Empire Builder 2

by Dante King

  Some of these images showed the same kinds of torture promised on the great doors. There were iron maidens, fire, racks and other such devices. Others promised variants of torture he had not seen before. There were some images Ben could not even understand, evidently unique to this world.

  Ben felt queasy looking at these images. Would he have to administer such tortures himself? Of course, he could simply give the task to Sir Gallant the Elder and walk away, but he didn’t feel that it would be right commanding his followers to do something he wasn’t prepared to do himself.

  Didn’t torture count as a war crime? Could the Xurian Realm hold this against him?

  Ben had tried describing the Geneva Conventions to Melody. She had laughed about the strange customs of his world, and the irony of the Forgotten Ruler being reincarnated there. She’d assured him that he didn’t need to worry about any such laws here.

  Perhaps displaying all these torture devices would be enough to loosen Uzax’s tongue. Ben wasn’t above a little deception to get some answers.

  “Nipper, wait outside,” Ben said. “What happens in here will not be a sight for one as young as you.”

  Nipper whined, but sat faithfully in the doorway.

  Ben strode into the round chamber, trying his best not to betray his own misgivings. Sir Gallant the Elder dragged the prisoner in after them. At a touch from Ben, the great doors swung shut with a dull boom.

  The sullen light of red crystals glowed in the Pyromancer’s crazed eyes. Ben turned to look at him.

  “Sir Gallant, remove the gag, if you would.” It was time to begin questioning.

  The large knight untied the gag from Uzax’s mouth. He kept a firm grip on the mage’s shoulders, but Ben wasn’t worried about him going anywhere or trying to hurt them. He still had a null lock on and he was trapped in a sealed room.

  As soon as the rope was torn away from Uzax’s bleeding lips, he spat at Ben. Again, Ben summoned fire and incinerated the gob of spit.

  He brought the fire close to Uzax’s face. “Does this frighten you?”

  The mage didn’t so much as flinch.

  “We’ll see if I can find out what does frighten you.” Ben straightened again. “I don’t want to force you to answer my questions, but I will if I have to.”

  Uzax smirked.

  “You think I can’t do anything to hurt you?” Ben demanded. “I’m not yet sure what I’m going to do with you, but I have options.” He waved a hand behind him, gesturing at the many closed doors.

  Uzax thrashed again and tried to lunge at Ben’s face, his teeth bared, but he didn’t have the strength to break free of Sir Gallant’s grip.

  Ben slapped Uzax’s cheek hard. The smack resounded in the empty chamber.

  “It will only get worse for you if you don’t cooperate,” Ben threatened. “Towers like this one have appeared in the south. What do you know of them?”

  Uzax stared at him defiantly, his lips closed tightly.

  “Who summoned the new towers?” Ben demanded again.

  Uzax laughed. “Frightened, are we?”

  “What do you know?” Ben shouted in the man’s face. He almost felt like hitting the mage somewhere it would really hurt.

  He took a step back and shook his head. The mage was getting to him, and he needed to keep his cool. He couldn’t give in to such emotions.

  Ben looked at the mage’s bloodshot eyes, which darted furtively back and forth. He didn’t know Uzax well enough to judge his expression, but he could have sworn it was fear, as much as the mage was trying to conceal it.

  Perhaps Uzax really didn’t know anything about the towers. Lexi had seemed to suggest he did know something, but maybe she just wanted revenge on the Pyromancer, who had allegedly committed so much evil.

  Had he misjudged the man?

  He caught himself with a start. This line of thinking was very much that of the modern man of Earth talking. Not that of Benzhameen, the Forgotten Ruler.

  Ben remembered how Uzax had incinerated his own foot soldiers through his carelessness in battle. He remembered how the mage had treated Lexi and his own women with such disdain, and the pleasure with which he’d spoken of hunting children in the woods.

  There was no need for due process at this point. This man had forfeited all such rights after everything he’d done.

  With a sigh, Ben took a steady stance and summoned his mana. “I have other ways of making you talk.”

  Mana flooded his body. Ben looked at Uzax’s hands in front of him. This would hurt without doing the sort of damage that would stop the man from talking.

  Ben’s hands were steady as he activated Drain and focused on the physical energy in Uzax’s body. Remembering what had happened to other victims of Drain when he had taken more energy than they had to give, he directed the spell exclusively at Uzax’s hand.

  The physical energy flowed into Ben’s body, giving him a rush of vitality. The amount of energy in Uzax’s hand diminished, until there was none left. The mage’s wrist and fingers went limp as they lost their strength.

  The smug look on Uzax’s face was gone. His mouth opened in horror as he tried to move his hand.

  Ben kept on draining, pulling energy away where there was none to give. The skin of the mage’s hand started to blacken. The flesh around the fingers shriveled, and the skin wrinkled. The hand started to wither, revealing the outline of bones in a bag of skin.

  “Stop!” Uzax cried. “What are you doing to me?”

  “Will you talk?” Ben asked.

  The mage clamped his mouth shut and shook his head.

  Ben drained more energy from the man’s hand.

  Uzax’s mouth opened against his will. He let out a scream of pain. Hate blazed in his red eyes. His vocal cords rasped out a cry of rage and fear.

  Ben kept on draining. The very bones of Uzax’s hand and wrist began to droop like rubber.

  The man screamed without end now, but Ben remembered what Melody had taught him about blocking out distractions while he was refining mana. He allowed his thoughts to retreat to a place where they were uninterrupted.

  The sound of screams died away in his mind, until they were little more than white noise, like the whirr of the AC during sleep. The physical energy he was receiving rejuvenated him, making him stand up straighter and feel a spring in his stance. Even the sound of Uzax’s screaming calmed him and made him feel more relaxed.

  Ben stopped his spell, startled. The screams of a tortured man were soothing him? He reminded himself of who this man was. Uzax deserved it. All the same, Ben didn’t want to descend into dispensing that sort of justice. He didn’t have any way of holding himself back if he did.

  Uzax’s screams finally stopped, and the man shut his mouth.

  “Now are you ready to talk?” Ben asked.

  The mage’s red eyes twitched.

  “I can heal your hand and drain it all over again,” Ben warned.

  Uzax whimpered and twitched his head. Ben hoped that was a nod.

  “What do you know about the other towers?” Ben asked.

  Uzax opened his mouth and croaked, but no audible words came out.

  “Sire,” Sir Gallant spoke up. “Perhaps he needs water.”

  “He’s probably screamed himself hoarse,” Ben said. “He can have water later. I want him to talk first.”

  He cast Healing Touch, focusing the spell on Uzax’s throat, so he would be able to talk again.

  “Tell me what you know,” he repeated.

  “I’m only a hunter, no one important. I know nothing about the towers,” Uzax said. But this time his voice wasn’t defiant.

  Ben crossed his arms, hardly satisfied with this answer. The mage shrank back against Sir Gallant’s greaves.

  “I swear, I don’t know how someone would have built those towers,” Uzax said. “I thought yours was the only one.”

  “Lexi seemed to think you would know something,” Ben said.

  Uzax’s face screwed up at the mention
of the hawkwoman, but then he seemed to remember his condition. “I…I did hear things when I was in the capital,” he said.

  “What kind of things?”

  “I heard whispers of expeditions being made to the north,” Uzax said. “People were being sent to retrieve things. Rumor was they were just magical relics.”

  “Relics?” Ben echoed.

  “I don’t know, maybe they were for a museum, or for extracting energy. There was an awful lot of fuss around it, that’s all I know.”

  A museum? Hardly likely. This sounded like confirmation of Ben’s suspicions that the Xurian Realm were behind the new towers. If they’d managed to activate his relics, it could mean they would be able to access all his old powers.

  It could mean they would be able to resurrect his old masters and use them for their own ends, take his spells for their mages, control his dungeons, and more. Ben needed to get much stronger and strike before they could do too much damage.

  “Where were they getting the relics from?” Ben asked. “How were they being transported? What else do you know?”

  “That’s all I know,” Uzax whined. “I swear it.”

  “Your oaths are worthless to me,” Ben spat.

  “I know they had an outpost, a few hours south of here,” the mage said. He brought his hands toward each other. It looked like he was trying to put them together in supplication, but the left one hung limp.

  “What about this outpost?”

  “They gathered the relics there, or so I heard. They have supplies there.”

  Ben wondered about this. A few hours wasn’t far, so this might be useful information.

  “Do they have null locks there?” he asked. The null locks he’d acquired after freeing the nymphs had been essential to defeating Adremor, Uzax, and Lexi. Had it not been for those enchanted shackles that nullified their magical ability, Ben would likely have lost his life, this tower, and everyone inside it.

  “Of course, they would.” Uzax nearly looked disdainful at such an obvious question, but he cringed backward as he remembered where he was and with whom he was speaking. “They probably have all sorts of treasure there too, and slaves if you need them.”

  Ben suspected the mage was now just making things up to get more lenient treatment, but it would still be worth seeing if this report was true. He would no doubt be facing more mages soon, and he needed those null locks to disarm and drain them.

  “Where do I find this outpost?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Uzax said. “Follow one of the old roads, it’s probably along there.”

  “You’d better be right, for your own sake,” Ben warned. “No one is coming to rescue you. It will fare much worse for you if you’ve lied to me.”

  “If you really are the Forgotten Ruler, the Realm won’t stop until you are defeated.” A sullen fire remained in the Pyromancer’s eyes in spite of everything.

  “You think you’d like that?” Ben asked. “They’ll never be able to get to you in these dungeons. You’ll starve to death.”

  The mage continued to glare at him. He was already starving himself. There wasn’t much more Ben could do to threaten him.

  “Take him away,” he said to Sir Gallant. “I’ll see if he’s feeding me lies or not.”

  “What about my hand?” Uzax whined. “I told you everything I know.”

  Ben didn’t believe that for a second, but he held out a hand to activate Healing Touch, then paused. The withered hand wasn’t going to kill the mage.

  He clenched his fist shut. “You can keep that as a reminder of what will happen if you’ve lied.”

  “You bastard! You choose to ally yourself with the scum of the world, but you will get what’s coming to you! The Realm is far stronger than you. The Grand Vizier will not stand for what you’ve done to his mages.”

  Uzax screamed and tried to spit at Ben again, but Sir Gallant hauled him off. The doors opened, and they departed down the hall, Uzax’s cursing gradually fading into the distance.

  Nipper trotted in. Ben scratched the big cat under the chin and turned to leave, casting a final glance at the other doors, none of which he had yet opened.

  A shudder went through him as his mind swam with images of what he’d just had to do. It had all been necessary, and in Uzax’s case, deserved, but it still left him feeling unsettled. Still, he doubted it would be the last time he’d have to do such a thing. If it was necessary to protect his new family and his empire, he would do what he had to.

  Chapter 4

  A knot of apprehension twisted in Ben’s stomach as the elevator returned him to the crown of his tower, Nipper sitting by his side. The elevator rumbled quietly as it rose, the air otherwise silent. What would the women think about what he’d done to Uzax in the dungeons?

  It seemed like they were more comfortable with ruthless justice than he was, but he still didn’t feel totally at ease with the decision he’d made. The more Ben thought about it, the more he was convinced that he’d done the right thing, but his instincts were taking a while to catch up with that.

  He reminded himself he’d done what he needed to do. Uzax had proven himself to be uncooperative. Torture, after all, was nothing more than a method of obtaining information. If Uzax didn’t want to be tortured, he could’ve simply told Ben what he wanted to know.

  And more than that, Uzax was ruthless and bloodthirsty. Ben only needed to recall what the mage had done to his own men, seeing them as little more than collateral damage because of his carelessness. Moreover, Ben didn’t need to guess whether Uzax would torture him if the roles were reversed.

  Ben knew he had to develop a stomach for this kind of business. Taking back his empire wouldn’t be pretty, after all.

  He stepped out of the elevator on the first floor of the crown, where his master suite was. The women were likely in the bedroom with the eggs. They seemed to spend a lot of time there.

  He felt a heaviness inside as he contemplated telling them what he had done in the dungeons below. But his mind was made up now. He would not have these women staying with him by means of a lie. He had made the right decision. It was up to him now to tell the truth and own up to it. Ben decided that if he would have to go to ruthless ends to get what he wanted, he wouldn’t shy away from it with lies.

  When he entered the master suite alongside Nipper, the women were all doting over the neat collection of eggs at the far end of the room. Nipper trotted over to the women and stood by Pearl, who was beside her mother. Melody noticed Nipper’s arrival and turned to see Ben.

  Her smile lit up the room with the brightness of the sun as she locked eyes with him.

  “You’ve returned,” she said.

  The nymphs turned to face him as well.

  “Good timing,” said Lulu. “We were just discussing which eggs were going to hatch first.”

  Ben smiled. “And not for the first time.”

  Lulu squared her shoulders triumphantly. “My egg will be first,” she declared. “It was born first.”

  “That’s not true,” Vinata exclaimed. “Mine was first.”

  “If I recall correctly,” Ben interrupted. “We saw both eggs at the same time.”

  Both nymphs looked a little puzzled.

  “Which one will be first then?” Lulu asked.

  “They’ll hatch when they’re ready,” Ben assured them.

  “How did you go in the dungeons, Ben?” Melody asked, deftly changing the subject before it could get too heated.

  “Did you succeed in ‘rescuing’ him?” Lulu said with a wink.

  “I took care of all that,” Ben said. “Sir Gallant the Younger won’t be torturing the prisoners anymore.”

  “And who will be?” Melody asked, a small smile blossoming on her lips.

  Ben knew this was the moment to be straightforward, to be truthful and stand by his decision. Whatever hesitancy he’d felt about telling the women what had happened had disappeared. Only confidence in what he’d done remained.

&n
bsp; “I was able to extract some information from the mage,” Ben said, putting off the topic for now.

  “You mean you tortured him?” Lulu clapped her hands in excitement.

  He took the chance to speak plainly.

  “I used Drain to make him talk,” Ben said.

  Melody’s bright purple eyes flashed with understanding. She moved to Ben’s side and put a hand on his arm. “You are troubled, I can see that. This is not something you had to do in your world.”

  Ben looked into her eyes, unflinching. “I know what I did was right. I just don’t want any of you to see me as a monster.”

  Melody’s eyes showed surprise.

  “Well, not the bad kind of monster,” Ben corrected himself with a smile.

  “What you did today was brave,” Melody said, with admiration in her eyes. She leaned in and embraced him. “I know that back on your world, things are…different. You’ve come into our world so quickly that you haven’t had time to adjust to how common violence is. But you’ll grow used to it, in time.”

  Ben was surprised at first. But he quickly realized that it made perfect sense that Melody and the others would be understanding – things were different in their world. If anything was unusual, it was that Ben would be so uncomfortable with something like torture.

  “Well, go on,” Lulu interrupted impatiently. “Tell us all the details.”

  Ben breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to stand next to the nymphs. It was reassuring beyond words to have such confirmation of his rulership. And it was more than a little darkly humorous to him how eager the women were to hear about it.

  “Uzax was very stubborn,” Ben said. “So I used Drain to make his hand wither. That got him talking.”

  Ben didn’t feel like describing his first foray into interrogation in more detail than that. It didn’t seem like the sort of act one should brag about.

  But Lulu drank in every word. “You’ve learned how to use your spells very quickly. And it’s more than impressive how you were able to direct Drain at such a specific part of his body.”