“Ilvani, stop!” he cried, but she kept on, until she slid down the bars, unconscious. A trickle of fresh blood filled her hairline and ran down her forehead.
The guard saw it all, but his gaze stayed riveted to Ashok’s face. Unmasked, Ashok saw the recognition in his eyes. The guard knew him, and Ashok recognized the man in turn.
Reltnar was his name. He had close-cropped black hair and a fresh scar across the bridge of his nose. Ashok remembered he and Reltnar had prowled the Shadowfell together in their youth, when both were still learning how to fight for their place in the enclave. Not brothers, not blood, but companions at least.
“Ashok,” Reltnar said. His voice gushed out in a relieved sigh. “I thought I’d seen a ghost, but … I thought you were dead. We all thought-”
“What’s going on here?” Ashok said, cutting Reltnar off. His gaze lingered on the blood and scraps of hair Reltnar wore. “Explain this.”
“That’s right, you weren’t here,” Reltnar said. “We took these after you left to hunt the hounds. They put up a fight, and we had to kill half their group outright. We brought the rest back here to question them, but they wouldn’t say where they were from or what they wanted.”
“Ikemmu,” Ashok said quietly.
“What?”
“They’re from the city of Ikemmu,” Ashok said. “It lies to the south. Did my father order this?” he asked.
Reltnar pursed his lips. “Your father was killed in the battle,” he said. “One of your brothers too, but the rest are still here.”
Ashok braced himself for the shock, but it didn’t come. He felt nothing at the revelations. “Who ordered this?” he said.
Reltnar looked confused. “No one ordered it,” he said. “After they wouldn’t talk, we were just going to kill them, then a few of us”-his forehead scrunched up as if he were trying to remember-“we decided … we were getting restless, and the fighting, it wasn’t helping anymore, so we came down here to fight the prisoners, only they were too weak. That’s how it started.”
Of a sudden, Ashok found himself remembering the wine he’d tasted that night in the Hevalor tavern.
It’s not like wielding a blade or taking pain from a dagger cut, but it’s similar enough …
“Listen, Ashok,” Reltnar said, sounding anxious. “I came down here because …” He nodded at Ilvani’s unconscious form.
Ashok’s brought his chain up diagonally across his chest. “No,” he said. “That’s all over now.”
“W-What?” Reltnar said, as if Ashok were jesting. “If you want a bit for yourself, I don’t mind sharing.”
He took a step forward, and Ashok sent one end of the chain flying. It clipped Reltnar on the ear and took off a chunk of flesh.
“Godsdamn you!” Reltnar said as he stumbled back and touched his bleeding ear. “What are you doing?”
“You want pleasure?” Ashok said. “Is that what this is to you? Did it make you feel alive, climbing into that cell with them weak and chained to the walls? You’re a coward, Reltnar. You didn’t stand on the edge between life and death, risking your own destruction at your enemy’s hands. Look at them, Reltnar. You took their souls, and now you’re feasting on the bones.”
Reltnar’s gaze hardened. “I don’t care,” he said, slapping his chest. “All the battles in the world won’t do any good! You see this?”-he flicked his maimed ear, spraying blood.-“I feel nothing.” He came forward again.
“By the gods, Reltnar, I swear I won’t give you another warning,” Ashok said. “You may not feel the pain, but you can bleed, and you can die.”
Reltnar’s face crumpled. He held up his hands in supplication. “Why are you doing this? I told you I’d share, but don’t take her away. I need this, Ashok. You don’t know what it’s been like. I stand guard in the caves and stare at dark walls. There’s no sound but the godsdamn wind, and I can feel everything seeping out of me, a little every day. The only time it doesn’t is when I’m with her.”
“Not anymore,” Ashok said. “We’re leaving, Reltnar. The enclave is finished.”
“Says you?” Reltnar said, barking an ugly laugh. “Did you think I was the only one using them? You already killed the other one. You’re a walking corpse if you try to take her out of here by yourself.”
“I didn’t come alone,” Ashok said.
The others were waiting for him. It was time to finish things.
No more hesitation. Not here.
“Stand aside!” Reltnar cried.
“No,” Ashok said.
He watched the rage take over Reltnar’s face. Ashok’s former companion came at him stumbling in his fury and desperate need. Ashok dodged to one side, leaving the shadar-kai a path to the cage door. Reltnar went for it as soon as he saw the opening, like an animal chasing a piece of meat into a trap.
As he passed by, Ashok calmly pivoted and slipped his chain over Reltnar’s head. The metal noose stopped Reltnar’s forward movement, and his momentum drove the spikes into his neck.
Warm lifeblood spilled down Reltnar’s chest, but he barely reacted, except to stiffen and raise his hands to grip the chain. A reflex, nothing more. Reltnar’s fading attention was fixed upon Ilvani’s unconscious form.
Ashok let Reltnar’s body slide to the floor and wiped the blood off his chain with the shadar-kai’s cloak. Listening, he heard faint shouts coming from the tunnels.
They’d discovered the dead guard, Ashok thought. Or worse, they’d found the others and were already cutting off their escape.
Ashok put his chain on his belt. He paused before the dead man at the back of the cage, but in the end he left his dagger protruding from the man’s chest. He’d chosen his death, and Ashok would not violate his flesh any further.
Wrapping his cloak tightly around Ilvani’s shoulders, Ashok picked up her unconscious body and made for the stairs.
The door opened before he got there, but Ashok saw it was Cree. He breathed a sigh of relief. The warrior’s left arm was covered in blood, but from no wound of his own.
“You found them?” Cree said. He sounded out of breath.
“Ilvani is the only one still alive,” Ashok said. “The others are …”
Cree put a hand on his shoulder. “Skagi told us,” he said grimly. “We met up with him in the tunnel.”
They ran as they talked, backtracking to the intersection where they’d all split up. Vedoran, Skagi, and Chanoch were waiting for them. Chanoch had a small wound at the corner of his mouth, but otherwise they were unmarked. Shouts echoed from all directions, but the cries were disorganized, and Ashok heard the metal clash of weapons, and the screams of wounded.
“You found them?” Vedoran said.
“Only Ilvani,” Ashok said. “But Natan will be relieved.”
“If we make it out of here,” Vedoran said as he beckoned them all to keep moving up the passage.
Ashok, still holding Ilvani, ran up beside Vedoran. “What happened?” he said. “Did they raise the alarm?”
Vedoran shook his head. “We encountered a group in the tunnels, heavily armed,” he said. “We thought they were a patrol, but then they were set upon by another, larger force. They decimated each other, and when they saw us-”
“We joined the fray,” Chanoch said, his voice trembling with excitement. “We took them all.”
“They’re fighting each other,” Vedoran said. “As near as we can tell, instead of realizing they’d been invaded, they thought they were betrayed from within.”
Skagi hooted with laughter as they ran back through the tunnels the way they’d come. “Ikemmu!” he cried. “Tempus!”
A few more steps and they would be at the long tunnel and beyond that, freedom. They fell into close formation as the passage widened.
Ashok felt a stirring in his arms.
“Stop!” Ilvani cried. Suddenly awake and alert, she was struggling to free herself from his grip.
“It’s all right,” Ashok said. He set her down on her feet and grabbed her elbow when she swayed. “You’re safe now.”