once he was dead, my family never spoke of him again.” He bent the wire again, forming it into the intricate shape that would perform the action. He held it up in the dim light and tried his best to eyeball it. Training had taught him a lot; back in Gakur, the teachers had made students pick locks while being suspended upside down over the side of a mountain. The ability to focus and shut out discomfort and danger ensured they could pick a lock confidently and in any sort of bizarre circumstance.
“Is it ready?”
Ran nodded. “I hope.” He felt another measure of relief that Kancho seemed to have accepted his explanation about his ability to pick a lock. Kancho might have been on the run and with his own death sentence hanging over his head, but if he knew there was a shadow warrior in the same cell with him, his honor might take over, and he might try to kill Ran with his bare hands.
It was not a fight that Ran wanted.
Fortunately, he was a very good liar. During his training, the teachers had taught all of the trainees how to lie convincingly, act, and disguise themselves. All of the skills were intertwined with each other. You couldn’t disguise yourself completely unless you truly believed in the role you were adopting. That took an extra bit of psychological skill to pull off, but eventually all of them had succeeded. Ran could almost believe Nakadai, the instructor who had taught him how to pick locks, was really his uncle. Even now as he worked with the wire, he saw Nakadai’s face in his memory, the older Shinobujin sitting on the stone floor surrounded by all manner of locks and picks, scattered metal bits and filings.
Back then, Ran had doubted his ability to ever pick a lock. Nakadai had first demanded to see his fingers.
“Show me what you have so I may know what I am working with.”
Ran had splayed his fingers, and Nakadai took each in his hands, prodding and eventually nodding to himself. “They are sufficient.” He had turned and picked up a padlock from the ground, before tossing it to Ran. “Open this lock.”
“I don’t know how,” Ran had replied.
“You don’t know how because you don’t try to see how it works in the first place,” Nakadai had scolded him. “Before you can pick a lock, you must understand how all locks function. Once you know this, opening them becomes a simple matter. Even for the most complex mechanisms. There is no gray in this skill. A lock is either locked or open—never sort of open or sort of locked. You must learn as many locks as possible and store that information in your head for when you need it.”
It had taken him years to absorb everything that Nakadai had to teach.
Ran held up the wire. The majority of it was still the long, slightly curved bit that he would fish out through the bars and down to the lock. But toward the end, the wire was bent into a series of peaks and valleys. “Time to test this out and see if it works.”
Malkyr came over when he saw the wire. “Do you think that will really work?”
Ran frowned. “What do you care? I thought you were just going to sit here until Kan-Gul feeds your soul to his monster.”
Malkyr shrugged. “I didn’t know yo
u actually had a plan for escape.”
Ran sniffed. “I wouldn’t call this any sort of plan. At this point, it’s still very much a bad gamble.”
Kancho grinned. “I’d rather gamble on you than wait for a certain death.”
Malkyr nodded. “As would I.”
“Very well,” said Ran. “Then we will see if I’ve been able to remember my teachings.” He smirked. “Or else our future does not look as enjoyable as I would hope.”
He again checked the bars and the passageway as best he could. But he saw nothing and sensed nothing out there that might compromise him. He glanced back at Kancho. “I’ll need you to stay by the bars here with me. Let me know if you see anyone coming, all right?”
Kancho nodded and moved to the door. “Good luck.”
“Luck is exactly what we’re going to need,” said Ran. “But it’s not the only thing that might get us out of here.”
“I think you’re clear,” said Kancho after a moment.
Then Ran slid the wire out of the cell toward the lock.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ran maneuvered the wire into the lock and felt the end of it bite into the pins. This was where it would get tricky. From his position, he could only exert so much pressure on the lock and trying to do it from an obtuse angle meant the wire might bend in the wrong way and not rake the pins properly. Ran took his time, just as he had been taught over the years, and kept working the wire back and forth, trying to find the optimal position for it to work.
He thought back to just before his final exams at the school—a series of missions that would stretch over three months. His lockpicking teacher, Nakadai, had taken him aside after Ran had failed a practice exercise designed to simulate sneaking through a castle. Ran had nearly breached the door but rushed the final step and dropped his pick. The sound echoed through the room, and Nakadai had called a halt to the exercise. “Just remember, picking a lock is a skill that is usually done under great haste, but you must act like you have all the time in the world when you do it. Otherwise, in your rush to do it quickly, you will fail to open the lock. This failure will lead to more delays and more anxiety on your part. So as tough as it is to do so, force yourself to slow down and do it right the first time.”
Ran hadn’t believed in the advice at the time. And one of the missions he was sent on involved picking several locks. Ran rushed through all of them and had to pick the lock several times to get it open. Each time, he swore that he would slow down and do it properly, but the stress of the assignment made him hurry. And inevitably, he made mistakes.
He felt the wire rake another pin, and put it into the proper position. A deft touch helped him feel the slightest push back from the pins. He would have liked to be able to hear a bit more of the clicking that was happening several feet away from him, but the sound was muffled by the thick door. Ran would have to settle for doing it by touch alone.
“How’s it going?” Kancho’s voice was quiet but anxious.
Ran didn’t move his head, knowing that doing so might cause the wire to slip out of the lock, and he’d have to begin again. “Give me a few minutes, will you? I haven’t done this in a long time.”
“Sorry.”
Ran grinned as another pin clicked into position. By his reckoning, there would only be a few more of them to rake. But then, as he pushed the wire deeper in, he felt it stop. Something was blocking the wire.
“Damn.”
“What?”
Ran sighed. “I need to adjust the wire. It’s not properly formed and ran into the side of the lock.” He withdrew the wire, sank down to the floor to relieve the strain on his legs, and examined the tip. The lead portion was bent just a fractional increment away from where it should have been.
Kancho squatted beside him. “Are you going to be able to do this?”
Ran eyed him. “Like I said, it’s been a while.”
“We may not have much longer. Kan-Gul doesn’t strike me as someone who has a great amount of patience.”
“I agree,” said Ran. “But rushing this is only going to screw things up. I’ve got to take my time and do it properly. It’s extremely difficult working the lock from behind a closed door, standing up and unable to see or hear what’s going on.”
Kancho held up his hands. “Sorry. I know you are doing your best.”
“Thanks.” Ran finished bending the wire back into position. “There. This should work.” He stood back up and checked the passageway again. “Ready?”
Kancho moved into position. “Do it.”
Ran slid the wire back out of the cell and once again worked it into position. The tip scraped the outside of the lock, and Ran cursed himself for speeding up the process. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, willed himself to slow way down, and then exhaled smoothly as he opened his eyes with renewed focus. “Here we go.”
He felt the wire enter the lock. Keeping his breathing steady, Ran tried to avoid knocking any of the pins he’d already raked out of position. But the tip of the wire seemed to slide right past them and kept going until Ran could feel pushback. He was at the next pin. He let his mind reach out, trying to visualize how the interior of the lock would look. In his mind’s eye, Ran could see the pins magnified and the tip of the wire nudging them out of the way ever so slightly. The pressure released, and he was past the first pin.
“One down.”
Ran continued working on the lock, and with each new pin that he successfully raked, he increased the pressure just so to make his way deeper into the lock. The trickiest part would be after he was through all of the pins. He’d have to turn the locking mechanism using the wire. Ordinarily, he would have two tools for this purpose, but here he only had the one. If he’d been closer, he could have bent the wire in on itself and used both ends to do the work. But if he did that here, he never would have been able to reach the lock in the first place.
He felt the wire slip past another pin and nodded to himself. Almost there. He felt the pressure of the last pin and worked it into the proper position. Then he was through the lock.
Ran allowed himself a moment to take a deep breath. “I think I’ve got all the pins moved. Now I’ve got to turn the entire lock assembly without knocking any of them out of alignment.”
“Is that difficult?” asked Kancho.
“Ordinarily? No. It would take but a second. But with only a flimsy piece of wire, it’s going to take a bit of a miracle to get it done.”
Kancho eyed him. “I think I speak for everyone when I say we have faith in your abilities.”
Ran grinned. “Thanks. But save your praises until I get this done. Otherwise, you might find your faith misplaced.” Ran took another breath and reset his position. “Okay, let’s get this done.”
He withdrew the wire ever so slightly, until he felt he had it in the right position. Sticking his other arm out as much as he could through the bars, Ran tried to get the necessary position and then, when he had it, started twisting the wire within the lock. The bolt was heavy, and it took a lot of energy to make sure he kept a steady pressure on the wire.
A little bit more, he thought. Just a bit more.
Clunk.
Ran exhaled in a rush. Then he quickly withdrew the wire back through the bars and looked at Kancho. “We’re through.”
Kancho’s face broke into a wide grin. “That might be the best thing I’ve heard since we ran aground.”
“Agreed.” Ran slumped down the wall next to the door and gave himself a few moments to rest after getting the lock picked. In the meantime, Kancho let the others know that the cell was now open. When he was done rousing them and keeping their excitement in check by insisting they stay quiet, he moved back to where Ran was.
“Are you all right?”
Ran nodded. “Just needed a moment.”
Kancho eyed the door. “I think our first priority has to be getting our hands on weapons. Otherwise, any guards we meet will just hack us to pieces. And I don’t fancy the notion
of taking on those Chekhal without my blade.”
“Nor I,” said Ran. “But we don’t have the slightest idea where Kan-Gul will have stowed our gear.”
Kancho smiled. “Actually, I might be able to help in that regard.”
“How so?”
“When they escorted us past the barracks, earlier, I saw a side room. Not sure what it was, but weapons are usually stored near barracks.”
“Or it could be empty . . . or full of Chekhal warriors.”
Kancho grinned. “I suppose it could. But it’s worth a look.”
Ran nodded and stood back up. “Let me go first and check it out.”
Kancho’s eyes narrowed. “Why you?”
“I can certainly move quietly alone than with the whole group.”
Kancho didn’t seem to buy it. “Is this another skill you were taught by your uncle the criminal?”
Ran shrugged. “Nah, I’ve always been comfortable skulking about in the shadows. Maybe that’s what drew my uncle to me and made him attempt to corrupt me with his thievish ways.”
He’d meant it as a joke, but the expression on Kancho’s face told Ran that the older Murai wasn’t deriving any mirth from the statement. Ran put a hand on Kancho’s shoulder. “Just give me two minutes, and I’ll be back.”
“Fine.”
Ran checked the passageway and then pushed the door of the cell open, praying it wouldn’t squeak as he did so. But fortunately, the hinges seemed well-oiled and they didn’t make a sound as the door opened. Ran exhaled and moved out into the corridor, closing the door behind him. He took a moment in the middle of the passage to acclimate his ears to the ambient noises that he could catalog. He sniffed the air but found nothing out of the ordinary. And there seemed to be no one around that might have presented a threat.
On deeply bent knees, Ran kept his back to the stone wall and his arms spread for balance and support, as well as for the sensory feedback they could provide. Using an ancient cross-stepping technique, he moved down the passageway, scanning with his eyes and making sure his feet didn’t accidentally brush anything that would make noise and potentially alert the guards.