CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE—SCORPIONS AND DEAD MEN
Stepping past the bodies toward the tunnels containing the cages, Jessamine realized that some of the men lying dead at her feet were indeed Scorpions.
She came to the cages where prisoners, slaves and Scorpions languished, their eyes deep sockets of bruised and sleepless horror. Within the first cage she saw Captain Ushtan and two slaves. She touched the lock on the gate and pulled her fingers back.
“Jinni?” Ushtan asked uncertainly. Then he seemed to recognize her. “Jinni!” he screamed with a renewed vigor that showed upon his face, his eyes wide and his mouth upturned into a hopeful smile. “I am saved! Thank the gods! And thank you, most venerable spirit.”
Jessamine almost snarled. “I am not a spirit.” This man’s excitement was annoying her. She rubbed her fingers together, feeling the grime she had contracted from touching the lock.
“Jinni,” he said. “What are you waiting for? Free me!”
“Yes, yes!” she said impatiently. “Step back, you fool.”
He did as she commanded and Jessamine melted the lock off the door with a tiny fireball. Ushtan came forth, pushed on the gate and it opened with a loud grinding squeak.
The slaves within ventured toward the gate as well, but they had clearly been conditioned by the evil ways of their own culture not to disobey their masters, even to save themselves from a horrible fate where their life forces would be used for material and magical gain. Disgusting. And pathetic.
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She cared not a whit for these retches.
Ushtan stepped out of the gate. “I believe there are others still alive. That sorcerer did not kill all of the Scorpions, I’m certain!” He glanced about and seemed to take in the horror of it all—of the very same fate that he had escaped and yet these men, Scorpions included, had not.
Jessamine shook her head and sauntered over to the next gate. There were only slaves within. As she turned, Ushtan asked her why she was not destroying the lock.
She only gestured to the other gate, where the two slaves within that had accompanied him, had not ventured forth. “They want to die.”
“I cannot believe it,” he said in a gasp of incredulity. He glanced back several more times.
She struck the lock off the last gate without even venturing to look inside. Some men ran to it, their feet stamping about as they screamed in horror.
“Do not be fearful!” Ushtan called. “We have come to save you. We are free!”
For a moment they seemed not to know what to do, when suddenly it dawned on them. The men cried out in happiness and anguish of their past terror as they all came forth. All in all, there were five Scorpions in that cave, making Ushtan the sixth. Out of nine, they had only lost three.
With a subtle smile on her lips, she knew that Shiro would be happy with these numbers. Then her face soured. “Ugh!” she complained at their exultations. “Enough! Come!” She led them along the path to the hole where the tendrils and the pulsing flesh remained. Leading out of the hole was a series of ropes tied into a wide swath of stepladders.
Jessamine had no need nor want to climb that like an ape. Ushtan turned around. “Jinni, are you—“
“Shiro and the others are within the temple grounds just outside of this cavern.” Without waiting for an answer, she whirled into a plume of blue smoke, leaving the men to fend for themselves.