Blood of the Underworld (38 page)

The door creaked open, and she stirred from her daydreams of life and freedom at the Gemcroft mansion. As if to confirm her fears, Daverik stepped inside, and he looked vaguely worried.

“Are you well?” he asked her, crossing the room.

“A cruel question to ask a woman in chains,” Zusa said.

“Perhaps. I have stretched my influence to its limits, Zusa. I can protect you no longer. What is your answer? Will you return to Karak’s bosom? Will you embrace the faith once more?”

Zusa shook her head.

“You know I won’t. What is there for me, Daverik?”

In answer, he knelt before her and brushed her face with his hand.

“There’s me,” he said. “There’s a life free of imprisonment and torture. Can that not mean something?”

“The temple’s laws will keep you from me.”

“Temple laws can be changed.”

Zusa laughed.

“Is that what you tell yourself?”

He shifted closer, leaning so close that she felt his breath on her neck. His hands brushed her arms, her sides, her breasts. His cheek pressed against hers as he whispered.

“It doesn’t matter. Come back to me, Katherine...”

She knew what he was trying to do. His lips pressed against her neck as he cupped her face. He was trying to reignite a distant flame, a flame that, perhaps for him, had never died. And while she felt it, too, it was nothing compared to the sudden flare of shame and disgust that overwhelmed her. It was one thing for him to touch her in a distant alley, a secret meeting between long lost lovers...but here? While manacles held her wrists to a wall? While her whole body ached from the imprisonment, and she sat in her own piss and shit?

“Katherine’s dead,” she said, pulling away from him best she could. “You killed her when you betrayed her to the priests, remember?”

He stood, and she saw the haunting memory in his eyes.

“I know,” he said. “I guess I’m a fool to still believe otherwise.”

Daverik walked toward the door, stopping just beside the strange flow of water falling from ceiling to floor.

“I learned this enchantment while in Mordeina, when I knew I might have to imprison you, or even one of my new Faceless,” he said, observing its flow. “It’s a marvelous thing, channeling all the powers of Karak into its water and away from its surroundings. Yet even the slightest disruption will momentarily break it. So powerful, yet so weak. Is that not how we all are, Zusa?”

He left without waiting for an answer. Zusa finally allowed herself to relax, and with his departure she damned him for hurting her so, damned him for the tears that started to flow. Hardly a minute later, the door reopened.

She expected her elderly torturer, but instead one of the Faceless entered. From what she could tell, it was not Ezra, but the other. The woman said nothing, only stepped around the stream of water falling from ceiling to floor so she might stand before Zusa with her arms crossed. She tilted her head to one side, staring, analyzing her like she might a strange animal.

“Like what you see?” Zusa asked, grinning despite her exhaustion.

The other woman slapped her, then knelt down so they might see eye to eye. Carefully she removed the thin cloth over her eyes, then pulled back the wrappings of her face, revealing her blonde hair and beautiful face. Her blue eyes stared into Zusa’s, and they held a frightening intensity.

“Who are you?” Zusa asked when her visitor still said nothing.

“Deborah,” she said.

“And who were you before you were Deborah?”

The woman shook her head.

“That name, that person, is lost and gone. I will not speak it to you.”

Zusa shrugged her shoulders best she could given the chains about her.

“If you insist.”

Deborah shifted, their faces so close to one another. She continued to study Zusa, looking over her dark eyes, skin, and hair.

“Why did you reveal your face?” Deborah finally asked. “Why did you turn against our god?”

Zusa smirked at her visitor.

“Are you having trouble with your faith, Deborah?”

Deborah grabbed her neck, shoved her against the wall, and held her there.

“You know nothing of me, Zusa, so do not insult me.”

“I know you wouldn’t ask if it were not so,” Zusa said with what little breath she could manage.

The hand about her throat released, and Deborah shifted a step backward.

“Do not question my devotion. I merely wish to know what it is that broke you, so I might better protect my own faith. Why...what made you decide to turn away?”

At this Zusa laughed, laughed until she could hardly breathe. Deborah struck her twice, but it did nothing to remove her dark humor.

“You want to know why I left?” she asked. “Why I abandoned Karak? I followed the orders given to me, to find and protect Alyssa Gemcroft years ago. But then Pelorak decided we were an insult to his temple. A wealthy member of this city decided we were a risk needing to be eliminated. A dark paladin decided we were blasphemous to his god, unworthy of forgiveness. I did nothing, Deborah. None of us did. We simply turned one day to find Karak’s followers arrayed against us Faceless. I never
decided.
My beloved friends died, until I was alone and lost. I never abandoned Karak. Karak and his temple abandoned me. The same will happen to you, Deborah. You’ll spend your life told you are shameful and weak, until one day you pull the cloth from your face, look into a mirror, and wonder what is so sinful about that beautiful blonde hair, so terrible about those icy blue eyes...”

Deborah struck her with a trembling hand.

“They warned me to not listen,” she said, unable to hide the fury in her voice. “I should have paid heed to those warnings. You are beyond redemption. Beyond reason. Never could I have guessed how foul a snake you are.”

“I can see it in your eyes,” Zusa, straining against her chains so she was mere inches from Deborah. “Deep down, you believe every single word I’ve said. Every. Single. Word.”

Deborah struck her with her fists, again and again. Zusa’s face swelled, and blood welled on her tongue. She kept her jaw clenched tight and let Deborah burn out her fury. When her grin never faltered, Deborah finally reached for her dagger and pressed it against her throat.

“I will cut the blasphemous tongue from your mouth,” she said. “I’ll burn it on Karak’s altar while I sing psalms of praise. You are a sick, broken thing, and it shames me to think you were once of my order. Open your mouth.”

Zusa shook her head. In response, Deborah struck her with the hilt of her dagger. The metal rattled her teeth, and she tasted more blood as a single tooth jarred loose. Zusa bit down hard, tearing the tooth free with a crack.

“I said open your mouth,” Deborah said, the tip of her dagger once more poking against her neck.

After slowly filling her lungs with air, Zusa spat the combination of tooth, blood, and saliva. It arced over Deborah’s head, through the air, and then broke the stream of water Daverik had created. Deborah had only the briefest moment to realize it before Zusa flung herself back while summoning the power that was hers. The entire room was awash with shadows, and this time when Zusa fell through the wall, nothing stole her away, nothing pulled her into the swirling depths of the Abyss. She emerged on the other side of the room, free of the manacles.

Deborah’s back was still to her, and she turned far too late. Zusa rolled once, then leapt, her heel slamming the other woman’s head forward. It hit the wall with a loud crack. Blood dripped down as her body collapsed to the hard stone. Zusa knelt for a moment, catching her breath, and then checked Deborah’s pulse. Still there, however faint. Despite the danger, Zusa kept her calm. Slowly she removed Deborah’s wrappings, then used them to replace her own. Feeling far cleaner, far more human, she took Deborah’s daggers, then spat a glob of blood onto Deborah’s pale, naked breasts.

“I’ll let you live,” she said. “Because one day, you will see just how right I was.”

The stream of water had resumed, and standing close to it made Zusa felt strangely empty. Glancing about, she found her tooth, then jammed it into the hole in the ceiling. Water continued to trickle down, but it was different somehow, lacking the proper hue. Zusa felt immediately better, though still physically weak. Her food and water had been rare, her movement limited. Holding the daggers made her fingers ache after the torture they’d taken, so that she had to grip them tighter for fear of losing control. It’d take a few days before she felt like her old self...

The door cracked open, without knock or warning given.

“How is my little doll?” Vrashka asked as he stepped inside. He froze at the macabre sight before him, and Zusa gave him no time to recover. She grabbed him while simultaneously kicking the door shut. With ease she flung him against the wall, a hand against his mouth to muffle his frightened scream.

“This little doll is leaving,” Zusa whispered into his ear as she pressed a dagger against his belly. “I suggest you stay calm, and answer me quietly and truthfully if you want to live. You understand?”

Vrashka nodded. If he was frightened, he didn’t show it. Zusa couldn’t help but be begrudgingly impressed.

“How many guards are outside the door?” she asked, then slowly pulled back her hand.

“None,” he said.

She sliced a gash across his forehead, the shallow cut bleeding profusely. That done, she pressed her hand once more against his mouth.

“Every lie you tell me, I cut lower,” she whispered. “Soon it will be your eyes, then your nose. Don’t make me reach your neck. How many guards?”

“None at the door,” Vrashka said, eyes closed against the blood that ran down into them. “There’s only one exit from the prison, up the hall. That’s where the guards are. I did not lie, little doll, I swear.”

“My name is Zusa, not doll,” she said, cutting across his eyebrows. “How many guards at the exit?”

It took a moment for the old man to gather his breath.

“Five,” he said. “There are always five.”

“Is it night or day?”

“The sun has just set. The temple is settling down for bed, my...Zusa.”

Zusa clasped a hand over his mouth, tried to think. If it were night, then her escape would be far easier. Her prison was deep underground, she knew, with no other exit besides the one with the guards. Five armored men would be difficult, especially with how weak she felt, but perhaps she might catch them off guard...

But escape was not the only thing on her mind.

“Where is Daverik?” she asked. “Is he in his room?”

The old man shook his head.

“I passed him on my way down. He said he felt unwell, and needed fresh air. He was hiding something, I could sense it. Looked troubled. Did you say something to him, little doll? Did you make him doubt himself?”

She tried to cut across both his eyes, but her dagger caught on the bridge of his nose so only one was split in half. When she pulled it free, Vrashka screamed, and her hand did little to muffle the noise. Knowing time was short, Zusa hoped that the scream, if heard, would be mistaken as hers instead of his. Blood was pouring from his face now, and Vrashka’s strength drained with it. Despite all the pain he must have felt, he bore a smile on his face.

“You...you make me sad,” he said when she flung him to the floor. “You could have withstood so much. Breaking you would have been my greatest accomplishment. Even the gentle touchers would be proud.”

He stared up at her with his lone eye, and she could tell he expected her to take his life. She almost obliged, but something about the sick satisfaction on his face turned her stomach. It was as if he viewed dying to her as a privilege.

“You’d never have broken me,” she said, grabbing the handle of her cell door. “But I broke you in seconds.”

“You’ll be back,” Vrashka said, laughing as she left. “You’ll still be mine, little...”

She flung a dagger through the air, straight through his remaining eye. Walking over to it, she yanked it out and shook off the eyeball.

“Stupid bastard,” she said. “You could have lived.”

With the door open, there was no way her escape had gone unnoticed. Taking a deep breath, she ran out the cell, hooked a right, and then charged straight down the corridor. There were only four total cells, with each door on her left. She’d been put in the furthest from the stairs, from what she could tell. At the far edge of the stone corridor was the exit Vrashka had spoken of. Five men stood guard, all with a lion painted across the front of their armor. They wielded a combination of short spears and swords, and four scrambled at the sight of her to form a defensive line. A fifth rushed up the stairs, no doubt to signal an alarm. Zusa sprinted faster, her breaths blasting in and out of her lungs.

“Halt!” one screamed.

Laughing at his cluelessness, she launched into the air, her body twisting like a dancer. Spears and swords pierced through the gaps in her arms and legs, catching nothing. Zusa jammed one dagger through a neck, and the other she rammed into the stomach of the man she slammed into. Together they fell, a heap of arms and legs. She rolled free in a heartbeat, spinning so that the nearest guard’s downward stab hit stone instead of flesh. Her heel caught his jaw, her left arm parried a desperate thrust, and then she was running up the stairs after the fifth, leaving the confused rest behind.

Him in his heavy armor, her in her wrappings, there was no chance, not for him. Her daggers pierced his back before he could finish opening the thick door at the top. Pushing the body behind her, she let it roll and tumble as an obstacle to the others chasing after. The door was not locked, and she flew through it. Beside the door was a heavy bar, and she wedged it into the nailed handles on either side of the entrance. The dungeon sealed, she had time now, perhaps enough to escape.

For a moment she forced her exhausted mind to think of the layout, to piece together where she was. The dungeon was located near the back of the temple. She stood in a short hallway, one way leading toward storage for various supplies and dried foods. The other was toward the barracks. Fists pounded on the opposite side of the door behind her, but she laughed at their helplessness. The temple was dark, quiet. Getting in might have proved difficult, especially with a trap laid for her. But getting out?