Ashok considered the passages. “Left,” he said, after pretending to deliberate for a breath or two.
“I can’t hear the voices anymore.” Vedoran said. “Why left this time?”
Ashok grappled for an excuse. “This tunnel appears to stay wide for a greater distance,” he improvised. “More room to fight, should it be necessary.”
Vedoran examined both ways in silence. “I see no difference,” he said. “We’ll have to split up, check them both.”
“Is that wise?” Ashok said sharply.
A mistake. Vedoran had already had his authority challenged once. “Am I leader of this expedition or is Ashok, chosen of Tempus?” he demanded.
Ashok bowed his head. “Respectfully, if we split up, we may become more easily lost,” he said.
“Not if you’re able to draw a decent map,” Vedoran said. He lowered his voice so that only Ashok heard him. “You know how to chart an enemy’s defenses, don’t you? You made lovely pictures of Ikemmu when you first arrived. Don’t you remember sitting alone in your little hut, where you thought no one could see?”
“You’ve been watching me closely,” Ashok said, struggling to keep his voice even. “I’m surprised. You, who hate to be controlled, keeping such a stranglehold on someone else’s freedom.” He raised his voice so the others could hear. “You’re right, Vedoran,” he said. “Speed and efficiency are the best way. We need to split up.”
Vedoran nodded. “I thought you’d see it that way. Skagi?”
“Yes, Vedoran?” Skagi said promptly.
“You’ll go with Ashok down the left tunnel. Let him map the way. The rest of you come with me to the right. Meet back here with what we find.”
Vedoran and the others moved off down the tunnel, and Ashok stood alone with Skagi. He clapped Ashok on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “Vedoran’s wound himself into a frenzy to make this mission good.”
“I’ll be happy enough if he doesn’t get us all killed,” Ashok said.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ashok and Skagi started down the tunnel, and after a distance encountered another intersection, then another beyond.
Skagi cursed. “Now what? We report back?” he said, sounding disappointed.
Ashok came to a silent decision. It was a risk, but if he didn’t act now, either dissension in the ranks or his enclave would kill them all.
“Follow me,” he said and took the tunnel to the right off the second intersection. He moved fast. Skagi had to trot to keep up with him.
“Where’re we going?” Skagi said.
Ashok raised a hand for him to be silent. He listened for signs of anyone coming from the intersection behind them, but he heard nothing.
“Keep moving,” he said, and continued on down a straight, narrow passage that would take them past the food preparation area. The animal pens were just beyond that.
“Godsdamnit, Ashok, you’re going to get us lost with your guessing,” Skagi whispered.
Ashok hesitated at the next intersection. Skagi was not a subtle warrior, by any means, but he wasn’t stupid either. Sooner or later he would start to suspect that Ashok knew exactly where they were going.
Then, the answer came. It was carried on the wind.
“Do you smell that?” Ashok said.
Skagi sniffed the air. “Blood,” he said.
“Someone’s been fighting here recently,” Ashok said. “Maybe the captives are striking back?”
Skagi grinned and drew his falchion. “Maybe they’d like some aid?” he said.
“We should expect guards,” Ashok said, and Skagi nodded eagerly.
They moved ahead, and the smell of blood and rotting meat grew more intense as they passed the food preparation rooms. Ashok stopped at an intersection and risked a quick glance around the corner.
The door to the slaughter chamber was barred, as it never had been when they kept animals in there. Ashok’s heart pounded. There was hope after all that the captives were still alive.
Two guards stood at the door. They carried a mace and an axe, and there were bloodstains on their armor. Ashok knew he wouldn’t get away with simply knocking those guards out. He’d made his choice, and he had to live with it.
“Quick and silent,” he whispered to Skagi.
Skagi nodded, and together they charged around the corner.
The guards saw them and were so shocked they froze with their weapons against their chests. Ashok whipped his chain around the neck of the one with the mace. He pulled it tight, choking off the guard’s breath and severing the throat vein in one motion. The shadar-kai gargled on his own blood and slid down the wall.
Skagi hit the other guard in the flank with his blade, but the weapon passed through empty air. The guard teleported a few feet away and reappeared at the mouth of the passage where Skagi and Ashok had entered. She ran down the tunnel, her insubstantial form wavering in and out of the torchlight.
“I’ll get her,” Skagi said. “You get the captives out.”
“Wait!” Ashok cried, but Skagi took off before Ashok could stop him.
Ashok went to the door and yanked up the bar sealing it shut. He listened for a breath and then opened it.
Inside the slaughter chamber, the stench was overpowering. Had his mask not blunted the smell, Ashok would have retched. Blood, waste, and an underlying air of decay filled the room.
From the doorway there was a short stair leading down into a roughly circular chamber. A second door on the opposite side of the room led to more guard areas as well as an underground river. Along the left-hand wall were dozens of thick-barred iron cages of various sizes, some stacked on top of each other. Within the smaller ones, coneys, foxes, and spindle-legged deer crouched, watching Ashok with large eyes. Ravens and crows let out deep-throated caws from the higher cages, and feathers fell in a black rain.
To Ashok’s right, two iron bars were suspended lengthwise by chains from the ceiling. From those dangled blood-stained leather straps cinched tight enough to hold an animal’s front and hindquarters. Beneath the bars someone had placed a long trough to catch the blood and organs as they were removed.
Two of the leather straps were not in use. They dangled free and were half-shredded as if from the claws of a struggling animal. The others were cinched tight around the wrists of a naked shadar-kai man.
There were no guards in the room. Ashok secured the door behind him and went cautiously down the stairs. He approached the captive but could already see the man was dead, and thanked the gods for that small mercy.
Ashok raised his hand to press the mask more fully against his face. The man’s body dangled limply from the straps, his bare feet brushing the inside of the trough. His toes had been removed and lay in a pile of blood and urine at the bottom. His genitals had been cut off as well.
The man’s flesh had been split from his navel to his breastbone. The shredded halves had been peeled back, exposing his insides to the air. Ashok did not spend time examining the crawling movement he could see from the open cavity.
The captive’s face was shockingly peaceful, his head bent forward, his chin against his chest, his eyes closed. His shaved head bore several open wounds where it looked as if his captors had carved out the tattoos from his flesh. There was the rough imprint of a sword just above his left ear.
“Tempus take your servant. Give him rest.” Ashok murmured the prayer without considering what he said. “He’s suffered enough.”
He heard a sound then from one of the cages. Ashok spun, his dagger ready in his hand, but there was no movement and no other sound, only the animals watching him from behind the bars.
He moved along the row of cages, releasing the catches to let the animals run free in the room. Ashok wasn’t sure what possessed him to do it-the sounds the animals made could alert someone outside the room. But
