The Sergeant turned away from her, striding towards the guard tower door. Akella trotted along after him.
The keyring jangled with so many keys of so many different shapes and sizes that it reminded Akella of the one the Commander had worn back in the palace of Port Lorsin. Happier times, those. She’d still been under house arrest in an unfamiliar castle, but at least her quarters had been bigger and there’d been a warm breeze blowing through her window each day.
After a bit of clinking and muttering, the padlock popped open. The Sergeant pushed the door open.
“There ye go, Captain. I’ll leave ye to it. Oh, and actually…” He fiddled with the iron ring for a moment, then placed a key into Akella’s hand. “We found these in the main gatehouse when we took the city. Ye can have it. In case our lovely Empress needs anything more from the tower.” He paused and glanced at the door. “Can’t imagine what the Empress would need from here, but I guess it ain’t for me to know.” He looked back to Akella. “Jus’ … aye, well, don’t let the key out o’ yer sight, yeah? Don’t think the Commandant would be happy with me jus’ handin’ ’em to an Adessian like I did, but the Commandant don’t know ye like I do.”
Akella pressed the key to her chest. “I shall guard it with my life, Sergeant.”
The man gave a satisfied nod. “I need to be movin’ on with my rounds, Captain. But it was nice – an honor, actually – t’meet the Empress’s Adessian in person.”
The Empress’s Adessian. Akella grimaced, but then forced the sour expression away swiftly. No point in allowing her good mood to be spoiled. “Nice to meet you, Sergeant…”
“Kerris,” the man supplied, sticking out his hand. “Of South Shore. Most call me Kerry.”
“Thank you, Kerry,” Akella said. She slipped the key into a hidden pocket as the man waved goodbye and staggered off. Once he was out of sight, she turned southward – seaward – and bowed. “And thank you, Mistress Preyla. Thank you for sharing your blessings with this humble sailor.”
She would find what she was looking for in this tower, she was sure of it. Otherwise, why would Preyla have presented it to her?
The trapdoor that led into the tower’s basement wasn’t easy to find, cleverly concealed beneath the spiral stairs leading up to the battlements above. She pulled it open, peering past the makeshift ladder and into the darkness below.
At first, it seemed as though maybe Preyla was playing a cruel joke on her – Akella couldn’t blame the goddess; Preyla was known for her mischief-making. After shining her lantern onto every inch of the basement, Akella found only the ordinary trappings of an ordinary storage room, just like all the others she’d searched that night. Dusty jars, barrels, crates of half-rusted farm tools, all of them stacked haphazardly upon sagging wooden shelves.
But just as she turned back to the ladder despondently, a cool draft tickled the back of her neck. The draft hadn’t come from above. She turned around, waiting for the draft to come again. When it did, she followed it to a back wall lined with clay jars.
The jars were empty – all of them. Hastily, she pulled a handful from the shelves. Instead of the damp stone that she’d found behind other shelves along the perimeter, this particular set of shelves had a wooden backing.
A wooden backing?
She rapped her knuckles against the wood, laughing out-loud at the hollow ring that came back. After a few minutes of moving jars and tugging on the shelves, the whole section swung outwards, revealing a narrow tunnel built into the stone big enough for one man (or woman) to hunch through.
Akella grinned to herself and danced a celebratory jig.
Carefully, Akella rotated the shelf back into place, hiding the passageway again, then put all the jars back where they belonged. On her way out, she put the padlock back in place. No wonder it was there. Whatever city guardsman – or guardsmen – had been conspiring with the smugglers, they hadn’t wanted to run the risk of anyone being in this guard tower who didn’t absolutely have to be there.
Smiling ear to ear, Akella slipped the padlock key back into the hidden pocket inside her vest and headed back to the castle. She still smelled vaguely of sewage and she was frozen to the bone, but one hot bath would solve both problems swiftly. And all her effort had been worth it. It had been so worth it.