“What happened to him?” Jacob asked. “Have they found us?”

“I think so. When I could not find him in the castle, I used the glass. I do not think they have disabled the wards yet. Samuel must have surprised one of them snooping around outside. Come.”

Jacob stood, closing the book which he had been examining.

“Do you think we’ve still got time to get a message to Erick?” He said.

“I do not know, it is worth a try.”

Jacob swore under his breath.

The two made their way down the stairs, Aleksey in front with the lantern. At the bottom they came through a door at the corner of two adjoined hallways. Torches lit each, and at intervals yellow tapestries hung down from the walls. The pair went down the right hallway and turned left into a small room, which was filled with tables and chairs, and strewn about were various pieces of equipment. Aleksey picked up a sheathed sword and girded it about his waist just beneath the belt of his robes. Jacob picked up a similar sword from a table across the room and did the same, and also slipped a dagger into his belt.

“Where was he?” Jacob asked.

“I think they killed him behind the kitchen, I could make out still where they drug him into the woods. His body is behind a thicket of bushes near the forest's edge.”

Jacob moved across the room to a hanging cabinet and opened it. Inside hung a leather brace holding three elegant flintlock pistols, the handle of each was solid ivory inlaid with silver, and the steel barrel and lock mechanism inlaid with gold. The guns gleamed in the lantern light. Next to the guns there was a horn of gunpowder, and a small pouch of shot. He removed the brace and buckled it over his shoulder. Aleksey glanced over and shook his head.

“Brutish things.”

“Do you think now is really the time?”

“No, I suppose not.”