Page 56 of Golden Queen
Suddenly, I was alone as he stepped preternaturally slowly to the door.
I felt absolutely bereft, as though the air that flooded into the space he had just occupied, was wholly offensive to me.
He was listening carefully to something I could not hear. I didn't move, hardly dared to breathe. I was sure we were about to be discovered.
He turned to me, eyes sliding down my body once more before he motioned for me to come. My heart leapt as I considered that look held a fair amount of regret at the interruption.
I pushed up from the lounge, smoothing my skirts and tugging the bodice of my gown back into place. I tried to get my breathing under control.
When I was at his side, he laid a finger to his lips and took my hand. He led me from the room, heading down the long hallway. The music faded as we made our way deeper into the manor.
We followed whatever he was listening to until we reached an open door and stairs curving away into the darkness.
We stepped silently down a spiral staircase that looked like it was carved from the stones of the earth, until it opened onto a dimly lit hall. Old-style flame lanterns hung from the ceiling on rusty hooks.
The hallway was dingy, the floor beneath our feet dirt, and the walls were wet as though water seeped from inside the brick.
We stopped at an alcove and Io motioned for me to stay quiet.As though he would even need to tell me, I thought. I gave him a dry look.
He smiled faintly and reached down to tug the edge of my ridiculous gown slightly closer over the breast that had nearly popped out. The feeling of his fingers grazing the skin of my chest sent a new round of shivers through me. Even as we stood as intruders in the middle of what looked for all the world, like an evil villain's shadowy lair.
Voices distracted me from thoughts of him and that finger that had barely even touched my skin.
"That is not what I asked for, Merrik," someone lamented. It was a needling voice, whiny and nasal. I instantly disliked whoever it belonged to.
"Yeah, well, things have recently become a little more difficult to procure in the city, if you haven't noticed," a deeper voice said. I assumed the new speaker was called Merrik.
"The crowds should make it easier to blend it, not harder. There is no excuse for you taking my gold and delivering me a fully grown girl!"
Horror, anger, and revulsion exploded in my chest. I felt Io's grip on my hand tighten. He had a door open before I even realized there was one set back into the shadows of the alcove.
Two men stood facing each other in a stone chamber. They did not, at first, look alarmed. The taller one just raised his hand and snapped, "Wrong room!"
"No, I think I have just the room I'm looking for," Io said almost breezily. He led me to the side, stalking around the edges of the chamber.
"Get the hell out of here," said the taller man, the one I was sure was Merrik. The shorter one, the one I now knew had been complaining about hispurchase, had the good sense to look afraid. He began to edge toward the door.
"Stop," Io commanded. The man obeyed, his face bleeding of color.
The other man, Merrik, turned. His hand began to go to a short sword hanging from his hip. I felt icy fear as I realized Io did not have a weapon.
But Merrik's eyes went wide. The hand going for the sword froze, and he began sliding backward across the floor, his feet dragging through the dirt. He slammed into the wall. The impact forced a strangled cry from him as his hands were pinned over his head.
I could feel it, then—the magic—the weight of something like thicker air that spread through the chamber.
Io released my hand, and I backed up a step.
"Where is she?" he asked, casually. He put his hands in his pockets and stepped in front of Merrik, totally at ease.
The other man was shaking, trembling in place. I saw his eyes dart to the door, ready to make a run for it. When he didn't move, I began to suspect that he was also frozen in place by Io's magic.
When he was just in front of Merrik, Io reached up and removed his mask.
Whatever the man saw on Io's face made him scream, but the sound was choked off in a strangled grunt. Then, the only sound in the chamber was Merrik's urine hitting the dirt under his suspended feet.
When Io spoke again, his words were low and heavy, as though they bore far more weight than simple language should convey. The sound sent a shiver over me that had nothing to do with desire. It was the sound of menace and nightmares. "Where...is...she?"
"I'm in here, sir," came a muffled voice.
