FourteenThey were singing. Chanting to be more accurate. I could hear them from the deep, dark hole into which they bundled me, tightly bound, unable to move. They had swooped around me as I reeled about, my head cracked open like an egg, urgent hands clawing at my body, overpowering me, dragging me off as I struggled and squirmed in a desperate bid to escape. They were too many and too strong and as my resistance ebbed, so their chanting grew louder. Without ceremony, one of them lashed leather cords around my wrists, then threw me into the pit in which I now lay.
I craned my neck to try to catch a glimpse of the world outside through the opening, not much more than a tiny hole from which I could see the night sky. But nothing more. I was totally exhausted and jagged rocks dug into my ba
