They passed through empty rooms and passages, all dark and gloomy. But rather than angling up into the castle proper, they began to snake downwards round a set of spiral stairs and Deryn knew they were being taken to the cells.
He glanced behind and made a minute hand gesture to Cian. His former commander returned the gesture in kind, shifting the two fingers on his right hand and hooking his thumb to send Deryn a message. Deryn understood. He turned to face front and held his hands close to his stomach so nobody could see what he was doing. If the MacKay thought warriors of the Order were subdued merely because they’d been manacled, they were bigger fools than Deryn had thought.
He dug beneath the leather wrist guard on his left wrist and carefully pulled out the piece of metal that was sewn into a secret pocket in the leather. He inserted it into the lock on his manacles and worked it from side to side, still keeping his hands tight against his body and out of sight of those behind. Finally, he felt the mechanism give and the manacles open. He held them to stop them clattering against the floor and waited until he heard the ‘snick’ of Cian’s manacles opening behind him.
“Now!” Cian shouted.
Deryn burst into motion. He swung the manacles at the guard ahead of him. The man, alerted by the commotion, turned just in time to catch the heavy piece of iron full across the temple. He crumpled without a sound. The guard in the lead swore loudly and reached for his sword but Deryn was on him before he could draw the weapon, crashing the iron manacles against his head and laying him out as efficiently as he had the first. He bent over the fallen man and retrieved their weapons.
“I’ll be taking those.”
He turned to see that Cian had taken out two of the three guards behind them and Craig was busy dealing with the last, the chain of his manacles pulled tight around the man’s throat. The man’s eyes were bulging, his tongue protruding as he choked, so Deryn strode over and rapped him soundly with the hilt of his sword. Craig released the man who slumped to the ground, unconscious.
“Here.” Deryn inserted his lock-pick into Craig’s manacles and released him.
“Quickly,” Cian commanded. “Help me drag these into the cells. Hopefully nobody heard that racket but I’m not willing to take the chance.”
Together they dragged the five unconscious guards into the cells, stripped them of their MacKay plaid, and locked the doors. Then they took the steps back up to the upper level and paused there, breathing heavily and listening.
Where was Madeleine? Their plan had been discovered so what had happened to her? Deryn could not imagine that Rodric MacKay would take kindly to her betrayal. What would he do to her? The thought made him sick with dread. If aught happened to her...
“This is where we part ways,” Cian interrupted his thoughts. “I will go and open the gates for Callum and the Order.” He placed his hands on Deryn’s shoulders. “I dinna need to tell ye how important it is that ye find Madeleine and Rory before that happens.”
Deryn’s nostrils flared. “I will find them. Have no doubt about that.”
“And he willnae be alone,” Craig added. “I’m going too.”
“Nay, friend,” Deryn replied. “The plan was that ye go to the gates with Cian.”
“Damn the plan! Madeleine is my friend and it’s my fault they took Rory! Cian can manage the gates perfectly well without me, but if I can help Rory and Madeleine, then I will.”
Deryn studied his friend for a moment and then nodded. “It will be good to have ye with me.”
“Then we all know our roles,” Cian said. He clasped both their hands. “Good luck. Don’t mess this up.”
With that, he darted through the door and was gone. Deryn drew in a deep breath. He and Craig pulled on the stolen MacKay plaids. To any cursory inspection they would look like MacKay warriors. Deryn only hoped nobody would look too closely.
They set out, climbing up through the levels of the keep. They reached the kitchens which were cavernous and silent at this hour and stole through without making a sound. Deryn wracked his brains to remember the layout of the castle that Madeleine had drawn for him.
Where would she and Rory be? He had no idea and there was no way they could search the entire castle. Frustration welled up inside him and he punched the wall. This was all going wrong. He should never have let Madeleine come here alone. What had he been thinking?
“What’s that?” Craig said, peering through a window.
As Deryn joined him, he saw that the window looked out over a courtyard. A steady stream of people carrying lanterns were crossing the courtyard, heading towards a gate in the inner wall that looked like it led into a small garden. A crooked shape rose in the center of the garden, too far away for Deryn to see it properly but it was this that the people were gathering around.
“There,” he said, instinctively. “That’s where they are. And that’s where we need to get to.”
