35. LION
35
LION
Lion’s first few conscious thoughts were sane: he wondered where he was, he cursed at the hundred different sources of pain piercing through his body, and he tried to remember what had happened.
When he finally did remember, the insanity flooded back.
His strained groans were interrupted by chuckles. Every sharp breath hurt.
He had fucked Kastian Vogros! He had royally fucked the King of Chinderia!
That brought his attention to between his legs. He groped his crotch and sighed when he found his manhood still intact. For now.
He laughed and regretted it immediately, wincing at the pain it brought. He gasped for air, but he couldn’t keep it inside for long; the air found a way to slip out of his lips in the form of a moan or a giggle. Sometimes both.
He dove back into the peaceful pit of unconsciousness.
He woke several times to find the world still inhabitable.
He was lucky to crawl back into the comfort of sleep the first few times. Nonetheless, there came a time when his mind was too stubborn to let the darkness back in. It invited the madness instead.
His cries and laughter attracted several figures to come and check on him. One of those figures was Karhad. The long, dangling earring on Karhad’s right ear jingled annoyingly. He was arguing with someone about shutting the stupid slave up.
Lion snatched and pulled Karhad’s stupid earring, ripping part of his ear with it.
Karhad jerked back. For a brief second, he didn’t realise what Lion had just done. Then the pain hit him, and he started wailing, cupping the bleeding remains of his ear with both hands.
Lion laughed until his stomach cramped. He looked at the earring and at the piece of ear curiously. Why in Darkhome had he just done this? He had no idea, but it was hilarious!
“You stupid cunt!” growled Karhad. “ Prihjtivaviula! Prihjtivaviula! Prihjtivaviula! ”
Lion’s back lifted off the bed in a painful arc. Was it possible to snap one’s own back with the force of convulsions? He came too close to learning. His body was paralysed in an anguish like he’d never experienced before. The amount of pain was stacked when the Pain Word was repeated. His eyes rolled back inside his skull, teasing him with the prospect of unconsciousness, but one of the useful things about his Words was that they didn’t allow fainting.
The torture went longer than usual until Lion heard a roaring blast. Something had ripped inside his mind. He had heard a sound like this, the distinct sound of tearing, back at the arena too. A dark presence creeped into his head. It didn’t like the torment and the madness occupying there, so it retreated to the back, like a wounded animal. It stayed hidden in the shades of Lion’s distorted thoughts. Waiting. Recovering.
When the pain finally faded, Lion’s well-trained purebred body itched to roll facedown and assume submissive posture. His right leg was wet, bleeding out from an injury he forgot about. He raised one fist to his neck, requesting permission to speak. He slipped the other hand under the bandages on his leg.
“Speak,” snarled Karhad.
Kiejain’s balls! There were real tears in Karhad’s eyes! What a wuss!
“Fuck you, Master,” Lion chuckled and stabbed two fingers inside the wound.
The result was more blood, a sharp pain spreading from his leg, and a wonderful trip into unconsciousness before Karhad could speak his Pain Word again.
They threw him face down on the floor.
He was comfortable lying there like a sack of happy potatoes, but somebody wanted him on his knees. They were kind enough to assist him by grabbing his hair and yanking him up. Nice blokes.
He saw the bookshelves spreading the length of the walls and smelled the dust they gathered. He was back in the library and not surprised to see Kastian’s jolly bunch glaring daggers at him.
“Hi,” Lion smiled, all teeth. His friendly attitude was rewarded with an immediate punch.
“He’s broken,” Karhad said. His right ear was wrapped in a bandage. “Gone mad. I’ve never seen a purebred lose his mind like this.”
“There’s something in my mind,” Lion said and received another punch.
“Keep his hands off his leg,” Karhad instructed. Two men did as they were bid and twisted Lion’s arms behind him. Bummer. He was hoping to escape from this confrontation.
“Seriously,” Lion snickered. “There’s something inside my mind and it’s bad.”
“Don’t speak without permission!” Karhad spat. “ Prihjtivaviula! ”
Their conversation became buried behind the haze of pain for several seconds. When Lion submerged from the pain, they were talking about the possible causes of his insanity.
“You should cut down with your use of Pain Word, Master Karhad,” the old advisor said. “It doesn’t seem to have a good impact on him.”
“Pain Word does not cause insanity,” Karhad said coldly. “I’ve never seen the Pain Word do this to a purebred.”
“It’s evil,” Lion said. “It wants to get out, and it’s very, very evil.”
“Shut up!” grunted one of the men behind him, and slapped him with the back of his hand.
“Master Karhad is right,” Kastian said. “Pain Word does not break their mind like this.”
“How’s Dinky doing?” Lion spat blood on the expensive carpet. Sitting on his large, throne-like chair, Kastian narrowed his eyes into slits. “It wasn’t your brother. It was you, wasn’t it?”
It wasn’t really a question, and Lion didn’t expect an answer from him. But one of the men answered on behalf of the King. “Don’t you talk to your king, you piece of meat!” He backed his command with a slap.
“Stop damaging him,” Queen Inoeveth said in a serene voice. “We’ve seen that does not work.”
“As you wish, Your Highness.”
Lion tilted his head back and laughed. Then he stared at the Queen’s grey eyes.
Look at me , Saradra whispered in his head. Fight it.
“How did you know?” Lion asked, grinning a joyless grin. “How did you know? Huh?”
Inoeveth knew what he meant by that. Corners of her mouth curled into a tight smile.
“How did you know?” Lion yelled louder. Every time he repeated the question, his careless, lunatic humour diminished. “How did you know? How did you know?” He lunged forward with a deranged scream. He broke free of the surprised guards, yet the Queen didn’t even flinch.
Kastian reacted before anyone else did. “ Padlociatius! ”
Lion sprawled onto the floor. The guards, terrified of what their lack of attention could have caused, grabbed his arms and dragged him back to where he was. His head lolled back and forth, presenting him with a colourful view of the speechless faces.
Kastian stood up to give his queen comfort she didn’t need. Queen Inoeveth allowed her husband to hold her hand, but she kept her cold stare on Lion, still smiling that goat’s ass of a smile.
When the paralysis cleared, Lion broke the gasped silence with a laughter.
“He… He attacked the Queen!” a lord in a fancy jacket breathed in a shrill voice. “How dare anyone do that, let alone a purebred! Master Karhad?”
They all turned to the Master of the Slaves, demanding an explanation. “I told you,” Karhad said, touching his bandage self-consciously. “He’s gone rabid! Your Majesty, he has to be sent to White Tower.”
“No,” Prince Dienus objected. “Father, we should execute him. Publicly. And if the people riot, we strike hard and crush them. Show them the power of House Vogros.”
“This thing in my head,” Lion said, still laughing. “If it gets out, bad things are gonna happen!”
“Shut up,” growled one of the guards, but upon his queen’s orders, he didn’t do more than squeeze Lion’s arm.
“What Prince Dienus suggests would be the best solution to clean up the mess that’s caused in Switchblade,” the old advisor said. “However, using our military forces to provoke and then stamp out a riot would leave us weak against an attempt by rival families. Even as we speak, they are gathering their courage to question the legitimacy of our king.”
Kastian growled, rubbing his temples.
“I promise you, King,” Lion said. “I won’t let that thing out. It’s locked deep inside.”
Prince Dienus took his belt off and handed it to guards. “Shut him up.”
The men stuffed the belt between Lion’s teeth and tied it around his head. He let out a muffled protest.
“We have to do something to prove our strength,” Prince Lotheris said. He had to raise his voice because Lion started to hum the tune of a made-up song. “We can stop the people from talking by hunting and arresting the loudest ones. But we still have to do something drastic to remind the Houses of our capabilities before any of them uses these riots as an opportunity.”
What the older prince said didn’t seem to relieve his father’s headache. Kastian pressed the base of his palm against his forehead. “We all know that, but what? I have a room full of advisers who do nothing other than bewailing at our situation. Whichever of you is waiting to snatch the most desperate moment to come up with a solution, it is now.”
“That would be me, my love.” Queen Inoeveth put a gentle hand on her husband’s cheek. “I know how to turn this around. We’ll talk.”
“Talk?”
The Queen smiled and nodded. She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around Kastian’s shoulders. Their eyes glistened with affection for each other. Watching their love hurt Lion more than any punch. Not long ago, Saradra was looking at him like that. Lion was watching her sleep with the same eyes as Kastian watched his queen. Now, a hole was ripped open inside Lion’s chest, scorching everything.
Inoeveth glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes and flashed a cruel smile. A stiff growl rose from the back of Lion’s throat.
“But who are we going to talk to, Your Highness?” asked the old advisor. “And about what?”
“You all have been getting worried about how other houses might use these riots for their benefit. Why don’t we use them?”
Kastian, finally catching a brief glimpse of what his wife had in her mind, smiled. “Elaborate, dear.”
“But first, we have to agree that the slave is going to White Tower. We need him to obey.”
“I’m not releasing him into an arena again!”
“We won’t. But we can still use him. After we get him… repaired.”
Kastian ordered Master Karhad to take Lion to the dungeons and start packing up for a long trip. They dragged him out of the room before Queen Inoeveth revealed the rest of her heinous plan.