Page 36 of Captive

“Was there some kind of delay? Was it because you tried to escape? How far did you make it before you realized that running is useless?”

She looked at the floor, at the walls, anywhere but him.

“Or did you try to fight? I wish I could have seen that. That pathetic display on the road was the most entertaining thing I’ve seen in weeks.”

“Is there a point to this visit or do you just like to hear yourself talk?” she asked finally.

Zaiur’s smile went stiff.

In her peripheral vision she could see Neiryn giving her a judgemental look. He shook his head slowly at her.

Zaiur stared unnervingly for a moment longer, then went behind her. Novikke held her breath. She looked up at Neiryn, who had a better view of what was happening behind her. He was watching, dead-eyed. He glanced down to meet Novikke’s eyes, but his expression showed no feeling except resignation.

She jumped when Zaiur touched her. Then she realized he was untying her.

“How would you like to die?” he asked. “Have you ever thought about that? Do you have a preference?”

She wished she could have said that the words didn’t affect her. But her heart raced. Every part of her was tense. She felt ill.

He pulled the ropes off her, then came around to stand in front of her again.

“Get up,” he commanded. He watched her slowly climb to her feet.

“I am the one who will have the privilege of killing you when they are finished with you. So what would you like? I am open to suggestions. The traditional method would be beheading. Dramatic, but not very interesting. Maybe I could hold you underwater. Drowning is a painless way of passing, I am told.”

Novikke didn’t look at him. Whatever Aruna had done—if he’d done anything at all—hadn’t worked, it seemed. Not that she’d expected it to.

“We could try poison, though I do not know what the alchemist here stocks. It may be the kind that puts you to sleep quietly, but it could also be the kind that makes your guts turn themselves inside out over the course of days.”

He smiled over at Neiryn. “And we have already discussed what I am going to do with you,” he said. “Haven’t we?”

Neiryn just looked at him expressionlessly.

He turned back to Novikke. “You are awfully quiet now. Your countrymen were quite loud while they were gleefully murdering our children and elderly in Charna last month.”

She glanced toward him, frowning slightly. Children and elderly?

A muscle in his cheek twitched as he clenched his jaw. It was the only outwardly visible sign of anger Novikke saw. “I guess having the tables turned has a way of stilling your tongue,” he said.

He leaned in close to her, near enough that she could smell the leather of his clothes. “Maybe I could be persuaded to be merciful,” he murmured in her ear. “I could decide to release you into Kuda Varai and see how far you can make it on your own. What do you think of that?”

He waited for an answer. She gave none.

“I might still accept your body as payment for such a mercy, if you beg convincingly enough.”

She suddenly wondered if Aruna had told anyone what they’d done. The idea of any of them knowing, particularly Zaiur, made her nauseous.

She really was pathetic, wasn’t she?

What had she been thinking?

Why sleep with one of them? She was nothing to them.

Zaiur leaned back, flashing another smile. “Well. I suppose I have heard myself talk enough. We should go.”

Bile filled her throat as he took her arm and pulled her out of the hut.

He took her across the outpost and into another building, down a dark hall and then into a small, mostly empty room. The woman she’d seen before was seated at a desk in the middle of the room. She waved to a chair across from her as they came in. Zaiur pushed Novikke into it and then, thankfully, left.

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