Chapter 26

Tyen Claymore cursed quietly. Saliah’s weeping had woken him, which meant that he wouldn’t get any more sleep before morning. He did feel bad for the girl, but he felt much worse for his own self. At least she wouldn’t get killed, maybe just used, but his prospects were much grimmer.

That had been some truly epic bad luck: riding through the mountains, accompanying the baron’s children to the capital—and getting ambushed by bandits, of all things. What could a harmless scholar of ancient languages do with bandits? Die. He could die. They hadn’t let him, though. The bandits had knocked the dagger from his hands and knocked him out with a blow to the head. He had regained consciousness in the cave, inside a cell with enough space for a pig, not a human.

Anyway, judging by the smell, they really had kept a pig there, until it had died in terrible agony. The scumbags were fair, in a way. They had offered to spare everyone’s life in exchange for a ransom, informing Baron Avris about his ch