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I fought. Frantic. Shredding myself against him. The Dog pinned me, a relentless strength, a furnace of heat and muscles under glossy fur. Tears ran hot over my cheeks and down my neck.
A panicked shriek bubbled up through the sobs, my chest billowing with it, but the Dog only sank down tighter, stopping my voice, my breath.
A sweet fragment of blue beckoned me, past his great obsidian head. Wishes. I could wish for rescue in this crazy place. I focused on the wish, but the Dog growled softly and closed his jaws slightly more. Stars sparked at the edges of my eyes.
“Please…” I tried to choke out, part sob, part whimper.
Blood-dark gathered at the edges of my vision, seeping in, blurring the circle of blue sky above, then drowning it in blackness.
Chapter 3
In Which I Am Nullified
‡
Iawoke tostone walls.
My throat screamed. When I tried to swallow, it seared like the worst strep infection on the face of the earth. Or wherever the hell I was, since I was clearly still Elsewhere. I wasn’t dead, at least, unless being dead sucked more than I’d imagined. My contact lenses were glued to my eyeballs, my body was one giant bruise, and the pain in my neck echoed dully through every joint.
Peripheral vision told me I was lying on some sort of bed, on top of a deep blue coverlet. The gray stones of the walls rose to a ceiling high enough to gather shadows. Misty light fell through a window behind my head and I could see a stripe of ashen sky through a window at my feet. The sill looked to be as deep as my forearm and so it cut off most of the view from this angle. There seemed to be no glass in it—nor in the one behind me, judging by the chill breeze coming from that way. It put me in mind of the ruined castles in Scotland. Only somewhat less desolate.
I shifted carefully, to see if moving would make me feel worse. It did. The pain in my throat consumed me. I reached up to touch it, wondering if I would feel a bloody gash, but the drag of chain on my wrist halted the movement. Turned out, both wrists and ankles were chained.
Charming.
I lifted my right hand, rolling my eyes as far as I could to see it better. A silver cuff circled my wrist, attached to what appeared to be several feet of chain running over the edge of the pallet. Attached to the bed or wall somewhere, probably with iron rings cemented into the stones. I kicked up one foot. Same arrangement on my ankle. They probably didn’t give me enough slack to sit up, though I wasn’t feeling excited about trying that yet. This was fast going from Disney Ireland to Wes Craven’s Ireland.
At least I wasn’t chained naked to this bed. As it was, I felt acutely aware of the pressure of the cuffs on my skin, the soft slink of the chains as I moved.
With a sigh, I closed my eyes, trying to focus my thoughts. Okay, this could be real or not real. Under “not real” fell all sorts of unpleasant alternatives like concussion, coma, psychosis. I could be locked in my own skull for whatever reason, my neurons struggling to make sense of random signals. Not a pretty prospect. And not one I could control.
The “real” alternative, while spectacularly bizarre, at least left me with some options. If I had moved into some kind of alternate reality or another planet, then most physical laws promised I could go back the other direction. Therefore the most logical thing to do was focus on getting back. Me and Dorothy.
Instead of ruby slippers, it seemed I had wishing as my tool. Time to suspend disbelief and try to master what resources I had.
Concentrating, I wished to be free of the chains. I pictured myself standing in the aspen grove at Devils Tower. Or the grassy hillside. I’d take my grassy hill over this. Or the brook. Not the Dog.Don’t think of the Dog.I wished harder.
“It won’t work, you know,” a bell-like voice said, tinseled with amusement at my expense.
My eyes flew open and my head snapped around in shock—or started to, before the waves of agony shot up through my throat and over my skull. Tears filled my eyes with blurry heat. A woman towered over me, not three feet away. Definitely not human. Like a European model, she stood slim in a way that spoke of a different bone structure. Curved cheekbones set off rose-petal lips and gilt almond eyes. Porno-blond hair fringed pixielike around her face. Tinker Bell, right on schedule.
“It won’t work,” she repeated, “because you have been nullified. No more romping about the countryside creating roads, moving perfectly good streams and importing exotic creatures.”
I opened my mouth but only a croak leaked through.
She smirked, the expression shattering the loveliness of her face. “You can’t talk either, though that’s not the silver at work. Personally, I think he should have ripped your throat out like the obscenity you are, instead of just rendering you unconscious. But my judgments are not considered.” She made that sound like a crime against the order of the universe.
Nasty Tinker Bell thumped down a tray I hadn’t noticed on the ledge of the window, splashing liquid in a bowl. She yanked the chain attached to my right wrist and, before I could resist, dragged my hand above my head, looping the link over a hook. With my arm out of the way and holding the bowl in one hand, she sat on the bed, her unbelievably slim hip nudging mine, scooped up some of the liquid and held it to my lips.
Remembering my resolve not to eat or drink in this place, especially now that I was a prisoner, I clamped my lips together. I could at least avoid being drugged. Nasty Tinker Bell’s pretty golden eyes sparked. Turning the spoon, she let the liquid dribble over my mouth so that it ran down my cheeks, past my ears and pooled at the back of my neck to join the crusted mess of hair and various dried liquids there.
Careful not to touch the liquid on my lips, I looked directly at her porno prettiness.Fuck you,I thought.
I knew Tinker Bell couldn’t hear me but I felt better.
“Fine,” she snapped, her voice a little bell being rung too hard. Nasty Tinker Bell clearly understood at least the insult in my eyes. She lifted the bowl, with the clear intention of dumping it on my head.
“Enough,” a male voice said.
