Adeline's voice stayed low. "I'm going to get you out of here. Okay? Tell me everything you know, times when the guards come, anything that helps us not get caught."
The man coughed and tried to speak. Words stuck in his throat like something blocking them. He blinked hard, then forced out, "They… Meeting is being held." The sentence sounded loud in the quiet halls. A meeting. That explained the quiet, the empty halls.
She eased to the corner and peeked around, careful not to show more than the side of her face. The corridor was still. No footsteps, no voices. She counted with her eyes: two lanterns, a closed door at the far end, shadows that might be people or might be nothing.
But then the prisoner thrashed a little. His shackles scraped the floor loud, ugly metal on stone. Adeline's heart lurched. The sound made her jump, and for a second she pictured alarm bells and shouting men.
