Savaran's skull ached. Like the kind of misery that resulted from his brain being played like a war drum leading the Kul Dynasty's army onward before slaughtering its foes. And worse, it felt like it'd been played for hours non-stop. Hours, he felt, had been lost.

A groan rolled out of him as he quickly realized his wrists were bound tightly by course rope behind him.

The last thing Savaran remembered was Traven in a furious panic over where Bennie had disappeared to. Then pain. Then blackness. Then nothing until now.

"Well, looks like our little sleeping beauty here finally decided to wake up."

The voice mocking him was familiar. Even if it contained the notes of a few more years having been piled on since it last spoke to him. In that moment, Savaran realized exactly how stupid simply trying to waltz into a den of thieves really was. Least of all a den of thieves led by one of the most notorious murdering scumbags of all—Karis.

Savaran raised his eyes from where his head rested on the floor, rolling his body slightly to look up at his nemesis sitting upon a large wooden seat of obvious authority. Karis was older, as they all were. But his ugly mug was unmistakable. As was his confident and cock-eyed smile.

Karis wore a style of quilted, padded armor that was favored for its lightweight among the notorious profession he practiced. One which often delved away from common thievery and into the realm of an assassin for hire. From what Savaran could see from his lower vantage, Karis had continued to surround himself with equally notorious individuals.

Each of those fiends stood ready to gut the former general at a moment's notice if the word were given to do so.

Savaran decided to take no chances, as there were easily two score of Karis's compatriots surrounding him. And no doubt more if Savaran would have rolled over to check what lurked behind him.

Savaran wriggled as he struggled to sit up. "Karis. You're looking as scandalous as ever. Is that a new scar?"

Karis touched the side of his face, and the most recently acquired jagged mark on his cheek. It matched the four others that marked his visage. "And he who gave it to me, met the same fate as all the others."

"You really should stop pissing people off, Karis. Your face would be prettier if you did."

"I think they give me character." Karis delivered the response with a smile. As though this was a game to him.

Savaran didn't see it as such. "We've got a problem, Karis."

"Indeed, we do, Savaran."

A brief moment of silence ensued upon the agreement. Then Savaran laid out the unspoken dilemma lingering between them. "Seems you framed me for a murder. One by your hand. Left me to fend off an entire kingdom looking for justice."

"So I did." There was no denying what Savaran said. And Karis didn't. "You and the prince, both."

"You don't sound too remorseful about it."

"Should I be?" Slouching in his seat, Karis pondered the captured former general. "It was just business, Savaran. Nothing personal."

"Nothing?" Savaran's voice rang with a hint of dubious curiosity.

"Well, maybe a little personal." Karis admitted. "But mostly business. Ninety-five percent, I'd say."

Daria began to stir from her own spot on the floor. As did the ex-prince. The funny thing was, Bennie was still nowhere to be found.

Fresh out of witty retorts to hurl, Savaran gave his final one. "Well, it's been fun catching up with you, Karis. But, you understand how it is. Places to go. Things to do. So we'll just be on our way."

Karis laughed at Savaran's presumptuousness. "Yeah, see, that's not going to happen." The thief rose out of his seat. "You know, I was willing to let you just go. Scamper off under a rock somewhere. There's lots of places that wouldn't have cared one lick about the death of King Walavarus. Or that you supposedly killed him. He had his fare share of enemies."

"You don't say?"

"You could have just gone to one of those places and been treated like a hero. But no. You chose to come here. And why? To exact revenge?"

"Well," Savaran shrugged as best he could will bound. "The thought had crossed my mind. And I believe the boy here would like some too."

"Savaran, Savaran, Savaran."

"Karis, Karis, Karis?" The mocking response from Savaran was delivered with a raised eyebrow.

Karis sighed. "Sometimes you just need to know when to give up."

"If I'd have given up, then no one would know the remarkable tales of heroism and wondrous feats of General Drugard. The Scourge of the High March."

"And how's that notoriety working out for you right now?"

With another shrug, Savaran admitted, "This certainly isn't one of the high points. I'll admit it."

"Well, I suppose I'll just collect the bounty on you and be done with this whole sorry affair. Shame about Daria, though. That you had to drag her into this?"

"Now, Karis," Daria spoke up, finally getting enough information into her reawakening brain to realize how truly deep the shit she was in was. "How do you know I wasn't bringing them to you?"

A snap of Karis's fingers signaled for some of his minions to lower a human-sized cage attached to an oversized chain from the ceiling. Clanking down and then coming to an abrupt halt, in that prison huddled their missing companion. "I've already interrogated Bennie. He didn't last two minutes before telling me everything."

"I'll kill you, Bennie," Daria sneered.

"Now, now. Don't go too hard on the poor fool. You know how persuasive I can be. And how averse to pain Bennie is."

Savaran knew both. Karis had been his top interrogator during the thief's stint under his command in the military. Bennie, who worked for Karis, was excellent at discovering information. But terrible about keeping it quiet when any pressure was applied.

"How you doing, Bennie?" Savaran called to the hapless and newest member of their troupe. "Told him everything? Huh?"

"Sorry, Savaran." The apology was sincere.

Savaran detected Bennie's genuine sorrow at having done what he'd done. "We'll discuss this later," Savaran shook his head as he pondered his situation. "After we get out of this."

"Oh, you're not getting out of here," Karis said. "I can't allow it. You know too much."

"I guess now is a bad time to tell you I'm willing to scamper off and hide under a rock somewhere?"

"A little too late." Karis admitted. "Yes."

"Couple thousand gold change your mind?" Savaran thought perhaps he could parlay the writs that he and Traven held into leverage and their advantage.

"You mean these?" Karis pulled out the pieces of paper and displayed them. "Not enough here to warrant your freedom. Besides, I've already gotten my best forgers working on new ones for you and—" He regarded Traven's writ in particular. "Eric Withakay? Now that's funny. Didn't even spell it with a 'k'. I am truly going to miss your wit."

Savaran realized they should have given their writs to the settlers as well. There wasn't even a affiliated bank in this shit hole that would have accepted them or been able to cash out from them. But what the former general really cared about right now was forming a plan to get out of this mess. A sideways glance to Daria revealed she wasn't coming up with any helpful proposals.

"Take them to the pit," Karis ordered. "My pets will no doubt be hungry. I'd don't think they've fed in over a week."

"That doesn't sound good." Savaran tested his restraints without success.

"Bennie too, sir?" one of Karis's men asked.

Karis gave his former associate, now traitor to their cause, a quizzical look. Then he answered, "Yes. Bennie, too."

"Aw, Karis," Bennie crowed. "Reconsider?"

Hauled to his feet, Savaran made a final plea of his own. "You're throwing away a lot of money here, Karis. And making a big mistake."

"Money isn't everything," Karis said. "Sometimes sending a message is more valuable than gold."

Perched on the edge of the hole some thirty feet around, Savaran stared down into it.

The edges were smoothed stone bricks. What looked like an old and dried-up well.

The bottom was forty, maybe fifty, feet down. It wasn't so smooth—a couple jagged boulders rested at the bottom. What it was, however, was littered with corpses. Or what was left of them. There were four gates at ninety-degree angles from one another around the perimeter.

"What do you think he's got down there?" Daria moaned as she was lined up next to him.

The prince was silent, pondering his fate, while Bennie was trying to quick talk his way out of this. "Come on, fellas," he said. "You know I can make up for this."

Daria smirked with a sarcastic response incoming. "So much for Bennie being your new best friend. You got a plan?"

Savaran habitually tested the ropes holding his hands behind him again. "Working on it."

"Time's running out."

"Don't rush me."

"You know," Karis said. "I feel bad doing this to you, Savaran. Real bad. But it is time to say goodbye. I'll always remember the good times."

Looking over the edge again, Savaran judged what would happen next. "So you are just going to push us in?"

"Yep."

"Fall might kill us."

"It might. Probably will. My pets don't care. They'll take meat dead or alive."

Overhead there was a sizable hole in the ceiling of the catacombs and some forty more feet further up. A mesh of iron grating covered it, and in between the gaps, one could see the sky. Several stories overhead, it revealed a day that drifted to night.

Karis paced back and forth among his prisoners. "I know this isn't your sword," he said, holding out the one Savaran had confiscated from the bandit Hvrick, and that was no longer in Savaran's possession either. "Or that fancy bow of yours. The one that can't miss once per day? Where are they? I'd like to have them."

"Lost them," Savaran responded. "Playing cards."

"Oh, I don't think so. Probably with those settlers who hired you to kill my men. You and—what is it you call yourselves? The Inglorious Brotherhood?"

"That's us. Inglorious to a fault."

"Catchy. Too bad you'll be dead before you have a chance to really make a name for yourselves." He stopped behind Daria. "I do love this bow of yours." He swapped the sword for the weapon he now mentioned. "But I have to ask. What's up with that necklace?" he asked her. "My men tried to take it off you while you were unconscious. The damn thing electrocuted two of them. I mean, it's unremarkable—being Moonstone and all. But obviously enchanted."

"Gift from my grandmother," Daria lied. "She was a dabbling witchand hated when the grandkids wouldn't wear her presents, so she'd curse them to make them impossible to remove once put on."

"Seems a bit eccentric."

Daria gave a one-shouldered shrug. "That's my grandma ma. Eccentric to a fault. May her soul rest."

"Well, guess we'll see if it will come off after your dead." With two fingers in his mouth, Karis whistled the signal to push the prisoners in.

Even though it would have been against their better judgement to do so, they complied. Not willingly. But funny how a sharp point in your ribs can make you jump after a shove failed to send one plummeting.

The descent was quick and awkward. The landing more so.

Savaran managed enough of a twist to land on his shoulder rather than his head. The joint dislocated. That would be useful. Painful, but useful.

Three more thuds thumped into the pit after him. All landing alive, but not unscathed.

"Damn it!" Daria cried as the bone in her left leg cracked upon hitting the ground.

Traven's head barely missed one of the jutting boulders, while Bennie had the wind knocked out of him.

Savaran twisted his now much more limber arm and brought the knot in front of him where he could more easily work free of it. "Anyone dead?"

"No," Traven groaned, clutching an oozing gash on his forehead.

Bennie answered in the same way.

"Not yet," Daria bitched, finding one of the boulders to prop herself up against and lean on. Peering up, she saw the heads of Karis and his gang looking down upon them with amusement. "But I think we're about to be."

"You good to fight, Daria?" Savaran called out as he worked his hands free from the ropes. Afterwards he assisted the others, making short work of their bindings.

"Ain't got any weapons."

Savaran slammed his shoulder back into the socket. It hurt like a mother. Then he recovered a shattered off tibia from the ground that looked sharp enough for possible use. "Improvise," he told her.

Hidden doors clanked beyond the four gates that could be seen, while what sounded like vicious dogs barked and yipped.

Seconds later, four snapping hyena faced dogmen were at each of the gates clawing and reaching through in a frenzy. Naked, their mouths were coated a foaming lather and encouraged all the prisoners to circle up in the center of the pit regardless of their wounds while bars restrained the beasts.

Daria wasn't in too much pain to keep from further bitching. "Well, this just went from horrendous to down right fucked. Where in the name of—where did Karis get four rabid gnolls?"

"Bought from some Vareen Traders," Bennie announced.

"Ok. So where did the—"

Savaran jumped in to derail the conversation. "I think where or how isn't pertinent right now to the problem facing us. Bennie, you could have mentioned this before now." The slow grinding of mechanisms lifting the metal doors began their doom beat. With the bottoms of the gates barely lifted, each of the dog men crouched down and started trying to squeeze underneath. "Daria, I need to know that you're able to help out here."

Daria grabbed her broken leg and, with a twist and a snap, set the fractured bone as best she could. Without so much as a groan of pain. "Yeah. But you realize it's basically four on two. Without weapons, Bennie and the prince are going to be useless." She picked up a long bone of her own to use as a weapon.

Just as she prepared, the sounds of the gates and their mechanisms halted, trapping the dog men barely on the other side. Still, they tried desperately to get to their food.

A downward plunging scream compelled Savaran to look up. He did so just in time to see one of Karis's thugs land dead—splattered on one of the rocks.