Master of Chains - Jess Lebow [73]
armor, dragging the veteran's partially limp body behind her as she methodically paced through the underbrush toward Liam.
Her words hissed from between her lips. "Looks like you both belong to me."
CHAPTER 16
Nazeem stood concealed in the shadows. He had watched Ryder pull the statue down on top of the undead giant leader and had seen him foolishly try to trip the beast with only the strength of his arms. That man was going to get them both killed. Damn Erlkazaran.
No one in Chult was that bold or that stupid. That included Nazeem. If Ryder wanted to get himself smashed into bits, then that was his business. There were limits to a man's loyalty.
"You wouldn't ask Nazeem to walk off a cliff, so why get him into this?" he whispered.
He liked Ryder. He seemed like a good man. A man a criminal like Nazeem could use to his advantage. A man like that could likely accomplish anything as long as it were in the name of justice or fairness or whatever cause those revolutionary types seemed to use to justify their existence.
Nazeem's lack of riches seemed like a pretty good cause to him. And he had intended to find a way for Ryder to help him correct this injustice.
But judging from his heroics in the plaza before Fairhaven, Ryder was not only driven to fight inequality, he was also crazy. Nazeem liked to think of himself as a brave man, a man willing to take risks-an entrepreneur. But looking out at the two undead giants, he felt this venture was taking a turn for the worst.
Perhaps it was time to cut his losses.
Taking one last look at Fairhaven and Ryder, Nazeem skirted down the shadows on the edge of the rock wall toward the giant-sized stairs. "Goodbye, Ryder of Duhlnarim," he said as he slipped over the edge of the first step and into the darkness beyond.
* * * * *
"I need a weapon." Ryder crouched beside the open gate to Fairhaven.
"I told you," said Giselle, "there's nothing here that we haven't already put to use."
"No one here has a second? Not even a dagger?" Ryder threw his hands in the air. "How do you intend to-"
"I… I have something," said Jase timidly.
Both Ryder and Giselle turned to the young man.
"I didn't think it was much of a weapon until I saw you fight the giants with your shackles, but…"
"Great," said Ryder. "Whatever it is, I'll take it."
"It's in my footlocker," said the young Broken Spear.
"Well go get it then," spat Giselle. "And be quick about it."
Jase nodded his head then took off running into the courtyard.
The undead giants had finished with Curtis's illusion and were making their way toward the open gate.
"All right. Everyone stay calm," whispered Giselle. "We wait until they cross the threshold, then we pull the rope tight. As soon as that smelly bastard hits the ground, we jump on him."
The Broken Spear nodded their understanding.
The moments that followed seemed to take an eternity. The shuffling footfalls of the giants could be heard outside the gate, and no one inside moved a muscle. Ryder looked out at all the waiting warriors. He hadn't studied them all that closely before. The few standing here were young, and they all looked completely terrified. All of them, that is, except Giselle.
Their leader had a grim glint in her eye, a look of complete determination, as if her will alone could carry the day and deliver these young men and women to safety. Ryder nodded. Perhaps it could.
Ryder could smell the first of the giants before it stepped through the gate. Its foul stench burned his nostrils, and he began breathing through his mouth.
The lumbering undead appeared inside the threshold. It took two steps more.
"Now," shouted Giselle, standing up from the shadows and pulling on the rope as hard as she could. The fine muscles in her arms lifted to the surface, and Ryder could see her straining.
The other Broken Spear warriors did the same, and the rope snapped taut. The giant obliged and moved forward, entangling itself in the trap.
"Pull,"