“As soon as the slaver finds Killen and Tandro gone, he’ll probably have his men search everywhere in the immediate neighborhood,” Tain explained patiently. “He’ll know that his former victims were too hurt to go very far, so he’ll search hoping to find them again. And since he’ll certainly be back first thing in the morning, we’ll be best off not waiting to go elsewhere until his men are knocking on the door.”

“Knocking down the door, you mean,” Risdin corrected ruefully.

“And if you and your friend do manage to take Gordi, we’ll need a place to keep him while we show him what slavery is all about. All right, we’ll move everything out of here to where we keep it when the warehouse is being used, and then we’ll get some sleep. But first I’ve got to tell Areen what we’re doing. Help yourself to the fresh coffee and I’ll be back in just a little while.”

Risdin waited for Tain to nod agreement, then she turned and went to one of the cabinets in the wall to the far right. Instead of opening the cabinet doors she felt under the bottom of the unit, half her arm disappearing in the attempt.

When Tain heard a small click and then saw the whole cabinet section swing away from the wall, she understood where the other women had gone. A lantern hung on the wall just inside the hidden opening, but once Risdin was back on her feet and moving past the cabinet she left the lantern where it was and disappeared down what looked like wooden stairs.

“Your new friend seems to be very well organized,” Killen commented from where he lay on the blanket he’d been given, his attention and Tandro’s on the opening in the wall. “If that’s where we’ll be moving to, I can’t tell you how glad I am to hear it. Thinking about the search Himlin will have his men make in the morning would have kept me, at least, from sleeping at all tonight.” “I didn’t want to scare Risdin, but we might not have until morning for that search to start,” Tain said, drawing the men’s attention. “Your original guards stood their post for three hours before they were relieved, so that’s the absolute maximum amount of time we can count on before the next pair of guards shows up. If I’m not mistaken it hasn’t yet been an hour since I took out the guards, but I’ll feel better getting us under cover as soon as possible. Do you think I’m wrong?”

“No, I couldn’t agree with you more,” Killen said at once, and Tain saw a look of fear ghost through his eyes before he regained control. “I was going to ask if I could have a cup of that coffee, but now I’d rather get started moving down those stairs.”

“We’ll have to wait until Risdin gets things set up,” Tain said, seeing how the man would have jumped to his feet if he’d been in better physical condition—and was allowed to leave the blanket. “It shouldn’t take her long, so we might as well spend the waiting time stoking up on caffeine. Would you also like a cup of coffee, Tandro?”

“Yes, please,” the native answered after the barest of hesitations, his own gaze hidden from Tain’s sight with the turn of his head. What

Tain could see of his body looked more tense than usual, which meant that both men were feeling the same fear. Not being sure you’d be able to protect yourself was definitely something to bring on fear, and Tain didn’t have to work to understand how they felt. She’d felt the same herself when she’d been under Killen’s control…

Rather than dwelling on the past, Tain found two more cups, filled them with coffee, then brought the coffee to Killen and Tandro. The men accepted the cups with thanks, but the thanks were mumbled and the coffee was swallowed in gulps in spite of how hot it was. Tain went back and refilled her own cup, pretending she didn’t see how rattled Killen and

Tandro were. The fresh coffee was strong and hot and felt good going down, but if Risdin wasn’t back in another ten minutes Tain meant to leave that good coffee and go looking for the woman.

No more than five of the ten minutes passed before Risdin reappeared at the top of the stairs, a smile on her face.

“Areen loved your idea, and she’s now passing on the word and then she’ll be back to help us move things down,” Risdin announced as soon as she stepped through the opening. “I thought about waiting for her, but on the way up I decided I’d rather not. If that slaver finds out sooner than morning that his prisoners are gone, we don’t still want to be in the middle of moving.”

“You’re right, so let’s get to it this minute,” Tain said, putting her cup down and moving off the wall she’d been leaning on. “You men pick up your blankets and body cloths, and you can carry those along with your cups. Risdin and I will carry the heavy stuff, and you can take your turn with doing more tomorrow, when you’re not quite as stiff and hurting.” “What idea is Risdin talking about?” Killen asked as he and Tandro both began to get to their feet. “You haven’t yet mentioned what you have in mind.”

“You’ll know when you need to know,” Tain answered, feeling the least bit childish but not really caring. “But don’t worry that you’ll be left out of things, because you won’t be. Pandora’s box has been opened, and since you’re the one who opened it you’ll even get to tell people all about it.”

“What’s Pandora’s box?” Risdin asked as Killen turned away to hide whatever his expression was like. “And what can a box have to do with any of what we’re in the middle of?”

“Pandora’s box is from very old folklore,” Tain explained while she and Risdin began to empty the space behind the wall of what it held.

“Pandora was given a box and told not to open it, otherwise something very terrible would happen. The girl was able to stay away from the box for a short while, but eventually her curiosity got to be too much and she opened the box. The box held all the evils of the world, and once it was open Pandora found that it couldn’t be closed again. All the evils escaped into the world, and that was supposed to be the reason that bad things happen to good people. Because someone didn’t know enough to leave things they way they were.”

“That doesn’t make much sense,” Risdin said as she led the way to the opening, bedding and blankets filling her arms. “If the person who gave Pandora the box had told her what was in it, she wouldn’t have opened the thing. Not telling her just about guaranteed that the evils would be let loose, so it wasn’t Pandora’s fault but the fault of whoever gave her the box.”

“I agree with you up to a certain point,” Tain said, knowing the two men were following her the way she followed Risdin, her own arms full of food supplies. “Pandora should have been told what was in the box, but would knowing the truth have helped? If all the evils in the world were inside the box, Pandora had no real idea what evil was. Sometimes you have to know, personally, just how bad a thing can be before you can tell if it’s something that shouldn’t be allowed to exist. And you have to understand how far the evil can spread, otherwise opening the box doesn’t seem to be a bad idea at all.”

The silence behind Tain suggested that Killen might be thinking about what she’d said, or maybe he was ignoring it. She’d finally remembered hearing Killen tell Tandro that using the slave drug on a man the first time had been his idea, a doing that had been completely out of the question until that moment. Killen was definitely the one who had opened Pandora’s box, so he couldn’t very well complain that bad stuff was falling out of the sky all over him.

Another lantern hung on the wall half way down the stairs, and a third lantern lit the dimness at the bottom. There was more than enough room to get around the handrail at the bottom, and a corridor led into a series of small, doorless … areas or alcoves that could be considered semi-private rooms. The corridor continued on into unrelieved darkness, but three of the rooms had candles in holders adding some much needed light. “There isn’t that much more to bring down, but we ought to get the men settled first,” Risdin said over her shoulder, leading the way to the farthest of the three lit rooms. “You and I can share that first area, we can put the cooking stuff and the rest in the middle, and the men can sleep in the third.”