Steel Maiden (5 page)

I turned to look at the man who had just
spoken. Two temple guards stood behind me. I hadn’t even thought to
look and hadn’t noticed them, even though their black and yellow
uniforms were a dead giveaway. But there they were. They had been
waiting for me with their hands on their swords.

I felt the blood drain from my face as I
took in their confident smiles and the wicked intent in their
eyes.

But the betrayal, Mad Jack’s betrayal,
pierced my heart and shattered it.

I felt the angry tears run down my face
before I even realized I was crying. In a fit of rage I whirled
around.

“How could you? You bastard!” I spat. “How
could you betray me like that? To
them
? How could you do
this to your own people? You double-crossing son of a bitch!”

I knew it was crazy and foolish to scream my
head off at someone who could just as easily cut it off, but he
just sat in his chair looking uncomfortable. For a second his face
and eyes showed pain and regret. It was fast, but I saw it. And I
also noticed how fast his expression hardened when he noticed the
men watching him. He composed himself, straightening, but I had
seen it.

“I’m sorry, Elena,” said Mad Jack, his voice
stripped of emotion. He avoided my eyes.

I squeezed my fists hard. My nails bit into
my flesh.

“Why would you do this? Look at me. Look at
me,
traitor
.”

His eyes snapped to mine. His expression
darkened, and I could see his anger as clearly as I could see his
betrayal. So many emotions went through me as I stood there
shaking. I was losing myself. For a moment I thought I’d gone too
far and braced myself for the assault that was coming. He was going
to hit me.

Mad Jack’s dark eyes pinned me on the spot.
He didn’t move, and I didn’t understand the struggle I saw on his
face.

“Because, like you, I’ll do anything to get
out of this dump.”

He opened his mouth and then closed it
again. “I saw an opportunity and I took it.”

“By betraying your own people.” My lips
trembled, and the room started to spin.

I felt the temple guards move behind me
before I saw them. They stood on either side of me.

I kept my focus on the traitor.

“…by giving me up to the very people who put
us in this cage,” I hissed.

He looked down at his desk. I leaned
forward, my voice quivering with anger and fear. “You know what
they’ll do me,” I breathed. “You know. And still, you’re handing me
over to them, like you own me, like you had the
right
. You
had no right. Nobody owns me.”

Mad Jack clenched his jaw and breathed
loudly through his nose. His eyes darted from me to the guards. He
grabbed the edge of his desk with his fingers. His knuckles turned
white as he said softly, “There’s nothing I can do.”

I frowned. “You’ve been working for the
priests all along, haven’t you? You’re one of their spies.”

My eyes burned as the exhaustion and the
hunger of the day spilled out of me through my tears. I thought of
Rose, and it was all I could do to keep standing.

Mad Jack pressed his lips in a hard line,
but said nothing.

Everything became clear to me. “You’re the
one who snitched. You told the priests where to find me. You
traitorous piece of shit!”

He shook his head. “No. I promise you,
Elena. I didn’t betray you.”

“No?” I spat out a laugh. “What the hell do
you call this? You’ve just killed me. You’ve just killed Rose. You
bastard!”

I spat in his face.

“May the devil curse you. May you rot in the
hell with him—”

Mad Jack’s eyes widened. It was my only
warning.

Something hard collided with the back of my
head. I fell sideways to my knees and tried to blink the black
spots from my eyes.

“Don’t hurt her!”

Through my blurred vision I saw Mad Jack
move from his desk.

“Don’t even think about it.”

A guard held a sword to Mad Jack’s neck. “A
deal’s a deal. The whore is ours now. Get her weapons.”

“Bastards,” I managed to say and was
immediately recompensed with a brutal kick to the stomach. I
screamed in pain as I fell forward, clutching my stomach. I
couldn’t get enough air into my lungs, and the searing pain told me
that I had broken a rib. Cradling my ribcage, I stood up and looked
my attackers in the eyes.

“Why does a whore need so many weapons,
eh?”

One of the guards held my lucky dagger and
my short sword. “Well, it doesn’t matter. It’s not like they were
any use.”

He tossed them on the ground.

“Go to hell,” I wheezed.

Another brutal blow crunched the bones in my
face, and I screamed in agony. My knees buckled and I fell. I tried
to keep from passing out, but the pain was too much.

The room spun, and my world darkened around
me. I heard Mad Jack yell something angrily at the temple guards.
Someone was calling my name. A shadow passed in front of me, and I
saw the traitor’s face, masked with worry, hovering above me. Then
I slipped into the darkness.

CHAPTER 5

I
WOKE UP TO the sound of gravel
crunching. I felt a searing pain in my lower legs and wetness
against my skin. My eyelids were heavy and stinging, but I forced
them open. As my world slowly came into focus, the ground moved
beneath me. I blinked the heaviness from my head. I was being
dragged by my armpits.

The same two temple guards that had knocked
me unconscious were dragging me like a corpse. My lower body
bounced on the hard ground as rocks and dirt tore into my clothes
and into my flesh. The more aware I became, the more I felt the
pain, and the more I wished I could be unconscious again. I moaned
as the wounds on my legs ripped open again and again.

As soon as they heard me, they dropped
me.

My chin hit the ground hard, and I tasted
blood in my mouth. I winced at the pain. Then I remembered what
they’d done to me, to my face, and I was surprised I wasn’t in
more
pain. Maybe I’d been wrong. Maybe they hadn’t hit me as
hard as I had first thought. Technically, I should still be
unconscious.

I was too hot. Was it a fever from
infection? I’d never felt like this before. I’d never been sick a
day in my life.

“The peasant bitch is awake,” said one of
the guards. “Get up and walk. We’re tired of dragging your sorry
ass around. Up.”

Somehow I pulled myself up and stood.
Anything was better than being dragged. My head felt heavy and
light at the same time, and my legs burned in protest. I looked
down and gasped. My breeches and part of my tunic were shredded and
covered in dirt and blood. My exposed flesh was torn and raw. I
swallowed my panic and looked around.

I blinked in the brightness of the sun.
Immediately I recognized where we were. The tall stone walls, the
manicured, glorious gardens, the radiant stone buildings, the clean
air, and the spotless and nearly sparkling streets all told me I
was back in Soul City. The only thing out of place was the long
trail of blood that marked the road behind me—my blood.

A waft of roasting meat nearly sent me to my
knees again. My mouth watered and my stomach ached. My throat
burned nearly as bad as my legs. I needed water more than I needed
food. I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious. The short
shadows along the buildings showed that it wasn’t midday yet. They
probably dragged me out of the Pit as soon as they had finished
beating me.

Something hard hit me in the lower back, and
I went sprawling. I used my hands to break my fall, and I cursed as
my hands became as torn and bloodied as my legs.

“Better get used to the beatings, whore.
This is nothing to what’s coming to ya.”

I whirled around angrily, but froze when the
tip of a sword was pointed at my face.

I could blame Mad Jack all I wanted, but
deep down, I knew this was
my
fault. Sure he had deceived
me, but I had had been reckless. I knew that I had made the mistake
of stealing the crown.

“How does a whore from the Pit get her hands
on a kingly crown, eh? Thought you’d give up whoring and try your
hand at thieving?” said the same guard. His imp-like face was hard
and unforgiving. Years of battle showed in his cold and beady eyes.
He shared a look with his comrade, and they both smiled.

I studied the guard’s finely crafted sword.
Its shimmering pommel was engraved with a sun, a mark of the high
priests’ temple guard. When he noticed that I was staring at his
sword, his troll-like features hardened in a smile.

“Thought you’d get away, did ya? Thought you
could take what don’t belong to ya and not suffer the
consequences?”

He pulled my hood back with the edge of his
sword. My long dark hair fell around my shoulders.

I saw the feral look the guardsmen get when
they see a pretty face. I shivered inside, but I wouldn’t show them
fear. Like a trapped animal, I hid the anxiety that filled me. The
priest’s guards were notoriously ruthless and loved to abuse their
power, especially with women from the Pit.

Slowly, I moved my hands towards my belt,
but didn’t find the hilt of my daggers. I had forgotten that they
had taken my weapons.

“Pretty little thing, aren’t you?” said the
younger guard with an oily voice that matched his oily face. He
looked about my age. The front of his uniform was soiled and
wet.

“A little too skinny—I like my women with
meat on their bones. But you’re still a woman. Maybe, I’ll just
have a little fun before we bring you to the high priest?”

I frowned at his mention of fun. My hands
trembled in fury.

“
I’m
the senior guard, Garth,” said
the older man.

“Never said you weren’t, Baul.” Garth rolled
his eyes.

“If anyone gets to do anything, it’ll be me
first.” Baul looked at me and grinned.

“We’d be within our rights to do with you
what we will, seeing as you broke the law, and being from the Pit
and all. We can do what we want with you.”

Rape would be worse than a death sentence.
If I had a choice, I’d pick the noose. I had witnessed horrible
things when I was growing up in the Pit. I’d discovered women’s
bodies left to rot in the sun. Girls and women who’d once been full
of life had been tossed away like garbage. I knew what was coming,
and death would be better. Could I outrun them? I wouldn’t get very
far. I was completely useless. I was a damn fool.

The tip of a sword brushed my neck, and I
felt warm liquid trickle down to my collarbone.

“But the high priest said unspoiled, and he
was
very
specific,” said Baul. “Too bad, I think you would
have enjoyed me. I guess it’s your lucky day.” He laughed without
humor.

“I guess it is.” I spat, feeling like the
unluckiest person in all of Arcania.

“But don’t thank the Creator just yet. The
priest has plans for ya. Mark my words, you’re going to pay for
what you did.”

His expression became suspicious, and he
leaned forward. His hot breath tickled my ear, but the smell of
rotten eggs and ale stung my face.

“How
did
you do it? How could a
woman
walk through the sorcerer’s fire?”

There was trace of fear in his voice, and I
took comfort in that.

Good, let them be scared. But the truth was
I hadn’t really thought about it much. Why
was
I able to
pass through the green fire when everyone seemed to think that it
was impossible? I knew it was magic, I just didn’t know it was
sorcerer’s magic. Maybe the sorcerer had made a mistake with his
magic? Did Mad Jack know that I’d be faced with magic? He had acted
so strange, so surprised when he saw the crown. What had he not
told me?

“How did you get past the fire?”

My attention snapped back to the guards.

“How is it that you’re still alive? You
should be dead. No one can survive the fire.” He paused.
“Unless…”

“She’s a demon.” Garth turned pale.

“I’m not a demon.” I scrambled to my
feet.

I would look them straight in the eye. I
would not cower on the ground like an animal any longer. Their
demeanor changed for an instant, and I saw the nervous fear in
their eyes.

Something about me made them nervous. It
filled me with new hope.

Baul tapped the pouch at his side, my pouch,
where the crown lay hidden. He stared at me curiously, and for a
moment he said nothing.

“How’d you do it then? What kind of
trickster are you?”

I smiled wickedly. “Give me back my weapons,
and I’ll show you.”

“She’s got magic, that’s what,” said Garth.
His eyes widened in recognition.

“She’s one of the cursed, a magic bearer.
Only a witch could get through the sorcerer’s fire, or a
sorceress.”