Master of Chains - Jess Lebow [48]
She cocked her head to one side, looking from one man to the other. "Are you unfamiliar with this custom?" She reached out and took Ryder's hand in hers, shaking it up and down. "Taking a proffered hand is a show of greetings and friendship."
"Uh, yes, of course," said Ryder, stuttering a bit. "I'm Ryder."
Giselle smiled. "Nice to meet you, Ryder." She let go of his hand and offered hers to Nazeem.
The Chultan took it and bowed his head. "They call me Nazeem."
"A pleasure," said Giselle. She turned to face the huge spiraling stone stairs that led up into the palace in front of them. "This used to be the home of a powerful stone giant clan. But it's abandoned now, so the Broken Spear call it home." She turned and headed for the huge, four-foot-tall steps.
Giselle put her fingers to her lips and let out a rolling whistle, as Ryder had seen her do after the battle on the plain. From high above came a response-a similar whistle but much lower pitched. A rope appeared from the second level of the palace, with something dangling from it. As it came closer to the ground, Ryder realized that the something was actually a pair of small ladders.
Giselle stepped forward and took them off the rope, then gave it a quick tug. The rope shot back up into the sky.
"Come," she said, waving for them to follow. "It's not much farther." Placing the first ladder against the stone, she climbed to the next step.
CHAPTER 11
Liam drifted in and out of consciousness. The only hint that time was passing in the dark, foul-smelling dungeon was the slow drip of water, the occasional exploratory scratching of the rodents, and the rumbling of his empty stomach. He'd been down in the dungeon for what must have been several days. To Liam, it felt like more than a month. His arms and legs were chained to the wall, and though he had enough slack to move around, there was nowhere for him to go. Even if there were, the room was in complete darkness.
So Liam had taken to sitting on the floor against the wall, trying to sleep just to pass the time. With no light and consumed by absolute boredom, it wasn't hard to drift off into blissful nothingness. But it was difficult to stay there.
The hard stone was cold and it dug into his flesh. He would wake up what seemed like every few moments with a new pain in his neck or side or back. And he would shiver.
From time to time, one of the rodents would become emboldened and try to take a nibble out of him. They didn't bite hard at first, just testing to see if he tasted good. But a couple of times he was brought kicking out of his disoriented slumber by a sharp pain and the sound of squealing as the creature who had tasted his flesh was booted and went flying across the cell.
During the times when sleep did not come to him, Liam thought about Ryder. He missed his brother. More than anything, he just wished he could see him one last time, spend one more evening at the Broken Flagon Inn drinking mead and reminiscing over their childhood. He had never contemplated a life without Ryder, and now that it was here he didn't know what to do. He felt as though in the two months since his brother's death, he'd been simply drifting. Life had happened to him. He had no control, and he didn't want any. To have control meant that he knew where he wanted to go. But he didn't.
It hurt to think about his brother and the fact that he was gone. But it hurt more to think about the day when that pain would drift away. He didn't ever want to stop grieving for Ryder. That aching was all that he had left, and if he couldn't have Ryder back, then he would hang on to that pain forever if he could.
After a time sitting in the darkness, his thoughts wandered, and he must have dozed off again. The sound of the bolt sliding startled him awake. The next thing he knew the door to his cell was opening, and a blinding light filled his vision.