The stench hit Arik the moment the hatch in the floor was raised. He fought down the rising of his stomach contents as the guards roughly dragged him down the second set of stone steps. Arik heard the creaking of old hinges as Nassar stopped and opened a solid metal door. The guards dragging Arik stopped at the door to the cell, and Nassar grabbed Arik's sword and pack. The guards threw him into the dark stone cell. Arik sprawled across the floor and Tedi soon followed. The door slammed shut, and the only light in the cell was through the small square window in the door. Arik heard keys being used to lock the metal door.
"You two will stand guard here," ordered Nassar. "I will send someone down to accept their confessions soon. You might want to keep the lit torch close to you. This level is full of all sorts of vermin. This is not the level that we usually take people back out of, but I am concerned that they might have others in their group that will attempt to save them. Ignore the prisoners. I do not care if they scream for Abuud, you will not pay any attention to them. If they try to escape, kill them and throw the bodies back into he cell to rot like those before them."
"Will you send down food?" asked one of the jailers.
"No," answered Nassar. "The hatch will be sealed when I leave. It will only open for the torturer. Food would attract the vermin in any event. Trust me. You are better off without food down here."
Arik listened as the other four men left and climbed the stairs. The hatch thundered closed, and Arik could hear a bolt being hammered into place.
"They left me my belt knife," Arik mentioned out loud.
"Mine too. Perhaps it is their sort of mercy," scowled Tedi. "All it is good for is to take our own lives. I wish you had not sent Prince Midge back to Tagaret when we entered the city."
"I knew the diamond was in this city," shrugged Arik. "The other Rangers had to be told. Besides, with that hatch Midge would have been trapped down here with us."
"What was that?" yelped Tedi as he jumped from where he was sitting. "Something just started nibbling on my leg."
"Try not to move too much," suggested Arik. "I got a brief glimpse of the cell from Nassar's torch. There are rotting bodies in this cell. Who knows what is feeding on them."
"I could have done without that information," growled Tedi. "Maybe having these knives will prove to be a temptation."
"I sure hope Niki can find some way out of here for us," stated Arik. "Maybe she can use her magic."
"The knife is looking better every minute," retorted Tedi. "I cannot remember any spell that Niki has ever cast that did what it is supposed to do. If she tries to use her magic to free us, we will probably be covered in several tons of stone."
"Your optimism is really encouraging," Arik said snidely.
"Now there are things crawling up my sleeves," shouted Tedi as he frantically beat at his arms. "Nobody is going to come and save us," he added after he rid his arms of vermin. "Niki does not even know where we are. In fact, I do not think we are even under the temple. That corridor was longer than I remember the building being."
"I did think that was strange," admitted Arik. "I did not think it was normal for a temple to have cells either. At least not this type of cell. This is where they put people to rot to death and then forget about them."
)
