spiked door trick

Larten spent most of the day rehearsing with Mr. Tall. They set up a number
of high-risk escapist routines. In one, Larten was locked in chains and
placed beneath a door studded with sharpened stakes. The door would be
held in place over him by a rope, and a member of the audience would be
invited to slice through the rope with a knife. It would take them about half
a minute to cut through the strands. If Larten didn’t wriggle free in time,
he’d be skewered in a dozen places, and that would be the end of him.
Getting out of the chains wasn’t the hard bit—any decent escapologist
could have done that. But Mr. Tall wanted it to appear as if he’d failed, so
that when the stakes dropped, the audience could see him still struggling. If
he darted out of harm’s way at the last split second, using his unnatural
speed, he would give the impression that he’d been trapped and everyone
would think he was dead.

“That should give the crowd a juicy scare,” Mr. Tall said
enthusiastically.

The difficulty was timing it so finely that those watching wouldn’t
know he had escaped until after the door was raised. Larten had to do it
countless times until Mr. Tall was happy. It was only when one of the stakes
caught the hem of his cape and nearly speared his foot that Mr. Tall
expressed satisfaction.

“Perfect!” he clapped. “That’s what I’m after. Now let’s see if we can’t
knock another tenth of a second off of it.”

***

The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Brothers to the Death, Chapter 18