Page 19 of Owned By the Fae
But still, I reach for it, trying desperately to find it so my agony will end.
And then it comes to me like balm on my mind. I sink down into the dark recesses of myself, and the Harbinger takes my place. My torturers talk amongst themselves and laugh at each other’s jokes as if they’re drinking together in a tavern and not burning a woman’s flesh away. I can still hear them but try to ignore them now that I can’t feel what they’re doing to me. I close my eyes, not wanting to see what else they put my body through while I’m so vulnerable.
My armsand legs are on fire when I wake up in my cell, and I wince as the skin stretches painfully when I move.
‘I did what I could,’ it whispers in the back of my mind, ‘but in this place, my strength begins to wane like yours does.’
I move slowly over to the corner of the cell. The wall here is damp sometimes when the rain comes. I touch it with my fingers and find a couple of drops of water. I lick at the stone, trying to getsomethingto tide me over.
‘How long have we been down here?’ I ask the dark.
It doesn't know.
I get to my knees and shuffle towards the door. My fingers and toes are numb with cold so the weather must have turned outside. I recall how I escaped last time when I’d been left alone with the cell unlocked. I'd somehow made my way up the stairs and down the halls to my room, my body shaking with pain and fatigue. I’d grabbed the bag of supplies it had taken me months to squirrel away and the bracelet I’d kept hidden once I found out how it could change my appearance. I’d snuck into Varrik’s Gate room. I’d found him asleep at his desk with an empty bottle of strong mead next to him, and I’d taken up a knife, but I couldn’t do it. He had some power over me that stayed my hand. So I’d started the fire instead and escaped through his personal ring, putting the bracelet on after I’d left.
‘I helped you that day.’
I startle. ‘How?’
‘The Gate, it would never have opened for you alone. There were strong wards on it.’
I consider its admission. It’s helped me more than once now. It deserves some modicum of trust. Besides, why would it lie about that?
‘Could you do it again?’ I ask.
‘If I’m not bound,’ it answers readily.
I rub my wrists and file that information away. The welts from the ropes are the least of my pains, but they’re the only ones I can attend to even a little.
I hear a guard moving around down the way and let out a sigh. I think it’s safe to say that they've learned their lesson from the last time because I’ve barely been left alone, and the cell is always locked. I finger the burns lightly, wondering how many they did once the Harbinger took over. There’s pain everywhere, so I have no idea.
It doesn't answer me when I ask, so there's no way of knowing how much damage they’ve done to my body.
A noise sounds. A door. I shuffle to the corner, curling up into a ball as a guard comes down the tiny hallway. He stops in front of my cell with his torch, and I notice in the light that the other cells are empty, as I’d assumed.
The guard moves to the side, barely looking at me. Behind him is the young healer who took care of me in my room. Jak. He looks wide-eyed and distraught as the guard unlocks the door and pushes him in.
‘See to her, boy,’ he orders in a clipped tone. ‘She can’t harm you.’
At first, I think I only see fear in his eyes as he kneels next to me, but he’s more than a little upset by what he’s seeing as well.
‘What did they do to you?’ he asks.
I give him a wan smile, not speaking as he readies himself to heal me. He begins to get rid of the burns, and I sigh at the tingling sensation that dances over my skin until the guard bangs on the metal bars of my cage.
‘You aren’t here to heal her,’ he snarls, ‘only to ensure she's not going to die.’
The healer looks back at the guard incredulously. ‘You brought me down here to make sure she's not dying, but I'm not allowed to heal her?’
‘That's what I said. Orders is orders. Is she going to die?’
Jak turns back to me. ‘I don't know yet,’ he says in a harsh tone. ‘Begone for a moment so I can assess her properly without your aura clouding my magick.’
The guard grunts and walks off.
‘Stupid cunt,’ Jak mutters, making me smile a little again.
His gentle fingers travel down the side of my face, and I hear him whispering an incantation.
