Canticle

So she bent her will to the riddle. She set some to tracking guard shifts and others to listening at the pipes in their cells. She established sleep shifts and message routes.

Blood pipes. It turned her stomach and caught her breath in her throat. They were warm to her ear, but she had to listen.

Some of the more seasoned sons and daughters of House Li Tam had coded bits of information into the poems they composed to their father beneath the knife.

So Rae Li Tam sat and untangled the codes, inventoried what she learned, and worried over the children. The guards took them while they were all still too drugged to act, and she was afraid for them.

She heard a distant tapping underneath the screams, and she lifted her ear for a moment, cocking her head. No, it wasn’t in the pipes.

There. Letters. She followed the sound slowly as the message repeated, moving gradually to the bars.

Rae Li Tam, it said.

She reached the front of the cell and tapped her fingernail against the iron bar. Yes.

She felt the slightest breeze and started when a firm hand grabbed her wrist and soft fingers pressed a message into the skin of her forearm.

I am Rudolfo, Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses, husband of Jin Li Tam,

forty-second daughter of Vlad Li Tam by strategic marriage

under the Overtures of kin-clave.

She crouched slowly, and Rudolfo’s grip loosened to let her. Why are you here?

There was a pause. We can discuss that at a later time. We have ships at the ready; we’re taking back your fleet, and my Gypsy Scouts are learning the maze before we run it. What can you tell me?

She blinked. Was this a trap? Some kind of trick? How do I know you’re truly Rudolfo?

You do not. Just be ready. Have your people organized. We do not intend to leave you to the knife.

Rae Li Tam looked around to her people. Mistrust at this juncture could not be allowed to interfere with her objective.

The children had to be saved, and she would not discard any opportunity. They are cutting faster now, she tapped. They fill the holding cell every two hours and move them through quickly. They’re making Father watch.

His fingers were still for a moment. They are readying the iron flagship for a voyage. I must see to my men. He gave her arm a gentle squeeze, and then his fingers moved again. Be ready; we will not leave you.

Her own reply surprised her given her mistrust. Listen to the pipes, she said, and I will pass what little I know to you. She could softly tap the information to him, trusting the magicks to augment his senses.

Likewise, he replied, but softly, so listen well. Then he dropped her hand and slipped away. She barely heard the whispering of his boots as he retreated.

Before they faded entirely, Rae Li Tam started the chain of messages that would keep her family ready. She set more ears to the pipes-they could not afford to miss whatever word the Gypsy King might send. If indeed it were Rudolfo. She could not know for sure, and even if it were, there was no guarantee that he could free them.

Still, she had to be ready.

Messages sent, she went back to the pipe to gather what knowledge she could. But more than that, she listened to build up hatred. Her grandfather had often told her, “Grow your pain into an army.”

She did this now, pulling down each cry of pain, each moan of anguish through the warm, flowing pipes. She felt herself building strength as she cataloged the coded bits of knowledge and tapped it into the pipe.

Closing her eyes, she watched her pain grow into a red light behind her eyelids and bent it into a conquering force that no enemy could stand against.

Rudolfo

Rudolfo followed his Gypsy Scouts into the room and closed the door softly behind them. The lock had been simple enough to pick, and Rae Li Tam’s messages, tapped through the pipes, had been correct-the guard passed the door every two to three minutes. His scouts had already inventoried the room, but he insisted they bring him back so he could see for himself. Once inside, he took stock.

It was a small armory with assorted blades and bows, shield racks and various scraps of soldiering. They weren’t a uniform army, that was for certain. These weapons were an odd collection from various nations in the Named Lands, though clean and ready for use. Certainly enough to guard drugged prisoners if Rae Li Tam’s assertions were true. But the weapons were not what caught his eye as he glanced around the room.

No, it was the small silver vials in their rack beside the door. He slipped over to it and withdrew one, unscrewing the lid to sniff the contents within. It was a strong, sour smell that made his eyes water and burned his nostrils. These were the blood magicks. They had to be. He stretched a hand behind him and tapped his thumb and fore-finger together three times.

A Gypsy Scout’s hand found his extended forearm. Yes, General?

You’ve each earned an estate in Glimmerglam for this work, his own fingers pressed. Now, live through the day to claim it.

Yes, General.

He thought for a moment, then pressed his orders into the waiting arm. Take these to Rae Li Tam. Tell her what they are and what they cost. She was an alchemist; she would understand, he realized, and select as few men as possible. Those who took the blood-magicks would pay with their lives for the strength and stealth it lent them. He continued his orders: Kill a guard, take his keys, and free them. Arm them if you can and wait for further orders, but hold your floor quietly. The children are your first priority; Lord Tam is your second. Hold for my orders or for when the ships go-whichever comes first.

Aye, General, the scout pressed into his arm.

Rudolfo thought for a moment, choosing his next words with care. Rae Li Tam is to be protected at all costs.

After the first scout acknowledged the order, Rudolfo tapped for the second scout and took his offered arm. Find the children. Tap their location into the pipes. When I’ve found Tam, I’ll do the same.

Rudolfo gave them time to get under way, then listened for the guard to pass outside. Once he’d strolled by, he let himself out of the room and relocked it. It was time to begin this night’s work, and he hoped last night’s hastily thought strategy would hold together. With the flagship preparing to leave, they could not afford to wait any longer. He would make his way from here to the kitchen and pack the bundle of soaked rags into the main oven. If Charles’s handiwork proved true, it would lend eerie light to the smoke that leaked from its chimney and tell Rafe Merrique that it was time to disable the ships and prepare to hold the docks.

Rudolfo crept into the hall and moved quickly to the next point where he could check the pipe. In the absence of new information, Rae Li Tam was tapping out the previous ones. Rudolfo interrupted her with the lightest tapping of his own fingernails, hoping the sound would carry to her amid the screams and the flowing blood. My man brings you a way out. Follow his instructions.

After her acknowledgment, he slipped down another shadowed hallway and approached the door to the kitchen. He’d memorized what maps they had, amending them internally with each new bit of information he gleaned from his men or from the pipe. He listened at the kitchen door and paused a moment to collect himself.

The scout magicks were already starting to chew on him. He felt the headache building behind his eyes and felt the restlessness in his stomach. It would only get worse, and that meant he needed to do as much as he could