Time Shards by Dana Fredsti

Author:Dana Fredsti [Fredsti, Dana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Titan
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

23

A cold knot tightened in Amber’s belly, and she slid down against the wall, wrapping her arms around her legs.

“But this isn’t much of a jail, is it?” she said, trying to regain her equilibrium. “I mean, wouldn’t they have us chained up in a dungeon somewhere, if that’s what they thought?”

Alex gave a rueful smile. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly horrible dungeon in the cellar of Colchester Castle. Fortunately for us, this belfry tower is the strongest confinement our little village here could offer. To begin with, it’s one of the few places built with proper brick, and not thatch. Otherwise, we’d probably be out in the cow fields with the Royalist prisoners, catching whatever dreaded lurgy those poor bastards have.”

“I guess we should just be glad nobody’s going after us with hot pokers,” Amber joked nervously. No one laughed. The others stared in silence. Cam looked up from his labors, sensing the sudden tension in the room.

“You don’t really think they’ll…” Amber’s voice trailed away. “Do you? They wouldn’t…”

“Why don’t you ask him?” Simon jerked his thumb toward the body covered by Alex’s raincoat.

“That’s not very funny,” Alex said crisply.

“I’d never joke about torture.” Simon’s voice suddenly went serious. “That’s coming soon enough.”

Amber paled.

“Shut it, Simon!” Alex hissed. “You’re not helping.”

The policewoman went over and knelt down to Amber’s level, putting a hand on her knee and speaking gently.

“Hey,” she said. “Listen to me carefully, Amber. I need you to be strong right now. We all need to be strong, and not give up. I’m not going to lie to you. We’re in quite a serious situation, so let’s stay sharp, yeah? I doubt we can reason our way out of this, so our first priority is finding another way out of here. Understand?”

Amber heaved a shuddering sigh, looked up and nodded.

Alex smiled. “Right. Good girl.”

She offered her hand and helped Amber to her feet again. Cam gave up his painful attempts at slipping out of the shackles, which had only resulted in angry red scrapes on his wrists. He stretched the full length of the chain, as if testing it as a weapon. He looked over at Simon, and smiled.

“Well, gentlemen.” Alex turned to the group. “Any thoughts on escape?”

The professor put on a thoughtful look and Simon chewed his knuckle. Amber risked another peek outside. It felt dangerously high, towering not just above the ground, but even the precariously steep church roof next door. The thought of scaling the tower was terrifying to her, but it seemed like their only hope.

“Do you think we could climb down the tower? It’s awfully far to fall, but—”

Harcourt snorted in derision.

“That sort of acrobatics is all well and good for a flying trapeze artist like yourself, but I daresay the rest of us would be dashed to smithereens if we were to attempt such feckless folderol.”

Alex nodded.

“I hate to say it,” she responded, “but I think he’s right. These slick walls would be near impossible to climb down. Though if we could manage to make a rope somehow, we might be able to pull it off.

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