‘Just a bit. Just to get her to speak to us, listen to us.’
Jak tries again. ‘I know what you need, human. I’ve seen it before. We want to help you.’
Her eyes find us, but I know she’s really looking at the exit again and I shift my stance a little so that I can catch her if she tries to rush past me.
‘Please remember that we know you,’ I say. ‘Though you don’t remember us, we won’t harm you, Bryn. You’re our friend.’
She’s unsuccessful at keeping the incredulity off her face this time, but she nods jerkily. ‘Of course, my lord.’
‘What you’re feeling, you haven’t felt it lately?’ Jak asks.
‘I’ve never felt this, my lord,’ she answers. ‘Perhaps the meat I bought for the stew was bad.’
‘It wasn’t the meat, Bryn. Soon, you willneedone of us.’
‘What do you mean, my lord?’ she asks tonelessly.
‘You’ll need one of us to lie with you.’ I glance at the bed.
‘We should move that cunt to the floor,’ Jak says and I nod.
‘Lie with me?’ she asks, not looking up.
‘Aye.’
‘Would you like me on the bed, my lord?’
I frown at her. What’s her game? This isn’t the Bryn I know. I spare a look of fury and disdain for Locke, still unconscious though he is as Jak hauls him unceremoniously off the bed and dumps him on the hard floor with a thud.
I want to tell her that of course I don’t want her on the bed, that neither of us want her like this, unable to recall anything about us, thinking that we’re the cruel masters and not knowing any different.
She’ll hate being so vulnerable. I wish I could truly make it better instead of simply slaking her carnal needs.
‘What’s happening to me?’ she asks with a shiver, pulling at the shirt she wears and scrunching up her eyes.
‘There’s no way to explain it that you would understand, Bryn,’ Jak says.
‘Because I’m a slave?’ she asks, jaw clenching.
Jak swears under his beath. ‘No, because the magickal cunt on the floor made you forget us. You don’t recall but you felt like this before. With us. We helped you.’
‘Yes, my lord.’
She steps forward and I think she’s going to the bed. I take my eyes off her for just a moment, and she’s suddenly flying past me and trying to pull open the door to escape.
Jak shouts at me to grab her as he leaps over the bed, and I lunge, taking hold of her around the middle. She bucks and kicks, striking me in the cheek with her head and my shins with her feet.
I don’t let go as she shrieks, but my large hand does cover her mouth tightly as I wonder at this newfound spirit she has, the strength despite how she’s been treated by the looks of her. She’s no match for me, of course, but how long has it been? For us it was two weeks, but how many did she spend in the pits to learn to fight thus?
‘Enough!’ I snarl in her ear, trying not to dwell on how many levels she may be damaged. ‘Do you want to bring the guards down upon us?’
Her answer is muffled but it’s not a scream.
I let my hand loosen.
‘Let me go, you loathsome cunt!’
‘No,’ I say. ‘We can’t let you leave. It’s not safe for you out there.’
