Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy #1) - Robert Jackson Bennett Page 0,156

for so, so long. And you’re saying—for sure—that you can give it to me? Right now?>

Clicks. More clicks.

More clicks—and these were harsh.

A cold disgust filled Sancia.

A series of clicks so fast, they were almost a blur.

A rapid series of clicks. Click.

Sancia listened with a sense of mounting outrage.

Click.

She struggled to find the words.

screamed Sancia at her. She shut her eyes.

asked Valeria.

Tears streamed down her face. The guards looked at her curiously. said Sancia.

Valeria was silent. Sancia lay there, weeping.

said Valeria. Then, in a soft, slightly darker tone:

Sancia swallowed and tried to blink the tears away.

Valeria said nothing.

said Sancia.

Click.

said Valeria.

Sancia wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear more—the more she learned about what Valeria could do, the more she terrified her.

Her stomach fluttered.

Sancia was breathing hard. She knew she needed every advantage she could get. But she wanted to ask more: to ask exactly what Valeria could do, what they’d made her to do, and how the Makers had made her to begin with.

Yet Valeria said,

Sancia gritted her teeth.

For a second, there was nothing. But then she heard it.

It was almost exactly like that time in Orso’s house, with Clef: there was a quiet, rhythmic tap-tap, tap, tap—a soft pulse, echoing through her mind.

Again, she listened to it, reached out, grasped it, and then…

The beats unfolded, expanded, and enveloped her, filling her thoughts.

And then Sancia was filled with pain.

She felt herself screaming. Felt her skull burn hot with fire, felt every