***
The chamber door was shoved open hard and banged off the stone wall, waking him. Even as Thomas was blinking the sleep from his eyes, four men came at him. One had a torch in one hand and a sword that he drew and pointed at Thomas’s chest. The other three didn’t have weapons on them at all, probably to keep the prisoners from grabbing them. Two of the men grabbed his arms and the third knelt to undo his manacle. Thomas took the moment to look over the room by the torchlight.
It was pretty much as Ralph had described it—large and stone. It had been dug out but not finished, suggesting a mine rather than a cellar or a dungeon. The hole in the middle had a ragged look, as if the ground beneath had fallen away. Thomas tried to get a glimpse down into the depths but could see nothing. The
