without Jewel. He also knew he wasn't going to wait on Jewel to make the escape plan. That happened to be one of his specialties.
A guard cut her ropes, and she sank into a heap on the ground. He yearned to race up the steps and sweep her away, but she was quickly scooped up and carried inside the castle.
"What's going on? Where are they taking you?" Silence.
"Jewel!" he shouted, and he didn't care who heard him. "Answer me." Again, silence.
Damn it! He didn't like this. Didn't like not knowing. Didn't like the feeling of helplessness working its way through him.
The crowd began to disperse, and he soon found himself alone, staring up at the black castle through slitted eyes. He released a heated sigh. "Be ready, babe. I'm coming in."
"What know you of a portal that leads from Atlantis to the surface world?"
On her perch at the edge of the bed, Jewel blinked up at Marina, Queen of the Demons, and prayed her expression remained blank. "A portal?" She phrased the words as a question, though she already knew the answer.
"Darius of the Dragons has taken a human bride. I've heard the woman came to him through a portal located below the dragon palace." Marina's arms were crossed, and she drummed her long, sharp claws against her scaled forearms. The scent of sulfur emanated from her. "You spent several years with the dragons, so you should know if the portal exists. Does it?"
Lying, for Jewel, brought great physical pain. She didn't know why, she only knew that it did happen. Horrendous, agonizing pain. The information Marina wanted was not information Marina needed. If she told the truth, bad things would happen to the dragons, a race of creatures she adored. But if she lied, bad things would happen to her.
Silence would not work. As always, Marina would threaten to kill an innocent for every minute Jewel remained silent. She would simply have to trick Marina into believing something different.
"Do you truly believe a cold and merciless warrior such as Darius en Kragin, King of the Dragons, would discuss a secret portal with me, knowing I would one day be stolen from him?"
Marina leveled a narrowed glance at her. "I'm onto your ways, girl. Answer with a question and your words are never lies. Not this time. You will answer me with a yes or a no. Understand?"
"What did I lie about?" she said, lifting her hands. "Darius is known throughout the land as a warrior whose only joy is killing. Tales of the deaths he's inflicted abound. You know that as well as I."
"That is not the information I wished from you, and well you know it. I'll ask once more, and do not answer me with generalities and misdirections or you will suffer for it. Did Darius discuss a portal with you? Specifically," Marina added, "a portal that leads from Atlantis to the surface world."
Jewel frowned, gauging her next words very carefully. "I can honestly tell you that he never willingly supplied such information to me."
The queen growled low in her throat, and the sound rippled menacingly from the walls. Marina paced, hands fisted at her sides. Her sheer, transparent robe revealed every outline of her body, every horn protruding from her back. Her green and yellow scales pulsed, and her eyes glowed bright red.
The woman was pure evil.
"You think you are so clever," she grumbled. "Have you ever seen a portal?"
"I have never seen a portal with my physical eye."
She paused midstride, catching Jewel's meaning. Unfortunately. "Does that mean you have seen one in a vision?"
Trying again to lead Marina down a different path, she said, "If I had seen a portal in one of my visions, don't you think I would have done whatever was necessary to return to the dragons? To find and enter the portal? I am tired of being stolen from one leader to the other. I would love to enter the surface world and lose myself in their masses."
"Once again you refuse to answer as you were told." she growled. "Because of your refusal, one of the prisoners that were released today will be found and killed. That will be your punishment. Now, do you care to rephrase your last answer?"
"Please," she said softly, regret, helplessness, and anger working through her. Of all the ways to be controlled, this was the worst. Knowing other lives, others' suffering, revolved around her cooperation. "Please, do not do this."