Tovian Page 4

  Her chest tightened, almost matching the pain that still bloomed across her abused body.

  If it was him, she would beg him to release her.

  She scoffed at herself.

  Am I so desperate as to think he really cares?

  Aielle knew that she should hate him. He was her prison guard. But she knew he didn’t have a will of his own. He might have been one of the mountain people – Siirtians– before the invasion, but since then he had become nothing more than a slave of the Ardaks.

  I can’t hate him, but I can’t trust him, either.

  The viewing slot in her cell door was so small that all she had ever seen was his eyes. But she knew he had to be enormous. The people of Siirti—the Siirti—were the largest species on Aurora, the men standing head and shoulders over even her race. They were known for their dark hair, dark eyes, and rugged good looks. The strength of their men was legendary, their enormous, muscular bodies carving out the mountains, trading their bounty of precious gems and metals for materials from other realms.

  The cyborg torturers she’d seen had a beauty that would have been handsome had it not been so dark and terrifying. Had it not been for the red, blinking light in their necks.

  Guilt surged, swift and unyielding.

  Chips that were there because she had failed. Had she stolen the crystals, he would have been free. They would all be free. If she had been successful in the early days of the invasion, the Ardaks never would have had the technology they needed to create the cyborgs.

  She was still pondering all the ways things would have been different, when her door creaked open on its hinges and two guards strode in.

  She searched their eyes, hoping to find the steel-gray eyes of the special guard. But two dark sets of almost black eyes stared mercilessly back. And neither of their gazes sent a shiver down her spine.

  Her head dipped slightly, the simple gesture all she would allow to betray her deep sense of disappointment.

  She knew it was ridiculous to hope for something so small. So pointless. He never would have released her.

  The guards came forward, and she didn’t fight as they dragged her to her feet.

  “Why are you executing me now?” she croaked. “Did you get through the Renwyn shields?”

  Neither of them answered as they gripped her by the elbows and escorted her from the cell.

  She tried to hold her head high, feeling no shame in going to her death this way. Better to die than to be tortured again.

  At least I can die never having betrayed my people.

  As they walked through the tunnels, they passed more cells than she could count. Sometimes, she heard weeping and cursing from the prisoners, male and female. Yet, what struck her the most was the silence. The shuffling sound of footsteps on the cell floors and muted clanking of chains were overshadowed by the silence of the hopeless people within them.

  They finally emerged from the prison to take a tunnel that sloped upward. It opened into the bottom of a large arena that must once have been a place for sporting events. The area in the center was covered with dirt, the steps carved from pure stone.

  The stands were half-filled with desperate-looking beings—Siirtians, cyborgs, and a few Ardaks—all waiting to cheer for her death.

  Where are the rest of the Ardaks?

  There had been thousands of them during the invasion. Did they go somewhere else on Aurora? Or did they leave for good?

  As she viewed the remains of the Siirtians, she felt a deep sadness for the shadows of what her father said had been a free and proud race. Before they were taken over by the Ardaks. The women and children looked weathered and bruised, their clothing tattered and filthy. The desperation they felt for even a moment of happiness was almost palpable, a strong contrast to the males of the race.

  The few males she could find in the crowd watched with indifference. No emotion at all.

  What happened to all the men? There are so few of them compared to the women!

  The cyborgs held her almost suspended between them as they marched to the far side of the arena.

  Aielle searched the sky one last time, her eyes desperately seeking the spots of blue amid the gray clouds. But instead, everything was shrouded with a red glow from the shield that shot high into the air above, encasing their base.

  The Ardak general sat on a large granite dais. To her, it looked like an evil throne.

  In his hand was his staff, which was tipped with a tiny red crystal. It was nothing more than a drop of red, but it still had enough power to kill.

  When she stood before the general, dirty and bedraggled, she held his gaze and did not look away.

  He had all the strength and power typical of an Ardak but was somehow more menacing. Even though he was seated, she would have put him at over seven feet tall, and his black-and-gray striped fur was heavily marred by scarring. His muscles bulged, and his yellow, slitted eyes were piercing her angrily.

  If I can’t have vengeance, I pray that someone will kill this monster for the evil he’s done.

  He roared, the sound filling the arena and sending shivers down her spine. It lasted for long seconds, shaking her eardrums and vibrating her very bones. Then he took a deep breath and spoke, “The time has come to send a message to your father, Aielle, daughter of Ardair.”

  She couldn’t hide her shock. Not only did he know who she was, but he spoke the words in the language of her people, albeit a highly accented version of it.

  How does he know the elven common tongue?

  Before she could respond, he waved the crystal staff in front of him. “You have one last chance to tell me what I want to know. How do I get into Renwyn, and where are the crystals?”

  “I’ll never betray my people.” Her sentence started strong but ended in a cough. Her body too beaten and broken for her to maintain her air of confidence.

  The general held up one paw, examining the tips his claws. His eyes were filled with cunning when they looked back up at her again. “If you let me have the crystals, I’ll leave your people alone.”

  “And I’m supposed to believe that?”

  The general leaned forward, and there was no mercy in his expression. “You don’t have a choice.”

  She did have a choice. He just didn’t think she would be willing to make it, which only showed how little these monsters understood her people or what they stood for.

  The general waited for a few more seconds and then bared his fangs. “Fine. Since you won’t tell me what I want to know, that message is going to be your head. Maybe it will motivate your father to be smarter than you were.” The words were smooth, and at the end, he gave a hearty, roaring laugh that Aielle knew she would never forget as long as she lived. “Don’t worry, the beast only eats the body.”

  The beast? What beast?

  The general raised his paws and his voice. “The cybeast, everyone!”

  Angry cheers came from the stands—there would be no help for her from them.

  The general whispered something into the crystal, and the ground opened beneath her. She plummeted into a free fall as the cheer from the crowd grew deafening.

  Aielle cried out when she landed hard on her backside, feeling several of her wounds from the torture reopen. She scrambled up from the rock beneath her as quickly as she could, her eyes searching the darkness for the beast. She was in some kind of underground tunnel. She couldn’t see very far, but some of the rocks glowed dimly, giving the tunnel a feeling of twilight similar to the cell she’d occupied.

  An enormous roar seemed to shake the very rock around her. But it wasn’t like an Ardak’s roar. This one was deeper, more feral as it belayed the madness of whatever creature made it.

  She stumbled in the opposite direction of where the roar had come from, her legs shaking as she looked for a place to hide or a way out. But the walls and ceiling seemed to be made of solid rock, too smooth to climb, nowhere to hide.

  Heavy thuds on the stone floor of the tunnel signaled t
hat the beast was growing closer. It roared a second time, and her heart pounded even faster.

  She stumbled, falling to her knees, scraping her already battered skin against the stone. The roar came from right behind her, and she turned to stare straight up into the feral eyes of an enraged monster. It looked like a brown-and-black canine, twice as large as her, its body huge and muscled. Metal spines stuck out in every direction, and its eyes glowed red.

  Her entire body froze in fear as its jaws snapped once above her.

  Just as the beast lunged, strong fingers clamped around her arm, yanking her toward the wall of the tunnel. Its jaws snapped where her shoulder had been.

  She turned and found herself staring into steel-gray eyes.

  His gray eyes.

  In a completely perfect, beautiful face.

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