“What about you fighting them and being pushed out from the caves?”
“What? Ah... She told you about that too? She probably forgot to mention that all of us who didn’t believe her stories about meeting the goddess were exiled. Everyone: men, women, children, even mothers with infants. Many of us died on the surface, eaten by dragons and crawlers. Then many died from hunger and diseases. Back then they didn’t allow us in the temples. Divine water is only for the ones who believe in themother goddess. Sorry, girl. You got played, like many before you.”
I felt an icy chill rush down my back. Stupid, so stupid. I was an idiot. She did nothing but lie every time we spoke. And I listened. Mahin said that she could open up to me because I was a woman. I bet it was because she could see that I was a trusting fool, easy to manipulate.
“Why would she lie to me?” My voice broke.
“Who knows. Maybe she has plans to use our buildings. Maybe she wants full control of the surface or maybe she went a little too far listening to the voices.” He took out a pipe and carefully filled it. One of the men stepped forward offering him a light.
I looked up. The hair stood on the back of my neck. Every feeling in my bones screamed that I was in great danger. His calm, deeply focused eyes appeared more terrifying than the gaze of an apex predator.
“I can go back to the compound, and tell her that I couldn’t get in,” I offered, already knowing that it was fruitless.
“Sorry, girl. I can’t let you go. Dragons living with our enemy is too much of a risk. Just one of you could destroy an entire city. I can’t let that happen.” He lifted his eyes to me.
I glanced at the men stepping closer, surrounding me, but careful not to get within my reach.
“You don’t want to do this.” I shifted my shoulder ready to transform.
Sudden movement triggered my change and the familiar ripple rolled through my body like a shock wave.
“Now!” one of them shouted.
Metal pressed tight at my throat, searing my flesh, not with heat, but with pain. I yelped in blinding agony. Something went horribly wrong. I could not finish my transformation. The final breath died in my lungs, and I was left choking on nothing as the chain tightened around my neck. My fingernails bent and broke as I tried to grab the metal links.
“Victor!” I choked out as my vision blurred.
Voices boomed in my head. My back hit the hard surface and I was dragged on the floor.
“You shouldn’t have come.” A single voice pierced the darkness.
I struggled against the chain they kept tightening around my arms and neck.
“You people only have one weakness. Can’t transform when your body can’t expand.” The leader crouched beside me.
He took another pull from his pipe and blew the smoke in my face.
I tried to break free, but could no longer move.
“Sorry, girl. I have nothing against you, but I can’t let you go.” He glanced up, giving a signal to one of his men.
When I was a girl, I used to dream about adventure, the new lands I was going to explore. I never thought I would take my last breath of stale sweat and tobacco filled air in a filthy room, on a dirty floor. That the last face I would ever see in this world would have eerily empty eyes. In my last moments, I thought about Victor waiting for me back in the sisters’ compound. Willhe ever know what happened to me? Was it a mistake, not giving us a chance to be together?
My eyelids grew heavy. The will to keep fighting was weakening. From the corner of my eye, I saw a hand with a dagger moving toward me as if in slow motion. I braced for the pain. It exploded on the left side of my body, my shoulder ached as if a million knives had plunged into my skin. The metal against my neck loosened and I blinked as the thick layer of dust on the floor came into focus.
I was on my side, the window in front of me was shattered. The air moved the strips of thick black cloth that remained on the wall. Veramorr was standing artificially still, looking straight ahead. Someone’s arm was wrapped around his neck. A moment later, light hair that stuck straight up in an oddly familiar way, appeared right behind the leader.
“Don’t fucking move,” Victor hissed.
“Do as he says,” the leader managed to say.
“Let her go.” Victor pressed his knife against the man’s side, right between his ribs.
“I’m sure we can talk this over.”
“Shut the fuck up!”
Someone released the chain and it rattled against the floor. I scrambled to get to my feet.
