22. Chapter Twenty-Two #2
The firefly ring on my finger glows brighter than I’ve ever seen it and helps to keep me from plummeting down the stairs that seem as endless as the hallway did.
When I reach the bottom, it feels like a massive mistake due to having to climb back up the countless flights, but since I’ve already gone this far, I step into the dark hallway.
Hay covers cracked black floors, and I shine my ring in front of me not to fall into any of the larger crevices.
The air smells of tar and rotten eggs, and I breathe shallowly.
A flickering blue light dangles from the ceiling where the cells start.
They are empty of all but a bed, a toilet, and an empty bucket.
In front of the last cell rests a pile of bones and two cow skulls, indicating dead guards.
The cell behind the piles is open, and another pile with two wolf skulls sits in the corner next to three stacked beds.
My knees slam to the floor as I'm shoved into the cell, and I leap to my feet with my dagger poised for attack.
Ruax shuts the iron door and locks it. “Did you do what I told you?”
“I went to the library, but the book on necromancy was missing. There was only one with a brief description. The librarian told me to return a few days later, but when I did, she still hadn’t found it.” I tug on the door with no luck. “Let me out of here.”
“No, you need to experience a small amount of what I did. If you die in here from lack of food and water, maybe he can put you into a skeleton. We’ll see how pretty he thinks you are then.”
“You’re insane.”
“Wouldn’t you be if this was your life now?” He lifts his arms to give me a full view of his new body. "You're useless, so I no longer want your help. I'll find the missing book myself and figure out a way to get a body. It's better for you to suffer."
“Did you kill the guards?”
“How could I kill something already dead? I freed their spirit the same way I did my friends.”
“You should free your own.”
He snickers and shakes his finger from side to side. “No, not until I free yours. The king’s would be preferable, but I can’t harm my creator.”
“You only wanted me to read about necromancers to help you get a body?”
“Yes, I don’t know what your king is, but he isn’t your average necromancer.
It made me think rules don't apply to him, and I can trick him into giving me a new body.
Also, you've always been good with magic, and maybe we wouldn't need him to make it happen, but I think you're only going to sabotage me.
Do you even know the biggest thing that made me realize he was different? "
“The people he brings back are real and not voids.”
He claps and makes me cringe as his fingers scrape together. “Bravo.”
“What does it matter if he has other talents?”
“The answer to that should make you wary of trusting him. Wary that he isn’t being honest with you.”
“He doesn’t have memories, so he can’t exactly be fully honest with me about anything. For all I know, he could have a wife and kids somewhere. Not much was known about the king in the villages. He only had a reputation for being heartless for not helping.”
“And knowing that you still fell for him. Not even thinking, maybe the only reason he is kind is because he doesn’t remember his true nature.”
“Maybe that means he is truly kind underneath deep pain because he can’t remember the circumstances that made him cold.”
He cackles, and his hand clanks against the metal as he walks back and forth in front of me. “You’re such a harlot. Whoring yourself out to the king. Neera is so quick to open her legs when it benefits her."
"There is no shame in two adults enjoying sex." Not that Zyon and I have at all, but I don't care what he thinks about me.
"You’ve become that desperate. Disgusting.”
“This is all your fault. All of it. You knew I needed the medicine to save Florian. To save a baby, and you didn’t care when you took the typhon kill that was mine.”
“Rather, this is your fault. If you’d just accepted my many proposals, you’d be nice, safe, and pregnant in our cabin by now. You wouldn’t have a reason in the world to worry about anything but pleasing me.”
“I’d rather have died than spend a second making you happy.”
“You’re lucky I don’t have a body, or I’d force you to please me right now. For the entire night until your body gave out from the torment I’d inflict.”
“Says the man I had to save from a monster.” Something moves against my feet, and I scream.
The black snake slams against the wall when I kick it in a panic.
It recovers and slithers out of the cell.
I shine the light and realize it’s a wood viper, and one whose bite would kill within hours.
They can be vengeful, but the snake seems more interested in fleeing me.
Ruax cackles and smirks. “There are many of those and rats down here. Winter hit too quickly for creatures to prepare, and they’re trying to find warmth where they can.
Only there is none in this castle. Enjoy rotting down here.
King Zyon has too big a castle for you to be found in time.
” He picks up a bone from the floor and uses it to knock over the full bucket of water in my cell. “May your death happen slowly.”
I attempt to open the door by shaking it and wedging a bone in the door.
Zyon finding me in the cell will only lead to him being irritating about me crossing through a black door.
That stays my concern for a really long time until it changes into actually dehydrating.
I see the occasional snake or rat, but they all avoid me.
What must be days elapse with no sign of rescue or means to escape.
It’s possible to go without food for some time, especially with the way the king feeds me. Starvation is a familiar friend, but lack of water will kill me within days, and Zyon clearly never checks his dungeon from how he thought Ruax was contained when I’d seen him days ago.
There aren’t any windows, and the bars are much too closely spaced to fit through. Shouting brings no one to save me, not even Lazzus, who seems set on never speaking to me again. I saw at the bars with my dagger, but it’s only a pointless task to feel useful.
There’s no way to tell the time, but I sleep on one of the thin mattresses. The fifth time of that happening I wake up with my tongue stuck to my mouth and a headache so strong it might rival Zyon’s. Any time I try to stand, the dizziness sends me back to bed, and I sleep for longer and longer.
Why are you in here? Why? Why would you go in here?
I open my eyes to see the little orbs. “Water,” is all I can manage to say.
Why are you here?
“Please, water.” It’s a clear sign of insanity that I’m begging my hallucinations for water, but I’m out of options.
You need to leave. You are unwell.
“Yes.” I close my eyes and don’t open them again until the cell door is ripped off its hinges and thrown behind Lazzus. “I thought you couldn’t unlock a door,” I mumble.
He vanishes, and I don’t even feel like crawling to escape with the cramps and dizziness surging. There’s no way I’d make it up the stairs. I want to shout that he saved me only to leave me to die, but my dry throat won’t allow the task.
A blurry Zyon appears in front of me and says something I can’t understand. He scoops me into his arms, and I’m finally safe. Never have I felt safer, and I let go of everything in his arms.