Read Boyett-Compo, Charlotte - Wyndmaster 1 for Free Online Page B

she shivered as the cold air wafted over her shoulders. Looking around her
    she saw armed men on horseback holding her father’s people at bay, a few of those she thought might be
    Dragonmoor guards lying face down on the ground, their hands behind their heads.
    Other than accompanying her father to certain rooms of the main building such as the dining hall, the
    chapel, solarium, and library, Celeste had never been inside the outer buildings. She knew the name of
    each structure on her father’s estate and thought the upper floors of the keep were where most of the
    castle’s retainers lived thus a place she had no reason to visit. But when her father took a key from his
    trouser pocket, unlocked the massive door to the keep then took a burning torch from the wall to light
    their way inside, she realized the place must be off limits to most of the staff for there were cobwebs
    festooning the inner guardroom and the smell of mold and decay was overpowering.
    “If the Commander has caught lung fever from being in this vile place…” Vargas began but MacDougal
    put out a hand to restrain him.
    Dank and dismal, malodorous and as cold as an artesian spring, the room through which Lord Charles
    led them had the feel of death about it. It was an overpowering sensation that had the men shifting their
    shoulders and Celeste putting a trembling hand to her mouth to hold back the whimper of fear that
    threatened. When he unlocked a second door and started down a long curving stairway, it was all
    Celeste could do not to beg her captors to allow her to stay above ground. Although her fright grew in
    leaps and bounds, she was even more afraid of the burly men who kept sending her hateful glances so
    she meekly followed the others, keenly aware of the man behind her bringing up the rear.
    For what seemed like half an hour the group descended into the dampness of the keep. The lower they
    went, the colder it became and the stronger the scent of decay. Absently putting her hand on the stone
    wall beside her, Celeste jerked it back, grimacing at the slime that came away on her palm. She ran her
    hand down her skirt, feeling sick as the feel of that unknown substance seemed to cling to her flesh.
    When at last the group reached the bottom of the stairs, her father held his torch to another unlit one
    flanking the door then unlocked the portal. He paused, turning to look at the man he thought to be the
    leader of those who had invaded his home.
    “I beseech you do not allow my daughter to see what is beyond this door. She is only a child with a
    tender heart. She?”
    “Has no idea who and what you are,” Vargas snapped. “It’s high time she learned.”
    “If you have any decency, don’t do this,” Lord Charles pleaded.
    “I’m about as decent as you are compassionate. Move, Dungeon Master!”
    Celeste frowned at the term. She had no idea what it meant though she knew what a dungeon was.
    There were references to such places in many of the fantasy books she read. But her father was a
    physician, not a man who ran a jail for miscreants. Surely these men had come to the wrong man, had
    mistaken her father for someone else.
    Vargas shoved Lord Charles into the pitch-black room beyond, the Dungeon Master’s torch sputtering
    as he stumbled forward, the light from the flames illuminating the various vile appliances scattered about
    the room.
    “It’s a bloody torture chamber!” the man behind Celeste hissed.
    “Where the hell else did you think he’d be, Seth?” another man asked.
    “Where is the commander?” Vargas ground out.
    “Through there,” Lord Charles said, arching his chin toward a darkened doorway.
    “He’d best be alive,” Vargas warned and snatched the torch from the Dungeon Master’s hand.
    Barely cognizant of the fingers that had wrapped themselves around her upper arm, Celeste found
    herself moving toward the doorway through which the tall, burly leader had passed.
    “ No! ” her father shouted,