Chapter Forty-Two
A man darted past me as Vas and I entered. I turned to grab him, but Vas stopped me.
“He's just a client. Let him go.” Vas headed for the stairs.
There were shouts and pounding footsteps coming from above. Sion came down the main stairs with a X'anti man and shoved him into the parlor on the right.
At my lifted brow, Sion said, “He was wearing a fucking bloody ribbon, boss! And he's not the only one. We're putting 'em in the cells with the Ricarri.”
“Cells?”
“The bitch has prison cells downstairs. We found some people in them.” He shoved the X'anti.
With his hands bound behind his back, the X'anti couldn't balance himself.
His hooves slipped on the wood floor, and he fell onto his face.
He would have broken his nose if not for the large pair of black horns that swept up from his temples.
Sion left him there to mutter into the rug as he motioned toward the second parlor on the left.
“We put them in there with the uh, sex workers, boss.”
I glanced into the parlor to see a group of people, most dressed in silk, sitting on couches, chaise lounges, and even the floor as they stared off with vacant expressions.
“Good job, Sion. I want all the Spider's employees in those cells.”
“Yes, boss!” He grabbed the X'anti by his upper arm, hauled him to his feet, and then pushed him into the parlor on the left.
I went to the right.
“Kat!” Vas grabbed my hand.
“They're still wearing ribbons.” I motioned at the people.
“That might be for the best.”
“What?”
“We need to keep them calm as we clear the house.” He swallowed roughly. “Come with me. Now.”
“All right.” I let him lead me up the stairs.
We bypassed the second floor, but I saw some of my crew helping people through the corridor.
On the third-floor landing, we went down the corridor I had run through just minutes earlier and came to the open room with the voyeurs and exhibitionists.
The clients were gone, but the slaves stood against the wall, naked and staring straight ahead.
Tesal was watching a group of masters, keeping them from running, as Yesmic bound them.
I understood that the masters were the priority, but I didn't like the slaves standing there naked.
I started toward them, intending to cover them. Again, Vas stopped me.
“Not now, Kat!” Vasren yanked me toward a narrow stairwell just off the corridor that led to the Spider's office.
“I just want to cover them.” I jerked at his grip.
Then a faint sound came from the floor above. It raised the hair on the back of my arms.
I went still. “What the fuck is that?”
“That's Cesha.” Vas pushed in front of me and led the way up the stairs. “You need to prepare yourself, Katai.”
“Oh, fuck.” My mind filled with images of the worst sorts of sexual deviations. I expected to find chains and blood, and I did, but not in the manner my mind had presented.
Vas took my hand as we left the landing and entered a corridor lined with doors.
Six doors were open. Five bodies lay near the first five doors.
Screaming echoed into the hallway from the sixth open door, along with a battle cry.
We reached the first body. I gaped at the sliced throat and mutilated genitalia.
It was more than an execution. More than vengeance.
It was mutilation. This was insane fury.
A chill coursed down my spine as I stepped over the body, coming to the first room. Inside it, Navin was holding a crying girl, no more than ten. He looked up at me over her head, and his concerned expression shifted to cold fury.
“No,” I whispered. I dashed to the second room. Sudar was there. He knelt before a little boy, a ribbon on the floor beside them. The boy trembled as Sudar held his hand and spoke softly to him. They both looked up at my entrance, but the boy cringed.
“It's all right. That's my boss,” Sudar said. “He's a good man. You're safe now.”
“Safe?” the boy whispered as if he didn't know the word. His Argaiv wings shivered and then folded forward around his tiny body.
“No!” I ran to the next room. Another child.
This one sat naked on a bed, staring off blankly, a ribbon on her wrist. Maybe six or seven years old, she was a Shanba, her skin spotted with patches of brown—a mark of beauty among her people.
She looked at me and blinked her large brown eyes.
Empty. They were utterly empty. “No!” I screamed and lurched backward. “No.”
“Kat.” Vasren tried to take my hand.
I tore free of him and stumbled down the corridor.
Room after room had children in poses that were burned into my mind.
They didn't move, just waited in those terrible positions, ribbons on all of their wrists.
Up ahead, a body flew into the hallway, and Cesha followed it with a leap, her daggers slicing as she screamed.
Or was that me? No, it was both of us. Roars of fury and horror came from our throats.
Her face was a mask of rage, and I felt mine follow it.
Cesha looked up at me, covered in blood, her eyes gleaming through the red. Panting, she paused. Then she lifted the man's hand. On the wrist was a silk ribbon with a spot of blood on it.
“Hamstring that motherfucker!” I shouted. “You're killing them too fast, Cesha. Put them down and move on. We'll work them over after the rooms are cleared.”
She bared her teeth at me, rolled the Neraky man onto his belly, and brought the knife down. He screamed as she sliced through his tendons.
I hurried past. I knew why Cesha had been killing them quickly. There were still unopened rooms, and she didn't want any of these bastards escaping. Neither did I, but I didn't want their punishment to be so brief either. The children deserved better.
“To me!” I shouted.
Pounding footsteps echoed up the stairs, and then Yesmic and Tesal rushed into the hallway.
“Get those pieces of shit out of these rooms and away from the children! ” I ran for the end of the corridor while Vas followed. “Hurt them, but don't kill them yet.”
“The children?” Tesal's voice broke.
I went to the last door, leaving the closer ones for the others.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Vas head for the room across from mine while Cesha went to the one on my right.
My target was halfway out the window when I entered the room.
A Ricarri boy of no more than ten was bent over the bed, unmoving. I shuddered to a stop.
In my mind, I saw another Ricarri boy—a child I had used to take vengeance upon his mother.
I told myself I hadn't put him in danger, but I saw the truth now.
I had scared that innocent child—taken him from his home in the middle of the night and locked him in a case that slowly filled with sand.
He was just a little boy, and I had tortured him. All in the name of justice.
With a roar that pulled my pain and horror to the surface, I dove for the fleeing pedophile.
Slicing the back of his knees brought him to the floor, where I kicked him in the side and then dragged him into the hallway.
As I brought him forth, Vas came out of the room across the way, holding a Brujai man by his throat.
He lifted the man several feet and then tossed him onto the Tyasmoran man I had caught.
Yesmic and Tesal brought more of the bastards out, and then we all turned toward the last room.
Cesha emerged with an Argaiv who was now wingless. She slashed at his back to send him screaming into the hallway. He fell on top of the others. The corridor was a mix of the mutilated dead and the moaning, barely alive, evil bastards.
I looked at Vas, waiting to see if he'd protest the bloodshed.
He snarled and dove for the pedophile pile.
Daggers aloft and shouting a war cry, I followed.