Part 42 (1/2)

Chapter 29.

Madoc woke up in a small chamber fitted with metal bars embedded into the stone itself. He was sprawled on the floor, throbbing with pain. Only years of experience carrying around a s.h.i.+tload of agony kept him from groaning. He pushed himself up, seeing the far wall of the chamber.

Names were gouged into the stone. The letters were different sizes; some had dates by them going back decades. Some of them were illegible, and some so faint they'd been there for a long, long time.

A lot of people had been in this cage before, long enough to carve their names on the wall.

Madoc refused to join that list.

He went to the bars, shaking them to see if he could find a way out. The cuts he'd sustained hadn't had much time to close, and the movement caused several of them to rip open and bleed more.

”I think you'll find that the magic holding those in is still in working order,” said Zillah. He was outside the cage, flanked by armed guards. Nika sat slumped against the far wall. Tori was crouched next to her, naked and s.h.i.+vering, staring off, her expression dull and lifeless, as if she'd already given up.

Madoc was going to get both women out of here. He wasn't sure how, but he'd find a way.

Nika? Are you there?

His question echoed in the stillness between them.

He knew she was there. He'd felt her before. He tried to push power through the luceria, urging her to wake up.

Tynan had been tossed in an adjoining cage and stood unmoving, watching Zillah with hatred glowing in his ice blue eyes.

”How long have I been out?” Madoc asked him.

”Two minutes.”

Long enough to trap them all.

Zillah grabbed Tori by the arm and wrenched her to her feet. She was in bad shape. She flopped around weakly, not bothering to fight what was being done to her. She was naked, dirty, s.h.i.+vering. Blood seeped down her thigh.

”Heal her,” demanded Zillah, thrusting her toward Tynan.

”I'm too weak,” said Tynan.

”I don't care if it kills you. Heal her or I'll let you starve to death in there.”

Tynan swallowed, anger twisting his perfect features. ”Why do you care if she lives?”

”Because she owes me a son and I'm going to get it from her.”

Tynan's voice hissed out in anger. ”She can't give you a living child. Your species is too different from hers.”

”You're wrong. I've done it before. Now do as I ask or you'll wish you had.”

Tynan shook his head. ”I can't let you do that to her.”

”Are you willing to die slowly for your morals?”

”Yes.”

”Fine, then I'll use Nika instead.”

Madoc roared in rage, pounding the metal bars. Nika, wake up! He slammed the command through their link, but he couldn't tell if he'd gotten through.

”No,” whispered Tori. ”I'll do it.” She lifted her eyes to Tynan. ”He can't hurt me any more than he already has.”

”See?” said Zillah, a metallic ring of satisfaction in his tone. ”She wants it. Now heal her.”

”Are you sure?” asked Tynan.

Tori nodded.

Tynan took her dirty wrist and lifted it to his mouth. Madoc watched her eyes flutter closed. Her body shrank; her belly flattened; her b.r.e.a.s.t.s tightened.

Tynan pulled away and angry blisters fattened his lips. He turned away, vomiting something thick and black onto the ground.

”I guess she didn't agree with you,” said Zillah. ”Too bad. I have a feeling the two of you will be seeing a lot of each other.”

Nika heard Madoc's cry of rage in her mind, felt his frantic need for her to wake up. But she wasn't asleep. She wasn't dreaming. Zillah had trapped her inside his head and he had no intention of letting her free.

Nika slammed around inside Zillah's thoughts, flailing about inside the rotten depths of evil moving sluggishly through his mind. She'd never been trapped like this before and she had no idea how to get out.

A single, silvery strand connected her to Madoc, but she was losing sight of it as she weakened. Soon, she'd be too weak to fight and she'd be trapped here, forever.

Like h.e.l.l.

Brute force was doing no good, so Nika stopped fighting and focused on the strand connecting her to Madoc. She shrank herself down until she was a pinpoint of light and slid along that strand slowly, steadily.

She kept her thoughts shallow, remembering little things like the feel of air against her skin or the sun on her facea”anything to distract her from thinking about what she was trying to do.

The closer she got to Madoc, the stronger she became. He was urging her on, fueling her with his power. It pulsed into her, driving away the clinging tendrils of filth that snagged her, trying to hold her in.

She was almost out. She could almost feel the warmth of Madoc's mind when those tendrils thickened and barred her path.

Nika panicked. They were pulling her back in. She couldn't fight them. They were tugging her under, driving her down into uncontrolled evil.

Fight, she heard Madoc scream. He's going to rape Tori.

Nika couldn't let that happen. Not again. Never again.

Fear was all around her, weighing her down. Desperate, she resorted back to the one thing that had worked to drive the sgath away: cold.

Nika took the cold in her body and shoved it into Zillah. She let the stones beneath her suck the heat out of her until she was s.h.i.+vering. She forced herself to remember every aching, frigid moment she'd ever felt, and used Madoc's power to amplify those memories.