Chapter 16: Good and Violent Citizens

The dwarf, Chicory, led them through the jail's dingy halls back up through a corridor to the jailhouse yard, where a sinewy male elf with a malevolent grin held a strange stick covered in metal barbs.

Durri looked nervously at Chicory. "Uh, didn't you say the lieutenant wanted to talk to us? That doesn't look like a lieutenant to me."

Their captor chuckled. "Will be out in moment. First, you talk with Iron Hans."

A headrest lay on a pole sticking a short way out of the ground, and the elf gestured toward it. "Head right there, please. Try not to bleed all over the fabric."

Durri tensed. "Sorry to get you both into this," he muttered to Hudson and Shudon. "Look, whatever they're planning, I don't think it can really hurt me. When they start, make a run for it! Save yourselves, however you're able!"

Chicory slapped Durri in the back with the force of a falling tree. "Listen to the Iron Hans, little man!"