“Monsters are forged, not born. Put any creature in adversity long enough, and it either shows you its belly or grows fangs.”

- Emperor Anthony Lancaster (Private Journals)

“Wake up, rat.”

The words were immediately followed by a slap to my face. I cried out, gasping for air as consciousness returned to me. I had been dreaming that a pack of Shardclaws with eyes of crimson had snuck into our campsite before the break of dawn. I heard their quiet footsteps, felt their wet breath on my cheeks. Their fangs were inches from my neck, as well as those of my companions. In my dream, our food had drawn them here, a trail of breadcrumbs and carelessness that led them straight here for a meal of their own.

This nightmare was now contextualized with what I was sure my subconsciousness picked up on. Hissed orders. Metal boots against dew-soaked grass. The faint trails of smoke on the wind.

“I said, WAKE UP!” Instead of a slap, a boot tipped with steel connected with my ribs. The leather jerkin I wore to sleep barely only prevented the skin from opening, but otherwise did nothing to protect the bone-jarring kick. I scrambled out of my tent, but was too slow to avoid the follow-up blow. “Look, James! It’s the whore! I thought it was, from the stench this piss-poor excuse for a tent gave off.” Gavin said, sneering over me while I tried in vain to collect my wits and my breath but failed at both.

How are they here? How did they get past our wards?

My mind reeled to find an answer to that vital question, but none came. Another kick landed and I rolled with the force, this one hitting my spine. I screamed from the pain, incapable of stoically bottling it up inside to show them they couldn’t get to me. But even if I did, we both would’ve known that it was a life. They already got to me. They found me. They found us.

“Well, if it isn’t the Rat Fang herself, crawling her way out of another hole? No wonder you slept so soundly. I am sure the worms are a familiar company in your bed, you whore. Did your parents wait until your first ripening before slotting out your bedroll for the nearest pauper, or was the coin too tight for such generosity?” James inquired, his voice milky and venomous all at once. I incoiled myself from what remained of my tent and attempted to rise, but Gavin’s boot crushed against my sternum, pinning me to the ground like the lip of a rug.

“None of that, little rat,” Gavin cooed sweetly even as he twisted his leg to dig into my ribs. I bit down on my tongue to prevent another scream. I scanned the campsite for signs of my friends, and my heart dropped. Azuris was gagged and strapped with all four limbs splayed across a large tree nearby. Elio was crumpled on the dirt with a nasty gash to his temple. His chest rose and fell regularly, but the amount of blood that coated his hair and the grass he laid upon was alarming. Lysandra whimpered softly near Azuris, guarded by two bulky men I knew to be a part of James’ outer circle.

Gwyn was nowhere to be seen.

“It amazes me how far you’ve come, little rat,” James remarked, striding toward me like he had all the time in the world. As he walked, he casually stepped down hard on one of Elio’s hands. My friend groaned and stirred, but did not wake. “For a lowborn, it is truly commendable how many people you’ve fooled. You stole from your betters, yet slipped through the cracks of justice. You dishonored and attacked a prince of the realm, yet were greeted with adulation when you returned with the corpse of wolf pup. Time and again, you manage to sneak past us highborn like some siren of the night. Tell me, when exactly did you discover Professor Brayborrow and Hawthorne would let you warm their beds at night? I see no other reason why they both might be so interested in you.”

“What are you even talking about?” I managed to gasp out beneath Gavin’s boot. Noticing my discomfort, he leaned down harder. A flash of annoyance passed through James’ eyes and he squinted down at me as he squatted down and placed two thin chains around each of my wrists. The chains locked with each other until they formed claspless bracelets on each arm. They tightened until there was not even enough wiggle room to fit a single fingernail underneath their vice grip. I gritted my teeth, finished with this foul charade. I pressed the activation runes on my gauntlets, ready to finish what I started with Gavin’s transmutation.

Nothing happened.

I pressed again, this time harder. Again, nothing. I tried to back away from James’ haunting smile, but my vain attempt only made him grin wider.

“Those are expensive little things, rat. Consider it a gift from me to you in honor of my acknowledgement of your paltry skills with those unearned tools. So long as my little gifts are attached to you, no ambient magic can get pulled in to activate those nasty little fangs. It took me weeks to find a…discrete…enchanter willing to make them for me. It wouldn’t do to have a royal prince touting about siphoners for a lowborn, now would it?” The richly armored man stood up and gestured to me like I was some sack of month-old rice. “Bring her.”

That was the last thing I heard before a jeweled pommel connected with my head and all went dark.

***

When I awoke for the second time that day, it was without any surprise but twice the horror. My arms were pulled far above my head, holding the majority of my body’s weight between them. My toes desperately tried to minimize the pressure on my shoulders and wrists by propping up my body, but they could only barely push off the ground. Red tinged my vision and each breath felt like a herculean accomplishment. I swung slowly around in a loose spiral and a chorus of laughter greeted me.

My vision spun and mirages of more than six dozen women and men eventually condensed into solid shapes.

“Oy! She’s awake, milord!” One of them barked out joyously. He had one of the girls I knew to be enthralled on his lap as he bit off a chunk of meat from a bone.

“Ahh, good.” James said, turning his attention from where he was talking to Gavin. He clomped over to me and smiled brightly. “The show can begin.” A flash of light greeted my sight as James activated one of his many enchantments and the taloned gauntlets he favored burst into existence. Red energy blazed along their edges and he gently lifted one taloned finger to my neck. Just the proximity of the searing heat from the energy was enough to gather sweat across my back and brow. He placed it onto my exposed skin like a gentle lover, but that was where the comparison ended. The blade-like appendage slipped into my flesh like a knife through melting butter.

Pain erupted through my chest and neck and I screamed. Tears welled up in my eyes. He had barely punctured my skin, yet warm blood leaked down the front of my body. He grabbed my belt and spun me, tracing the glowing edge of his talon across my midriff. Chainmail and fabric fell away like ash on the wind. The cold wind of autumn nipped at my exposed abdomen.

“I once heard a jester in my grandfather’s court remark that the only difference between the highborn and their lessers was the quality of attire they wore,” James said to both me and his rapt audience. “He even went so far as to claim that if you were to dress a lowborn in the finest clothes, provide them with a few notable enchantments, then no one but those with the keenest eyes could tell the difference.” His talon slid down the side of my left thigh, and I winced at the light cut that marked his finger’s path. I reflexively kicked out, hoping to catch his jaw with my knee, but it was only then that I discovered my feet were also tied and anchored. He laughed at my effort and continued.

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“It was ridiculous, really—a lowborn, hiding in plain sight amongst the nobles. Still, after my grandfather fileted and then hung the man, it got me thinking.” My face went pale both by his dismissive tone of a man’s horrible execution and the cold eyes that met my own. “While they could never become one of us, it is still useful to instruct the lowborn on their proper place.” He spread out his sharpened claws and arms as he turned to his comrades. “That is what I wish to do here, today! To remind a rat of her place!”

He swiveled on me with a whirl and five lines of white hot pain lanced across my abdomen. The pain was so much worse than before, as the heat was enough to instantly cauterize the wounds. I screamed. I couldn’t help it. I had no power. I tried to kick, tried to call on the power of my enchantments with every trick I knew how. But it was all useless. I was prey, tied up for the sick pleasures of my predators.

Hopelessness ate away at my mind. There was no way out. I had no idea where my friends were, or if they were even alive. I was alone, and there was no doubt in my mind that once James and his perverted goons grew tired of me, I would die. No honor. No final stand. Just death while I spun like a rat on a stick.

“Do you feel it, whore?!” James yelled at me, the thin veneer of civility discarded like a mask. “Do you see now why we couldn’t ever let you keep what you stole? It was bad enough the Duke threatened me once his idiot son was killed in that arena. But to have a disgusting nobody like you claim it as your own was far, far worse.” He slapped me, his claws narrowly missing my eyes but opening up my cheeks and lips. I wept, muttered nonsensical pleas. The pain was too much. I could barely breathe.

“James!” Someone yelled, and I fought through the pain to see if it was a rescuer. Or, barring that, my executioner. Either was preferable to this pain as James continued to slice into me. He never cut deep, but the sheer accumulation of thin wounds was overwhelming. “JAMES!” The man repeated, and my tormenter finally broke away from his onslaught.

“What is it, Chaney?” James asked in a bored tone.

“Sir, I found this sneaking into where the other prisoners are being held. Wait, what in the HELLS IS GOING ON?!” Charles demanded, and a small, young, part of me wept for my best friend. He threw down what he had been holding and rushed to me. Gwyn’s unconscious form fell to the ground and a part of my hope died at the sight. Four other men just as dirtied as Charles stood around her cautiously, a few of them sporting some nasty wounds. Charles reached me and shoved James so hard in the chest that he flew off of his feet and landed on his rear several feet away.

“You said she would be unharmed, you—” Charles started, one finger pointed like a lance at the downed prince.

“Careful what you say next, boy,” Gavin said, stepping in between them. Despite not being a day older than my friend, the threat subdued him nonetheless.

“You gave me your word, Your Highness…Your word.” Charles slumped his shoulders and looked back at me. I caught the shame there, as well as the misery.

“Right, well, I also gave my word to Gav here that he could transmute the ra—I mean Thea over there once I had my own fun. So, my word to him trumps the one I gave to you. Besides, it was you who said you were alright with cutting off her arm to get her out of this Orion business, isn’t that right? What’s the difference if we give the healers a little more to address when we take her back with us?” James asked and he gently patted off his leather pants like he had meant to fall there.

The air shifted as Charles’ mood darkened even more. Meanwhile, my mind was still reeling from the lack of denial at James’ accusation.

He was just going to let them maim me?!

I so wanted to scream out and demand answers, but it was all I could do not to pass out. Charles turned away from the prince and strode toward me.

“Don’t turn your back on us, boy,” Gavin warned, but my old friend didn’t pay them any attention as he made it the final few feet. His hand reached to his right hip as his left hand clasped the hilt that protruded there. With a flash, my arms were freed from their burden and I slumped to the ground. Charles caught my head just before it connected with the ground.

“What in the seven hells of Coldor did you just do? Did I say that you could cut her down, lowborn?” James demanded, stomping up to us.

“I’m so sorry, Thea,” Charles whispered into my dazed eyes as he pressed a thin cloth against my face. A soothing sensation swept over the region where Charlie’s healing cloth went to work repairing my flesh. The relief was short lived as James reached us.

“You’re wasting one of those on her?! How dare you!” James activated some enchantment on his shinguards as he kicked toward my friend. Charles barely had time to lift his armored forearm to defend before the ear-shattering collision impacted. He flew back nearly a dozen feet before he rolled slowly to his feet. James pressed his advantage and gave chase.

“What do we have here?” Gavin inquired, reaching me without a sound. He lifted me with enhanced strength by my collar, his hand uncouth in where he placed it. Feeling started to slowly return to my arms, but it was painfully slow-going. He used his free hand to reach down my shirt and pull out the amulet. “Looks like you’ve made quite the habit of stealing legacies that don’t belong to you, whore. I am sure we’ll gain quite the renown when we return it all. I wonder what else you might be hiding. He started to reach toward the lips of my pants.

Adrenaline flooded my veins and my hand swept for the slitted pocket on my trousers just outside my right thigh. It was unobtrusive and had a thin leather covering to protect the content from falling out. I undid the coil there with my fingers even as his grip on me tightened. Fear and panic made my hands shake. It was made all the worse by the numbness and painful tingling they also bore from bearing the brunt of my weight for heaven’s know how long. His cold fingers started to pull down on my trousers even as James and Charles quarreled behind us.

I gripped what I had returned to that unassuming pocket just last night. Without a sound, I yanked it out and stabbed it toward Gavin’s eyes. My hunting knife, unintentionally returned to me, snapped toward the noble’s face with barely a glint to mark its arrival. It stabbed into my assailant’s face, but his reaction was faster than I expected. Instead of his eye socket, I gouged a deep mark into his cheekbone. He screamed and threw me back.

I fell hard onto the ground, but I knew I had mere moments before I would be recaptured. I heaved myself up, wincing at the pain it caused me. The others around clearing that I now recognized as their campsite finally began to stir when they saw me attack their lord. A few reached for weapons, but many of them were currently entangled with the enthralled women. In the light of day, I noticed a strange consistency amongst the six enslaved Orions, and a feverishly stupid plan formed in my mind. Instead of racing away and into the forest, I rushed the fumbling group. Hunting knife in hand, I stabbed it into the leg of the nearest man. He screamed and yelled obscenities at me, but I used the distraction to yank the woman in his lap free and whirl her toward me.

Then, without hesitation, I pulled out her hand where her middle finger was swollen due to the painfully tight ring affixed there. It had a bright green jade that glowed faintly, and I winced as I prepared myself for what needed to be done.

“I am so sorry,” I said into the woman’s blank face right before I broke her finger. The joints popped out of place with a nasty crunch, I pulled the ring off of her finger. The man I stabbed in the leg finally recovered and he hobbled over to us, axe raised. The moment the ring fell away, the woman howled. It raked against my soul with such despair and ferocity that I stopped in my tracks. Our would-be killer did the same, a look of pure horror and confusion etching itself across his face. The woman’s scream was so wild that silence overtook the campsite in its wake. Even Charles and James paused and turned at the vicious cry of a woman freed.

She met my gaze for only a moment, but it was enough to convey an odd mixture of rage and gratitude as she faced her captors.

These ones are mine, her look seemed to say. I nodded and watched with morbid fascination as she approached the man.

“You were supposed to be my friend, you smug bastard!” She yelled at the man that had been feeling her up just moments before. He swung but she easily ducked the blow and used her position inside his guard to land a bone-cracking kick to his groin. He toppled over and she followed him down, slamming her fists and knees into every soft region of his body. He passed out at some point after the third strike, but she didn’t halt in her vengeance. Not wanting to lose the momentum, I bit the inside of my healed cheek and rushed over to pick up my hunting knife.

I had some more people to save.