My return to consciousness was as brutal as my loss of consciousness had been. One second, I was lost in blissful darkness. The next, I heard thunder, and pain tore a jagged arc across the side of my head. My eyes snapped open and all I could taste was copper. I shook my head a few times and the ache in my face hid the ache in my shoulders for a few moments. I focused on what was right in front of me. It was the grinning face of an older man. He seemed familiar. Then the memories came back in a hideous explosion. The man grinning at me was one of Raven’s Court. He gave me an even wider grin before he slammed his fist into my stomach. I tried to flinch back from the blow and couldn’t. I heard the snap of skin hitting skin, followed by a dull meaty thump and all the oxygen in my lungs went away.

“Glad to see you’ve rejoined us, boy,” said the man in front of me.

It took a good ten seconds to find the breath to speak. “I try to accommodate.”

He punched me in the stomach again for good measure before he backed off. I took some more time to catch my breath and whispered a word to trigger one of my defensive spells. There was a blinding silver flash and then a sensation like every inch of skin on my body was being burned. I screamed. The burning sensation relented after lasting just short of forever. I tried to curl up and when that didn’t happen, I made myself look around. The first thing I noticed, though it didn’t take any priority, was that I was naked. The second thing I noticed was that my feet were on a small metal plate. The third thing I noticed was the metal clamps around my ankles. Those clamps were affixed to a metal frame. I looked up. My wrists were in identical metal clamps. My body had been stretched like a guitar wire between the wrist and ankle clamps. I looked at the frame and saw that runes had been acid etched into the metal.

The apparent leader of the Raven’s Council stepped into my line of sight. I guessed she was in her forties, but it was just a guess. She could have been thirty or fifty. She had no blemishes, not a single one, and the lines around her eyes were so fine that they were hard to make out. Her nose was a little too wide for her face, while her lips were a little too thin. Her hair was pale enough that it might have been blonde or white. She wore a light blue pantsuit that looked to be hiding some extra weight. She raised a finger and waggled it back and forth. Then she gave me a cannibal’s smile.

“How clever of you to discover our little insurance policy all on your own,” she said in a breathy voice. “No, Mr. Lott, you will not be using your magic here. You’re young, but your reputation does precede you. We made this device with your predecessor in mind, but waste not, want not.”

I thought fast, examined all the apparent options, and concluded that I was absolutely at their mercy. I played for time.

“You can’t possibly imagine this ends well for you,” I said.

A fist slammed into my kidney, and it was all I could do to avoid biting off my own tongue. What made it even worse was having to check my instinct to fight with magic. I’d been trained too well. The woman raised her eyebrow at me.

“Mr. Lott, I think this will end with us being very entertained. I’m not sure there’ll be enough left of you for your dear shadowed queen to identify you when the fun is over. Maybe we’ll send her a note about where to find your body.” She seemed to consider that before she turned to one of the other women. “Put that on the to-do list.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I think it was that last statement that drove home how impossibly fucked I was. I tried to thrash my way free of the impromptu cage, which just made the entire Raven’s Council laugh. I knew it was stupid, but I tried to throw magic at them again. It was forbidden magic, killing magic, and in some little corner of my mind, I hoped that the cage would turn all that power back on me. Killing myself seemed preferable to whatever they had in mind for me. If nothing else, I’d deprive them of their amusements. The runes flared so brightly that time that one of the Raven’s Council screamed in fear. When the cage punished me that time, I felt the fire in my brain, in my bones, in my soul. My heart pounded so hard that I knew it was only a matter of seconds before it had to give out. In the last, precarious moment before the world went black, I had one thought. Thank God.

I’m not sure if what I felt when I came around was savage disappointment or total despair. Maybe it was both. The stink of hot metal assaulted my nostrils, and I hazarded a glance at the metal frame. The runes looked charred and smoke curled off of them. That seemed important, but I just hurt too much to make sense of whatever the sight was telling my intuition. I looked up and the leader of the Raven’s Council was staring at me like I’d lost my mind. Her expression smoothed out and gave me a considering look.

“Bravery or stupidity, Mr. Lott?”

I shook my head. Hell, I didn’t know.

“Before we really get started, I’d like to ask you something,” she said. “Will you answer a question?”

I’d gone there for information. If I managed to escape by some miracle, maybe I could salvage something useful from all the pain.

“I will if you will,” I said.

I think I slurred the words a little and they felt like they came from deep inside a canyon somewhere, but they were clear enough to be understood. She seemed amused and gave me a beneficent smile.

“A bargain,” she said. “Dead men are granted a last request. That is the tradition, is it not?”

I nodded. “That’s what they tell me.”

“Very well, Mr. Lott. An answer for an answer. My question is, what madness drove you here?”

I thought hard about how to phrase the answer. With the pain still coursing through my body and the grogginess from repeatedly going unconscious from magical trauma, it felt like trying to sculpt dry sand. I did my best.

“The hunter is traveling.”

I didn’t know what response I expected, but the terrified outburst from four frantic members of the Raven’s Council sure wasn’t it. The blonde woman’s eyes narrowed and her lips pressed together into a line. She threw an annoyed look around the room.

“Silence,” she ordered.

The others broke off in mid-breakdown. I craned my head as much as I could to look at the others. They looked frightened. The blonde woman turned her back on me and took a few steps. She turned and fixed me with eyes devoid of empathy.

“What do you know about the bird and the hunter, Knight?”

I shook my head. “An answer for the answer.”

I saw the guy who’d been punching me earlier close his fist and move in, but he stood down at a gesture from the blonde woman. “Very well, ask your question.”

“How do I find the hunter?”

I guess she wasn’t expecting that question because she blinked a few times. “Of all the things you might have asked, why waste it on information you’ll never get the chance to use?”

“It’s what I came here for,” I said.

“A man who keeps his eye on the goal. How very intriguing,” she said, moving toward me in a way that made me deeply uncomfortable.

There was something predatory and sexual in her motion. She closed the distance until she could touch me. She rested a hand on my thigh and let it drift up. It was my turn to stare at her like she’d lost her mind. I had an insight as she grinned up at me. She was actually, legitimately unhinged. She cupped my balls in her hand and started to massage them. I flicked my eyes around the room. If any of the others were surprised, it didn’t show on their faces. That gave me a bad feeling.

“The answer to your question is simple enough,” she whispered. “You’d consult the Corrupted Oracle.”

Then she clamped down hard on my balls and waves of indescribable pain and infinite nausea overpowered me. I puked hard and heard the wet splatter of my vomit hitting the floor. I heard her cheerfully call out.

“Let the entertainment begin!”