Carmen had reached the bottom of the dungeon stairs when she heard the door above her head crash open. She backed into the shadows as men's voices and the tramp of boots echoed down the stairs.

Reds.

She had been nursing a faint hope that she might be able to get out of the prison undetected, but it had been a fool's hope. And now she was trapped.

She slipped into the nearest chamber, pushed the door closed behind her, and locked it. The room fell into darkness. She backed into a corner and drew the barking iron, cocking it halfway and holding it up beside her ear, the muzzle pointed at the ceiling.

The men were already outside the door.

A voice: "This one's locked."

"I'll open it," an older man replied.

Carmen heard a pair of boots tromp off down the corridor. Doors crashed in the distance as the Reds searched the other chambers. There was no sound from the man outside her door. Perhaps he was looking for the key.

(please don't make me shoot him)

She heard a key slide into the lock and turn. The door breathed open and a dim rectangle of lamplight from the corridor stretched out across the floor.

The red didn't come inside. No doubt he was scanning the chamber first. Carmen held the barking iron before her in both hands, closing one eye, squinting through the sights with the other. She changed her mind and lowered the muzzle to knee-height: if she had to shoot at least she should try to wing him.

The unnatural calm she associated with the gun fell over her. Time drew out. Her heart slowed in her chest, her breathing lightened, and for the first time the panicked buzzing that had filled her head since she had left Ward was gone.

The man appeared in the doorway. He was no taller than Carmen herself. She lowered the muzzle a little to compensate. She wondered what the bullet would do to his knee.

The red didn't look in her direction, but pivoted around until he was facing back out the doorway. Then he swung the door gently closed and locked it. The chamber fell into darkness again.

"You can put that down now," he said.

"Who are you," she said, squinting into the darkness.

"A friend," he said, striking a match.

"Corvus!"

"Please, put it down."

Carmen realised she was still pointing the barking iron at his knee. She lowered and de-cocked it.

"Put it in your pocket and come with me," he said. "We don't have much time."

He put his ear to the door and went still. Then he shook out the match and unlocked the door again. He craned his neck out the doorway, looked both ways, then beckoned to Carmen, and she followed him out into the corridor. He immediately took her by the elbow. "You're my prisoner," he said.

She nodded.

He led her up the stairs. He was more agile than he looked, and Carmen had to hustle to keep up with him. The two stripes of a sergeant were sewn onto the shoulders of his uniform. The trouser cuffs pooled around his ankles and the sleeves all but concealed his hands: the Red the clothes had belonged to had not been a large man, but Corvus still swam in them.

The door at the top of the stairs was open, the corridor beyond it empty.

"Tell me what happened," Corvus said as they hurried down it.

"We broke in. The Scowerers helped us."

"Why?"

"The dice. Ward wants them. He thinks they're in the Arcane Vault."

Corvus blanched. "Go on," he said.

"We found a woman, in a chair. She – I felt like I was on fire."

A strange look came over Corvus's face.

"I couldn't go any further," Carmen said.

"And Ward?"

"He didn't seem to feel it."

"I see."

"Will she hurt him?"

"I don't know."

They had arrived at the gate where the guard station was. The lock on the gate had been smashed open. The guard she had shot at was nowhere in sight and the office was empty. Carmen could hear the shouts of men from up ahead.

They reached the outer door without coming across anyone else, but the yard was teeming with reds and prison officers. The dust from the explosion had settled, so they had no cover as they moved across the yard; everyone seemed intent on what they were doing though, and nobody looked at them. Corvus's grip on her arm had tightened, and he kept her close to him as they moved, hugging the walls of the compound to conceal her from view, working around the yard rather than making straight for the opening.

They reached the prison wall without being stopped. So far their luck had held out, but Carmen didn't think it could last much longer.

It didn't.

It never does.