by Leah Silver
He barked out a laugh, and I thought the ceiling was going to fall in on us. The walls shook, and the sound reverberated through my chest as I struggled to brace myself. “All the better as far as I’m concerned. We expect quite a lot of productivity from you. More than we get from the average demon who has to do it by hand.”
“What makes you think I wouldn’t have to do it by hand?”
“Be creative,” he suggested before slamming a metal crate onto a huge stone in the center of the room. I had just enough slack in my chains to reach it. He placed a second box, this one looked more like cardboard and had a lid, next to it. “Don’t let them bite you,” he said.
“What would happen?”
He shrugged his huge shoulders. “It’s not like you can die again, but let’s just say it wouldn’t be pleasant.”
“I believe you.”
Again, he boomed out a laugh that shook my little room before turning to leave. “When you’re finished, just holler, and we’ll bring you more. Don’t let the others beat you.”
“Or what?”
His green eyes narrowed, and a malicious smile spread across his face. “It won’t be pleasant.”
“I believe you.”
He nodded once, and then slammed the door on my prison. The only light in the room now came from those same tiny orbs. Left unattended, my desire to investigate them overwhelmed me. I paced to the wall behind me, and then reached for one. They weren’t warm or cold, but more didn’t feel like much of anything. In fact, my hand passed right through them, leaving no trace of the magic behind. I turned my hand over, searching for some kind of light, but I found it completely unscathed.
A hard knock on the door startled me. “Get to work,” the voice commanded.
“Of course,” I said. I looked at the light while I walked back to the stone, so I bumped into it when I got there.
I had a box of snakes on one side, and a box for their venom on the other. No way in…well, here…was I going to reach my bare hand into that box. He said to be creative. Would a spell help me here? It wasn’t like I had powders and elixirs to help me. It would have to be pure magic. Would it even work the same beyond the void? Only one way to find out.
I decided to start with a simple spell. Could I lift something? Automatically, I turned to the box of snakes, but thought better of it. Shouldn’t begin with the box of deadly animals when there was a perfectly benign box sitting there. I muttered the spell, and the box lifted easily. Then I tried lifting the lid off, hands-free style, and it floated to the floor. Inside were a bunch of tiny vials for the venom. How on Earth was I supposed to get venom inside there? Normally, wide cups with rubber on top were used for snakes to bite down on to harvest venom. I’d have to get creative indeed.
I reached for one of the long, slender vials, realizing it was a lot like the one we found that held the serum to cure Sara. Actually, it was so similar I wondered if it were the same. What made this one stand out was the tiniest etching on the stopper. I thought it was an “S” for serum when I’d used it on Sara. But now I wondered if it was a snake.
With nothing left to do, I moved on to the snakes. I whispered another spell that would hopefully put the snakes to sleep before slowly opening the hatch with my hand. I zeroed in on one snake, spelling him out of the box before quietly closing the hatch. Last thing I needed was to wake a loose snake, along with his brothers and sisters. Looked to be at least thirty inside that box. Lovely.
I had an unconscious grey snake floating in front of me. Now what? I went over and carefully pried the jaws open, finding a single long fang inside. Well, that explained that. I whispered the sleeping spell again, careful not to disturb the beast while I went for the vial. Probably should’ve already had it in my hand, but I was a beginner. Live and learn. Let’s hope I lived.
As I carefully coaxed the fang to full extension, I put the vial under it, but nothing happened. No venom came out, which made me groan. Did the creature have to be awake to engage the venom pumps?
I sighed. I shouldn’t be doing this right now. I should be trying to escape to get back to Merry. Why was I being so compliant? I needed to stay safe so I could attempt to escape, and that was reason enough. If I fought them every step of the way, they’d never give me the room I’d need to try. But in this moment, when they hadn’t even told me how to do my damned job, I wanted to rail against them. I wanted to blast the door open and go charging out of there, taking every demon with me.
But something about that vial stayed my hand. Were these the creatures behind the plague? That couldn’t be right. Once a demon had gone beyond the void, he couldn’t get back. That wasn’t negotiable. And the creatures keeping me here were decidedly beyond the void.
It made me despair just a bit. If that rule applied to them, how would I ever find my way back to Merry? As I stared at the sleeping snake and the dry vial I held in my hand, I sighed. I had an eternity to figure it out, I supposed. Luckily for me, the woman I loved was immortal.
Don’t put snake charmer on my resume
Without knocking, the warden came crashing into my cell.
“All right, your neighbors are done.”
He startled me, waking the snake, which fell to the floor and slithered aggressively toward me.
“What the bloody Bael?” the warden demanded while I scrambled back against the wall away from the oncoming snake.
Quickly, I sent out a blast of power, stunning the creature, but it wasn’t a permanent solution. I wanted to step on its head and kill it for good, but then I’d never get venom out of it, so I resisted.
“Can I help you, sir?” I asked, more than a little exasperated at his interruption.
“I’ve come to collect your work and replace it.” He held up a box that looked exactly like the silver one of snakes on my rock.
“Yes, well, I haven’t finished.”
“You. Haven’t. Finished?” He said it slowly, as if he were taking a moment to process what I said.
“Glad you can hear someone so soft spoken,” I said, knowing I shouldn’t poke the bear, but I was irritated. He needed to leave before the stunning spell I’d used on the snake wore off. The damned thing wouldn’t attack him and give me a way out. That wasn’t how my luck was going.
“I’m disappointed, Edthar. I thought you were stronger than this.” The two lackeys who dragged me into this particular depth of hell came back in and seized me. Which wasn’t hard, seeing how I was chained to the wall. “Perhaps some persuasion will help.”
I was dragged from the cell, across the spacious room with the grates in the floor, and down to the end. I didn’t even try to walk. I was done being compliant with them. All it had gotten me was trapped deeper into the void. If I had fought Daevas earlier, I probably wouldn’t be in this mess.
They heaved me down a separate set of stairs, and I wondered just how deep the pit went. After opening what looked and sounded like an iron door, they literally tossed me inside. A big beast turned to face me. He had horns coming out of the sides of his head that curled around and hooked the sides of his mouth, creating a rather grotesque smile.
His skin was hairless and completely blackened, as if he’d been thrown into the fire and left there. Red eyes narrowed as he surveyed me. “Ah. Another playmate.” His voice was rough, and the words scraped along it.
“What are we playing?” I asked cautiously as I stood up.
“Oh, very fun games, I assure you.” He approached with his hands behind his back, and I sized him up. Clearly, he was hiding something. I needed to take control before I regretted it. No more compliance.
My hand shot out, and I reached for the object, using my magic to take it from his hands. Turned out it was a big ass hammer. The Mother knew what he planned to do with that. I flung it against the nearby wall. It put a sizable dent in it.
“You did come to play,” the demon said, hunger in his red eyes. “This will be fun.”
A ball of fire flew at my face, and I ducked quick
ly, watching it hit the wall behind me. It rattled a few chains hanging on it, but it didn’t light anything on fire. “Well, that was unexpected.”
He nodded acknowledgement at me. “You’ll find I’m full of surprises, wizard.”
“Ed.”
“Call me Zagan.”
“Zag. I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but I’d rather not be here…” Another fireball flew in my direction, and I tucked and rolled out of the way. Deescalate. That was what I needed to do. So, goading him on probably wasn’t the right approach. Probably.
“Shame. I’m quite enjoying having you here.”
I threw a powerful stunning spell at him, but he absorbed it completely without even blinking before sending two more fireballs my way.
“This is getting boring, wizard. I suggest you get creative, or I will end our game and move on.” Something about his tone made me a little panicky. He meant business.
“Again with the getting creative,” I said. “What is your fascination with that?” I opened the ground beneath him. He fell into the hole I created, and I sealed it shut just as quickly as I’d opened it. I sighed and smiled, feeling victorious. Unfortunately, that didn’t last.
The ground exploded, sending rocks and clumps of earth sailing my way. Quickly, I created a shield that the shrapnel bounced off.
Zag growled. “You dared to think you could defeat me?”
Rolling my eyes, I stood, debating what to do next. Out. I needed out. “Arrogance is a misstep, isn’t it?” I asked. I opened the ground beneath me and disappeared, sealing it over my head. When I blasted a path ahead of me, I could hear him screaming and bumbling around above me. Sounded like a two-year-old having a tantrum.
I needed to go up, but I wasn’t sure how soon I should start that way. Or where I would be dumped out if I kept going down. Something told me it would only get worse the deeper I went.
But my problem was eliminated for me when Zag crushed my seal. He came tumbling into my sanctuary. “Graceful,” I said.
He glared. Nope. Definitely shouldn’t goad him.
As he grabbed my cloak, he gave me a good jerk. “You’re coming with me now. Our fun has just started.”
I didn’t see the blow coming. I’d shown him too much of what I could do, and he’d learned not to lay his cards on the table. The darkness settled over me, and I found myself wondering what the void held for me next.
I woke up to water dripping on my face. Not a splash or bucket dumped on me, but a slow drip, drip, drip. It stung when it hit me, telling me it had been doing that for quite a while.
I tried to move away from it, but I found myself completely strapped down. Sighing, I tried a simple dissolving charm. As it came to my lips, I wondered why I hadn’t tried it on the chains. They hadn’t been that restrictive. I couldn’t have just walked right out the door, but at least I wouldn’t have had them. Too compliant. I shook my head as the charm left my mouth. Pain shot through me like a bolt of electricity. My back arched of its own accord, pain pulsing through my body. I thought my teeth might break from the pressure I was putting on them by clenching them together. But I didn’t let a scream escape. I wouldn’t give Zag the satisfaction.
As suddenly as it started, the pain subsided. I was left exhausted, my heart pounding. “Magic won’t help you now, wizard.” His self-satisfied voice was starting to grate on my nerves.
“Ed,” I reminded him.
He grunted, and I heard movement to my left. Something scraped on the table, along with Zag’s heavy footfalls. I tried to turn and get eyes on him, but my head was strapped down well and good.
“I see that you are a special playmate.”
“In order to play with someone, the other needs to participate, don’t they?”
“Not necessarily. You need only exist for this game. I must admit, it’s only fun for me.” He appeared in my line of sight with a hook in his blackened hand. “And this is going to be fun.” The way he dragged out the last word made me squirm.
“What is that?”
“It’s not what you think, if that’s what you’re worried about. I won’t be removing your intestines.” He turned the hook over in his hand, admiring it. “No. I’ll be separating you from something much more valuable.”
I watched as his eyes danced with glee. “Your magic.”
Yet again, I felt two steps behind. My magic? That couldn’t be done. Could it? I didn’t really want to find out, so I gave it everything I had. I pooled every ounce of magic inside me and released it in one splendid pulse, sending Zag out of my field of view. But the pain that followed left me unable to see if I was free or not. My body writhed and thrashed on its own, as if I’d been hit by a Taser. Based on my movements, I felt like I was free, but what did it matter when I didn’t have control of myself?
“Enough,” Zag said as he grabbed me by the neck. “Akrah asked me not to kill you, but that is a very difficult request to fulfill. I think I will deliver you back to him soon. I’m getting sick of you.” He squeezed my neck until I blacked out again.
When I woke, I was chained to the wall in my cell. “Wakey, wakey, Sleeping Beauty,” the warden said.
“Akrah?” I asked.
He grunted. “I suppose Zagan let my name slip.” He seemed irritated, and I hoped that meant Zag would get a stern talking to. Okay, I hoped he’d get beaten with that gigantic hammer of his.
My head throbbed. I eyed the warden, Akrah apparently. I liked warden, though, so I decided to stick with it. “What’s up, warden?”
“Are you feeling more motivated to work?”
“Not particularly, no. I feel like a semi-truck full of giants rolled over me.”
“Too bad, princess. Get to it. This time, make sure you beat your neighbors.”
He turned to leave, but I stopped him. “Wait.” To my surprise, he did. “How exactly am I supposed to get the venom out?”
“Squeeze it, of course.”
“Squeeze what?” I asked, but my words were drowned out by the sound of my cell door slamming.
I tried the dissolving charm on my chains, but it didn’t work. I didn’t feel the pain I felt in Zag’s chamber, but the chains remained, leaving me confused about the rules of magic beyond the void. Perhaps they were immune to magic. There were some objects that couldn’t be manipulated. It would make sense.
Resolved, I stood and went to the table where a fresh batch of snakes and vials waited for me. As before, I cast my sleeping spell. Instead of taking just one snake, I took out five. Go big or go home, right?
Grabbing a group of vials with my magic instead of my hands, I held them up to the snakes. I started to sweat as I spelled each one of their mouths open.
As I moved vials under their singular fangs, it was a bit of a surreal sight, seeing all those sleeping snakes suspended in midair.
Squeeze them, huh? Squeeze what? I couldn’t imagine he’d meant the snake. So, I decided the warden had meant their fangs. Just a little bit of pressure near the tips could do the trick. Why was I the one doing this? Levi and Merry were the one with experience with fangs.
Taking a deep breath, I got to work. Could have knocked me over with a fairy fart, but it did the trick. I couldn’t believe it. Leaving the snakes asleep, I brought all the rest of them out, along with the vials, and did the entire batch in one go. Then, I packed the snakes back up and waited.
I couldn’t help examining the venom. Was this what they were using to make the plague? Was it snake venom? That would mean it wasn’t contagious in the traditional sense. Hadn’t Levi alluded to that during his phone call? He’d contracted it when that patient touched him. So how had Sara gotten it? Only Merry had been around her, and she wouldn’t have infected her own daughter. Not deliberately, anyway. If someone had planted it on her at some point, maybe in an attempt to infect her, but got her daughter instead…
My train of thought was derailed when the warden came crashing into my cell. “How’d you do?”
I put the beaker gentl
y into the box, although the glass still clanged against the other vials. “Done.” One of the lackeys came in to collect the box of filled containers, and the warden picked up the box of spent snakes.
“What do you do with the venom?”
The warden’s smile spread wide across his face. “Dominate.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. I knew I was right. They were making the plague here, beyond the void, and somehow transporting it in an attempt to kill an entire race. I couldn’t allow this to happen. I had to get out of here. If they were transporting the plague in and out of the veil, it meant I could get out, too. One way or another, I would stop this.
Scum-sucking gutter slut, and other terms of endearment
The promise I made to myself felt big, but as time passed, and they brought me box after box of snakes, it felt smaller and smaller. Never was I unchained or allowed to leave the room, except when I was sent to Zag’s. And I wasn’t sure they’d do that again. No matter how noncompliant I was. I’d shown them I was stronger than him. They’d be foolish to open an opportunity I could exploit.
I needed to bide my time, but at the rate I was going, it was clear we didn’t have that luxury. They were creating massive amounts of the plague. Each vial I filled represented a vampire’s life I was taking. At each, I wondered if it would be the one that took Merry. Or Levi if he hadn’t cured himself. Which I knew he would. That vampire could charm a volcano out of erupting. He’d be fine. Or I told myself that when my mind wandered to him, and I imagined his skin turning black, and ashes flaking away from him.
As the hours passed, I wondered if sleep, food, or bathroom breaks would ever come. Curiously, I found I didn’t seem to need any of those. Except after I attacked Zag. I needed rest. And the little magic I was using zapped me even further. But with each box of snakes I finished faster, with each moment I sat waiting for the warden to come replace it with a new box, I felt my power and my strength returning. I needed to get away.