The Isle of Torment

by Andrew Hunter

  She crossed the room to the bed and reached down to lift the edge of the dusty blanket. A large black bug scurried across the rumpled, yellow sheets beneath.

  She yanked the blanket off, shaking the outer coating of filth from it and coughing at the roiling cloud of dust. She held it up to the light, counting the holes in it before wrapping it around her naked body and sitting on the edge of the bed.

  The bed frame cracked, and she collapsed in the wreckage of it. She lay on her back, staring up at the colony of spiders that had constructed a veritable city of webs on the ceiling above.

  The door ground open once again, and Tanys leapt to her feet. She cried out with fear at the sight of the thing standing in the doorway. What had once been a comely young man carried a tray of food into the room. He wore only a filmy loincloth that did nothing to conceal his bulging manhood beneath. Where his face had been, though, only a featureless mask of raw, pink flesh was stretched across his hairless skull. Two small, wet holes in the flesh served as his eye and mouth. The little and middle fingers of each hand had been removed at the knuckle, leaving him a three-fingered grip to hold the heavy silver platter.

  Tanys clapped her hand over her mouth and watched as the boy crossed the room and set the platter on the table. The boy's breath rasped through the single hole that served as his mouth. He turned and bowed toward Tanys, his head lowered. Tanys could neither move nor speak, but watched in horror as the disfigured young man turned and walked from the room. The stone door rolled closed behind him.

  "Gods! What is this place?" Tanys gasped.

  After a long while, her hunger drove her to investigate the tray that the mutilated boy had brought. She drank the bowl of thick soup, hardly pausing for breath, and followed it with the small urn of chilled wine. The third vessel was a white ceramic bowl, containing a measure of steaming water and a washcloth.

  Tanys let the tattered blanket drop from her shoulders and savored the sensation of warm water on her body as she washed herself. The white cloth turned pink from the dried flecks of blood that were the only trace of the ants' jaws upon her skin.

  She had her foot propped against the table, scrubbing the back of her thigh when the door rolled open again. She almost shut her eyes, too afraid to see the faceless boy again, or perhaps some greater horror, but she looked anyway. She dropped the washcloth and cried out.

  "Naietta!" Tanys gasped. She rushed to embrace her friend who stood in the doorway, holding a bundle of white silk in her arms. Naietta wore a dress of plain linen, open at the front to show the full curves of her cleavage, laced with the pale lacework of old scars.

  Naietta did not return Tanys's embrace. The girl simply stared straight ahead, her eyes unfocused.

  "Naietta, what's wrong? It's me!" Tanys said, grasping the girl's shoulders and shaking her gently.

  Naietta turned her face to look at her, uncomprehending.

  Tanys ran her hand up the nape of Naietta's neck, feeling only the delicate hairs where she feared she might find one of Vecca's worms.

  "Are you drugged?" Tanys asked, "Where's Jorva?"

  Naietta's lips moved, as though she had forgotten she had no tongue. Only a soft moan came out. The girl lifted the bundle of silk, offering it to Tanys.

  Tanys stepped back, taking the silk. At least Naietta was alive. Perhaps the others were as well. She shook out the bundle that Naietta had given her, finding it to be a white dress.

  Tanys sighed, giving Naietta a rueful smile. "Well, I'm glad you're all right... well, better than I'd feared. It's good to see you again."

  A hint of a smile flickered on Naietta's lips, then a look of confusion furrowed her brow, followed by a blissful emptiness.

  Tanys slipped the dress over her head and tugged the snug-fitting silk down to its full length, just above her knees.

  Naietta made another noise, and Tanys looked up to see the girl beckoning for her to follow. She did at once, walking with her into the outer hall.

  "Naietta," Tanys said, "Can you remember anything? Do you know where Jorva is?"

  Harsh laughter sounded from a shadowy alcove to the left of her chamber door. Tanys looked to see a handsome, long-haired ghast, dressed in worn leathers, step into the purple light. Unlike the other ghasts, he had a slightly bronze tint to his otherwise pale hair and complexion. A curved-bladed axe hung at his belt.

  "You won't get anything out of her," he said, "The apothecaries have been brewing her drinks."

  "Will she recover?" Tanys demanded.

  The man shrugged. "I don't know much about their poisons," he said, "and, anyway, its usually better that those like her don't know what's happening to them."

  Naietta continued to walk, and Tanys followed her. The man fell into step slightly behind.

  "Who are you?" Tanys asked.

  "Name's Brynn," he said, "I'm in charge of the animals here. Until you prove otherwise, that includes you."

  Tanys stopped and turned to face him. "Have you seen a tiger?" she demanded.

  "Big, gray, mountain tiger?" he asked, grinning.

  "His name's Ghodn," she said, "is he alive?"

  "Oh yeah," the man laughed, "took half the face off o' one of my handlers 'fore I cowed him down."

  "You did what?" Tanys hissed, her fingers balling into fists.

  "Relax, girl," he said, "Tiger's fine. I just haven't let him come all the way up again." He pointed at Naietta who was still moving down the hall. "Better keep up."

  Tanys followed after the sleepwalking girl, her skin hot with rage as she imagined Ghodn caged and at the mercy of these beasts.

  "Your cat is in close to the same state as that girl up there," the man said, "Difference is, he's in my care, and I don't play rough with my pets. I'll make you a deal. If you survive whatever Master Vriene has planned for you tonight, I'll bring you up to the caverns tomorrow, and we can see about waking that cat of yours up. I think Vriene means for me to train you. Of course he might just be playing around and intends to kill you anyway. I just hope he's not wasting my time."

  "Thanks," Tanys said flatly.

  "Anyway, I just wanted to see what he was saddling me with," Brynn said.

  Tanys felt a swat on her rump. She spun, glaring at Brynn.

  He raised his eyebrows, letting his gaze rove over her body. "I may not mind this job quite so much," he laughed.

  Tanys restrained her desire to land a fist on his smug lips. She hurried after Naietta who was just disappearing around a bend in the hallway ahead. Brynn did not follow.

  Naietta entered a circular chamber with no other exits, lit by a single glowing amethyst set in the stone ceiling. She stepped onto a polished obsidian disk in the center of the floor, waiting for Tanys to join her. As soon as Tanys's bare foot touched the cool, glassy stone, the disk started to lower into the floor. Tanys hopped on and leaned close to her somnambulant friend as the platform sank into another circular chamber beneath the floor.

  A chill draft raised the tiny hairs on Tanys's skin as the obsidian disk settled into the floor of the lower chamber. Two flickering red lamps hung on either side of the door of this chamber. Naietta stepped out of the shaft of purple light that shone through the hole above and walked toward to the shadowy hall beyond the red room. Tanys followed behind.

  A long, curving tunnel led from the room. Tall, iron doors lined the hall closely on either side. Small, barred viewports in each door showed only darkness behind the doors. As they walked, Naietta passed a door from which a red light flickered within. Tanys paused to look inside as she passed and recoiled in horror. Something lay on the stained floor of the small cell behind the door. A hewn lump of flesh twisted and struggled to lift a mangled stump that might have once been an arm or leg.

  Tanys shut her eyes and swallowed back the soup that burned her throat as it tried to come up again. She thought she heard the sound of singing for a moment, a woman's voice in wordless, mournful tune that trailed away into silence.

  Naietta stopped at last before
a door unlike the others. A great pair of iron doors, cast in the shapes of leering demonic faces, stood before them. Naietta only stood, silently waiting.

  The iron doors parted, letting bright, pinkish light spill into the dark hallway, and with it the overwhelming smell of incense. Tanys squinted as her eyes adjusted to the room within.

  Master Vriene, clad in a shimmering white robe, sat in a high-backed chair behind a table at the far wall. Between him and the door, lay a sunken pit of scorched black flagstones with a stained disk of white stone at its center. Around the edge of the circular pit, at a slightly lower level than Vriene's, long tables with chairs were arrayed on either side. They stood empty, save for one. To Vriene's right hand, a young woman with golden blonde hair and large, haunted eyes sat, showing no interest in the food laid out before her on the table.

  Tanys at first thought that she had never seen anyone as beautiful as the strange, waifish girl. Then she realized she had seen her before. The doe-eyed girl was the Zhadeen noblewoman from the Gannet. When she saw Tanys, recognition flashed in her jade-green eyes, replaced instantly by fear as she looked back at Vriene.

  "Come in," the ghast sorcerer said, lifting his hand to indicate the empty chair to his left, "please join us for dinner."

  Tanys bowed slightly and walked around the table to sit at the place indicated. The iron doors closed, and Naietta was gone.

  Vriene studied her critically. "The dress fits well enough," he sighed, "but your hair is a mess."

  "My apologies," Tanys said, inclining her head, "I will tend to it when I have a chance."

  Vriene frowned. "Perhaps we should just have it all shaved off," he said.

  Tanys's cheeks flushed with anger, and she caught sight of the Zhadeen girl recoiling visibly at the suggestion.

  Vriene laughed, a high musical laugh. "Just one of my little jokes," he said. He clapped his hands together and a servant appeared from behind a nearby black curtain. The serving girl carried a platter of food and drink and had long, brown hair that spilled down on either side of the flayed ruin of her face.

  Tanys looked away, as the faceless girl set a plate of sliced meat on the table before her and a cup of wine. Across the pit, the Zhadeen girl whimpered and shook her head from side to side, her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

  Tanys glared up at Vriene who was watching her with an amused smirk.

  "Why do you take their faces off?" Tanys hissed.

  Vriene shrugged. "Why do fish swim?" he asked.

  As the serving girl stepped away, Tanys turned to look at the iron double doors that had just opened again. Vecca stood, framed by the doorway, a look of hollow resignation on her weary face. She wore only a long shirt of rough brown fabric, her long silver hair draped across one shoulder. She was trembling. Here she was Daima no longer.

  "You're late," Master Vriene said.

  Vecca's eyes tightened, but she dared not argue.

  "Well, come in!" Vriene said, "You're letting out all the warmth, and the princess is likely to catch a chill."

  Tanys saw the Zhadeen girl lower her eyes and blush.

  Vecca walked to the center of the room, standing in the shallow pit before the tables.

  "Do you have anything to say for yourself before we begin?" Vriene asked.

  Vecca bit her lip, and then lowered her head. "Thank you for not inviting the others," she whispered.

  Vriene smiled. "I didn't think we needed to make this a public spectacle," he said, "You already regret defying me, I know. We might as well settle this quietly... well, I suppose that depends on how much you choose to scream." Vriene laughed.

  Vecca lifted her face, showing no emotion. "What do you want me to do?" she asked.

  Vriene shrugged, waving one hand languidly. "Try to see this as an opportunity to test your limits... cherish the experience... and whatever you do, don't step outside of the circle."

  Vecca's white hair whipped up around her head as though caught in a gust of wind, and violet flames roared suddenly from the floor of the pit. Tanys and the Zhadeen girl started as the flames arced into a yard-wide circle around the spot where Vecca stood.

  Tanys looked to see Vriene standing at the head of the table, a look of concentration on his face. His lips moved softly over silent words as he held his black cane at arm's length. The jewel at the tip of his cane flared with a fiery red glow, and a second circle of flame leapt up around the outer circumference of the pit. Tanys drew back from the heat of the golden flames that formed the outer ring before they subsided to a low, flickering wall around the pit.

  At the center of the inner circle, Vecca stood, stiff as a rod, her eyes pressed tightly shut.

  Vriene brought the tip of his cane to his lips and whispered a word against the red stone.

  A scent like rotten eggs filled the room, and Tanys saw the Zhadeen girl cover her face with her hands, weeping with fear. Smoke began to billow from the floor in the space between the violet ring of fire and the golden flames. The smoke roiled and gathered at the far end of the room, nearest the door, coalescing into the shape of a hunched figure.

  Vriene breathed a long, rattling sigh, then whispered, "Welcome, Traveller."

  The smoke thing shimmered, and the smoke seemed to drop away like black rain. In its place stood a man, or something in the shape of a man. It wore what Tanys first thought were black robes, but then it moved, and she saw that the creature was coated with hundreds of shards of what looked like soot-stained glass. Its face was only a long, curved beak of shimmering lamp-black glass. When it spoke, in a voice of half-dreamed horror, she knew it for what it was, a demon.

  "Call me... what purpose?" the demon asked, its words pouring out like drops of molten lead from its lipless face.

  "Punishment," Vriene answered.

  "Always," the demon hissed, "What price?"

  "She is of the pure race," Vriene said, "She may show weakness, and then she is yours."

  "Not enough!" the demon's words sizzled on the floor before him.

  Vriene shrugged. "It will have to be for now, I'm afraid," he said, "but I promise I will make up for it next time. I've got something very special set aside for you tomorrow night."

  The demon studied Vriene silently for a moment. It shook its shoulders with a dull clatter of black glass and stepped toward the inner circle where Vecca stood with her back to the monster. It lifted its left arm, at its end a cluster of jagged glass shards in the rough outline of a hand. "Look," it said.

  Vecca's body lifted from the floor and turned slowly in the air toward the demon. The girl's face twisted in horror as her eyes opened to gaze upon the beast. "No, please!" she sobbed.

  The creature's right hand lifted forming a black fist before its face, and Vecca's back arched, lifting her face toward the ceiling as her feet dangled below her. The creature's fist jerked down, and the shirt that covered Vecca's body fell away into tattered pieces of rag, consumed by purple flames when they touched the edges of the inner circle. Vecca hung naked, suspended by the demon's will, her body shaking with spasms of fear.

  Tanys shifted nervously in her seat. She had wanted to kill Vecca herself more than once, but this was going too far.

  The demon tilted it faceless beak, gurgling wordlessly. It lifted a shard finger, tracing symbols in the empty air before it. A red line of blood beaded from Vecca's pale breast in the pattern like that the demon drew. It drew arcane symbols in the girl's blood upon her white skin as she hung, helpless and trembling.

  The Zhadeen girl stood up suddenly, trying to flee from the table, but Vriene shouted at her. "Sit, princess! Sit and watch! I command it."

  The hostage girl's body twisted, her limbs and face contorted as though she had no control of her own body. She staggered back to her chair and slumped, gasping into place again. She watched Vecca's torment, her doe-like eyes full of tears.

  Vriene turned to look at Tanys. "What about you?" he asked.

  Tanys eyed him coolly. "I'm here to learn, Master," she said.
>
  Vriene smiled and turned his attention back to Vecca's punishment.

  Swirling red sigils now covered Vecca's breasts and stomach like bloody lace. She screamed as the creature's magic carved a nine-pointed star across her left cheek. At last it let her body fall to the floor.

  Vecca lay curled into a ball at the center of the violet ring, tucking her arms and legs to her bleeding chest as she tried to make herself as small as possible.

  The demon walked a slow circle around the perimeter of the violet circle, its head bowed low, mumbling something that Tanys could not quite hear.

  "No!" Vecca sobbed, shaking her head furiously, "No!"

  The demon stiffened, rising to its full height, nearly eight feet tall. It spread its shard-arms wide and titled back its beak-head, shrieking with a sound like a spike in Tanys's brain.

  The Zhadeen girl screamed too, her slender hands clapped over her ears. Her eyes, red from crying, could not pull away from the awful sight below.

  Vecca screamed again as an unseen force yanked her body straight up from the floor and suspended her, spread-eagle at the level of the demon's face.

  The demon, silent now, lowered both its claws and lifted them again, as though digging something out of the earth.

  The floor within the violet circle bubbled and hissed like a boiling cauldron. Green mist rose from the floor, forming writhing tendrils of fog that reached up toward Vecca's naked, shuddering body.

  "Not again!" Vecca screamed, "Please not this!"

  The demon's body hunched forward once again, drawing its clawed hands in close to its sooty chest. Blasphemous mutterings drooled from its beak as it swayed slowly left and right.

  The green tendrils of fog hardened into luminous tentacles that reached up, coiling around Vecca's bare legs, wrapping around her ankles like shackles and pulling her down. More green mist rose around her body, seeping into the bleeding cuts on her breasts and face. Vecca squeezed her eyes shut, her lips moving in silent pleas for mercy. Then her lips stopped moving, and her eyes snapped open, no longer the color of amber, but glowing as green as the unholy fog.

  Vecca's hands dropped to her sides, released by whatever force still held her legs spread and back arched. Slowly, she regained control of her limbs as she inhaled deeply, breathing in the green fog. The tendrils that held her ankles melted away as the girl's feet lowered gently to the floor. Vecca turned to look up at where Vriene sat watching her. She smiled, her eyes still glowing with the green madness. "Command me," she sighed. Little wisps of green mist wafted from her lips when she spoke.