Chapter 12 #4
Her tone is telling. She’s playing with me, amusing herself. She telling me all this because she does not intend on letting me leave. She also has her own spies in the Underhill as we suspected. She knows much more than I would have believed.
And she still very much hates Lia.
But how much longer will this game go on for? And how much more can I learn before she decides it’s time to kill me?
‘I’d love to see more.’
She puts the apple down and gives me a seductive look over her shoulder.
‘I’m sure you would.’ Her lips upturn just a tad. ‘Come.’
She leads me back into her hall and around her dais, where her black throne sits atop it.
I keep up and try not to notice the naked human slaves who meander around with trays of food and drink.
All the men and the women have rings in their noses with delicate golden chains hanging from them.
I see a fae female from the corner of my eye pull one of them viciously, making the man attached squeal as she yanks him down to where she is seated, so that she can pluck a single grape from his tray.
She lets go just as quickly, and the man loses his balance, falling to the side, but I notice that he keeps the tray as still as possible so that nothing falls.
'Humans are quite easy to keep,' Fiana says as we walk through her court.
All make way for her. Most don't meet her eye, even the fae I notice. She's feared.
'Is it just the conjures you use to make them do as you will?' I ask. 'To make the humans happy? Appease them?'
'Sometimes,' she says airily. 'But I won't lie. I do enjoy humiliating them. Subjugating them. Punishing them. It’s a little vice I harbor. I even leave some of their minds untouched by my conjures for those reasons alone.'
She turns and stops dead.
'You,' she snaps at a young woman who's carrying a tray of goblets. 'On your knees.'
The girl complies without question or hesitation, sinking to the floor in front of her mistress and Fiana plucks the tray from her hands, holding it out and allowing it to be whisked away by one of the others. She stares down at the girl, whose eyes are on the floor.
'Look at me.'
The girl's eyes rise.
'I haven't noticed you before. What's your name?'
'Mariah, my lady.'
Fiana's eyes move over the girl's face and down to her chest, where her breasts are pierced with golden rings and a delicate chain runs between them. Another goes from her nose down to between her thighs and I assume she’s ringed there as well. I don’t let my disgust show on my face.
I’ve seen this before in more than one Circle, though not usually with gold.
Another way for Fiana to show off, as all of her slaves are dripping with precious metals.
Some even have jewels in their ears as well.
Fiana steps closer and peers down at the girl, who's visibly quaking. She doesn't say a word. Just stares. The girl's lower lip begins to tremble as Fiana's hand caresses the girl's shoulder and takes hold of the chain, drawing her up quickly.
'You do remind me of her with that dark hair. You could be her sister,' she murmurs to herself.
I can barely hear her.
'Yes. You'll do nicely.'
The fae queen pulls the chain hard, making the girl squeal, and one side of her lips turns upward.
'Yes. Very nicely.'
She motions with one of her hands, and her guard comes over. 'Put this one in the block. Let the bulls have her for a while, and then have her brought to my personal dungeon.'
He nods and takes the girl by her hair. She’s even more subdued, quietly sobbing but doesn't make any other noise of dissent, and Fiana turns around as if she'd forgotten that I was behind her.
'Come,' she says again.
I make myself quirk a brow. ‘What will you do with her?’
‘Anything I like,’ she snarls, her face morphing from serene to furious, only to change back just as quickly.
Why was she so interested in that one?
Perhaps because she looks a bit like Lia.
Without another word, she takes me down a corridor to some steep steps.
At the bottom of them is another corridor.
It's damp and dank down here. There's a pervading smell of rot.
Of unwashed bodies. A dungeon, if I ever smelled one.
It's dim as well, the sputtering torches letting out very little light.
She opens the door, and I hear wailing coming from further along the passage. When we get to the next open doorway, I see cells filled with humans, and I realize I’ve been brought to the stolen residents of Halsford.
They're not dead, nor lost to Fiana’s intricate Dark Realm network of slavers and human farms. Not yet.
When some of the villagers recognize me and look at me beseechingly, I let out a loud laugh to make sure they don’t start begging me to save them.
I stroll past some of the cells slowly, noting the faces that I see. Most, if not all, are here.
I pause outside a smaller door with no one inside at first glance, but as my eyes strain to see the back, I make out a lone occupant.
Bryn.
She’s curled into a ball. She doesn’t look at me.
My smile is as cold as I can make it when I turn back to look at Fiana.
‘So, this is where you bring them first, and sort them?’
She nods. ‘This is but one dungeon of many. In a few hours, they’ll be separated. Some will go to the farms, the strongest to my personal stock, and the ones who are left will be paraded through my court.’
‘Indeed?’ I turn up my nose. ‘Around the hall? But they’re so…dirty.’
Fiana sniffs delicately. ‘They’re made to bathe before my favored will take them. Mostly to play with, though some of my courtiers like to pit them against each other in the arenas, or let them be torn to pieces as fodder for the beasts in the games.’
I turn to face her, regarding her with a small smile. ‘Why have you brought me down here, my lady Fiana? Why are you answering my questions? We’ve already established that you trust no one, so why show me all this?’
‘At first you were an interesting little diversion, but now I’m wondering if you might actually be able to help me,’ she says, gliding closer.
She seems in earnest. Her game has changed, so she must have some other plan.
‘Oh, there’s no doubt about that,’ I say, my tone cocksure and haughty.
I walk around her slowly, deep in thought. ‘But is there something in particular in your mind?’
‘Well, powerful mages with talent are always in short supply,’ she murmurs.
‘There aren’t many who’ll leave the legitimacy of Dead City for this.
And, of course, I have no second. My generals tend to take up quite a bit of my time with their little intrigues, time that would be better spent on other endeavors.
And, of course, Warrior wasn’t intending to bring the Kismet to me, at least not directly regardless of what he says.
He would have had me searching for her when she was already in his grasp had I not threatened him to do my bidding in this. ’
Fiana’s lips thin, but then her eyes twinkle in the dark.
It’s disconcerting, but I hold my ground.
‘And do you suppose I’d be more loyal?’ I ask, quirking a brow.