Resurgent Shadows (Successive Harmony Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

moment the thought crossed his mind that some of the trolls had doubled back on him and that he was now in their mercy. He fought down a wave of panic mixed with fear. Blood pounded through his head, augmenting the headache and making him nauseous.
    Thomas’s voice echoed in the recesses of his mind and admonished him to stay calm and assess the situation as best he could. He took a deep, calming breath and allowed his training to take over. The one fleeting glimpse he had gotten of his attackers had shown a short, stocky figure with a beard. Facial hair wasn’t something the goblins or trolls Caleb had seen had been blessed with. That meant his captors were human, probably marauders.
    He heaved a sigh and studied his prison. He had been lying on an old mattress, musty and torn, but there were no other furnishings that he could see. The walls were thick slabs of concrete, except for the door, which was a riveted steel contraption with a wheel mechanism like a naval ship. With a sudden start he realized that he was in a survival bunker. They had been built as an escape from a nuclear inevitability that had never come. A strange place to find marauders.
    He needed more information. He got to his feet, walked over to the door and rapped it smartly with his knuckles. It would draw the attention of his captors or, at the very least, let him know that he wasn’t guarded. If the latter, he’d have to figure out how to get through the door on his own. If the former, he could play along with his captors until he found the right moment to escape.
    The wheel turned with a jarring screech of ill-used metal. The heavy door swung inward, and light flooded into the room, outlining the silhouette of a short figure holding a large shuttered lantern.
    Caleb took a few steps back from the door to show that he was not going to try anything, though his eyes darted everywhere in search of escape.
    “Awake, are you?” the figure said in heavily accented English. “You’re a tough nut to crack, lad, make no mistake. No’ many of your kind can withstand a blow from one of me kin.”
    The silhouette moved forward and stepped to the side. The light from the hallway illuminated him. He was short and squat with burnished reddish-brown hair and beard that hung down in thick frayed braids. His face was stony and hard, as if chiseled from rock, though his blue opal eyes twinkled with suppressed merriment. A thick, long-bladed knife hung off his thick leather belt.
    “You’re a dwarf!” Caleb said, taking an involuntary step backward.
    The dwarf scowled at him. His eyes flashed, and Caleb felt a momentary flush of unease wash over him.
    “I’m a dverger. Dwarf is an insulting name you humans use. I wouldn’t make it a habit to be calling us that. You’ll be coming along now then. Sigvid wants to see you.”
    The dverger pulled a length of rope from behind his back and approached cautiously, setting the lantern on the floor. Caleb considered his options in the few seconds it took the dverger to close the distance between them. He could slip past the dverger with ease and take his chances in the passages beyond, or he could allow himself to be bound and taken wherever his captors saw fit to take him. His instincts and his training pulled him toward escape, despite the other guards he knew were lurking just out of sight, but his curiosity had been piqued, and it had been a long time since that had happened.
    He shook away the feeling and steeled himself to dart to the left, but something inexplicable stopped him. He allowed his hands to be bound, justifying the move by telling himself that getting a chance to look over the bunker would allow him to formulate a more well-planned escape attempt later. The bonds were tight, but not enough to stop the blood flow, for which he was grateful.
    “Come along now.” The dverger seized Caleb’s arm in a vice-like grip.
    He led Caleb out into the hall, which was lit by crackling torches. Several more