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Five
could only accept it. Ottotark grabbed his baton and lifted it to
deliver more damage.
    “ I thought Turgonians were
supposed to be brave warriors,” Tikaya blurted. “Abusing someone
who can’t fight back is cowardly.”
    “ Sew that yap shut, woman.
Nobody wants your opinion.” Despite his words, Ottotark lowered the
baton and prowled out of the cell. “Let’s go, ugly.”
    Five shambled into the corridor. Thick,
tangled black hair hung around his cheeks and half way down his
back. A matted beard and mustache engulfed the lower half of his
face. Torn, faded trousers with ragged hems reached his calves, and
a crudely sewn hide vest covered his torso, leaving muscular but
lean—too lean—bare arms visible beneath a layer of grime. Shackles
bound his wrists before him, and blood trickled from his nose,
adding menace to his already savage appearance. Even slumped, head
hanging, he stood a half foot taller than Tikaya.
    He glanced at her, almost wincing, and she
had the impression his state embarrassed him. She met his eyes with
a respectful nod. Criminal or not, he was the most obvious person
to turn into an ally.
    “ Let’s go.” Ottotark sent
two men ahead, then shoved Five after them.
    After the group had gone, Agarik nodded to
Tikaya’s food and water. “Do you need anything else?”
    Everything else, she thought, and a trip
back home. “Can you tell me who that is I’m sharing the brig
with?”
    “ Nobody knows.”
    “ Some body must know.”
    “ The captain,” Agarik
said. “He doesn’t confide in anyone. I don’t think Sergeant
Ottotark even knows, and he’s the captain’s adjutant.”
    “ What happens if the
captain gets shot and no one else knows the mission?” Tikaya
supposed it was uncharitable to enjoy the thought.
    “ The orders are locked up
somewhere. The officers know where to find them.”
    “ Ah.” Tikaya pointed to
the vacated cell. “Why are your people so careful with him? Is he
that dangerous?”
    Agarik worked his tongue against his cheek
and gazed toward the ladder, perhaps considering whether it would
be a breach of duty to answer. “He’s a prisoner from Krychek
Island, and we lost four men getting him off the beach.”
    “ He killed
them?”
    “ No, the lunatics on the
island attacked our party with spears and clubs. Men gone savage.
They wanted to escape, and if they couldn’t escape they’d kill
those who originally brought them there months and years before.
Ancestors’ wrath, we had to shoot a bunch of them. Seemed they’d
rather die than stay there.”
    “ And Five attacked you
too?” Tikaya rested her arms on the gate and watched the corporal’s
face in the flickering light of the single lantern. His gaze had
grown thoughtful and distant.
    “ No, he stood back and
watched. You got the sense he didn’t want anything to do with us,
but he didn’t hide either. At first it seemed he’d come along
peacefully—he got in the longboat once the captain spotted him and
called him over. He didn’t give us any trouble rowing back to the
ship, but he attacked a guard the first night, got out of his cell,
stole a pile of food from the galley, and slipped by everyone on
duty.” Agarik frowned. “Including myself. Without anyone seeing
him, he swiped a sextant, compass, chronometer, nautical almanac,
and spare sail, and he was about to drop a lifeboat. He would have
been long gone by morning, but Captain Bocrest got an itch, and he
was waiting with a loaded rifle.”
    “ So
he—Five—surrendered?”
    “ Not exactly.” Agarik
rubbed his jaw as if recalling a blow. “Captain threatened to shoot
him but didn’t, and it took a full squad to wrestle him belowdecks
and get him locked up again.”
    “ Where he’s been chained
ever since.”
    “ Yes, ma’am.”
    So, whatever the imperials wanted their
prisoner for, it seemed he was also too valuable to kill. His first
escape might not have worked, but he had that goal in mind too.
Good. Two people rowing