I studied the wound on his shoulder. At least he’d stopped bleeding. The bandage had dried into a stiff dark-red stain over the bullet hole.
The late-day sun filled the cellar with stifling heat, making the rotting corpse in the corner smell like hell. I pressed my palm to my nose and mouth. It sort of helped stifle the disgusting smell.
“I said, wake up.” I kicked his side with more force.
Marcellious let out a groan.
“Fuck off.” He glowered at me.
“We’ve got to get out of here. In the morning, they’re going to be on the move, either dragging us behind a wagon until our skin falls off or hanging us from a tree and gutting us.”
Marcellious’ eyes popped open. “How do you know that?”
“I overheard them while you were sleeping, princess.”
“Some sleep. I was having nightmares about landing in the same place as you.” He glared at me with his bloodshot eyes. “Seems the nightmare is a waking dream.”
“We landed where we landed. You can thank Olivia later. But now, we need to escape.”
“Do you have any ideas?” With a groan, Marcellious struggled up to sit. He visibly paled, no doubt from the pain stabbing his shoulder.
I struck the flint striker. “Where there’s a spark, there’s a flame.”
He scoffed. “So you’re going to waltz up to one of the buildings and strike that flint enough times to catch the timber on fire? Good luck with that.”
“What, you think I don’t know how to start a fire?” I rolled my eyes. “Actually, over the scent of death down here, I caught whiffs of smoke. They’re probably setting up campfires for their evening meals. And they’ve got hay in their wagons for the horses. All it would take is a few embers to start the wagons on fire. Then, we push them toward the tents and flee in the chaos.”
“Have you forgotten I can barely lift my arm? I’m useless to your plan.” His expression was bruised with frustration.
“Not entirely. If we can trick one of the guards into coming down here, I’ll kill him, take his uniform, and put it on. Then, I’ll push you outside, pretending to be a soldier, and tell everyone I received orders to take you out and shoot you before taking care of the other one.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Marcellious glared at me.
“Not at this moment, no. But pull something foolish, and I’ll happily oblige you.”
“Does that mean you’re going to untie me?”
“Not yet. You need to remain restrained until we’re free.” I made my way to the hopper window and searched around for soldiers.
They all stood or lounged in the distance, preparing fires near their tents or tending to their guns.
A couple of them were skinning the carcass of a deer, no doubt for their evening meal.
“Come on,” Marcellious said. “You’re free, and I’m in no condition to fight you as much as I’d like to. But I gave you my word to be your ally for twenty-four hours. So, fucking untie me.”
“You’re in no condition to bark orders at me, either,” I snapped, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye.
He had a point, though. If I had taken him outside restrained, I might not have had time to free him when we had to run. And I could overtake him in a fight.
“Fine,” I said.
“Thank you,” he said.
I crossed to where he sat, crouched behind him, and used my knife to slice through his bindings. Finally, I had him free of his restraints.
“Oh, that’s better,” he said, drawing his arms before him. He winced at the pain in his shoulder and used his non-injured arm to push himself up to standing.
“All right, now how can we convinceonesoldier to come down here?” I said.
