What if this was the end, and he never got to see Endre become king, or Nesrin earn her knighthood?He wondered what would become of Finn, running wild across the bluffs.Even if he couldn’t escape, he had to make sure Ulla did.He couldn’t bear to think of what Buck would do to her.
“BRING ME THE TUB!”Buck bellowed.
His men scattered, and Haddrick rushed to Bastion’s side.Buck boxed his ears.
“NO!”he screamed. “You’re only here to make sure he doesn’t die before I’m done with them both.”
Haddrick clutched his head between his forearms and hunched over before slinking towards the cells.Buck turned to watch the men drag in a large tub.Water sloshed within it.
Bastion’s head lolled in Ulla’s direction.He wanted to look upon her one more time.
Instead, he saw Haddrick slide a dagger across the floor.Bastion’s heart skipped a beat as Ulla’s hand snaked out, swallowing it into the folds of his cloak.Then she lay perfectly still.
Water splashed across the floor, soaking Bastion’s boots as the men dropped the tub before him.They freed the chain between his manacles from the wall and used it to pull his arms back.
Someone kicked the back of his knees, and they hit the floor with acrack!One of the men shoved his head into the tub.The saltwater stung his split lip.When they pulled him up, Bastion almost sighed in relief, water racing down his chest and back.
Buck leaned in.“There’s more where that came from.”
Bastion met his eyes and grinned.“Do your worst.”
Buck grinned back, his breath putrid as he said, “With pleasure.”
They forced his head underwater again and again.Despite the hard metal cutting into his belly, Bastion didn’t fight them.Let them think they were doing something when it was actually a relief.Eventually, he couldn’t hold it in anymore.
He came up laughing.They paused.
Bastion didn’t lift his head.Instead, he looked at the pirates through the fringe of his dripping hair.
Maybe they’d fractured something inside him.Maybe he’d always been fractured and never dared look too closely, but he knew, inexplicably, that his life had some greater purpose.He still didn’t know what it was, but here, looking into the abyss, he knew he had more to do.
When he spoke, an eerie undertone accompanied his words.
“My death awaits me in another time and place.You… are a coward who doesn’t fight his own battles.”
Buck’s cronies glanced at each other, their faces ghostly white.
Bastion swallowed painfully, as if some long-forgotten part of himself that wanted to be remembered had forced its way out.He pinched his eyes shut and saw a flash of a strange, dark ruin surrounded by desert.
“Buck,” one of the men whispered.“We better not.”
Another made a sign with his hands, one that Bastion recognized, but his clouded mind couldn’t recall what it meant.
“He’s god-tou–”
“Shut your mouth,” Buck hissed.“You’re all superstitious idiots.He is nothing.Continue.”
Sheepish anxiety spread through them.Bastion gave a bitter, derisive grin.If he were truly god-touched, he never would have been caught off guard.
One of the men looked at him and made that same sign with his hands, a look of terror on his face, before he fled.Buck yelled an infuriated command at the other two and took over.One hand yanked the chain, straining Bastion’s shoulders, while the fingers of his other hand wound into the hair at the back of Bastion’s head so tightly he thought it would tear out.
Buck shoved his head into the tub, pinning his face to the bottom.Bastion didn’t struggle.
When he came up, Buck threw him to the ground.The metallic tang of old blood filled his nose.More men surrounded him, and his ears filled with the shuffle of feet as they kicked him mercilessly.
With his hands shackled, Bastion couldn’t bring his arms up to cover his head.He arched backwards as a heel connected with his spine, leaving his throat and abdomen exposed.Another foot crashed against his windpipe.He gasped and caught a toe to the teeth.
Blood filled his mouth.Fingers broke as they met the force of a swinging boot.Bastion cried out, his stomach lurching, but he had nothing left to vomit.
