They didn't like that, and whatever they did in response caused him to cry out with pain. I had to keep climbing, and figure out a way over the ledge without being noticed. I slipped twice, but refused to fall. From this height, a fall would be the end of me. Simon's death would follow.
"Lord Endrick will want to talk to him," a guard said.
One of his companions laughed. "Yes. Talk to him. Boy, you'll be made of pudding by the time he's done with you!"
"Finish up in here," the guard who had called himself Bragh said. "Remind him of the power of the Dallisors, but leave him alive. I'll report to the master."
Bragh left, and I shifted my position sideways so that instead of rolling over the ledge directly in front of them, I'd come up near the side, hopefully without drawing their attention.
I snuck up on the closest man and sunk Tenger's knife deep into the man's shoulder, then pushed him into the pit, losing the knife in the process. Before the second could react, I twisted his arm behind him. He struggled to get away from me and in doing so, lost his balance and slid into the pit. I heard the thud of their bodies on the thick mud floor far below. Silence followed.
My attention had already turned to Simon. When I knelt beside him, he mumbled, "You ... are frightening."
"You have no idea."
I helped him roll over, checking for any life-threatening wounds. From what I could see through the filth that coated him, there was a little blood, but his internal injuries worried me most.
"Can you move?" I asked.
"Give me ... one minute more."
"Why did you do this?"
His eyes were closed, but his face relaxed. "I made a promise, Kes."
"To Tenger? He sent you up here, then abandoned you. I don't think--"
"Not to Tenger. To Garr, the man who adopted me. If I could be half the person he was ..."
His voice dropped off while he forced himself to breathe. I pushed Simon's muddy hair away from his face. "Well, you made a good start tonight. It was stupid, but noble. We need to get out of here."
"Not through the tunnel below," he said. "I can't. And you won't."
I dipped my hand in the stream water that ran through the cell and used it to wipe the dirt from his face. His left eye was swollen and one cheek was cut.
"Everything hurts," he mumbled.
I slid my hand up to his shoulders. "There'll be bruises here too. But I think you'll heal, eventually."
His good eye winked at me. "I can see you. That's enough." He fingered the ruby on my mother's necklace. "This is beautiful on you."
"I'm covered in mud, Simon."
"Are you? I didn't notice."
Smiling, I leaned toward him, wiping more mud from his face and letting my fingers linger there. His grin widened, realizing why I had bent down so close. He put a hand up behind my head to pull me in closer, but when it slid down to my neck, he drew back. "That bump I feel--is that from Lord Endrick this morning?"
"I don't know, I haven't--" I sat up and felt back there. It wasn't large, but something was definitely there. "What is that, Simon?"
He sat up too, though it came with a gasp of pain. "The Coracks have a surgeon who has some powerful Endrean medicines."
"I thought Coracks hate the Endreans."
"We do. But their medicines work. If Endrick did something to you with magic, then we may need Endrean medicine to fix it. Let's go."
With great effort, I helped him to his feet. He would limp out of these dungeons the same way I had limped into them not so many hours ago. What a pair we made.
He leaned on me to hobble up to the exterior door, the one that would put us directly outside the Woodcourt gates. The horse Basil promised to hide for me wouldn't be far away.