Master of Chains - Jess Lebow [101]
Nazeem just shook his head. "I have seen the inside. There is no way we will get in, or him back out."
Giselle looked again at the tattoos on Nazeem's forehead. Up until now she'd taken the Chultan at his word. He was Ryder's friend, and that was good enough for her. But something about this didn't smell right.
"If you thought Ryder's plan wouldn't work, then why didn't you say so before he went in?"
"He is a grown man," said Nazeem without skipping a beat. "He makes his own choices, his own mistakes." The Chultan uncrossed his legs and stood up from the ground. "We should learn from his error and move on." He turned and walked out of the clearing deeper into the forest.
Giselle watched him disappear amidst the trees. What was it Ryder saw in this man to put so much trust in him? Whatever it was, she didn't see it.
She grabbed Jase by the arm, startling the young man. "Come on," she said as she headed into the woods.
"Where are we going?" asked the Broken Spear warrior, hurrying to catch up.
"We're going to follow this Chultan and find out once and for all if he can be trusted."
The two of them slipped quietly into the woods, close on Nazeem's heels.
Giselle had to stop several times to find the Chultan's trail. He was being very careful. Twice he had changed direction, climbing on top of fallen logs to try to mask his footsteps. But both times, Giselle found his trail again. The tattooed man was heading out to the main road-toward Zerith Hold.
As they continued to follow, the sun dipped completely below the horizon, and the sky grew dark. Giselle and Jase skirted the edge of the forest, staying in the shadows as they followed the road. In the distance, Giselle could hear the soft splashing of waves against the shore, and Zerith Hold came into view.
"There he is," whispered Giselle, dropping into a crouch and pointing.
Jase followed suit, and the two of them stood in the shadows watching as Nazeem stepped out into the road and into the light. As they watched, a pair of soldiers on horseback came riding up to the Chultan.
"He's going to give us away," said Jase.
"Not if you do it first," said Giselle, quieting the young man.
Nazeem held up his hands, and one of the soldiers lowered himself from his saddle while the other held a crossbow trained on the tattooed man.
The soldier on the ground took his helmet off as he approached, exposing a bald head and a scarred face. He spoke to the Chultan for a moment. They appeared to be having an argument. One moment, the soldier was shouting something into Nazeem's face. In the next, he was laughing.
For his part, Nazeem seemed to be calmly negotiating, though he never took his hands down, and the other soldier never lowered his crossbow.
The bald soldier looked down the road, seeming to squint as his gaze passed over where the two Broken Spear were hiding.
"Don't move," said Giselle.
Then his eyes moved on, and he focused his attention back on Nazeem. He said something, laughed, and drew his sword. Nazeem turned and started to run, but he stumbled to his knees when a crossbow bolt struck him in the leg. The bald man nodded to the other soldier and turned the point of his sword toward the ground and stabbed Nazeem in the back three times.
"Come on," whispered Giselle, backing slowly into the forest and heading toward where the rest of the Broken Spear were waiting. "Ryder's in trouble. We gotta get him out of there."
Jase followed. "But how are we going to get in?"
Giselle turned and glared at the young warrior. "We're going to bust down the doors if we have to."
* * * * *
Ryder hung from the ceiling.
There were chains on his arms and legs. The room was full of them. They draped down from above like long drops of metallic rain. They flooded down from the ceiling, a torrential downpour in the middle of Baron Purdun's dungeon.
And in the middle of it stood Ryder. He could just touch the ground if he stood on the very tips of his toes. But he'd been here for the better part of a day, and he'd given up trying to stand. The effort