"Anything else?"
"No. But you may wish to try yourself while her defenses are weak."
No, no, NO!
But again, no one was listening. The pain this time was razor-sharp, and it flayed me inside and out, tearing me apart as they looked for answers. I quivered and shook and pleaded for them to stop, but no one heard my words—voiced or unvoiced.
It went on and on, until I felt raw and battered and bruised, and my skin ran with rivers of blood that pooled underneath my body—a warm halo that gradually grew bigger. Just as instinct had seen earlier.
Eventually—mercifully—I blacked out.
When I came to, I was alone. My muscles had stopped quivering, but just about everything else felt like it still burned—my head, my body, my soul.
I carefully rolled onto my back. It was sticky with dried blood, but, oddly enough, the pain I felt came from the energy that had lashed the inner me, not the outer. If my flesh had been cut, then it had healed.
The cell was still wrapped in darkness, and I couldn't see the rough-cut ceiling high above me. But the rainbow shimmer was still present, which meant the magical barrier was still in place. No surprise there, I guess.
I tilted my head back a little and looked at the door. It, too, was closed. I had no sense of any other presence in the room. I was alone. At least for the time being.
I scrubbed a shaking hand across my face, and wondered just how successful they'd been in getting the information they wanted. Surely the fact that I was still alive meant I'd managed to hold on to at least some secrets. Not that I had a great many, because I really didn't know much.
Maybe that was the reason I still lived. Maybe they simply didn't believe I knew so little.
But they would be back. I had to get out before then, because I very much doubted I'd survive another onslaught.
I forced myself up onto my hands and knees. The room spun around me and my stomach leapt up my throat. I swallowed the bitter taste and closed my eyes, pushing the pain and the sickness away. I couldn't acknowledge it—couldn't deal with it—until I was out of here.
After a few more minutes, I crawled to the edge of my safe circle and studied the door. The catch was old and heavy, and looked like something you'd find in a medieval castle rather than anything made in recent—or not so recent—years. And there was definitely no lock.