Chapter 197

Clack, clack.

With every step I took, the sound of my heels striking the stone steps echoed through the dungeon.

"You understand this isn't normally permitted."

The knight guarding the dungeon stopped me in front of the iron bars and said it again, pointedly.

"I know. I'll carry this to my grave."

I let him see my face and pressed a gold bar stamped with the Irenber crest, small enough to fit in his palm, into his hand.

The knight took the gold and pocketed it, though his expression stayed sour the whole time. Cheeks puffed full of unspoken complaint, he unlocked the iron gate that separated the outside world from the cells.

The dungeon wasn't as dark as I'd expected. Torches set into the walls lit it brightly enough to make out everything clearly.

But the smell was exactly as I'd expected — the dungeon's own reek of damp…