Chapter 16

ChapterSixteen

Her head hurt. Bad. The headache that seared behind her eyes and nose was one that came from blunt force trauma, not because she’d drank too much the night before.

Varya had broken her nose once. She’d hit the ground too hard as a child, fell off a building or something like that, she couldn’t quite remember. But she’d hit her face on the dirt so hard that she’d snapped the fine bone and twisted it to the side. She’d never forgotten how her neighbor had come out of his yard and seen her. The old man had laughed, then grabbed onto the mangled bone and forced it back into place.

That kind of pain never left a person’s memory. How could she ever forget the blinding ache?

Sighing, she tried to open her eyes, but they were stuck together. She wasn’t sure how that had happened, but she was certain to find out soon enough.

Rolling onto her side also proved impossible. Her hands were tied behind her back and her legs bound. A bad sign, really. She was more concerned with how to get herself out of this situation than with figuring out where she was.

It didn’t matter who had kidnapped her. There were plenty of people in this kingdom that wanted her dead. She’d stolen things her entire life from a lot of powerful people. And even if those items were used to make her own little town better, that still meant she had taken from another town who had been using it.

She’d had a bounty on her head most of her life. Varya was used to it by now.

Wiggling her fingers, trying to get some feeling back into the numb digits, she tried to pull her lashes apart by sheer grit and will. Unfortunately, that wasn’t working at all. And her arms must have been tied behind her back for a while because even moving her fingers felt impossible.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

She stilled at the sound of the voice. Familiar in a way, although she couldn’t quite place it. Tilting her head toward the sound, she tried to act like she was fine. “Thanks for welcoming me into your home.”

“You won’t be saying that for long.”

Hands curled in her hair at the base of her head, dragging her face upward to look at what she expected was a man. The hand was big against the back of her head. Covered in callouses too, as his palm ripped her hair from her skull.

Who? Who was this? She should have been able to at least guess...

Then she smelled it.

Whiskey, rum, vodka, all the alcohols combined into a breath that made her nauseous. Only one group of people drank like that and it was the last group she wanted to catch her.

Memories filtered in. She’d been unlucky enough to be caught by the Horde. Greed had gotten away, though. She was certain of that. His guards wouldn’t let anyone near him, and they’d all rushed after her, anyway.

Maybe she’d left a lasting impression on the demon. If she’d done that, at least, maybe she’d finally succeeded in making this place a little better for all those who lived in this cursed desert.

It didn’t matter what they did to her.

She remembered the Horde were talented in the art of torture. This would be an endless battle between her and them. Soon enough, she would want to break. And she wouldn’t be able to.

The hand in her hair tightened, twisting hard enough that tears burned in her eyes with nowhere to go.

“You’re the one who stole from us,” the deep voice snarled. “You will tell us where it is.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“You do. How else would you have found that goblet?” The voice warped, as though he were looking in another direction before his attention returned to her. “Let’s make sure you can see, yes? Then you will know exactly what torture comes for you.”

She already had a good idea.

Icy water poured over her head from above. She spluttered, trying to draw in a breath through the running water, but she couldn’t. Her lungs screamed, burning for a single breath, but all she could do was open her mouth and then try not to inhale the water that poured over her. Too long. Her stomach seized, coiling in on itself as vomit pressed against the back of her throat. She was going to drown. They had to stop! Didn’t they know they had to stop? They must... They had to...

The water slowed to a trickle, and she gasped in a deep breath. Her lungs burned with the liquid that had inevitably sunk into them. Coughing made her entire body stiffen with the pain and opened up the scabs inside her nose.

Blood poured over her lips, but miraculously she could open her eyes. Dirt and grit scratched against the delicate orbs, but she could see.

They were in another cave. Shocking. The Horde loved to pour their massive bodies into tight spaces. She’d never understood it. Blinking again, her eyes watering and blood coating her tongue, she finally looked at the man who tortured her.

Damn it. The big bearded beast had been the leader of the men who had caged Greed, and she had a feeling he was the same man who led the entire Horde. She was seeing double of him, though, so it could be anyone.

He opened his hands at his sides, gesturing to her. “You stole from us. You know what you stole?”

“I am just a villager,” she tried. “I lived in that town my whole life. You’ve got the wrong person.”

“Do we? What’s the name of the town?”

Fuck. He had her and he knew it. Because he also knew that she absolutely was not from that town. He remembered her, but she didn’t know how he remembered her.

Baring her teeth at him, she hissed out a long breath. “I stole nothing from you.”

“You think I have not spent my entire life being poisoned?” The leader of the Horde crouched in front of her. His big belly jutted so close that it touched her knees, but she saw the power in his form. He could snap her neck in those powerful hands if he wanted to. “I watched you both. It was a neat trick, using good poison to make me immobile. But I watched you both as you walked over my body. I saw my treasure in the waistband of your leggings. So tell me one more time that you don’t know what you stole, thief, and I will cut your throat and drink your blood as it pours out.”

Swallowing hard, she wondered if she should spit in his face. Get it over with. They were going to kill her, no matter what.

Still, she didn’t think she wanted to die watching him drink her blood. So she nodded, “Fine. I took a map.”

“You took a map.” He nodded and stood up, his knees creaking with the movement. “I know you did.”

His fist flew out and caught her on the side of the head. She saw black and white stars in her vision as she rocked to the side. And then she was falling. Her head struck rocks and oh, there was the nausea again.

He leaned down and grabbed her tied arms. With a wrenching jerk, he dragged her across the sharp stones on the ground. They tore into her skin, leaving a bloody streak in her wake, but she didn’t mind that. Instead, it was her arms that screamed. The sockets of her shoulders were bent too far. If he kept going they were going to...

Snap.

She screamed, her voice raw and aching as the pain ripped through her.

“My arms,” she whimpered as the scream died out. “My arms, please... my arms...”

“I don’t care about your arms!” The Horde leader threw her away from him, his anger sending her flying across the floor and sliding until her back slammed against something hard.

Moaning, she tried to inhale a shuddering breath as she looked up to see a man standing above her. No, not one. Three. Three other men, and more behind them as they glared down at her prone form.

The Horde leader crouched again. He looked like some kind of monster out of a children’s book. Large and round and ridiculously powerful as he rested his limp wrists on his knees. “You are going to tell me where the map is.”

“I don’t know where the map is.”

He continued as though she hadn’t spoken. “You’re going to tell me where you put it, or who you sold it to. And then you’re going to be a welcome treat to my men, who haven’t known the touch of a woman in a very long time.”

For the first time in this ordeal, she felt fear.

“No,” Varya whispered. “Why would I tell you anything if you’re threatening me with that?”

“Because they can be kind or they can be rough.” He shrugged. “Either way you choose, I’m going to get the information I want. You’ll either tell me now, or you’ll tell me after they break you.”

“It sounds like they’ll break me no matter how I choose.”

He grinned, all teeth and gleaming dark eyes. “Probably. They’re not known for being kind.”

Her heart thudded hard in her chest as a cold sweat broke out over her body. She wouldn’t let them do this. Of all things, of all nightmares to be trapped in, she’d never expected this of the Horde.

They were terrible people, everyone knew that. They didn’t care about the state of the kingdom, only themselves. But that shouldn’t have led to... this.

She couldn’t even think the word in her mind. Couldn’t put a name to what they were threatening even though her stomach clenched and her thighs sealed together in a bid to keep herself safe.

What was she supposed to do with arms that were popped out of their sockets and lungs that now were wheezing?

He saw the thoughts flickering over her features as though she had spoken them aloud. “You know what is happening, yes? You know there is no more fight for you. You will tell me where the map is, and I will do my best to see you through the night still alive.”

“Is that even worth it?” she hissed. “Who wants to remain alive after that?”

He reached for her face, his fingers ghosting over the bruises on her cheeks. “You are strong. You’ll want to stay alive for as long as possible. Giving up now is just letting us win. You will fight, and we will battle, and in the end, I will win.”

She ground her teeth. “What makes you so sure you’ll win?”

She saw his fist draw back. The movement was so fast it was almost like a cobra striking at her. But she felt it connect with the socket of her eye and she felt the earth shattering pain of bone on bone.

Had he broken her skull? Had he done irreparable damage? What if she couldn’t see out of that eye anymore? How would she thieve?

But then she supposed that didn’t matter. Because he was wrong. She wasn’t that strong. She wasn’t a fighter who wanted to live with the memories of these horrible men who had laid her out in the sands and then took their time with her.

Already the one whose leg she’d backed into was working on his pants. He struggled with the tie. The dolt had knotted it so tightly that he’d need a knife to get out of it.

Varya didn’t feel like she was here. Her soul had whisked away from her body, leaving her to sit there on her own. Numb, icy cold, she muttered, “Why does he get to go first?”

“He doesn’t have to.” The Horde leader combed his fingers through her tangled hair, tugging too hard and ripping as he went. “You could tell me where the map is, and I’ll go first.”

That was supposed to be better?

This time, she spat in his face. Let him punch her again. Maybe she wouldn’t be awake for any of it. Maybe she’d pass out for hours and only wake with an ache between her legs. But that was equally terrible. This was all terrible.

The Horde leader lunged to his feet, cursing at her as he wiped her spit from his face. He kicked her hard in the ribs, spitting back at her as he kicked again and again.

Her ribs exploded. It felt like every bone in her body shattered, even though she knew she was made of harder stuff than that. When the booted feet stopped, she didn’t even care. Let them touch her. Let them do whatever they wanted but get it over quick because she just wanted to be alone.

The first man knelt behind her, apparently having won against the ties that bound him. She didn’t even flinch when his hands came to her ankle, cutting through the cords there and tugging her closer. It didn’t matter. She was numb. She wasn’t even here. She was shaking in fear, but that was natural… Wait… She wasn’t shaking.

The cave was.

The ground trembled underneath them, rocked with a movement that she’d never felt in her life. It was like the stones in the cave were rattling with the force of something deep beneath them.

A shout echoed through the cave, and then suddenly they were all moving. One of the Horde members grabbed onto her arm, her socket screaming yet again as he yanked her after him. The stones dug into her legs, but it didn’t matter. She was already a giant ball of pain.

The moment they hit the sands, however, the entire world exploded. Sand kicked up into her face and the Horde member who had held onto her arm vanished. She hit the ground hard on her face. Varya couldn’t see anything that was happening, but she could hear the yells. The screams.

The Horde leader was shouting for the men to get their mounts. “Run!” he shouted over and over again. “Move your asses and run!”

What were they running from, though?

Someone needed to help her. She needed someone to push her upright, or at least roll her over. But then the sand beneath her moved. Again. Like the waves of the sea, it rolled beneath her body and shoved her to the side. Her face pressed against something moving in the sands, something warm and smooth and... scaled?

She rolled, unable to stop herself until she was lying on her back. Almost seated, but that gave her the opportunity she needed to move.

Her legs ached. Her lungs screamed that she couldn’t run while her heart thundered in fear and her ribs screamed in protest. No part of her body wanted to run, but she didn’t have a choice.

The Horde continued to shout. Their cries echoed through the air along with the faint, terrifying sound of a hiss starting deep in the belly of a monster she refused to look at.

She’d felt the scales press against her body. She’d felt the muscles moving underneath her cheek as it easily powered through the sand toward the group of men and horses that were likely to be the beast’s meal.

And that terror kicked her upright. That terror kept her legs moving even when she felt like she was going to fall over.

Varya ran.