I just stared at him. It was my fault. I told him to show initiative. He only wanted to impress me.
I wanted to show you that I can...
The words boomed in my head. There is no time, no distance, that could ever make me forget this boy. A boy who was on the path to becoming a great man. A much better man than I could ever be.
“Are those your warriors? Pathetic.” Steiner struggled against Denis’s grip.
“Shut up! Shut the fuck up!” Denis slammed Steiner’s face against the floor.
My hands flexed. I could feel the fabric of Mayer’s shirt under my skin. It was still warm, but not for much longer. When we inhaled the poison, some of us passed out, but Mayer had vomited all morning. He had to borrow the shirt from one of the servants.
I wanted to show you that I can...
“Tie him up” I said, not recognizing my own voice.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
FRID
The man pushed me up another set of stairs, then shoved me sideways just to make himself feel like he was in charge. I bit down hard. It would be so satisfying to kick his teeth in. I only needed to wait a little bit. I could barely see where we were going because I dropped the tin cup with the candle. But my captor knew exactly where to go, and obviously judged that it was better to hold on to me rather than a candle. My foot kicked something in the dark and I nearly lost my balance. The man behind me steadied me by wrapping his hand around the back of my neck. The suffocating scent of the unwashed body lingered in my nose and soon everything smelled like him. Finally, he released his hold on me to open a door. Then he shoved me forward.
For a moment, I was blinded by multiple candles. The combination of stale smoke and alcohol fumes hit my face. Slowly, my eyes adjusted. I was in a long rectangular room with elaborately decorated chairs, that looked so out of place against the barren brick walls. All around me were men, probably theones who ran the settlement. My eyes moved from one figure to the other. All of them appeared sickly and sun beaten, in poorly fitting clothes; nothing like the healthy and well groomed males of the sisters’ commune.
“What is it?”
“Say . . . Veramorr. You said if I do my job . . . you said . . .I can stay.” The man behind me stuttered.
“Who’s she?” A voice came from the darkened corner.
I squinted my eyes, trying to see beyond the veil of smoke.
“A spy, I think.”
“You think?” The leader’s voice sounded raspy and forced.
“She has a suit!” someone else shouted.
The man behind me immediately yanked off my robe. I straightened my shoulders. Even a room full of men could not lower the odds for a dragonborn in a fight against humans. It was almost unfair how much more power I had. I could transform and turn everyone to ash. They had to know that.
“Show yourself!” I raised my voice.
The silence that stretched from wall to wall was short lived, broken by the sound of movement. Someone was walking straight toward me, and the man who stepped into the light was nothing like what I expected.
Veramorr appeared almost sickly thin, with hair that was sparse but long. His skin was sallow, and stretched so tightly over his face that he resembled a skull. He looked like a skeleton who clawed his way out from the grave. He wore a set of enforced leather similar to what dragonborns wore, but not a flying suit.Probably leathers taken from a dragonborn's dead body and then adjusted to fit his shape.
“Mahin sent me her greetings?” He chuckled, but there was no humor behind his voice.
“What do you know about her?” I asked.
“She already has control of all temples, but she wants more. She never knew when to stop. And you know what they say about the human gods? They hate greed. But she doesn’t believe in them, she listens only to the voices in her head.”
“What about the women you took from the sisters?”
He nodded, the next moment, his eyes peered right at me.
“What women? Ah... yeah, right. Women.” He chuckled. “We are the ones living in the shells of buildings, eating rats and roaches, but somehow we have the force, the power, to overwhelm their guards and get past the steel doors.”
My head started to spin. That was exactly what Victor had said. There was something about Mahin’s story that simply did not add up.
