threshold of the everdark with nothing more than a shadow between me and doom. If I didn’t trust Triss more than I trusted myself . . .
I shivered again, this time from the subterranean cold of the damp dungeon. Between that and the abuse I’d taken, I was courting shock just by standing there. I needed to get moving. More importantly, I needed to find out what had happened to Maylien. I owed her that and more for helping me to save Triss.
“Triss!” I called as I staggered to the window. “Triss, come here!”
I had to hold on to the bars to stay upright while I looked out into the night. But all I could see was a narrow stretch of empty cobblestones with a blank brick wall beyond and no sign of Maylien.
Shit.
I turned away from the empty night. Triss was still flitting this way and that through the room, looking for something more to kill and still muttering in his own tongue. He’d taken Lok into the shadows, too, though the mage was already dead, and he kept stooping to examine the charred corpse of the fourth man.
I almost wished he’d go ahead and take the bastard. The stink of burned meat had me on the edge of gagging. For a couple of seconds after I called him, I thought Triss wasn’t going to come to me. But, after a few more dives at the dead man, he slid back to the place at my feet where the dungeon’s lights would have put him.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “They hurt you, and I couldn’t stop them.” His voice was high and fast, laced with anguish. “I couldn’t do anything at all. It felt like one of the nightmares that sometimes take you humans while you sleep, like it had me in its teeth shaking me and shaking me and shaking me, like it would never stop.”
“It was pretty nightmarish for me, too,” I said.
“I know.” My dragon shadow suddenly lifted off the floor and wrapped his wings around me. “I know. I wanted to kill them all, to make them pay for hurting you, and I couldn’t. I couldn’t! I’m so sorry.”
For just an instant, I felt the threat of the everdark in his touch though Triss had not put it there. Then I pushed the feeling aside, relaxing into the embrace of my dearest friend. He was a trained killer and plenty frightening, but then, so was I. We were both of us products of a system designed to create living weapons.
“It’s all right, Triss. I’m all right. We need to get out of here and find out what happened to the girl.”
Of course, by this point, whatever had happened to Maylien was almost certainly over. There had been neither sound nor sign from outside since her first outcry, which suggested she was dead or taken. I couldn’t do much about either of those things naked and unarmed, so I figured I’d better take a few seconds more to do something about both conditions.
All the gear I’d had on me when I got deathsparked was lying in a rough pile, but that didn’t help much. They’d cut my clothes and boots off me, probably after they hung me on the rack of the glyph, and most of my knives had stayed behind with the dead Kadeshis. I didn’t have a lot of other options either. Three of my four captors had gone from the world entirely, taking all their belongings with them. The fourth had burned.
Grabbing the wreckage of my pants, I started to tie myself a breechclout. I’d gotten it just about to the point of addressing Tien’s decency laws, when a nervous voice called from somewhere beyond the partially opened door to the dungeon.
“Lok!” it said. “Are you all right? What the hell happened?”
“Shit.” I picked up my remaining knife and something that looked like a vicious cross between a fireplace poker and a bone saw and quickly crossed to the doorway.
A hallway lay beyond, with another prison door at the far end. A torch in the passage reflected off a pair of eyes peering through its little barred window at me.
“Lok?”
Triss hissed something in his own language and stretched down the hall, reaching for the far
I shivered again, this time from the subterranean cold of the damp dungeon. Between that and the abuse I’d taken, I was courting shock just by standing there. I needed to get moving. More importantly, I needed to find out what had happened to Maylien. I owed her that and more for helping me to save Triss.
“Triss!” I called as I staggered to the window. “Triss, come here!”
I had to hold on to the bars to stay upright while I looked out into the night. But all I could see was a narrow stretch of empty cobblestones with a blank brick wall beyond and no sign of Maylien.
Shit.
I turned away from the empty night. Triss was still flitting this way and that through the room, looking for something more to kill and still muttering in his own tongue. He’d taken Lok into the shadows, too, though the mage was already dead, and he kept stooping to examine the charred corpse of the fourth man.
I almost wished he’d go ahead and take the bastard. The stink of burned meat had me on the edge of gagging. For a couple of seconds after I called him, I thought Triss wasn’t going to come to me. But, after a few more dives at the dead man, he slid back to the place at my feet where the dungeon’s lights would have put him.
“Are you all right?” he asked. “They hurt you, and I couldn’t stop them.” His voice was high and fast, laced with anguish. “I couldn’t do anything at all. It felt like one of the nightmares that sometimes take you humans while you sleep, like it had me in its teeth shaking me and shaking me and shaking me, like it would never stop.”
“It was pretty nightmarish for me, too,” I said.
“I know.” My dragon shadow suddenly lifted off the floor and wrapped his wings around me. “I know. I wanted to kill them all, to make them pay for hurting you, and I couldn’t. I couldn’t! I’m so sorry.”
For just an instant, I felt the threat of the everdark in his touch though Triss had not put it there. Then I pushed the feeling aside, relaxing into the embrace of my dearest friend. He was a trained killer and plenty frightening, but then, so was I. We were both of us products of a system designed to create living weapons.
“It’s all right, Triss. I’m all right. We need to get out of here and find out what happened to the girl.”
Of course, by this point, whatever had happened to Maylien was almost certainly over. There had been neither sound nor sign from outside since her first outcry, which suggested she was dead or taken. I couldn’t do much about either of those things naked and unarmed, so I figured I’d better take a few seconds more to do something about both conditions.
All the gear I’d had on me when I got deathsparked was lying in a rough pile, but that didn’t help much. They’d cut my clothes and boots off me, probably after they hung me on the rack of the glyph, and most of my knives had stayed behind with the dead Kadeshis. I didn’t have a lot of other options either. Three of my four captors had gone from the world entirely, taking all their belongings with them. The fourth had burned.
Grabbing the wreckage of my pants, I started to tie myself a breechclout. I’d gotten it just about to the point of addressing Tien’s decency laws, when a nervous voice called from somewhere beyond the partially opened door to the dungeon.
“Lok!” it said. “Are you all right? What the hell happened?”
“Shit.” I picked up my remaining knife and something that looked like a vicious cross between a fireplace poker and a bone saw and quickly crossed to the doorway.
A hallway lay beyond, with another prison door at the far end. A torch in the passage reflected off a pair of eyes peering through its little barred window at me.
“Lok?”
Triss hissed something in his own language and stretched down the hall, reaching for the far
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