The Messenger

52

Get my cloak!” Adrian snapped. “Hurry! She’ll find a way in any moment now!”

Amanda was here. Tyler knew it as surely as he knew that Shade and Wraith were with her. He ignored the sounds of Daniel scrambling to obey Adrian, ignored Adrian’s furious criticisms of his servant, and strained against the manacles. The intense pain in his wrists and hands told him to stop, but he pulled harder, until the skin near the manacles was torn away and the cuffs were slick with blood.

His shoulders and elbows were on fire, but he forced himself to keep pulling, hoping to break his own bones if that was what it would take to free his hands. His earlier injuries had weakened him, and with growing frustration he realized that until his strength was fully recovered, he was unlikely to succeed. Still, he tried, wanting desperately to be free to protect Amanda from Adrian.

“Stop him from doing that!” Adrian shouted.

Daniel moved over to Tyler, looked frantically about him, and grabbed a rag that he tore into strips. With these, he began to wrap Tyler’s left hand and wrist. “No,” Tyler protested. “Please…”

Daniel met his eyes, looking scared, but continued working. Both hands were throbbing with pain, but Tyler sensed that the big man was trying to be gentle. He finished tying up the ends of the makeshift bandage and moved to Tyler’s right hand. The left was now so thickly covered there was no question of pulling it free.

Tyler could have wept with frustration. He tried to calm himself, to keep his head clear. Amanda would need him to have his wits about him, however little use he might be in physically aiding her. He felt Daniel give his shoulder a quick, awkward pat.

Daniel had already stepped away to obey Adrian’s next imperious summons when Tyler realized that something cold and hard had been bound into his right hand, almost completely covered by the bandages. He folded his fingers over the end of a small metal object.

A key.