gods,” she whispered. “Any god. Get me out. I’ll do anything, but get me out of here.”
She pulled so hard on her bindings that her wrists bled. A fleck of purple fire swarmed around her hands. The few spells she knew were meager, still unrefined. She thought maybe the fire would loosen them, melt them, anything. Instead the heated metal burned her skin. Don’t cry, she told herself. Don’t cry. Don’t cry.
“Hello, girl,” Gileas whispered into her ear. Tears trickled down her cheeks.
“Don’t cry,” he whispered.
“Fuck you,” she whispered back.
He laughed, not at all bothered. She was shackled and helpless. He had all night.
“Nothing personal,” Gileas said as he pressed the tip of his dagger against her right eyebrow. “I’ll milk Gerand and the crown for all the gold I can, then take just as much from Thren and his ilk. I’ll turn the rats on each other, and grow so very wealthy from it.”
He pressed the dagger into her flesh. Blood trickled around her eye. She blinked against its sting.
“All night,” he said as he slowly dragged the dagger downward. “I have all night.”
He cut her eyebrow, her eyelid, and then her eye. She screamed.
Gileas rammed his mouth over hers, drinking in her scream like it was a fine wine. He bit her tongue. She vomited into his mouth. He drank that, too.
He pulled back, smiled at her, and then flew to the side from a brutal kick to his head. He rolled along the hard ground, stopping only when he struck the wall.
A woman wrapped in black and purple stood before Veliana, a serrated dagger in hand. She put her free hand against the vicious wound on Veliana’s face, her fingers touching the flesh so gently. Blood pooled across the cloth but refused to absorb. Veliana looked into the white cloth over her face, seeing only the faintest hint of vibrant green eyes.
“You made an offer,” the woman said to her. “Will you honor it? Swear to Karak your life, and I will take his.”
Veliana could just barely see Gileas out of the corner of her eye. He was retching on the ground, one arm leaning against the wall to prop himself up. Blood continued pouring down her face, her neck, and her slender body. The eye was useless, completely useless. What did it matter if she swore her life to a non-existent god? She wanted vengeance. She wanted to live.
“I swear it,” she said.
“Good,” the faceless woman said. Her hands were a blur about her body. One by one, the locks clicked open. Veliana collapsed into the woman’s arms, unable to stand.
“Your name?” she asked as she clutched the woman’s shoulders, one eye crying tears, the other blood.
“Eliora,” she replied.
Gently, she put Veliana to her knees on the ground and then turned toward Gileas. The Worm had stood and put his back to the wall. He still had his dagger. Clutching her sides gently, she knelt and watched.
“Uncalled for,” she heard the Worm say as the faceless woman approached. “She was given to me. Given…”
He spun, his dagger lunging for Eliora’s chest. It never came close. Eliora slapped it away with an open palm, kicked him in the groin, and then slammed an elbow into his forehead. Gileas collapsed, grunting in pain. When Eliora grabbed his hair to yank his head back, he only laughed.
“Can’t stab a worm,” he said. “We just keep wiggling.”
She stabbed anyway. It punctured only air. Gileas’s clothes were an empty pile on the grass. Eliora kicked them away but saw nothing. She looked as startled as Veliana felt.
“A worm,” Veliana said. “He can’t possibly be…”
But there was nothing there. He was gone.
“Come,” Eliora said, taking Veliana’s hand. “Follow me to my camp. You must meet my sisters.”
The fire in the center of the camp had dwindled to nothing. Eliora tossed on some branches while Veliana huddled against a tree, cold and naked. Winter was approaching, and the night air bit her skin. Eliora drew out two small red bricks and clapped them together above the fire. Sparks rained down upon the wood, instantly bursting restarting the fire.
Veliana knelt beside it, eager for its warmth.
“Where are your sisters?” she asked as shivers ran through her body. Her revulsion at Gileas’s touch remained strong, though it felt like the fire was slowly purifying her body of it.
“They will return in the morning,” Eliora said. “I remained here to keep an eye on another charge of ours. I expected his idiocy to get him and