D & D - Red Sands Read Free Page B

horrible; not the odor of death, as in the corridor of skeletons, but more fetid and alive.
    "What do you suppose is down there?" whispered Marix.
    "I don't want to know," replied Jadira. She drew a fold of her headdress over her nose and mouth.
    "The palace holds many secrets," Tamakh said. "In Omerabad there are many strange cults, many purveyors of dark magic. Any sort of monster could be housed in the lowest levels of the dungeon." He stepped back. "It was into one of these pits I was to be cast on the next dawning."
    Jadira looked about. The pit filled the corridor from wall to wall, and beyond it was another solid expanse of stone. Truly a dead end. But where did the fresh air come from?
    She tilted her head back and saw. Three paces above them, a domed cage of iron covered a skylight directly over the pit. Brief wisps of smoke blew through the bars.
    "We must go up," she said.
    "But how? We have no rope, no ladder, no scaling gear," protested Marix.
    "Would you rather return to the dungeons?" Jadira unwound her headdress and coiled it around her arm. It was considered immodest for a Sudiin woman to uncover her head before strange men, but this was not the time for prudery. She studied her companions a moment, then said, "Your shin, Marix; is it silk?"
    "Of course."
    "Take it off and tear it into strips."
    "What!"
    "Do as I say! We need rope." To Tamakh she said, "Holy One, you can spare us your sash, can you not?"
    "Ha," Marix murmured. "There must be a good five paces of cloth there."
    The headdress and the sash of the plump priest made an amply long rope. Jadira had Marix tie loops of silk from his shirt at intervals along the rope.
    "How do we get the rope to the grill?" asked Tamakh.
    Marix had an idea. He tied one end of the rope to the heavy club. Jadira kept hold of the other end as the fellow stood back and threw the cudgel with all his might.
    The club struck the iron bars with a loud clang and fell back into the pit. Tamakh frowned.
    "Less noise, I pray. It will alert the guards," he said.
    Marix nodded and tried again. Another miss. Jadira reeled in the cudgel and gave it to him for another cast.
    "Larsa the Hunter, guide my throw," he intoned, and heaved. The club passed between two bars and landed on the paving outside.
    "Bravely done!" said Jadira. She carefully pulled on the cloth. The cudgel turned sideways and caught on the bars. Jadira smiled for the first time in many days. "Now we climb."
    Tamakh cleared his throat. "I fear Agma did not intend me to climb threads like a spider." He patted his ample belly sadly.
    "Don't worry, Holy One. We'll pull you out," Jadira said. Marix looked more than a little doubtful.
    Jadira twined her hands in the silken loops. "Hold the end taut," she said. "I don't want to swing into the wall."
    The priest and the young nobleman braced themselves at the top of the steps as Jadira began to climb. Her arms shivered with strain and her starved body 1ramped as she hauled herself hand-over-hand toward the roof.
    The bars were far enough apart for her to pull herself through. She was on a causeway between buildings of the place complex. Finding no one in sight, Jadira collapsed and waited for her quivering muscles to calm themselves.
    Putting her face between the bars, she whispered, "Marix!" He was shortly beside her. His green jacket snagged on the iron caging and tore, but he made it.
    "That fat cleric will never get through," he said.
    "Can we shift the grill?" A quick examination dispelled that idea. The iron dome was pinned to the paving in a dozen places.
    "Hello?" called Tamakh hoarsely. "Why the delay?"
    Jadira lay on the ground with her face over the pit. "Holy One, there is a problem."
    "Soldiers?" he said.
    "No, no, it's this cage. I fear it is too, ah, narrow to allow you to get out," she said.
    "What is it made of?"
    "Made of? Iron, 1 think. Too stout for bending, I fear."
    "Haul me up," he said.
    "But, Holy One—"
    "It will be well. Haul me up."
    Tamakh tied