Escapes ropes while burning in sun

Larten awoke to savage pain. He was outside in the sun and his skin was a
nasty shade of red. As he blinked sleep from his eyes and tried to raise a
hand to protect his face from the rays, he found that his arms were tied
behind his back and he was hanging upside down. His shirt has been ripped
away, exposing his torso, which had been burned as deeply as his face.

Fear flared in his heart, but he thrust it from his thoughts. He didn’t
know what was going on – perhaps he had been caught feeding drunkenly –
but that didn’t matter. He had to escape quickly or he would burn like a pig
on a spit.

Larten set to work on the knots around his wrists. He was hanging from
a thick length of rope, swinging and turning in a soft breeze, but he ignored
that and kept as still as possible, except for his fingers, which danced over
the knots. The long, hardened nails of the vampires were invaluable when it
came to picking knots and locks, but Larten would have been able to make
short work of these regardless. He had learned well from Merletta all those
years ago.

Once his hands were free, he wriggled loose of the ropes binding his
arms and chest. Bending upwards, he grabbed the supporting rope with one
hand, tore apart the ropes around his legs with the other, hung in the air a
moment, then dropped to his feet and landed in a crouch. His first instinct
was to dart for the safety of the shadows, but he forced himself to scan the
doorways of the sheds around him – he was in a courtyard – looking for the
enemies who had strung him up.

***

The Saga of Larten Crepsley: Ocean of Blood, Chapter 2