Deadly Quicksilver Lies by Glen Cook

want to guess how long it’ll be before they come after us again?”
    The big guy shrugged. Now that the active part was over he seemed to be losing interest.
    I produced two tiny folding knives that hadn’t been taken, reflected that this incident was going to generate strident calls for an investigation of how blades and sorcerous gook and whatnot had gotten to the inmates. Like there’d ever been a doubt that any inmate who could flash the cash couldn’t buy any damned thing he wanted.
    An investigation might mean hope. If it was serious, it would require my testimony. That would mean the pointing of fingers at the kind of people who’d take bribes for falsely imprisoning heroes like me. Ugh! They’d be villains who’d be aware of the distress my testimony could cause their careers. Surely they’d take steps to assure a paucity of witnesses likely to testify.
    I gave the big guy a knife. “Carve me some kindling out of anything wooden. If we get a decent fire going, we can burn our way through those doors.”
    He grinned but without the wild eagerness he’d shown before. He was winding down.
    The notion of arson did excite some of the others. We all got to work ripping the stuffing out of pallets and whittling on the ward door.
    Then I suffered another brainstorm, way late, unlike the hero of an adventure story. I claim genius only because nobody else thought of the obvious first. The adventure boys would have planned it from the start. It’s one of their old tricks.
    The Bledsoe staff wore uniforms, scruffy though those were.
    I got my fires burning at both ends of the hall. Ivy tended them. His vocabulary didn’t improve, but he became more animated. He liked fires. He even paid attention when I said, “Use plenty of horsehair. We want plenty of smoke.” The horsehair came out of the pallets.
    Ivy grinned from ear to ear. He was one fulfilled lunatic.
    The people outside would have to make a move. They couldn’t wait us out once we had fires burning. Fires had to be fought.
    I had to have a guy follow Ivy and make sure his fires didn’t grow too fast. Already they seemed likely to burn through the floor before they ate through the doors.
    Once the smoke was thick enough, I picked an attendant my size and started trading clothes. He got the best of the deal.
    My companions caught on. Soon they were squabbling over the available uniforms. I made sure Ivy and the big guy got theirs. I wanted one for the little breed who’d body-blocked the ward door, but he’d have gotten lost in a shirt.
    Interesting that I had so many supporters now that it looked like I had prospects.
    The smoke almost got too thick before somebody outside decided action had to be taken now .
     
     

19
    They brought almost every warm body they had left. They burst through both doors at once, behind thrown buckets of water. They concentrated on the fires to begin, taking what lumps they must until those were extinguished, then they started whipping on anybody in arm’s reach. When they got into the ward, they started hauling fallen comrades away.
    It was real exciting for a while. The issue was definitely in doubt.
    The smoke got to me more than I expected. After they dragged me out and I decided it was time I made a run for it, I found that my legs were saying no way.
    “Don’t. You aren’t ready yet.”
    I didn’t look up and give myself away. Around me, impelled by the cunning of madness, my buddies did the same. What a team!
    There were better than twelve men scattered along the hallway, many from the ward. The rest had gone down in the current invasion.
    The speaker was a woman, the owner of the legs. She added, “Get the smoke out before you do anything.”
    I coughed and made noises and kept my face hidden. She moved on, evidently to tend someone else who was stirring. A female doctor? How about that? I never heard of such a thing, but why not?
    I scooted back till my spine found a wall, raised myself up against that,