'Liam, we don't have much time. There will be guardsmen here any moment.'
Liam lowered his sword. 'There are guardsmen here already.'
Ryder looked at Knoblauch. 'But there are two of us. Surely we can take this one.'
Liam shook his head. 'I'm also in Purdun's elite guard.'
Ryder's face dropped. 'What?'
'I am an elite guard,' repeated Liam, not able to look at his brother.
Ryder's eyes narrowed. 'You sold out?' He shook his head. 'How could you?'
'It's not what you think,' pleaded Liam. But even as he said it, the words felt hollow on his tongue.
'No?' said Ryder, making a show out of looking around the room. 'So you're working both sides?' He made a move toward Knoblauch, launching his spiked chain at the veteran.
'Stop,' shouted Liam, reacting to his brother attacking his friend.
Knoblauch batted it aside with seemingly little effort. But Liam could tell by the look on Ryder's face that his brother hadn't really tried to hit the veteran. It had been a test-just like when they were young.
Ryder glared at Liam. 'How could you do this? The moment I'm gone, you go running to the baron.'
Liam felt his face get red. 'It didn't happen that way.'
'Oh no?' Ryder stepped sideways, pacing around Liam like a threatening snake, gathering his chain to him. With a smooth overhand motion, he brought it over his shoulder, striking at Liam.
Liam jerked back, but he was too slow. Ryder's chain caught his long sword on the hand guard. Liam tried to keep hold of it, but Ryder was stronger, and sword went tumbling to the floor.
Liam sidestepped away from Ryder, shaking his tingling hand. He matched his brother's steps, and the two men circled, facing each other. If this were another man-any other man-Liam would already have his short sword in hand.
'I suppose you've betrayed the rest of the family as well,' spat Ryder, his face growing angrier.
The center of Liam's stomach grew a heavy lump-Samira.
'Ryder, I'm sorry.' He held his empty hands up in front of him. 'I thought you were dead.'
'That's no excuse.'
Liam averted his eyes, his chest nearly caving in on itself with guilt. 'I know.'
'I was counting on you.'
He nodded again, almost able to feel Samira's touch on his skin. 'I know.'
'You should have continued where I left off,' chided Ryder.
'What?' The images in Liam's head scattered, and he finally looked up at his brother.
'You should have led the Awl-not abandoned them.' Ryder glared. 'If you really thought I was dead, then you should have taken my place.'
'What happened that day, Ryder?' blurted Liam. 'I watched you fall. I went back to tell our family that you died. But you didn't. And you didn't let us know. What were we supposed to think?' Liam could feel the guilt in his stomach being replaced with righteous anger. 'If you didn't die, why didn't you come back?'
'Because he'd been sent to Westgate,' came a voice from the double doors.
Ryder spun around.
Captain Phinneous, backed by what appeared to be his entire unit, stepped through the doors. 'Welcome back, Ryder,' said the captain. 'I see you've grown accustomed to your chains.'
'We wait for his signal,' said Giselle. The Broken Spear had been waiting in the wooded plain outside Zerith Hold for a full day. The sun was setting, and soon it would grow dark again. Still no signal.
'There is no use waiting,' said Nazeem. 'He has been captured.'
'Then we go in and get him out,' replied the leader of the Broken Spear.
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 it took made his legs
