Skye swore a smithy hammered on the inside of his skull. He rested his head without moving for a moment, the pounding subsided enough to process the heated debate several paces away. From the lilt of their voices, the three were Kurites. Kurites had snuck up on him without giving away their presence. He cursed himself for his stupidity. He moved his head to the side and spent the next few breaths regretting the action. As the pain knifed through his head, the conversation continued close by.

“We should not take him with us,” a rumbling baritone voice said.

“Neal, it is not as if we have a choice.” This was said by a woman’s no-nonsense voice.

“I did not say we had a choice, only that he will slow us down. We need to report back immediately.”

“He may be of some use to us, although he will cause us to travel the long way to base camp. We need to take the information back to Jaure quickly so that the spies can watch for the invaders.” This was softly spoken by a deep, male voice. Both the man and woman assented to the voice’s reasoning. He continued, “Nyah has taken his knives. As long as we keep to the tunnels and then cross the Gais at night, the young Pyranni will be unable to locate the city on his own or make his way back to Gharra if he escapes. Besides, he may have information we can use.”

The woman gave an inelegant snort of disbelief at the mention of his possible escape. “He is only a new recruit by the looks of him. He has not seen any battles. We can easily subdue him if he tries anything.”

Skye cracked his eyes open only to see nothing. It was pitch black in the tunnel. His kidnappers had long since put out his torch. When he moved his hands, they met resistance by a piece of rough rope. Although he could not bring his hands up to feel the back of his head, he felt the caked blood in his hair.

A slight movement by one of the Kurites permitted Skye to see a pair of gold eyes trained on him.

“Hm, it seems the young one has finally joined us. Now that he is awake, there will be no more unnecessary conversation,” commanded the soft-spoken male. Skye took this to indicate the male was the designated leader of the group.

Another pair of gold eyes glided his way and squatted down next to him. When she spoke, he almost jumped. Skye hadn’t expected the woman allowed anywhere near him. By way of greeting, she said, “You are the same Pyranni who tried to track me the other night. Because you have located the secret passageway and have seen us, we cannot allow you to go back to the city. You’re going with us instead.”

When he stayed silent, the woman identified as Nyah continued, her voice becoming stern and implacable, “I did not hit you too hard on the head, so you should be able to keep up with us. I will suffer no resistance from you.”

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Suddenly, Skye was left in the dark. In reaction, he blinked several times before realizing the woman had turned her head toward the other two Kurites.

“Are you ready to leave? I will watch him with Neal scouting ahead, while you, My Lord, watch our back trail.”

It took him a couple attempts for any words to come out. When they did, Skye’s voice grated like gravel. “People will come after me. I am not in these tunnels alone.”

From the way the woman’s gold eyes changed shape, he knew she smirked in response to his threat. “Pyranni, you have been unconscious for five hours, and we have heard no signs of pursuit.”

Learning he’d been unconscious for so long because of a woman was disconcerting. He had never met a woman with the upper-body strength to knock someone his size unconscious.

God’s blood!

Skye cursed himself again for his foolishness in searching the tunnels alone. Not wanting to feel at such a disadvantage against a woman, he attempted sitting up. The woman put a muscled arm under him to help him. He inwardly shuddered at the thought of traveling through the tunnels for any length of time. As it was, Skye already felt like a caged animal. But he would not give them the satisfaction of seeing his discomfort. Although he was blind, his captors were not.

He felt the woman’s firm grip on his legs and felt a sawing motion against the ropes tying his feet together. As the last of the rope gave, Skye felt the blood rushing down to his feet. He heard the knife whisper as it slid into its sheath hidden somewhere on the woman’s body.

Nyah said, “I will keep your hands tied except for when we stop for the night.” Leaving him in darkness again, she turned her head and asked the others, “Are we ready to leave?”

With their assent, she pulled him up and roughly steadied him while he regained his balance. Then she demanded with a push, “Move.”

Looking ahead in the direction Nyah shoved him, he blinked. There was no light to show him what direction he faced. He could not see anything, even when he held his hands in front of his face. Again, the woman shoved him, and he took a stumbling step forward into the unrelenting dark.

Shuffling forward, Skye waved his hands in front of him. After only a few steps, Nyah hissed behind him. When he stopped and turned in her direction, he blinked in surprise at seeing her gold eyes so close. Skye never heard her move. Muttering to herself, she said, “The Goddess save us. Pyranni eyes are useless. It’s no wonder we defeat you underground.”

Although he kept his face shuttered, Skye was forced to agree with his captor. The utter lack of light was the one way his captors could keep him under control. Although they may not realize he would fight given the chance, he could not fight them blind. Within the short time he’d been awake, his eyes already felt the strain.

Looking at her glowing eyes helped him locate the woman and better understand her actions. Her eyes looked down in the direction of his hands. Seeing this, he didn’t jump when she grabbed the rope binding his hands and looped another rope through it.

With a tug, she grunted her satisfaction at her makeshift leash. “You will follow me this way. We have much time to recover.”

He almost laughed aloud. She thought he would meekly take his captivity? He was going to make it next to impossible for them to hurry to their destination. Not a difficult task considering he was walking blind. He could only hope his friends would be able to deduce what happened tonight.