The Legacy of the Monster Diego Tomas, Part 2Ramon stood in the stairwell with his back to the wall. Around the corner sat the fifth-floor barrier. He could smell the blood, the death. Marijke’s people murmured to each other as they cleaned it off the tiles: two men and a woman. He had to plan this carefully, had to give Gazini enough time to gather his men and oil, set up the catapults. If he spun around the corner too fast, Marijke’s people would startle and jump on him. If he waited too long, she would see what the Barquemen were up to and fight back. Either way, Gazini’s attack would fail, and his wife and daughter would die.
Lamps smoked and sputtered in the stairwell, casting a brown light over everything. Ramon winced. Why was she wasting her oil here? Better to let the stains rema
