Page 46 of Vasmora

Pain dissolved with the last bit of my wound that sealed on its own, until not so much as a scar remained. I ran my fingertips over it, aware of Captain Drefan standing over me in my periphery.

“All mended, it seems. And just how does a mortal accomplish that, hmmm?”

Still, I ignored him, my head lost to chiding thoughts. Why hadn’t I acted sooner? I could’ve saved the Golvyn’s life.

“Regardless of your healing, it appears you can suffer a fairly vicious bite. Useful to know.”

“You might also observe that what bit me paid the price.”

“Yes. But at no cost to any other standing nearby.” He nodded toward the Golvyn. “Unless those deep puncture wounds in his skull were put there by you.”

Gods be damned, was he so obsessed with harming me? Finding ways to slip past my defenses? Were his blistering little shocks of lightning not enough torment?

“I’m certain you’d fail at that, as well.”

His jaw clenched, a smirk pulling at the corner of his lips. “Time for a bit of play, vermin.”

Rough, gauntleted hands hauled me to my feet, the ache of the guard’s grip spiraling up into my shoulder.

As his subordinate stood me upright, the captain continued to smile at me, that smug expression clawing away at my already rattled nerves, urging me to rip his eyeballs out of his skull. “Look at you snarl like something feral. Filthy and diseased. But you’re no mouse, are you? No. You remind me of an unmated razorwolf bitch.”

The urge to smack him tingled across my palm, begging me to act on the impulse.

“They’re nothing like the motherly razorwolves who surrender so easily. The unmated females are rare. Stronger. Often fiercer than the males.”

The grip of my arm tightened as I squirmed to get loose.

“Killing one of them is almost more prized than the males, given their inexplicable aggression. But you? What do you fight for, hmmm? What will it take to break you?”

I spat at his face, feeling a small ripple of victory as the saliva slid down his cheek.

He reached into his pocket, yanked out a kerchief, and wiped it away. “Keep that spirit up, girl. You’re going to need it.” After freeing me, he jerked his head, and the brute squeezing my arm hauled me out of the cell.

Eyes scanning the corridors, I thought back to my conversation with the Golvyn. Searching for an obvious escape was futile, it seemed. But what if I could, somehow, make it to that cistern? I didn’t even care that I could die, so long as I tried.

The constant pattering of rain against one of few windows we passed indicated a steady and heavy fall. Perhaps a fast enough current to push me through that toxic stretch of the cave.

While my mind teased out the possibilities, I hardly paid any attention to the lengthy walk from my cell, until the dull, gray stone turned to white marble and the flicker of candlelight pulled my gaze to a massive domed room I’d not yet seen. A half-dozen guards stood posted about the vast space and at each of the two entrances, the rest clustered around a dais toward the back wall, where the general sat perched like a vulture.

A sour stench stung my nose as I was led toward a pit the size of a small cottage in the center of the room. Something about it stirred a horrible sensation deep in my guts.

Guided around it, I peered down at the dark, cavernous hollow below, where one torch flickered on the wall, illuminating a gritty, sandy floor and stone walls, with three separate cave entrances that led to nothing but darkness from what I could see.

A stark contrast to the opulent room housing it.

Long, wide swirls in the ground below reminded me of the wintercrys snake trails we’d sometimes see in the snow back home, but these seemed far more threatening.

A low, guttural growl erupted from one of those caves, the sound vibrating over my bones and across the back of my neck, as I was brought to a stop alongside the opening of the pit. The flame within it wavered and shuddered, as if cowering to whatever lurked in the shadows.

“Curious to know what dwells here?”

The general’s voice at my back sent another unsettling chill through me, and I ground my teeth to steady my nerves. When I didn’t answer or acknowledge her, she drifted to my side.

“I’ve always had a strange obsession with dangerous animals.”

A glance over my shoulder showed Melantha, her face glowing with youth and good health, dressed in a long, golden gown, not a speck of dirt or bruising to indicate she’d suffered the same as the rest of us. Glaring a moment longer, I turned back toward the pit.

“I once told my father that I feared the celaestriosz, so he captured one for me,” Loyce prattled on beside me. “Put it in a jar with no air. No way to escape.”