Spring 1095 SR
He had no idea how much time had passed when the torch finally went out, plunging him into inky blackness. Ludwig considered himself a brave man, for in his mind, any man who fought on a wall must indeed be made of stern stuff. Yet now, alone in the dark, even the smallest of sounds made him shudder, and the scrabbling of what he had to assume were rats drove him to distraction.
The mere thought that his straw might also be infested with insects drove him to lie on the cold stone floor, and thus it was that Rosalyn and her two servants found him curled up in a ball, looking like death warmed over, the heat sapped from his very bones.
“Fetch the key,” she ordered, and one of the servants ran off in a hurry. She stepped closer to the bars, seeking to determine if he was sti
