The sound of the key turning in that lock is starting to become a trigger for me, I swear to Minerva. The moment I hear the slightly sticky, scratchy ratcheting sound, followed by a shunting creak as the door sticks in the frame before finally popping loose, every inch of me goes cold, a deep chill riding up my spine. If my mouth wasn’t already painfully dry it would go that way in an instant, and as it is I’m immediately working on sitting up the best I can with these ropes, huddling as tight into the corner as I can get with so little mobility. Gods … I hate being so encumbered, it’s as humiliating as it is harrowing.
Still, at least whoever’s coming through doesn’t seem to be in a particular rush, which is enough to give me a chance to right prepare myself. Next to me, da starts to stir too, a winded snort signalling his awakening as the sounds must shake him from what hard-won rest he’s managed to claw for himself, and I find myself starting to hate our captors a little more for it. He’s already in such a bad way.
Finally the door pops open and a more battered, ratty older human man with a particularly unbecoming thin, patchy beard and a badly scarred left eye barely manages to catch himself as he stumbles through with it. He rights himself with an angry grunt, rolling his wide, heavily muscled shoulders, and works on dragging the key from the lock again after swinging the door the rest of the way open to make room for more.
The fact that I was expecting Vandryss makes seeing the dragonhalf woman step through instead a genuine relief. I start to relax almost immediately as I realise how quickly I’d just tensed up, slumping a little more into the wall I’m already leaning against, and I let a relieved breath out through my nose. Not that she is, subjectively, really any better than our current number one enemy, but … I don’t know, given my previous experience with her, there just seemed to be something more … sympathetic about her, perhaps? I can’t really be sure, but maybe it gives me a little hope.
She’s very striking, I have to admit. She’s very tall, I mean still nowhere near as tall as Yeslee but I don’t doubt she’d make Shay look small, and while she seems built more for speed and agility it’s clear enough she’s got some great strength in her, and not just due to her blood. There’s definitely something much akin to Kelsa about her, a powerful, disciplined warrior of profound experience but also a particularly cool, pragmatic cynicism too, but the more I see of her the clearer it is to me that she comes from a very different background. It’s not just her far more expensive clothing and gear, but the way she speaks, her bearing. This one clearly comes from money. Which makes me wonder what in the world is she doing in this profession?
She seems somewhat softer than when I saw her last, which is interesting, but maybe it’s simply the fact that she’s clearly been at rest since last time she came in here, when Vandryss came back to question my father after … what she did to me. She brought the rogue wizard too, Tavarrat, I suspect in case da decided to withhold after all, but he was pretty comprehensively broken after seeing me tortured and humiliated by that heinous bitch, so there was no need. Mostly the dragonhalf stood by and observed, but she asked odd questions here and there, mostly about the Order’s involvement in all this, I noticed, and the answers seemed to trouble her deeply. Mostly, though I got the impression she was mostly here to keep an eye on Vandryss, make sure she didn’t go too far with either of us. Which was interesting.
She’s shed her armour now, instead simply wearing a pair of well-fitted, rich buckskin britches with very tall boots, a costly-looking linen shirt with really puffy sleeves, and a soft suede-and-silk waistcoat buttoned high to her neck. Her dark hair is, comparatively, similarly relaxed, still tied back but this time in a much looser braid that falls over her shoulder, while several loose locks frame her face, more than one slipping over her eyes. It’s a particularly fetching style that softens her fierce look, and definitely heightens her harsh beauty.
Stepping through, she takes a moment to look around the room even though there’s really been no real change since before, then steps aside as she immediately folds her arms tightly across her chest. Still looking thoroughly disapproving about this whole business and clearly not caring who sees it.
Tavarrat follows, and the moment I see what she’s got in her hands I stiffen up again. She’s carrying a bundled set of chains, attached to several heavy rings of dark metal, already glowing with etched runes and glyphs. Damn it … she’s been busy since she left us alone yesterday. That’s all for me, clearly.
When she enters her own gaze remains conspicuously locked on the floor in front of her, her face very closed-off and her brow tightly knitted. I remember she seemed particularly quiet and withdrawn before, but I thought it was simply being in such close proximity to Vandryss. I realise now that it’s more to do with very clear discomfort about having us here right now. Despite her obvious betrayal of all she must once have believed in, I’m starting to think she really hates that she’s put da in this position, and now me too. That’s interesting too.
The wizard takes a few steps closer, then falters, starting to take one more but then seeming to think twice and instead dithering for a beat before instead moving aside to approach the closest wall. Then one more figure steps into the room and my blood goes cold.
Vandryss stalks straight towards me, her eyes already locked on me, and she doesn’t stop until she’s right on top of me. I start to try and squirm away as she draws close, but instead of putting myself in a place of relative shelter I realise now I’ve simply trapped myself since I have nowhere to go when she reaches for me. She doesn’t bother taking an arm or gripping me by the shoulders, instead she just curls her steely fingers into my hair and yanks, and I can’t help screaming through the gag as she drags me bodily across the floor.
“Hey …” Da tries to croak a protestation but instead just descends into a little coughing fit as his horrendously dry throat must crack badly. “Stop … stop it, leave them alone …”
“Shut up, Foxtail. You have no say in any of this.” Vandryss finally deposits me on my knees in the middle of the room, the tears that sprang unbidden in my eyes from the sudden pain already betraying me as they roll down my cheeks, and I angrily blink them away as I feel the shame flooding me. I’m already distinctly self-conscious but this just polarises it. “When you’re ready.” she growls now, already turning to Tavarrat.
Who’s wrinkling her nose as she starts trying to sort through the slightly tangled assortment of iron fetters, taking a more halting step forward now. “Yes I … gods, what’s that smell?”
“This little bitch pissed herself in the night, clearly.” Vandryss is smiling now, sly and more than a little superior as she gives me a scathing look, intent on rubbing it in. “Her father’s already managed to make quite a mess of himself, so I suppose it doesn’t matter now.”
As I feel my face grow even hotter I have to fight hard to stifle the unbidden urge to sob at this particularly cruel jibe, even if it is just a brutally honest observation. I’ve been stuck here for two night now, trussed up tighter than a plucked bird from a butcher’s shop, I’ve not had a chance to attend to any of my personal needs. I remember all too well waking up sometime late last night, it must have been, and my bladder felt like it was the size of a grapefruit, the urge to urinate growing distressingly strong. I fought it for as long as I could, but after what might’ve been an hour I just couldn’t hold it in any more. For a few moments it felt so good just to get it out of me, but then my britches were sopping wet and I could smell it too and the shame was horrible, I just wished the earth would swallow me up right there and that could be the end of it. Da woke up a few minutes later because he must’ve heard me sobbing in the gloom, and he did is best to comfort me with words alone, but I felt so unbearably small and pathetically weak for hours after. It’s been more uncomfortable since I woke up again, the urine itself having largely dried at least but my inner thighs are now itching and badly chafed in my slightly damp britches.
Now that bone-deep shame comes flooding back and I almost start weeping all over again, but with Vandryss in front of me, looking so horribly smug, mostly what takes over is just white hot fury. If I could do anything right now I’d kill her on the spot …
Or at least try to …
“Just stop it …” da mutters, barely managing to keep his head up enough to glare at her with one eye mostly still swollen shut. “You cruel bitch …”
Simply turning to Tavarrat, Vandryss’ smile fades almost immediately, her expression becoming stony cold again. “Enough of this shite. Just get it done. Then we can get down to business.”
Yeah, I really don’t like the sound of that, and my growing dread just tightens around my heart all the quicker as soon as the wizard lets a weary sigh go, giving up on the untangling now as she just takes hold of the banded metal collar and lets the rest fall noisily to the floor. She looks up at me at last, and the way she looks so regretful scares me even more, I’m already starting to squirm again as she takes a more purposeful step towards me now.
“No! Stop it!” Da starts to struggle as she moves in on me, tugging at the chains binding him, but it’s as weak and ineffectual as before, while his voice continues to crack. “Don’t you touch them! You heinous witch … you traitor! Have you no shame?!”
That halts her, for a moment at least, and it’s the first time I’ve seen her look at my father since we were reunited. Her face grows so haunted, there’s true, horrified shock in it, and she pauses for a long beat, opening her mouth like she wants to respond … then her eyes seem to harden and her brow furrows again, her face growing stern as she sucks in a deep breath and starts approaching more earnestly. And I have nowhere to go …
Damn it … I try to wriggle out of her path but I really don’t have anywhere to go, I can’t move much at all with the way that evil bitch tied me up. In the end I essentially just start to topple, but she catches me long before I can really teeter over, taking hold of my shoulder with her free hand while she shakes out the collar with the other. It swings open in her hand, already unlocked in clear anticipation, and as she pushes me upright again she digs her fingers hard into my shoulder, getting the firmest grip she can on me as she starts to work the band around my throat.
“Oh fuck … Gael, no … I’m sorry, I … oh you fucking bitch!”
Vandryss ignores my father’s weakened tirade and just steps in now as his words spur me to start struggling again myself. She doesn’t bother with anything special, she simply grabs a handful of hair from my crown and gives my head a good shake for a few moments while Tavarrat steps back, seeming profoundly shocked and almost dropping everything in the process. “Cut … that … shit … out, you stupid little cunt.” Her hiss is close in my ear, low and breathy, but full of venom all the same, and it still smells so bad. “Just keep still. I won’t tell you again, I will simply hurt you. Very badly.”
I can’t help whimpering at that, and what little fight there was left in me evaporates in an instant. I’m entirely at her mercy, there’s nothing I can do, no way to fight. Not like this. Unfortunately, if I let them do what they clearly want to do to me, even if it does mean I gain a little more freedom, I still won’t be able to do anything. They’ve thought this out too well.
For a long moment she watches me closely, looking sidelong into my eyes, and again they seem to blaze with that strange, unnerving baleful green fire that I can’t find any reasonable account for. Then she lets go of me and steps away and if I could I’d collapse on the spot.
Tavarrat just stands there for another beat, clearly still rattled by her colleague’s clear overreaction, but finally she lets that deep breath go and takes up the collar again, and this time when she approaches me I just sit as I am. Demure and placid as I lift my chin in anticipation, just wanting this over with now. I have no further say in this, so I’d best not make it even worse on myself.
The collar is cold on my throat, uncannily so, in fact, when the metal makes contact with my skin it feels like it’s been left sitting in deep snow for an hour. Not frozen enough to burn me, but it’s definitely uncomfortable. I have to fight the urge not to flinch away after all feeling that, instead biting down on the gag and squinting my eyes into tight slits against the troubling discomfort. Then she snaps it closed and the lock clicks all on its own and I mostly just see the flash of the markings in the metal reflected in her eyes as the invocation fetter seals itself.
What I feel is a good deal more intense, anyway. I know that the air is only squeezed out of me for a moment, but it’s so uncomfortably like the other night, when Vandryss strangled me, that I instantly stiffen, unable to fight my arching back in sympathy to the memory. There’s a much brighter flash inside my head, and I feel a strange blazing heat run through me in the same instant, my limbs alight from the inside as if every vein and artery was suddenly set aflame. Like the breathlessness, the sensation passes in a moment, but it’s still profoundly disturbing, something I never want to feel again.
Once my lungs can work again I start sucking breath in through my nose, I can’t help it, and I double over as much as my bonds will allow, which isn’t much at all, certainly not without risking dislocation of my shoulders. It takes me a long time to work up the strength to lift my head again, looking up towards Tavarrat as she steps back again, holding onto the rest of the bundle of chains as she starts to pay out the one attached to my unnervingly well-fitted collar.
“That should do it.” she breathes, her voice as heavy with regret now as her face. She looks down at the floor again.
“Oh my … Minerva …” Da’s words are halfway between a growl and a sob. “Gael, I’m … I’m so sorry …”
Vandryss steps back up now, and I don’t bother trying to move this time, mostly just in fear of what she might do to me now if I did. She gives my head a hard shove from the back as it is, forcing my chin down, then I feel her steely fingers starting to work at the gag’s knot tangled into my hair at my nape. As she starts to work it loose it just tugs and snags on the strands and locks that got trapped in it before, and I hear her hiss with clear irritation as she digs away at it, while it just hurts me all the more. I bite down the best I can against the pain, but I can’t help a few little fresh whimpers all the same, and this just makes her growl and probe even more fiercely.
Finally it starts to loosen up and then, at last, she tugs it all free, and I almost moan as she drags the band of cloth out of my mouth at last, snapping it once before tossing it aside to slap onto the floor with a spit-wet splat. Meanwhile I have to struggle for a few moments to work the wadded bundle of fabric left behind out of my mouth, almost choking after all in my efforts before I’m finally able to spit it out. As it is I’m still uncomfortably close to gagging all the same, and I have to lean forward again to cough and hack before I’m finally able to start breathing properly again.
“Ah … oh … fuck …” Finally I just spit once, twice, my mouth feeling dryer than ever now that the gag’s gone but it feels strangely like it’s still in. I work my jaw for a moment more, then finally look up at Vandryss.
“You … you can … ah …” I have to spit one more time, then cough again just to work on clearing my throat enough to speak, and even then my voice feels as painfully scratchy and dry as it sounds. “Oh … you can do whatever you want to me, but I won’t tell you anything. I swear to Minerva you won’t get a single crumb of information out of me.”
The way she smiles at that tells me she’s not convinced for a second, and I can’t blame her. I didn’t feel very defiant saying it, my voice is too weak and quivery to be any more convincing than my face must be. At least she doesn’t laugh at me, but her sneer is dripping with sarcasm as she crouches down in front of me now and leans close. “Nice try. Very convincing, I’m sure. You could have had a brilliant career on the stage, why on earth did you ever choose to be a wizard?”
“Fuck you.” I’ve spat the words out before I can stop myself, but they feel a bit more fiery than before. There’s some real venom in that.
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This just makes her grin even wider, and it’s a horrible sight like always. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, darling. Business first.”
Again I feel a deathly chill run up my spine, but she just steps back, turning away before I can respond. Already looking to Tavarrat again. “Finish it, I’m tired of waiting.”
Frowning deeper still, Tavarrat lets another heavy sigh go before holding the chain out to her. Vandryss looks down at it for a charged beat before taking it with the sharpest, most disdainful look she can muster, I suspect, very much driving the point home, and cocks her head my way as punctuation. The wizard simply glares back for another beat before stepping towards me again, reaching into her robs now. After a moment’s searching she draws a small knife loose.
Seeing that naked blade, small but clearly still very sharp as all working wizards prefer to keep theirs, puts me right back on guard again, and I stiffen immediately. As she approaches I consider trying to squirm away again, but check myself because of course it won’t go any better than before. Besides, it’s pretty clear what she actually intends to do with that.
She steps past me now, moving around behind before crouching, and as I hold my breath I feel one hand take hold of the bonds at my wrist before I feel a subtle tug below, and then a snapping release. My shoulders are still bound back tightly, but as she lets go of the rope at my wrist the strain on my back is relieved significantly now the line binding them to my ankles has been severed. This time as I slump forward I’m actually able to properly bend at my waist, and I can’t help breathing a little deeper too as the strain eases a little. Then she must lean forward herself because the next thing I feel is her gripping my shoulder again before tugging those particularly tight bonds just above my elbows. I take a breath in anticipation for this one.
When these ropes are severed my elbows spring apart entirely of their own volition and this time I fold entirely double as my forehead is finally able to gently thump to the thinly carpeted floor. I let a heavy sigh go, and it’s of the deepest, most profound relief, even as I feel my arms start to tingle mightily as my circulation is finally starts running freely again without such significant restriction. At first it’s a cold, almost pleasant sensation, but then it starts to warm up considerably, turning hot and spiky as my wrists start to prickle, and then the real pain comes and I’m not so relieved any more. By this point she’s already sawing away at the rope binding my wrists, and all I can do now is grit my teeth and groan as I ready myself for what’s to come.
The moment the bonds at my wrists are severed I slump onto my side, I can’t help it, my left arm is trapped behind me and under me but I bring the right up into my chest immediately, whimpering again as my hands and fingers start to burn as the numbness begins to recede. Oh fuck … I’ve never felt anything like this, this is horrible. I look at my hand and I expect it to be horribly mangled like my da’s, that’s certainly what it feels like, but while my fingers are red and bent into clutching claws that can do nothing but shake, they still seem whole and unbroken. I can’t feel my hands yet, just the worst pins and needles I have ever experienced in my life, but at least I know they’re still there.
While this is all going on, it seems that Tavarrat has put her knife down and instead taken the chains back, and she’s unravelling the tangle with greater success now. Finally she selects two of the small banded manacles, putting one aside while settling forward again on one knee with the other in hand while reaching for me. I barely feel it when she takes hold of my right wrist, it’s just a deeper, more prominent tingling pressure through the prickling numbness, but at least this seems to deaden the effect somewhat when she snaps the manacle closed around it. The glyphs flash again and this time mostly it’s just a subtle pulse through me, like taking a low charge of static.
She has to roll me over to get at my other wrist without tangling me up in the chains, but by this point the numbness has receded enough that I really do feel it this time when she seals the second manacle. “Oh! Minerva that … oh, that smarts …”
“I know …” she barely whispers, again conspicuously avoiding my gaze now as she concentrates on the chains instead. “I’m sorry.”
“Enough of that.” Vandryss growls “Just finish it.” She plants a chair close by, facing away from me, and plants herself astride it with the back in front of her, an act that so incongruously reminds me of Kesla that it feels perverse to see her do it. “Meanwhile we can have a little chat.”
Working on getting my breathing back under control as Tavarrat starts to saw at the ropes binding my left leg, I look up into that baleful green stare, and lick my lips in the vain hope I might be able to wet them. It doesn’t feel like it does much, my mouth is still so uncomfortably dry my tongue feels like sandpaper. “I just told you –”
“No, I told you, we’re going to talk. Your colleagues are proving to be a particularly persistent thorn in our sides that I want removed before they cause more upset than my colleagues and I can realistically handle. They’ve already made it necessary for us relocate our operation in order to pull it deeper underground, in order to hide it from …” She works her mouth sourly for a moment, like she doesn’t like the way the idea tastes. “Unwanted attention. Now we’ve been forced to halt any further exports until we can safely resume open traffic northwards again. We are losing time, and my colleagues’ employers are losing money because of it. This is not stress I need. So you will answer our questions, or I will make you profoundly regret it.”
“Yes, I’m sure you will.” I growl back, not really even intending to, it’s mostly just a by-product of my throat being as parched as my mouth. “But you’re just making me repeat myself. I won’t tell you anything. I won’t help you hurt my friends. You’ve humiliated me already, you can hurt me all you want, you can even kill me, but I won’t answer a single one of your questions. All you’ll get is a lot of screaming and finally a useless corpse. I promise you.”
Tavarrat frees my left leg now and it springs out straight all on its own, and I can’t help groaning again at the momentary relief before sucking the breath right back in as I clench my teeth in anticipation of the coming pain. Meanwhile she just starts working at the other leg, frowning deep as before as she continues to focus herself out of the conversation.
“That’s just it, though, isn’t it? I could do all that, very easily. I’ll get an immense amount of pleasure out of it, too. I’m actually hoping you stick to your convictions, because the longer you hold out the more fun I can have with you. But at the same time, that would also be an immense waste of our time, wouldn’t it? I’ve already stressed that our time is finite, so I would be forced to take a different approach. Like hurting your father instead.”
Again, my blood goes cold. I manage to hold my tongue, just watching her now as I start to sit up, very wary of giving any sign that she’s getting to me with this talk. My fear is that she can read everything that’s going through my head as clearly as an open book, because I’ve never been any good at bluffing.
“She can … do her worst to me …” da chokes out behind me, the clanking of chains telling me he’s leaning forward as much as he can to make his point. “I don’t care. Just don’t give in to her … promise me, Gael. Be true to yourself …” His final words break up into coughing, and this time the metallic clinks tell me he’s collapsing back onto the floor again.
The closing of the first shackle around my ankle gives me another jolt, and I have to bite down against it, but in truth it doesn’t seems to hit me so hard as the previous. I wonder if perhaps I’m simply getting used to it now, that my body’s adjusting to the sensation enough I’m starting to get over the discomfort. I don’t like to think it might simply be down to the fact that it’s simply snuffing my power, and that what little there is left in me that’s not yet restrained has been further weakened.
Taking another deep breath as the sensation recedes again, I let it hiss out through my teeth and look up at Vandryss again. I don’t want her to torture my father, he’s been through enough and honestly I don’t know if I really can hold my tongue watching her do it … but the thought of her using anything I say to kill just one my friends stokes a fire in me all the same. I think about it for a long, drawn out time as she simply watches me, no more humour in her expression now, just cold, sharp observation.
Then Tavarrat finishes cutting away the last of the ropes and tosses the remnants aside with the rest she’s dragged off me, takes up the last of the banded manacles and locks it around my remaining ankle. Again, I feel the kick, but I was right before, I really am seeming to get used to it now, it barely fazes me this time. In the end I simply let a heavy breath go after and start working on sitting up again, giving my sore, rubbery limbs a few experimental twists and turns that go a long way telling me just how weak I am after being bound for so long.
So instead I just give up trying and stay where I am, lying on the floor looking up at the three women gathered around me, before finally letting my head loll back so I can just focus on the bare stone and wooden rafters of the ceiling. “No, I won’t give you the satisfaction. Da’s right, I couldn’t live with myself. You might as well just cut my throat right now, otherwise you really will just be wasting your time.”
Honestly, the words feel like a massive bluff all the time as I’m saying them, and I’m not sure I really could maintain a brave face if she actually decides to act on my ultimatum, but my voice doesn’t quaver half as much as I thought it might. My breathing is steady enough too, and with my hands as weak as my limbs I suppose I don’t have to worry about whitened knuckles giving me away either. So I just stay as I am, staring at the ceiling, waiting to see what fate might have in store for me … or at least the whims of a clearly psychopathic bitch.
Then Vandryss rises into my field of vision again, and she looks so casual now I don’t actually realise what she’s about to do until she reaches behind her back and slips a knife free, and my heart leaps into my throat. I couldn’t stop it if I tried. As she takes a step towards me I make a renewed effort to try and at least get one of my elbows under me, enough to at least start to sit myself up, but I know I have no hope of actually defending myself, not yet. I’m still too weak. Right now it’s taking enough for me to simply remain stoic in the face of what looks like my approaching death.
“Wait … no, no you can’t!” Da starts thrashing with renewed vigour, his voice cracking worse than ever as his struggles and pleas continue to prove entirely ineffectual. “No! Stop it you bitch! You monstrous fucking PSYCHO!!! DON’T YOU DARE!!! DON’T TOUCH THEM!!!”
“He’s right, Vandryss. That’ll do.” The words surprise me, but more so hearing it come from the dragonhalf woman. She hasn’t moved yet, but when I look I see she’s fixing her with a far sharper glare now. “I mean it. You should back down now.”
That finally gives her pause, and she stops a little short as she’s starting to lean towards me, knife now cocked and ready while her other hand starts to reach. She slowly turns away from me, her still unsettlingly calm face unchanging as she looks up at the tall woman, and one of her eyebrows quirks just the tiniest bit while she cocks her chin a little in her regard. “”Is that an order, Mallys? After what we discussed last time?”
“Think of it more like simple advice.” The dragonhalf takes a step back, but there’s no shying away in this move, no trace of backing down, she’s just adjusting her footing as I see her lay her right hand on her sword-hilt. Her expression doesn’t change a jot the whole time, any more than Vandryss’. “I wouldn’t want things to get complicated, so I thought perhaps it would be prudent to remind you of this one’s obvious value.”
The pale woman just stays there for a long beat, perfectly still the whole time but I’m sure I can feel the tension radiating from her all the same, she’s ready to leap at her without the slightest warning. I can’t tell quite how tense she is looking at the knuckles of her knife-hand, the skin’s too pale for that, but … no, I just need to look at her to sense it. Vandryss was already ready to kill, and I get the impression she really wouldn’t blink any more taking out someone on her side right now than me …
When she smiles, I start to think she might actually try it after all, or perhaps come for me instead, and I find myself tensing even though I know there’s no way I could realistically do anything … but then she simply steps back, straightening up as she slips her blade back into place, letting a heavy sigh go as she slowly shakes her head. “No, I suppose you’re right. Perhaps I should try a different approach.”
“No, I think I can do that on my own, actually.” The fact that the tall warrior doesn’t remove her hand from her sword says far more than her surprisingly even tone. “I don’t think your presence is helping things right now. Besides, it’s not really required for this, is it?”
Vandryss’ smile thins, but doesn’t fade entirely. Even so, her eyes narrow as she regards the dragonhalf for another beat, head tilting to a more notable angle now. “Do I need to remind you what you’re actually here for, or can I simply –”
“Do I have to remind you that I don’t actually work for you? Hontiresk may have put us together but he’s the one paying for our work, not you. So I don’t actually take your orders.”
When Vandryss looks her over this time it’s a good deal colder, her smile gone entirely, and she’s working her fingers like she’s itching to draw again. She’s wearing her sword, she could definitely respond in kind if the dragonhalf did decide to make a real fight of it, and given what I saw when she fought Kesla that first time, I’m well aware how skilled she is with it. That being said, I don’t know how good the tall woman is …
“Fuck it.” Vandryss steps over me almost before I realise she’s doing it, and doesn’t break stride as she just shoves right past her potential opponent while heading for the door. “I really don’t have time for this.” She turns at the door, and when she looks back glares with full venom again. “Just do your job, Mallys. You won’t earn the rest of your pay until they’re all dead, after all.” She’s out and slamming the door before any response can be made.
There’s a long moment of silence as the tension leaks out of the rest of us, and even da slumps, letting a great, heavy breath out that shudders somewhat as if he’s on the verge of tears. Then the tall woman finally takes her hand from her weapon as she steps forward at last, reaching up to brush her hair from her face with both hands while taking a deep breath. “Oh … that’s better, isn’t it?”
I almost agree with her, but manage to stop myself in time. Instead I just make a more concerted effort to sit up, and this time somehow manage to muster enough strength to manage it, drawing my legs up under my chin as I do so. Finally I hug my arms round them and let my forehead settle against my knees, letting myself breath easier now I’m starting to feel a little safer. I’m not sure how long this is going to last, but while it does …
“Luthan, could you fetch some water?” The dragonhalf takes the chair Vandryss abandoned and turns it around before digging in a pocket to retrieve a handkerchief. Shaking it out with one hand, she uses it to dust the seat off, as if wary of making contact without cleaning it of that woman’s heinous touch first. “Perhaps some food too? I’m sure our young guest here could use both right now. Their father too, I should imagine.”
That seems to bring the wizard up short as she continues to work on finishing unravelling the excess chains from my bonds, and she looks up at her now, blinking in surprise. “But shouldn’t I … I really should finish with this first –”
“I’ll be here, I can keep an eye on them. From what I understand, what you’ve done already essentially makes it impossible for them to use their magic, and it’s clear enough this young one can’t do much of anything else right now.” She pockets her handkerchief after giving it a another heavy shake, likely to get rid of any unpleasantness now clinging to it, then finally plants herself the right way round on the chair. “I’m sure I’ll be safe.”
“Are you sure?”
The dragonhalf lets a little sigh go, but the smile she offers up seems startlingly pleasant. “Let the poor kid rest will you? They’ve been trussed up like a Winterheart goose for the best part of two days, give them a chance to stretch a little before you hang them up there with their father.”
Oh shit … is that what they intend to do with me? No, I can’t have that, if they tie me up again, especially like they’ve got my father … but there’s no way I could escape, not now. I’m shackled with invocation fetters, there’s no way I could make the simplest spell work now. And there’s no way I could remove them either, only another wizard whose powers are actually working could do that, and even then they need to actually know what they’re doing.
Now I realise the way Tavarrat is looking at me, she knows exactly what I’m thinking, and it makes me wonder if she might not leave after all, instead arguing to stay anyway just to make sure I don’t try anything … pointlessly stupid. But maybe she picks up on how there’s just something a little … off with the other woman’s smile, and doesn’t feel up to arguing after all. Instead she just nods and lets the rest of the chain drop after all. “Fine, I won’t be long. But be careful. Just because she can’t use her magic doesn’t mean she isn’t still dangerous. After all, she is Darion Foxtail’s daughter.”
Cocking a brow, the dragonhalf looks back at me as the rogue wizard heads for the door. “They won’t be any trouble. Not if they have any sense.”
I wait for the door to close before speaking again. “Thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Vandryss is … unpleasant. Any time I can spend away from her I consider a significant bonus, so I imagined you felt the same.”
“No, I mean …” I look down for a long moment. “You didn’t call me she. The rest of them, they don’t –”
“You seem like a smart kid, and I have the utmost respect for your father, so I’m willing to extend you the same courtesy. So I’ll respect your choices, just as he does.” She sits forward now, lacing her fingers together. “Besides, it’s better if you’re comfortable around me.”
I’m not sure how to respond to that. She’s got such a pleasant way about her, she’s calm and collected and so polite, she reminds me so much of Kesla, or at least how she might’ve turned out if she’d been highborn. I could find myself liking her, very easily. But I know full well I can’t, that I shouldn’t. We’re not on the same side, she wants something from me, and I can’t give it to her, no matter how nice she is to me.
“We can’t … we’re not going to be friends. You do realise that, don’t you?”
That certainly kills her smile, and she looks down at her hands, letting out another little sigh. “Yes, I understand that. I’m not an idiot. But even enemies can have respect.”
“That’s very true, yes. But that doesn’t mean that you being nice to me is going to earn you any special treatment. I still won’t be any more forthcoming if you interrogate me with kindness.”
She chuckles a little at what I didn’t even realise was a joke until I’d made it. She looks up again, and her face is soft, almost charming now. “No, of course not. But this won’t be an interrogation. I promise I don’t expect you to tell me anything you don’t feel comfortable divulging. I just want to have a polite, civil conversation, since I have you here.”
“About what?” I can’t help frowning now.
“Your friends. I’d like to know my enemy, because I know we’ll meet again, and I want to be able to greet her in kind. So please, just enlighten me. I want to know about Kesla Shoon.”