well aware of your state of agony. Do not waste my time with entreaties -
do my bidding."
Fallen nodded with his eyes squeezed tightly shut, too terrified to look up into the eternal darkness that surrounded him for fear that he might see the Dark Lord's eyes and draw his displeasure. "Yes," he gasped. "Your bidding is my every breath."
"Good. We have come to an understanding, then. An ac cord." The vast darkness breathed out slowly and methodi cally. "My wife ..." it said in a thunderous echo, chuckling and then seeming to choose words with care. "She is the most treacherous bitch in all creation. She would turn on me in a heartbeat, if she could ... this is what I so love about her. She keeps things interesting. However, I need a pair of eyes in council, eyes now so terrified of my wrath that they dare not make a mockery of this second chance to leave my torture facility."
"Beyond terror," Nuit said, pressing himself closer against the ground. "Stricken." Deep thunderous laughter filled the cavern. "Good ... very good, because she was never at this place of complete acquiescence. Despite her torture, Lilith had games embedded in her psyche so deep that even Harpies would never be able to siphon them all. Each one, however, was like a jewel just waiting for the moment to surprise me with one. Last month I found out just how much that is her core. Games, duplicity, thy name is Lilith. But trust me, Fallen, I will be so much less lenient on you than my beloved spouse. Are we clear?"
"Crystal, my lord," Fallon whispered.
"She holds up under torture so much better - I lashed out at her, personally, for a month. You could not endure twelve days with her pets during my absence ... while I spent pre
cious time with her."
Nuit gulped, unable to fathom what that experience might have been.
"No... do not try to comprehend the incomprehensible," the Dark One murmured, his voice soon becoming more dis tant. "Watch her for me and report all to me. Betray me and I will not be so lenient in the future. Fail me and I shall re lease eons of frustration upon your miserable carcass. I know she has a plan with my heir, but I want that monitored so that it does not become her heir alone. She is devious."
"I will be your everything and shall not fail."
"Indeed." Another hot, fear-generating breath filled the darkness and then wall torches lit.
"Repair him."
Quiet surrounded Nuit and for a while he kept his cheek flattened to the dirt. Before long he could see the hem of scythe-bearers' robes. One stood beside him with a weapon held high, and the moment Nuit looked up, the demons smiled and brought the blade down midthigh, cutting half of the damaged stump off above where the Neteru blade had taken his leg.
A roar of anguish left him limp, and just when he thought he could bear no more, hungry Harpies raced to the new wound site and began to eat away at the exposed meat. Screaming in agony, Nuit tried to pull back with his fin gers, but with virtually no bones in his body, he was no more than a sack of quivering, jellied flesh.
"He said it was over!" he screamed, sobbing. "He said I was to be his eyes and ears -
relent!"
They stopped. His wormlike body slumped in fatigue. But soon he saw their purpose as several Harpies began vomiting regenerative black blood into the wound site. He watched in awe as the bloodied nub began to slowly grow with new bone and tissue. Then a scythebearer bent and produced a cured human stomach filled with black blood from under his robe and brought it to his parched lips that he might drink. Nuit greedily sucked at the regenerative substance, chok ing as he took it in as fast as he
could. Spent from the first feeding in more than two weeks, he closed his eyes, feeling soothing warmth begin to invade his fevered body as beetles and pests exited through every orifice and pore. Slowly, damaged organs knitted back together, and missing parts grew out of the small scraps of tissue that remained. Broken bones mended but made him scream with agony as they snapped back into place.
Sweat covered the new skin on his naked body, and another scythe-bearer came to his side to feed him again. This time it cradled his head as he drank,