‘Aye,’ I say. ‘Bound in iron. Tortured for…weeks, I suppose. Time held little meaning.’
‘And Bryn?’
‘She was in the training pits. I saw it from above. There were many humans there. Many more than we suspected. And mortality was high. They have enough of a supply of humans, all breeding age, that they don’t care how many die before they even get them to the arenas in the First Circle.’
‘They’re using ones taken from the Light to fight?’ Jak asks, brow furrowing.
I shake my head. ‘I thought that might be the case at first, but I saw a group come through. All Light. They weren’t for the pits. Most seemed destined for Fiana’s court, I believe. But the numbers of humans in the pits were…disturbing. The orcs are able to flaunt the laws around the keeping of breeding age humans, which I believe means they have a surplus of Dark Realm slaves to use as they will.’
‘But the numbers were dwindling,’ Morgan argues. ‘It’s why they began breeding them in the first place after the Light was cut off from the Dark. That’s the reason they enacted all those laws regarding their ‘better’ treatment.’
‘All I know is that something isn’t how we thought it was. Whether it’s because there are many more human slaves in the Dark than we suspected, or,’ I shrug, ‘I don’t know.’
‘And Bryn? How did you escape with her?’
‘One day they decided to bind me to a wall. In front of me was a room with a viewing window. They brought her up from below.’
My jaw tightens as I remember how she looked when I saw her for the first time since I’d put her in harm’s way.
‘She was thin. Eyes dull. They put her in the room with a human male. To fight, they said, but it was really to watch her fail. The orcs had already decided to buy her at Bere’s price because she survived. This was just…’ I swallow hard, ‘entertainment. She fought him and she somehow won. And then everyone in the room, Bere, the orcs, the guards, fell down dead except for Warrior. He’d poisoned them all.’
‘But why? He was Bere’s, one of his group. What was the point of killing him?’
Staring at the table, I wonder if I should betray what Warrior said about Bryn, about what she is. I look over at my room, at her sleeping in my bed. I need to make it up to her, what I did. I don’t know how, or even if I ever can, but I promise it silently,here and now, that, even if she spends her life hating me, I will do whatever I can to ensure it is a good one. And she will not be sent back to the Dark. I won’t allow it.
‘There’s something about Bryn…Warrior knew it. I didn’t believe it at first, but he was sure enough to kill Bere and risk his life to try to get out of the pits with her before anyone realized what he’d done.’
‘She’s Fate Touched,’ Jak says, eyes flicking to Morgan. ‘I know.’
‘How?’ I demand.
‘Because she told me, or, rather, she showed me. It was the night of the Moon Festival.’
‘I don’t understand,’ Morgan says. ‘She can’t be Kismet. She’s a human.’
‘Well, she is Kismet,’ Jak replies. ‘I’ve seen it. She ensured her hand was cut with a knife by some demon. It was an accident, but Fate’s retribution was swift. There was no mistaking it. I assume that Warrior was taking her to use her, to try to enslave Fate itself?’
I nod. ‘He brought her out of the room, gave her a slave’s dress and told her the bare bones of his plan. I think she was going to go with him at first. She didn’t remember him. She didn’t know how dangerous he was. I tried to do something, but the iron stopped me from reaching my magick. I could do naught but watch. But when he told her that he knew what she was, and that he had some kind of plan, she slid one of his daggers into his kidney to the hilt. I doubt very much he’ll stay dead, but it gave her time. She came to me, remembered enough to make a deal. She’d help me if I brought her here. I could do little else but nod. She freed me.’
Jak and Morgan are quiet for a moment.
‘And so what did you learn about Fiana then?’ Morgan mutters, now taking a long pull of his drink.
‘What made it all worth it for you?’ he sneers.
‘The Breach opened there from the Light.’
‘Directly?’ Jak asks with a frown. ‘To a main Ring?’
I nod.
‘But the Light was cut off from the main corridors. The Breach was closed from it… According to everything we know that Gaila, the First, did to save the Light and the Underhill, it shouldn’t just be able to open.’
‘Perhaps they all have amulets?’ Morgan asks.
‘They were discounted,’ I say. ‘There are only known to be four of them in existence.’
‘Well, my friend was able to procure another,’ Morgan mutters. ‘Maybe they’re wrong about how many there are?’
