Etienne Wardieu’s patience snapped and he reached down to grasp a fistful of the wounded man’s hair, jerking the bloodless face upward.
“I know you were attacked, you simpleton fool! What I want you to tell me is how they got in here, how many of them were there, and how in blazes did they get out again?”
“Th-the wall, sire. Th-they went through the wall.”
Etienne’s fist tightened and pulled the man upward, jarring the injured arm and wresting a groan of unbelievable pain from the guard’s throat. His eyes rolled back into his skull and the Dragon was forced to release him, kicking out at the unconscious man with a curse of contempt. Straightening, he looked around at the row of shadowy cells. Some of them held even shadowier occupants; half-broken creatures D’Aeth had kept alive for his amusement.
“Anyone! Anyone who can tell me what happened here is a free man!”
The silence was deafening and oppressive. Water dripped and the embers hissed in the firepit, but otherwise, the Dragon’s generous offer was met with utter silence.
Furious, he crossed over to where the bodies of the three rescuers had been found behind the stone cistern. One of them was as big as a bear, stuffed into a hauberk and blazon several inches too tight. The arrow jutting from his chest had left a wide, red stain on the front of his tunic, but that was not what had killed him. A gash, delivered by his own hand, went from ear to ear, the wound so fresh the blood was still steaming where it hit the cooler air.
The other two bodies were like children by comparison, reed-thin and identical in features. So identical, even in death, the Dragon paused to take a second look, noting the spike in the one man’s temple and the crossbow bolt in the other’s. His gaze rested briefly on the hands of the twins. One had died holding fast to the other as if to ensure their journey through eternity together.
The Dragon drew an impatient breath and started to turn away, stopping when he noticed the pattern of blood smears on the floor. The giant and one of the twins had apparantly been responsible for putting up a last defense against the massed guards. Admirably, they had killed or wounded more than a dozen men before their supply of arrows had run out. The twin’s broken leg accounted for most of the blood leaked around the pile of empty quivers, it being dragged behind him as he loaded and armed the bows. But there was one streaky swath leading back toward the cells that gave no immediate explanation for its presence.
“A torch,” Etienne barked, holding out his hand.
The smoking, pitch-soaked light was thrust at him and the Dragon lowered it to concentrate its illumination on the bloodstained floor. He followed the trail to the far wall of the donjon, then ducked down to examine the scuffs and crumbled mortar that covered the floor of the cell.
“Look,” Nicolaa gasped, stabbing a finger at where the light flickered on the back wall. Four central blocks had been hastily replaced but not pushed flush against the surrounding squares.
The Dragon threw the torch aside and began clawing at the loose blocks. They moved easily enough and within seconds he had the hole opened again and was reinacting Alaric’s and Lucien’s discovery of the steps carved into the side of the shaft. A scrap of burning jute from the torch was scraped loose and fell down into the blackness, and, as his predecessors had done, he tracked the depth of the well shaft as the light was swallowed into the void below.
“You!” he shouted over his shoulder for the closest guard. “Climb up this bloody thing and see where it leads.”
The guard stared into the cold blue eyes for a moment and decided it would present a greater peril to refuse. “Aye, lord. And when I do … find out where it leads, that is … what then?”
“Well,” Etienne ground his teeth beligerently. “If you get to the top and find no one else there, you might consider shouting for your comrades and letting them know you are still alive. If you find company at the top, it will hardly matter, for you will be screaming all the way down again.”
The guard swallowed hard and disappeared through the hole in the cell wall.
“Did you know this was here?” Nicolaa asked.
Glaring his response, the Dragon turned and addressed the rest of the