14. Lina
Lina
“ F inally,” he says in a gravelly tone. “It’s my turn.”
Bile rises in my throat as the warrior rips me from my seat on the ground. He drags me through the darkness. I scream and thrash but it’s no use.
The masked warrior drags me by the waist into the dark tunnel and down a winding stone walkway that curls through a massive cavern.
I panic, fighting against his hold, but his arms are like solid stone around my waist, pulling me against his chest.
I can’t see him, but I know. This is the man from the forest. The one that took me.
My captor stops. “I suggest you stop struggling, Mouse.” The man’s voice is soft. “The draken do not take well to commotion.” There’s amusement in his voice.
I stare at the doorway ahead. Pitch black. I can’t see what is beyond.
Where is he taking me?
“And if you think I would protect you if they come for you—” He chuckles. “You’ve overestimated your value.”
This time, fear clenches my muscles enough that my body obeys his words. When I’m still, he restarts his slow march and carries me into the darkness.
Icy cold. My breath trembles and comes out in a cloud.
It’s so quiet. So still. And yet, the shadows in the pit below slither.
Whispers float through the air. Incomprehensible words jumbled together soft and melodious.
He takes careful steps, as if he too is afraid. Or maybe, he simply wants to drag out my fear.
A set of eyes flickers open, reflecting yellow light. A rumble begins slow and lazy but shakes the ground beneath me.
I can’t tell how far the monsters are, or how large, but I can feel their presence.
Their attention is on me.
I yelp as a sharp scraping sound screeches, ricocheting through the room. A talon against stone.
“Calm down, Mouse,” he murmurs against my ear.
I want to tell him to stop calling me that, but my cowardly lips refuse to move.
Ahead, light grows, and the overbearing pressure of the reptiles’ presence passes away like fog in the mountains.
In a flash and a jerk, light floods my vision.
Someone chuckles several feet away.
Anger flares in my mind, chasing away the vice grip of fear. I blink rapidly, taking in the new world before me.
It’s a massive cavern, larger than my village and three others combined. Fresh blue water cascades out from a giant skull’s mouth against the far wall. I peer over the ledge, following the water down, down, down, to the cave floor.
It is both terrible and glorious at once. The most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. And yet, it’s marred with the symbol of their god. Nihil, death himself.
The warrior does not pause to allow me to dwell in my awe and horror.
He carries me down a spiral path leading into the pit below, where the waterfall splashes into a pool of crystal blue water.
The scent of death is almost covered by the fresh mist rising up from the waterfall, but I never lose the crawling sensation under my skin everywhere he touches me.
Finally, after an eternity, I am released. My body drops to the stone floor a dozen feet from the misty basin of water.
When the mist clears, it reveals my worst nightmare. Dozens of masked warriors watch me with black eyes.
They stand in a semi-circle, chins dipped, muscles tense. But they don’t move. They don’t grab. Even so, there is a tension in their stance, as if they’re ready to attack. As if, at any moment, they’ll be given the opportunity to tear me apart like wolves would a deer.
Predator or prey, you must choose.
I press my forehead to the ground, desperate to hide from the horror around me.
Someone steps up to me, and the smell of death is entirely washed away, replaced by the sweetest scent I’ve ever experienced.
My mind stutters when I find a set of flawlessly sculpted toenails, painted red. Feet decorated in golden straps, twisting up perfect calves.
I slowly look up to find another woman, more beautiful than should be possible. Golden dress and red hair curls down to her shoulders, covering her breasts. This is a different priestess. How many are there?
Her lips curl into a small grin.
“More unchosen?” she purrs, as if pleased by it.
Growls of rage and glee alike rise from the mob surrounding me.
“A heretic,” the warrior at my back says.
“Truly?” a second priestess with shorter hair says. Her blood-red lips part. This one wears a silver gown, instead of gold.
The two women circle me, examining every inch, but I ignore them. I search, instead, for evidence of other refugees.
I find only dread. A hundred of them. Men—or beasts pretending to be men—eager for the opportunity to have me as a meal.
Some of the men have black masks up over their noses and mouths. Some have golden skull masks. All have hoods covering their heads.
“What is your name?” she asks.
I cannot stop my body from trembling. I cannot help but showcase how weak and afraid I am. I wish I could be strong and brave. I’m supposed to make it out of this. Astella said so.
There is hope here, somewhere. There is, at minimum, a way out.
My heart aches. Did I miss that chance already by rejecting their magic? Was that the right way? I press my eyes closed tightly. The wrongness of that magic was so palpable, I knew then and I know now, that it was the right choice—the only choice—to reject it.
Whatever happens now, I will simply have to endure.
“Lina,” I finally force from my quivering lips.
One of the priestesses snaps her manicured fingers. A force yanks my chin up to her without touching me. “You come to our home, beg for our help, and you dare reject us?—”
“She begs for death,” a man says somewhere behind me. “Let me grant her such a gift.”
I suck in a breath as he draws his tongue across too-sharp teeth.
“Perhaps that’s what this is,” the redhead says with a tilt of her head. “You wish for death?”
“I want freedom,” I force out, tasting my own tears. It is something I know they will never give me.
“Death is a form of freedom,” she muses.
“I was brought here against my will.” That is a concept they don’t seem to grasp. Do they not know what the warriors do outside of their mountain? “I want to leave,” I growl.
“How rude,” the blond says. “A rude little rat.” She curls a lip.
“Rats have more fight than this one could ever have. Look how she trembles.”
“A mouse,” the terrible man who dragged me here tells her.
The women in silver nods, a tiny grin on her lips. “The only way you leave these halls, Little Mouse, is as ash on the wind. If that is what you wish, speak it.”
Part of me does want that. I wish I had died in the poison of the desert. Or had my soul sucked dry by the shadowscelp. Instead, hope dragged me here.
“Such promise. Such despair.” She purrs. “If you fail, we will fulfill the wish you are too afraid to voice.”
Fail at what?
“You cannot be Drak’yn or an acolyte. Certainly not a priestess. You are too fearful and rebellious—a bizarre combination, truth be told. So, I only see two possibilities left for you.”
I swallow.
The men behind me begin to stomp. Slow at first, then faster. Faster. Faster.
“Call your beast, Ivar. Let her see what she risks.”
I can’t see the man’s expression behind his mask but the light in his eyes tells me he is enjoying this. A whistle rings out and the mob of men still.
Thundering steps cause terror to spread through my limbs until a massive beast enters through the shadows behind the masked men.
“Meet Lystern.”
The draken stops beside the warrior who called him. He is three times the man’s height, with blue scales and a head larger than my whole body.
“Bow, or become his next meal,” the silver priestess croons. I don’t dare move. I’m already on the ground. “The only mercy, is how fast your end will come.”
The woman approaches me. She doesn’t seem to fear the beast in the slightest. His fangs are the size of my whole hand.
“These men,” she motions to the horde of men, who resume their stomping, “Are your last hope to remain breathing. Would you like to entertain them?”
My stomach clenches, and I double over. The contents of my stomach spill through my lips. Barely anything comes out, but the woman leaps back with an annoyed huff.
The warriors laugh.
“If you are not chosen by one of them, then your bones will decorate the drakai pits for eternity.” She looks up at the stomping men, dark eyes watching me closely. “Don’t underestimate their desire for violence. Our boys do so love blood.”
I suck in a breath but still manage to force out, “I don’t want them either.”
There’s a pause. The draken grumbles and lowers his head.
“Ahhh, you see, that’s where things change.
Nihil is displeased by doubters. Our boys, however, they are sometimes willing to…
rehabilitate. Some humans must see for themselves what life can be like here in our midst. If you are chosen as a pet by one of them, you will have a home.
You will be cared for. And you will not leave these halls until death. ”
I look up to the snarling massive men. I will be a pet to one of them?
“Only one can have you. And if they choose to accept you, despite your deficiencies, they will be committed to keeping you. If you disobey their rule, they will discipline you. If they fail in that duty, they will be punished. They do not want that. I find it hard to believe any one of my boys would choose you, simply because you’ve shown such disregard for our ways?—”
“I’ll keep her in her place, priestess.” The voice sends a shiver down my spine.
All I can see of his face is the skin of his forehead beneath his hood and his dark eyes. The man who dragged me here? Is he the same, or can I simply not tell any of them apart?
“You claim her, then?” the priestess asks with a tilt of her head. “I must express my surprise. You’ve seen what she has said about us. She will be a challenge. I don’t want to have to punish you, but?—”
He lifts his mask to reveal a face of all sharp lines and a cruel smile. “I will enjoy making her obey.”
“I find it a foolish choice, but of course, if anyone is capable, I suppose it would be the grandson of Captain Rile. Let us see if you have any challengers.”
He curls a lip. “No one is foolish enough to challen?—”
She waves at him. “Yes, yes, but for custom’s sake.”
He curls a lip but says no more.
The red-haired priestess shouts to the men. At the sound of her voice, they halt their stomping. “Ivar of the Island of Venine, son of the Rifelin, has claimed this girl as his. Do you accept his claim?”
My soul shrinks, knowing this horrible man will do anything he wants to me in the guise of punishment and I have no way of fighting back.
I cling to Astella’s words. We will still make it.
It’s hard to believe.
“Very well. Take your pri?—"
I flinch as a male voice calls from the edge of the cavern. I twist to look before his words settle in my mind. Mist shifts to reveal another warrior, same as all the rest, standing on the far end of the waterfall basin.
“I do not accept his claim. She is mine.”