Needle Rain

by Cari Silverwood

  “I want the members of this theater troupe and these two to remain here! The rest of you may go.” Hilas Frope waved his hand vaguely. “And do whatever it is you do. Lieutenant! See that they’re orderly.”

  “Yes sir!”

  Though Frope said nothing more, several of his horse soldiers edged their mounts in until they formed a smaller circle separating the cast from the audience.

  Ellinca did not dare to speak out loud to anyone but Pascolli signed to her. “I won’t let him do anything.”

  Her heartbeat accelerated. Kurt, Beth’s partner in the troupe, glared so hotly at the Finder’s feet, she wouldn’t have been surprised to see them smoke.

  Hilas Frope reached up and unhooked a wicker chair from the stage’s ceiling. Stage props were stored up there, hidden behind the curtain. He settled into the chair.

  Someone from the audience yelled they wanted to stay and watch while another splayed his fingers like a fan before his eyes and spat – warding off evil.

  “We ought to know what’s happenin’ in our own town,” a woman mumbled to her neighbor. “Gods, how about that crater across from Hull. Nuthin left is there?”

  “Yeah,” her neighbor agreed. “Mages! Curse the lot of them!”

  The soldiers rounded up the townspeople and traders efficiently and sent them down the road leading back into the town of Strickly. There wasn’t far to go. No one would see the shows if they set up too far afield.

  Ellinca stared down the road. She tried to stand still and not suck on her lip. It wouldn’t do to look nervous.

  Frope’s lieutenant, a man with a nose like a parrot’s beak, pushed through to salute Frope. “All done, sir!”

  “Thank you.”

  The lieutenant stood to one side, facing them. He folded his arms. A smug sneer put his lips askew.

  Ellinca shivered. The lizard, after sitting huddled in a lump on her shoulder through the upheaval, stirred. A faint, regular clicking reached her ears. She looked out the corner of her eye. Its scaly hide had minute lines, like seams in material. The eyes were lustrous, reminding her of glass baubles, but it moved. It thought.

  She put a finger up to touch the creature’s hide.

  The little lizard sank its bright needle teeth into her finger tip. She clenched her own teeth, hissing in pain through them and jiggling her finger to make it let go. The lizard opened his mouth and licked away a droplet of blood.

  It had a tongue. Even as she feared that it savored her blood and filtered it for signs of wild magience, she marveled at its possession of a working tongue. What a marvelous trinketton.

  Finder Frope took off his spectacles.

  She gasped. The thick metal bridge of the spectacles had hidden a crater in his forehead. Though the circumference crawled with blue fire, the middle of the coin-sized crater was red. Not flesh, Ellinca realized with amazed horror, not blood. She knew that color well. She glanced behind him. It was the stage’s backdrop. The hole went straight through his head and out again.

  No one said a word.

  “Ahh. Have I shocked you?” He gestured broadly at them all. “When I was barely nine years old I saw a mage caught by the Imperator’s guards. One of the guards was killed by him, while I, sadly, was hit here...” Gently, he touched the hole. “Now, if an arrow lodges here. It kills. For a time I wished I had been...killed, that is. Instead...instead I have a hole drilled between the two halves of my brain! And I always, always have a headache!”

  He chuckled then whipped his head around and focused on Ellinca. “You can see why I don’t like mages. Can’t you, dear?”

  A faint buzzing came from the blue fire crawling around the crater.

  Though she was sure he didn’t really need an answer, Ellinca nodded. Her lip trembled.

  Frope’s leg swung like a pendulum where he’d propped it on the arm of the chair. He slumped in the seat, lapsing into silence.

  The lizard licked its lips. Normal blood-scryers changed color. The lantern light was all yellowish and wavering. She couldn’t tell at all if the lizard had changed.

  Pascolli made a harsh, guttural sound.

  “Are you speaking or dying, young man? Whatever, it is verging on disrespect.”

  “Pascolli can’t talk, sir,” she blurted. “There’s something wrong with his throat. He hasn’t spoken for many years.” She watched nervously as Pascolli signed his words. “He says that I am innocent. I’m not a mage.”

  “Hmm.” Frope clicked his tongue. With a whir of its wings the lizard launched and flew to his hand. He promptly tucked it into the canister.

  “If you’re not a mage, why did Aristopheles single you out?”

  “I don’t know. He made a mistake.” She frowned, knowing she sounded unconvincing. No mention of the man Pascolli had punched earlier. He didn’t know. Or was he merely torturing her, knowing there was an accuser?

  To her surprise, Kurt interjected, “Maybe it’s because every cursed creature for miles around finds her! Now will you please stop wasting my time and ruining our reputation as good citizens of the empire. I will appeal this to a legislator if I have to!”

  Oh, no.

  The lieutenant tensed and placed a hand on his sword.

  Finder Frope merely half-closed his eyes and turned his glasses in his hands. Dark smudges underlined his eyes.

  When had he last slept?

  “Animals find you... That is not much of an excuse. Aristopheles is not really an animal. Still, he is supposed to attack...viciously. Not land on your shoulder and go to sleep.” He yawned, put on his spectacles and stood. “I do believe that you don’t think you are a mage.”

  Ellinca frowned. Did that mean what she thought it did? Or did he simply like confusing people? Hilas Frope was himself a puzzle.

  A soldier handed the Finder his horse’s reins. “I have a bludvoik to catch, but I am curious about why animals have taken a liking to you. Seems odd to me. Lieutenant!” Frope swung into the saddle.

  “Sir?”

  “That fellow with the tuskdog you caught wandering about. He said he wanted her to have a look at it? Take her to the animal and observe what happens. That scum-sucking court photographer can go with you. Give him something to do instead of buzzing about the encampment like a globfly.”

  He glanced at Ellinca again. She tried to act unconcerned and stop trembling but it only made him pay her more attention. “Let her take a friend, that Pascolli boy. We are not in the habit of scaring girls to death. And, Lieutenant, show me you deserve that promotion.”

  I’m not going to thank you. In fact she felt like kicking Frope’s shins. He had already scared her half to death.

  The lieutenant hesitated. “Sir? Uh...” A cold smile spread across his lips, as if a pleasant thought had occurred to him. He completed a very snappy salute. “Yes, sir! Take her to the animal and observe!”

  About Cari Silverwood

  I love to hear from my readers.

  If you enjoyed Needle Rain, please consider leaving a review on your favorite retailer or website.

  Cari Silverwood is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling writer of kinky darkness or sometimes of dark kinkiness, (and sometimes fantasy, such as this book) depending on her moods and the amount of time she’s spent staring into the night. She’s yet to write a book on knitting or cooking but macabre death scenes are a specialty.

  If you’d like to learn more go to www.carisilverwood.net

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  Pierced Hearts Discussion Group

  Also by Cari Silverwood

  If you’re primarily a reader of fantasy and not erotic fiction, bear in mind the only stories below that are not kinky (BDSM) and erotic are the magience-based books. In particular, the Dark Hearts and Pierced Hearts books are written to be very dark and very disturbing.

  Wr
itten in the Magience world

  Magience (under the pen name Cari Silver)

  Needle Rain

  Preyfinders Series

  (Erotic scifi)

  Precious Sacrifice (Originally published in the anthology, Kept)

  Intimidator

  Defiler

  Preyfinders – The Trilogy

  Preyfinders Universe

  Cyberella

  The Badass Brats Series

  The Dom with a Safeword

  The Dom on the Naughty List

  The Dom with the Perfect Brats

  The Dom with the Clever Tongue

  Squirm Files Series

  Squirm – virgin captive of the billionaire biker tentacle monster

  Strum – virgin captive of the billionaire demon rock star monster

  The Well-hung Gun – virgin captive of the billionaire were-squid gunslinger monster

  Cataclysm Blues Series

  Cataclysm Blues

  (A free erotic scifi novella)

  The Steamwork Chronicles Series

  Iron Dominance

  Lust Plague

  Steel Dominance

  Dark Hearts Series

  (Dark erotic fiction)

  Wicked Ways

  Wicked Weapon

  Wicked Hunt

  Pierced Hearts Series

  (Dark erotic fiction)

  Take me, Break me

  Klaus – a novella

  Bind and Keep me

  Make me Yours Evermore

  Seize me From Darkness

  Yield

  Pierced Hearts Volume 1 – contains books #1, #2 and #3

  Pierced Hearts Volume 2 – contains books #2 and #3

  Pierced Hearts Volume 3 – contains books #4 and #5

  Others

  31 Flavors of Kink

  Three Days of Dominance

  Rough Surrender

  (Released by Momentum, an eBook branch of Pan Macmillan)

  Blood Glyphs

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & COPYRIGHT

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

  To Emma and Carly, my stalwart readers, and also to Scribe Scarlett. Thank you for beta reading this book. It was a labour of love many years ago and it’s fantastic that I can finally see it out there and published.

  COPYRIGHT

  Copyright 2016 © Cari Silverwood

  www.carisilverwood.net

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book only. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials.

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.