Chapter 10
KORMAC
It happened so fucking fast I didn’t get much of a chance to struggle.
They’d taken me from my cell, hog-tied me and dragged me deeper into the dark, bundled me into a cart. Gagged me, punched me in the gut. Gods, these guards knew how to get a job done fast.
Before I knew it, I was outside in the sunshine, blinded by the light.
The day was hot, with a breeze taking the edge off the heat a little.
As my eyes adjusted, I saw high gold walls around me, closing in around a road.
I couldn’t see much but the blue sky and those walls, the horse pulling the cart, and an elf steering it.
Just behind us were two more elves with spears, keeping their eyes on me.
I didn’t bother to ask where we were going. These weren’t friendly folk. No sharing and caring here.
The cart arrived at a silver gate, whatever behind it hidden by crisscrossed paneling. My chest tightened, my jaw trying to clench behind the gag.
This wasn’t good.
Once again, I got punched and dragged, the gate swinging open silently. Royals got to have oiled hinges, apparently. On the other side was a garden of dead orchids. At least, they seemed to be dead. More like shriveled, their petals still in place. In need of water and some tender loving care.
Hadn’t Prince Valance mentioned something about orchids? Feeding to orchids?
Ah, hellpiss! This really, really wasn’t good.
Above the dead garden were two wooden cages suspended from a concrete beam. That beam attached to a pillar on a white stone platform above the orchids. And on that platform were specks of dried blood.
Inside one of those cages was a Fomorian guy I didn’t recognize. He lifted a hand in greeting. I couldn’t lift one back but tried for a nod.
The elves carried me up some stairs, sparing me smacking my head off the stone by not dragging me. Their drags had already split my clothing and the skin at my knees. Painful grazes stung at other points of my body, too.
Gods, did I stink.
Machinery clicked somewhere. I spotted two wooden wheels behind the platform. They turned, and the beam came over to the platform side.
“Hello!” the man in the cage cried. “Good to see you united in bringing these fuckers down.” He spat at an elf.
That got him jabbed with the blunt end of a spear. Right in the chest. He ‘oofed’ and folded over as much as he could in his cramped cage.
“Shut the fuck up!” the female elf snapped at him. “Next time you spit, the sharp end goes in your mouth.”
I kept quiet, scanning my surroundings.
Along with the gate I came through, there was another opposite it. Other than that, I didn’t see much else besides the orchids and the cages. One detail I did realize, though, was the silver chains on the cages. More chains spread across the underside of the beam, attached to little wheels.
For lowering?
I looked down at the dead orchids again. How much damage could an orchid do, dead or alive?
An elf cut my binds and my gag but re-secured my legs and shoved me inside the cage.
“Enjoy,” the male said, slamming the door.
There wasn’t much room to move in my new cell. My shoulders touched each side, and my bound legs had no other position to be in but tucked up, my chin resting on my knees.
The bottom of the cage wobbled, seemed to be part of a hatch or something. Did the bottom give out at the flick of a switch?
The machinery kicked in again, the beam moving back out to its position over the garden. We dangled there, helpless. Me and this other rebel.
“Those dirty elves,” the man said. “Curse them and their parents for laying together to breed the pricks.” He spat out of his cage at the orchids. “I’m Preston. I’d shake your hand under different circumstances.”
The brown skin of Preston’s face was covered in cuts and bruises, his bottom lip split. He kept sucking on it between speaking.
“Kormac,” I replied.
“I know. We heard all about you and Ren.”
“You did?”
“Yep. Fuck.” He spat again. “Sorry this went tits up for you. We were hoping you’d get inside. He’s one powerful guy, ain’t he?”
“He is.” My legs were going numb. “What do we do now?”
“I don’t know. Wait and see what happens.”
“Really?”
“No, but I haven’t got any other ideas. You?”
I shook my head. “Wish I did.”
“Seems to be our problem, right?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Fucking everything up. Going in without better plans.”
Made me think of Leanna. If she were in that cage, she’d get us out. Or at least have some sort of plan to try to not be fodder for the enemy.
That’s all we were, dangling like this over a dead garden and waiting for hellpiss to rain down on our heads.
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“Less than an hour,” he replied. “Got caught this morning coming after you and Ren. Thought we could help, maybe get you out if you were still alive. We weren’t sure you’d be alive, but there you are. Pointless now.”
“Nothing’s ever pointless,” I said.
“You’re not giving up?”
“No.”
“Even with this situation?”
“No. Why should I? That’s what the fuckers want, isn’t it?” I almost spat for effect, too, but held back. “Even if I die now, I’ll try to make it count.”
“Make what count?”
“My time here.”
“Your time here?” he shook his head. “Admire your determination, but that’s some fucked up thinking.”
“Maybe I can take one of these elves out.”
He chuckled. “Not happening, Kormac. It’s over.
I came with nine others. They’re all dead.
Wiped out in minutes. Prince and his elves sliced and diced.
Wanted one of us left. You must know Valance’s reputation, right?
Likes his games, likes his enemies to suffer.
Heard the stories about the screams from the palace. Just like Daire.”
“I heard Ren’s screams yesterday,” I said. I also remembered the insects and how the prince enjoyed watching them crawl over me. Honestly, I’d believed he’d let that tarantula poison me, let the ants have my eyes or something.
Preston grunted. “Well, then you know this ain’t going to end well for either of us.”
I glanced down at the dead flowers. “What do you think will happen?”
“Fuck knows.”
I told him what the prince said about orchids.
“Something to look forward to, then.”
Maybe the fighting spirit inside me was crazy. What could I really do now? My future looked bleak.
Damn them all.
For a while, things stayed quiet. Preston didn’t talk anymore. I listened to the birds, the boots of the elves on the platform. The creak of the chains as the cages swung gently, the distant waves of the ocean.
Who was that woman from last night? Why had she asked me those questions? And why hadn’t she made a sound afterward? I didn’t tell Preston about her because there wasn’t any point. He’d just tell me it didn’t matter because we were done for.
The more I thought about orchids eating me, the more sweat dripped off my forehead. Sweat pooled pretty much everywhere, intensifying my stink as I cooked in the sun.
Was this really it? Was I about to die in this damn place? Would those dead flowers really eat me?
The other gate opened in response to my thoughts.
Prince Valance stepped through it, two elves behind him.
Shit.
His black cloak billowed behind him as he strode elegantly through the garden, eyes locked onto me as he passed beneath. The bastard smirked, parts of his flawlessly smooth alabaster face spattered with blood.
“Out killing again?” I asked him.
He didn’t answer, of course. Smirked some more, touched the dead brown flowers. I was surprised they didn’t break or crumble under his fingers.
But wait…
I saw it next, the change in the orchids. They were each getting some color. Pink and white and blue and purple. Each bent stem straightened as the colors flushed across them like paint had been spilled at various points of the garden. Really pretty if you didn’t count what came next.
In the middle of the flowers, mouths opened up. Actual, hellpissing mouths. With teeth. Loads and loads of teeth.
“Shit…” I muttered to myself.
I glanced over to Preston, his crimson Fomorian eyes on me. He’d suddenly gone a sickly shade of green, his hands gripping the bars of the wooden cage.
Watching his fear didn’t sit right with me.
It reminded me of how fucked I was. Instead, I focused on the prince now up on the platform with the elves.
He seemed to be full of himself. Why wouldn’t he be?
He was a prince. A dirty Sidhe royal pretending to be civilized and the force of good, but really nothing but a monster from a family of monsters.
They believed in slaves and dominance and slaughtering my friend. Leanna…
Daire… Leanna… The rain… The screaming…
… I stopped, my hands now gripping the wooden bars so tight my knuckles turned white.
“Hello to you both,” Valance said.
Even with the blood on him, he still looked good. Not one hair out of place. No sweatiness for the prince.
Gods, I loathed him so much.
“I’ve brought you both here today so we could spend some time getting to know one another.” He laughed at himself. “Well, for me to get to know things.”
The orchids were fully in bloom now. Living plant beasts straining to reach us, their ‘faces’ all pointed toward me and Preston. Hungry, their pointed teeth chattering in a sinister song.
Thank the gods they didn’t have visible eyes.
“Tell me things,” the prince said. “I like to know things. Will there be more of you coming to take my head today?”
If only… Better men and women wouldn’t be in these hellpissing cages!
“As much as I enjoy slaughtering unseelie scum,” he added, “I’d really like to know what’s coming. I’m in no mood for surprises. It has been a strange few days.”
Strange? Oh, poor him. What a sad, troubled life living in a palace, always winning battles, with plenty of servants to wipe his ass for him. Poor, poor prince.
If only I had some shadow magic. Strong enough power to get inside one of the elves’ heads. Drive them to shove their prince into the orchids and watch them eat their master.