“Sorry to disappoint you. Not everyone is as dumb as you are. Captain Ely, take that one first.” He pointed to Gage. “I think he’ll break quickly.”
“General Rouk,” Lukas said. His eyes were wide, and he was sweating, but his words came out surprisingly calmly. “None of us knows where Fen is. He didn’t tell us in case…in case this happened. We can’t tell you what we don’t know.”
Rouk nodded. “That sounds reasonable. I think it’s probably even true.” To Ely he said, “Captain, the prisoner please.”
“You believe we don’t know, but you’re going to torture us anyway?” Lukas asked.
“That is true.”
“What kind of monster are you?”
“Monster? I’m not a monster. I’m a soldier, doing his duty. Not asking questions, not causing a fuss. Not getting too big for my place. Simply doing what I’m told, when I’m told, the way I’m told. The way a soldier is supposed to.” His words rose in volume as he spoke, and by the end he was nearly shouting. He stopped and got himself under control. “Do you understand now? The difference between you and me?”
“Yeah,” Noah said, “you’ve got your nose stuffed up the Ichthalids’ asses and we don’t.”
Rouk glanced at him but didn’t respond. “The difference is that I am a real soldier, something you are not. You are only boys playing at being soldiers. None of you should ever have been allowed to join the army.” He picked up a long, sharp knife off a table. “Now we’re going to fix that.”
Gage tried to fight, but Ely took a sap out of his belt and struck him hard on the side of the head, twice. Gage slumped unconscious, only the chains holding him up. He moaned as Ely carried him over and strapped him to one of the tables. Ely took a dipper of water out of a bucket and threw it on his face. Gage blinked and came back to consciousness.
“Are you ready?” Ely asked, taking one of the glowing metal rods out of the fire. The screams started soon after.
Chapter 21
Cowley came slowly out of unconsciousness. He didn’t want to. He wanted to stay down there in the darkness where the pain was far away. He opened his eyes. It wasn’t easy. One of them was crusted shut with dried blood, and the other was swollen so badly he could hardly see out of it. He was hanging in the air, suspended by his arms. He’d been hanging there for what seemed like forever, high enough that he couldn’t reach the floor and take any weight off his shoulders, which hurt terribly. His feet were chained so that he couldn’t kick. He couldn’t do anything but hang there while Ely worked on him.
Ely had started with body punches, “softening you up” as he’d put it. He’d followed with a number of punches to the face, so many Cowley lost count. Still, none of that was so bad. What was worse was when Ely ripped his shirt away and went to work with one of the heated metal rods.
He remembered telling Rouk everything they’d done, the attacks on the ships and on the Devourer. He told Rouk where they met with Fen. He told them things he and Fen did when they were just becoming friends. He said anything and everything he could to make the hurting stop, but none of it did.
At some point he blacked out. Apparently, Ely had moved on to someone else, because there were no new pains being inflicted on him. He could hear someone screaming, but he couldn’t seem to turn his head to see who it was. He wished he cared more, but truthfully all he cared about at that moment was that it wasn’t him.
The screaming stopped. He heard the door open and footsteps crossing the floor.
“My king,” Rouk said. Cowley opened his eyes and saw Lowellin standing there.
“Take a break,” Lowellin said. “Both of you.”
“I have learned the places where they meet with Fen,” Rouk said. “Soldiers have been dispatched to watch them. But I have not yet learned where Fen is hiding out. My apologies, sire.”
“You’ve done well. Now go.” The two men left. Lowellin walked around the room, looking at them. The brothers, Wallice and Eben, were chained to the wall as Cowley was. Both were bleeding in numerous places. Wallice had a large purple bruise on one side of his face. A piece had been cut out of his ear. They gave him baleful looks.
Strout was strapped to the rack. He was bleeding from his chest, and there was a large burn on his neck. Gage was slumped unconscious in one of the cages hanging from the ceiling. Blood dripped from the cage in slow, steady drops. Lukas was strapped over a large barrel, his breath coming in gasps. His back was a bloody nightmare.
Noah looked the worst. He had cuts all over his face and chest and dozens of burn marks. One finger stuck out at a weird angle, broken. The fingernail was missing. His face was a mask of blood.
Lowellin came to stand in front of Cowley. “This has not gone well for you.”
Cowley didn’t manage much beyond a groan. Hopefully it sounded defiant at least.
“I have an offer for you. Accept it, and I will stop this.”
“I can’t,” Cowley said. “I don’t know where Fen is.”
“No, but I’ll bet you could make some guesses. You’re his oldest friend. You know things about him no one else does. For instance, you probably know where he grew up. Rabbits run to familiar holes when they run. Perhaps Fen ran to ground somewhere around there.”
That was something Cowley hadn’t thought about. He did know where Fen had grown up. He’d gone with him that time when he went to speak to the old woman about the strange things that were happening to him. Fen might be somewhere in that area. He immediately wished he wouldn’t have thought of it.
“See?” Lowellin said. “You just had an idea. Share it with me, and the torture will stop.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I assure you I am telling you the truth.”
“I won’t help you capture him.” Cowley licked his lips. The next words were hard to say. “I’d rather die.”
“Capture him? I don’t want to capture him. I want to help him.”
“Bullshit!” Noah yelled, fighting weakly against his chains.
Lowellin’s eyes flicked to him, then back to Cowley. “It’s true.”
“I don’t believe you. You’re a tool of the Ichthalids. You belong to them.”
At his words, a deep rage shone in Lowellin’s eyes. “Appearances can be deceiving,” he hissed. “You may not always know who your true enemies are.”
Cowley was having trouble keeping up. The pain fogged his mind. He fought to clear it. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m saying I want to ally with Fen. Against the Ichthalids.”
Cowley stared at him in disbelief. “You’re lying.”
“But I’m not.”
“Why would you betray the Ichthalids?”
“Let’s say I don’t trust them.”
“I don’t trust you either. You’re trying to trick me into giving up my friend.”
Lowellin leaned in close. “Let me tell you something. You should definitely not trust me. I don’t care about you, about any human. You are less than a bug to me. I’ve lived thousands of years. I’ve seen countless numbers of your species die, and I haven’t cared a single time. But that does not mean we cannot work together when our interests align. This will not be the first time I have worked with humans against a common enemy.”
Cowley hesitated. He badly wanted to believe Lowellin. He wanted the torture to end. But he didn’t want to betray his friend.
“Listen to me,” Lowellin said. “I’m offering you an easy way out. Take it.”
Reluctantly, Cowley shook his head.
“Don’t be a fool. You really have no other choice. If you turn me down, I will tell them to carry on. I assure you that Rouk and his ape will torture you until you are dead. But it doesn’t have to happen like that. You can save yourselves.”
“Don’t take it,” Gage said weakly. “He’s trying to trick you.”
Lowellin looked over at him, then back at Cowley. “If you don’t care about saving yourselves, then what about your friend? If you don’t
take my offer, Fen will surely die before this day is over.”
“I don’t believe that. He’s too strong for you,” Noah said.
“It’s not me you should be worried about. It’s the Ichthalids. He barely survived facing one Ichthalid. How well do you think he will do against all of them?”
“He’s too smart to fight all of them at once,” Cowley said.
Lowellin shook his head. “You still don’t get it, do you? All this,” he gestured at the room, “has more than one purpose. Right now, soldiers are going to every place you have ever met with Fen. They’re going every place he has been known to go to. They’re being very loud about it too. You see, our enemy wants Fen to know you are here being tortured. For him. They want him to know.”
Realization dawned on Cowley. “It’s a trap. You want Fen to try and rescue us, so you can capture him.”
“Now and then your species shows a glimmer of intelligence,” Lowellin said. “But this was not my doing. This was the Ichthalids’ idea. They are hidden away, waiting for him to show himself. Once he does, they will attack. He won’t have a chance.”
Cowley hesitated. His gut told him there was a kernel of truth in what Lowellin was saying, but there was something else here that he couldn’t figure out, some hidden game that Lowellin was playing.
“Even if we wanted to help you, I already told you we don’t know where Fen is. We can’t lead you to him.”
“No, but you know enough about him that if you were set free you might be able to find him.”
“You’ll set us free?” Cowley tried not to lunge at the sudden glimmer of hope Lowellin offered.
“How else will you search for him?”
“And what if we then betray our agreement with you? What if we run and hide with him?”
“You could. But frankly, you’d be stupid to. Fen needs my help. There’s no way he can defeat the Ichthalids by himself. Surely even you have figured this out by now.”
Cowley had to admit that he sounded reasonable.
“Don’t trust him,” Noah said. “He’s lying.”
“I will leave and give you some time to talk to your friends about my offer. Do not take too long. As you know, your friend does not hesitate once he decides to act. He may already be planning his attack on this place.” Lowellin turned and left the room.
As soon as the door closed, Noah said, “You’re not seriously thinking about taking his offer, are you? You know it’s a trap, right?”
“I don’t know what it is,” Cowley said tiredly. “It’s hard to think. I hurt everywhere.”
“I say we take his offer, and once we’re free we jump him,” Noah said.
“Just when I think you can’t be any dumber,” Strout said, “you go and prove me wrong.”
“I’d rather go down fighting than hanging here while Ely cuts me into little pieces,” Noah said.
“I think the part about the trap is true,” Gage said. “We have to warn Fen.”
“We can’t lead Lowellin to Fen,” Noah said. “I don’t believe that he’s suddenly turning on them. It’s too easy. He’s lying.”
“I believe he hates them,” Cowley said. “It was in his voice, in his eyes. He would turn on them if he could.”
“Which doesn’t mean he will,” Noah retorted.
“What do you think, Strout?” Cowley asked.
“I say we take his offer,” Strout said.
“I knew you’d say that!” Noah shouted. “You’re always talking about giving up. You wanted to give up earlier too.”
“Giving up and knowing when to stop fighting because you can’t win are two different things,” Strout snapped. “You’re just not smart enough to tell the difference.”
“You’re a traitor, that’s what you are!”
Strout ignored him. “What other choice do we have?” He rattled his chains. “Stay here and die? Wait for Fen to walk into a trap? What good will that do Fen?”
“I want to take the offer,” Gage said.
“Me too,” Lukas said dully. “I can’t…I can’t take this anymore. I’d rather be dead.”
“Once we’re free, we’ll have options,” Strout said. “We could try to escape. We could try to warn him. At least we’ll be able to try something.”
“Free, we may be able to find a way to fight,” Wallice said. “Here we can do nothing.” His brother nodded in agreement.
“Noah?” Cowley asked. “I want everyone to agree to this.”
Noah scowled. “I still think it’s a trick, but at least if I was free I might be able to do something.”
“We’re agreed then,” Cowley said, trying not to sigh in relief. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Don’t do anything stupid once they unchain you,” Strout said to Noah. “Can you manage that?”
Lowellin came back into the room almost immediately. He was carrying a bundle that he tossed down on a table. Cowley suspected he’d been listening in. “I see you decided to be reasonable,” he said.
“We still don’t trust you,” Noah piped up.
“Nor should you. But trust is not what we need most, is it?” He tapped the chains locked around Cowley’s wrists. The links he touched crumbled instantly to powder. Cowley collapsed to the floor. Gods, but he hurt everywhere. His arms felt like they’d been pulled out of his shoulder sockets. But the burns on his chest and stomach were the worst.
Lowellin touched the bottom of the cage that Gage was held in. It disintegrated, and Gage slid out and landed on the floor. Lowellin walked around the room, freeing them all.
“Thanks, I guess,” Cowley said, struggling to get to his feet.
“I don’t care for your thanks,” Lowellin said. He opened the bundle. It was filled with clothes. “Put these on. Hurry.”
“Clothes?” Noah asked. He limped over to the table and poked at them. “What do we want clothes for?”
“Use your head. If you walk out looking like that, you’re not going to get very far. Use the water in that bucket to clean off some of the blood first.”
“These pants are too short,” Noah complained.
“That’s not possible,” Strout retorted. “Just put them on.” He was already stripping off the tatters of his tunic and tossing it aside.
╬ ╬ ╬
Lowellin was sitting on the front steps of the palace when Maphothet came hurrying up. The sorcerer looked angry. “Where are the prisoners?”
“You know,” Lowellin said. “I think these steps are more comfortable than the throne. I really do.”
“What?” Maphothet said, confused.
“I think I’m going to have that throne burned.”
“Why are you talking about a throne?”
Lowellin shrugged. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t care about the throne. I want to know what happened to the prisoners. Fen’s friends.”
“Oh, them.” Lowellin waved a hand. “I let them go.”
“Why?”
Lowellin looked up, raising an eyebrow. “Are you really questioning me? I’m king, hence the crown, remember?” He tapped his forehead, then frowned when he realized he wasn’t wearing the crown. “What did I do with that thing? I must have left it somewhere. It’s even more uncomfortable than the throne.”
“The Ichthalids will be angry,” Maphothet said.
“They’re always angry.”
“You should not anger them,” the sorcerer said. “You risk much.”
“Maybe. But when you’ve been alive for as long as I have, you need to take some risks now and then. It keeps things interesting. Let me tell you something, Maphothet. Boredom is the number one enemy of immortality. Remember that.”
“You will regret playing the fool.”
“Who says I’m playing? Look, here comes S’nash now.” Lowellin waved at him.
“Why did you let the prisoners go?” S’nash demanded. He stood over Lowellin with his fists on his hips.
Lowellin looked calmly up at him. “I convinced th
em I was helping them, knowing that once they were free they would lead me to Fen.”
S’nash barked a harsh laugh. “Why would they believe that?”
“I persuaded them that I was betraying you before you could betray me.”
“And it worked?”
“They were desperate to believe.”
“Where are they now?”
“Somewhere down in the city.”
“You better not have lost them.”
“I didn’t. You can trust me.”
“I do not. That is the problem.” S’nash clamped one big hand on Lowellin’s shoulder and lifted him to his feet. “What game are you playing?”
“No game. I have been loyal. I have done everything you demanded of me. And more, I might add.” He looked into S’nash’s eyes. “I can see you’re still angry. Is this the part where you torture me again?”
“You will go too far one day, Shaper.”
“Once I dispose of Fen, you’ll be sorry you didn’t trust me.”
“I doubt that.”
“By the end of the day, I’ll have him. You can count on that.”
Chapter 22
Fen woke up in the morning feeling like he hadn’t slept at all. His brain felt foggy, his limbs leaden. When he sat up, there was a cracking sound, and a chunk of stone flaked off his side where the Ichthalid had injured him. He looked at the wound. The flesh around the stone was still angry and red, but it didn’t seem to be spreading. He tapped on the stone. It seemed as thick as ever. He wondered if there was any chance of reversing what was happening to him.
He was hungry, and there was no food in the temple. He dressed and slipped out the back way, making his way down the ravine and climbing up onto the footbridge. He went to a different food market than he’d gone to last time. He wanted to make sure he didn’t go to the same places often enough that he drew attention.
It was a gray day. Rain drizzled down steadily from a featureless sky. The day perfectly suited Fen’s mood. He felt hopeless and helpless. It was ironic. He had so much power, and yet it did him no good against the enemy that really counted. He couldn’t defeat a single Ichthalid even when he ambushed him. What could he possibly do against three of them? Not to mention Lowellin and the sorcerers. Maybe he should change tactics, try to get his hands on one of the pieces of the key and see if he could destroy it. Then at least they wouldn’t be able to free the queen.
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