Chapter 37
Theo bowed his head to me. “Good evening, miss. I’m a representative from the Admiralty office, come to escort you to the admiral.”
That announcement rattled my brain, along with his strange disconnection toward me. The short man at the desk was reading a short letter in front of him. “You sure this checks out?”
Theo turned to him with a smile. “Is there any doubt?”
“Well, everything looks okay,” the man mused as he raised the paper to a nearby lamp. “I’m just surprised they worked that fast. What does he want with the woman, anyway?”
Theo shrugged. “I’m afraid I couldn’t say. I’m just the escort.”
“Why’d he choose the prison doc, too?” the jailer questioned him with a sharp look.
Theo gestured down at himself. “I believe it’s because you know my appearance, and thus there would be no issue with the prompt letter.”
The jailer scowled, but tucked the letter in a drawer. “Alright, take her. It’s your skin if you lose her.”
Theo grabbed the crook of my arm and bowed his head. “Thank you.”
“Hmph,” came the reply as the jailer went back to tossing a die on his desk.
Theo led me up the stairs. I walked so stiffly that I tripped over several of the steps.
“Careful, Miss Larkin,” he whispered as he helped me back up. “I would never forgive myself if you were killed.”
I jerked to a stop and glared at him. “And what about Marc? He might still get killed, and it’ll be your fault for betraying us.”
Theo looked aghast. “Me, Miss Larkin? Why ever would I do such a thing to the professor’s own nephew?”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but doubt lingered in the corners of my mind. “You tell me.”
“I will certainly tell you the truth,” he promised as he guided me up the steps. “But first, I must get you out of here.”
We soon arrived at the courtyard where Ironshores lingered everywhere. More than one cast a leering look at me. Theo held me close against his side and scooted me over to the archway. The gate was down, and a guard stood nearby with a door behind him.
Theo smiled at him. “Good evening, sir. I’m ready to leave with the sick prisoner.”
The guard eyed me with a sharp look. “You said she was deathly ill. She doesn’t look sick at all to me.”
Theo grasped my shoulders. “She is very ill, sir. That’s why she must go with me so I can give her the correct medicine.”
I let out a dry, wracking cough and shook my whole body. The guard stepped back and sneered at me. “Alright, but it better not be catching, or neither of you is coming back.”
Theo bowed his head. “Thank you, sir.”
The guard eagerly slipped through the door, and the gate rattled open. The man stayed inside his gate room until we were long past. My heart still pounded in my chest as I looked over my shoulder. The gate shut behind us, shutting me out from where Marc was.
“You did wonderfully, Miss Larkin,” Theo congratulated me as we hurried down the street.
“I wish Marc were here to see it,” I mused as we turned into a dark and narrow alley.
“I’m sure he would have been proud of you,” Theo assured me as we neared the mouth of the alley. He tucked a hand into his pocket as he stared ahead. “Now we need only reach the safety of my office and everything will be as it should be.”
I blinked at him. “What do you mean? We still have to save Marc and Ramaro.”
Theo’s hand shot out of his pocket, and he shoved a cloth over my mouth and nose. I gasped and inhaled a foul-smelling odor. My head began to spin, as did the rest of the world.
Theo’s voice floated over me as though I were in a dream. “My sincerest apologies, Miss Larkin, but this must be done.”
And then everything went black.
God, my head hurt. Every fiber and web of my brain felt like someone had tried to string a piano with them, and all they ended up doing was a lot of stretching of my cells.
Even my arms and legs felt stiff. I tried to stretch them, but they wouldn’t budge.
My confusion forced my eyes open, and my heart nearly stopped.
I sat in a plain, heavy wooden chair. My wrists were bound to the wide arms, and my ankles were tied to the legs.
The chair was located in a small dirt-floor basement.
The windows had been blacked out with thick wooden boards, so the only source of light was the gas lamps that hung overhead.
The floor was earthen, filling the small room with a bitter scent of must. A stairway ten feet beyond the table led up to a plain wooden door.
The portal was slightly ajar, allowing me to see a bland white hall with shiplap walls.
A table stood five feet away from me. The top was covered by neat piles of papers and books, all separated by ample gaps and tucked into heavy tabletop shelves. Even the pencils and pens were laid out in a long row, ready for use.
A man stood at the table with his back to me. He turned at the creak of the chair and smiled. “Good evening, Miss Larkin. I hope you slept well.”
I glared at him. “I wasn’t supposed to be sleeping at all. Why did you knock me out and bring me here? Why’d you take me out of the prison?”
“All of those questions can be answered with the same explanation: that I wish to extract the magic of your voice.”
My mouth dropped open. “Come again?”
“You have an extraordinary voice, Miss Larkin,” he mused as he strolled over and inspected my bound wrists. “Miss Dolios is in desperate need of such a rejuvenation, and your voice will fit perfectly.”
“You got Marc arrested and brought me here to take my magic just so Iris can sound better?”
He knelt in front of me and tightened my ankle straps. “Yes. Unfortunately, the extraction process will kill you.”
My mouth dropped open. “W-what? You’re going to kill me so Iris can get my voice?”
“Nothing quite that simple, I assure you,” he countered as he stood and adjusted the wrist straps.
“I will extract your magic and then feed it into her, rejuvenating her voice.” He whipped his head up, and his wide eyes were filled with hope.
“Perhaps her body will be rejuvenated, as well. What a treat that would be! She would be young again, just like Mr. Torvus! She’d be able to sing for many, many more years to come! ”
“There has to be another way to do this!” I insisted as I strained against the straps. “What if I transferred my magic like I did for Marc?”
“No,” he refused as he stepped away from me. “Lady Iris is too important to give her a piddly portion of your magic. She deserves the whole of it.”
Tears sprang into my eyes as I fought my futile war with the straps. “But you can’t just kill me like this! It’s murder!”
He strolled over to a table and stopped with his back to me. A heavy sigh escaped him, and he bowed his head. “Yes. That’s a guilt I’ll have to carry with me the rest of my life.”
“But you don’t have to!” I pleaded as a tear rolled down my cheeks. “You can just let me go! I won’t tell anyone anything-”
Theo slammed his hands on the table. The glass rattled, and so did my confidence.
“Quiet!” he snapped as he hunched over his arms. “I will hear nothing of your pleas! I live to please my lovely Lady Iris!” He shot up and lifted his chin, attempting to appear as an angelic figure.
I saw only a demon. He raised a fisted hand, and his unfocused eyes glimpsed a bright future.
One without me. “She is nearly perfect, and with your voice, she will be!”
My heart pounded so loudly in my chest that I could barely think. An idea managed to get through the frantic thoughts. “You won’t get away with this! You signed me out! The Admiralty will know it was you who killed me!”
He paused and half-turned to me. There was such a cruel smile on his face that I shrank in my chair.
“I kill you? Why, it won’t be I who kills you.
I’ll inform the Admiralty that the notorious pirate Torvus intercepted your removal and killed you himself.
No doubt to keep you from telling them anything of interest, but who can say with such cutthroats? ”
“But you said it was bloodless! There won’t be any marks!”
He took a long knife off the table and held it up, admiring the razor-sharp edge. “I do regret having to mutilate your body, but you’re right. There have to be marks. You can take some consolation in that you will be dead when I make them.”
“That isn’t any consolation at all!” I screamed as I thrashed in my chair. “You’re insane if you think there’s anything good about this! You’re murdering me so a woman can use my voice to make herself rich! She doesn’t even care about you! All she cares about is herself-”
“Shut up!” he screamed as he raised the knife above his head. He stalked toward me and slammed his empty hand down on the arm of the chair, while the other held the tip of the blade only a few inches over my heart. His wild eyes burned with passion and fury. “She loves me! She loves-”
“Nobody but herself!” I insisted as I stuck my face closer to his. “I’ve seen her! She doesn’t even respect the flowers you send to her! She throws them out-”
He swiped the blade across my body. The weapon sliced open my left arm and part of my clothing. I let out a strangled gasp and tried to jerk back, only to be stopped by the chair. Blood poured from the gash in my arm and stained my sleeve.
Theo stumbled back, the wild look in his eyes dampened somewhat.
He raised the bloodied blade to his face and studied the stain.
His face had lost most of its color, and he swallowed hard.
“I. . .I didn’t mean to do it. You made me do it.
” His eyes lit up as he grasped that rational like a drowning man grasps a plank of wood.
“Yes, that’s it! She made me do it! It’s her fault!
” His gaze fell on me, and he wagged the weapon in my direction.
“That’s what you get for making me do that! ”
Every gasp of air was like sucking in pain. The hole in my arm gushed blood and stained my whole side.
Marc, where are you? I thought to myself as I clenched my teeth.
That’s when the door swung open and crashed into the wall. My heart leaped as a shadow appeared in the doorway, but not for long.
Not when I saw three people standing there in long overcoats.