Scorched Treachery (6 page)

I stopped screaming as I groaned in pain, gasping for breath. The chains around my wrists clattered as I slid down the wall, my arms pulling back into their extended position above my head. I couldn't take my eyes off Talon. I panted with pain as I watched him, my heart pleading with me to find a way over to him, my mind yelling at me that it was impossible. I looked at Talon until a strong hand grasped my jaw, causing me to wince at the pressure he placed on the tender skin as he turned me to face him.

"Don't push me, Wynifred,” Cail sneered right in my ear before his closed fist hit me hard against my cheek.

I stayed silent as I turned back to look at him, my eyes narrowing in fight and warning. It was a useless threat; there wasn’t anything I could do to him. He smiled once before moving out of the cell to stand in the small hallway that lined the jail block. 

"Ryland," Cail said, his attention turning from me to the
black-eyed man behind him. My head whipped up as Cail spoke his name. I don’t know why I didn’t expect him to be here. Ryland was just as much one of Edmund’s puppets as my brother was now.

Ryland stepped forward, his face blank, his curls limp as they hung damp around his head. "Go sit by Sain, and chain your legs together."

Sain? The first of the Drak? The one Ovailia betrayed? The one Edmund killed? My head bounced between Cail and Ryland, hoping for a clue about who they were talking about. Without a word, Ryland walked into the cell with the battered man, sat down next to him, and chained his own ankles.

Sain.

Sain. It couldn't be; it just couldn't. My mind begged me not to believe it, but deep down I knew it was true. Sain looked at me with those bright green eyes of his, his one glance daring me to deny what I already knew. He was Sain. I had no idea how, or why, but I was sure it was him.

Ryland's movements were stiff, his vision unfocused as he followed Cail's odd demands. I looked between all of them: my brother and father who were focused on Ryland, Talon's limp body in the cell next to mine, Ryland as a shell of himself, and Sain, his green eyes still boring into mine, the power behind them evident even beneath the blood soaked hair and the bruised face.

Timothy moved over to where Ryland and Sain sat, Sain lifting his chained hands up to him. Timothy removed one of the chains from Sain’s wrist and reattached it on Ryland's. Sain did not fight, and Ryland did not move. The eeriness of it scared me. I didn't know what they were doing, and I didn't want to.

"Ready," Timothy said as he stepped out of the cell, closing the door to the tiny space behind him and trapping the two men inside. "Turn him off, son."

"Yes, Father," Cail said obediently, and for one split second, the prison was quiet except for the sound of my chains as I looked between them. The sound of my heart was like a beating drum in my ears as the silence pumped me full of dread. They were waiting for something, and the mystery as to what was terrifying. The silence dragged before the air opened up with a scream so mournful that I jumped, my own tears threatening as my soul understood the absolute heartbreak that the sound encompassed.

I recoiled into myself as Ryland began to writhe and fight against the chains that he had bound himself with only moment
s before. Sain's emaciated body moved around like a rag doll with each of Ryland’s spasms as he fought against his own restraints. Ryland screamed and yelled and howled, his now blue eyes panicked as he attempted to claw his way out of the cell.

I watched him as he reeled and fought, my heart thumping. This was like no side of Ryland I had ever seen. This was not the compliant Ryland that Cail seemed to control
. It was not the aggressive Ryland that had attacked us at the party, nor was he the calm and loving boy that I had seen with Joclyn before this all began. He was desperate, emotionally unstable and terrifying. It was the terrifying factor that affected me the most. That raw primal aggression was powerful as he repeatedly lunged against his chains, hitting his head against the bars in an attempt to move through them.

I scooted as far away from him as possible
. My arms stretched painfully above me as I moved toward Talon, knowing he couldn't protect me, but needing to move away from the scene in the cell in front of me. As much as I wanted to move away, I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I am not sure I would have been able to look away even if I hadn’t been chained. I am not sure I wanted to. A part of me needed to see what they had done to Ryland, to understand what was coming for me.

"Joclyn!" he screamed, his voice weak and breaking. "What have you done to her?" Ryland continued to scream and writhe as Cail laughed, his footsteps heavy as he moved to stand in front of
Ryland’s cell, right next to our father.

"I haven't done anything to her," Cail said innocently. "What you should be
wondering is what you have done to her."

Ryland froze, his jaw working in terror, "What I did?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper. “I
did… nothing…nothing… I’m good. Not hurt…”

Ryland rambled for a moment, his words disjointed as his head twitched around.

"What did you make me do?" Ryland asked, the sporadic action disappearing quicker than it had come on.

"I didn't make you do anything, Ryland," Cail taunted, his voice heavy with malice. "Did you hurt her?"

"You made me hurt her!" Ryland yelled, his body pushing against the chains that bound him so tightly. What little relaxation my shoulders had found left as I tensed away from the anger in Ryland's voice.

“Made me hurt…
made me hurt…” he repeated, his voice clicking through the mechanic repetition.

"Now, now," Cail taunted, his voice calm and condescending. "I did nothing of the sort. I didn't wrap my hands around her neck. Did you?"

Ryland's voice broke for only a moment before he answered in a hiss, "Yes…yes."

"Did I break her arm?" Cail asked, his back arching as he lowered himself to Ryland's eye level.

"No." Ryland repeated over and over again. His voice had weakened in desperation, his body now only barely fighting against the chains.

"Did she try to kill me? Did I try to kill her?" I froze, my breathing catching at Cail's words. I knew what they were talking about, but it didn't make any sense. Joclyn tried to kill Ryland? She hadn't said anything about this.

"No." Ryland's voice was soft.

"Did you?" Cail taunted. It was not a question.

"Yes."

"Will you do it again?" Cail spoke to him like a psychiatrist, his words soothing, and yet the intention behind them was heavy and as clear as day. “Will you hurt her?”

“Hurt her…hurt her…hurt her,” Ryland repeated as he began to rock, the rocking stopping suddenly as he switched over again, his voice loud.

"No!" Ryland roared, his desperation coming back quickly. "No." Ryland yelled and screamed as he fought against the chains, pulling at the heavy link that bound him to the
rock wall.

"Really?" Cail taunted
, his back straightening as he stood. "But she hurts you in your dreams doesn't she?"

"No. Nonono…"

"What about when she kissed me, when her hands were all over me," Cail paused, “that hurt, didn’t it?”

Ryland said nothing but looked around frantically, his eyes darting all over the dungeon as his breathing picked up, his fingers curling as he moaned a deep lament filled with agony.

Watching him was traumatizing. I found myself torn between pity, an insane desire to help him, and fear over the explosive nature of his moods. I tried to catch his eyes, hoping that maybe getting him to see me would calm him, but he didn't seem to notice anyone other than Cail. Sain, however, was staring into me with his bright green eyes, seemingly oblivious to the exchange going on mere inches from him.

I returned Sain's stare, not knowing where else to look, not wanting to see Cail torment Ryland anymore. I looked at him, silently hoping that the strong gaze of the old man's eyes would fill in the gaps I was so obviously missing.

"Or what about when she tried to snap your neck?" Cail asked.

"It wasn't her."

"But you just saw her, on the roof top of that little farmhouse, clinging to Ilyan," Cail taunted, his lips turned in a sneer. Timothy chuckled wickedly at the look on Ryland's face.

“Nonononono,” Ryland moaned, his fingers curling again as he rocked back and forth, his head hitting against the bars several times.

"Do you think he's kissed her?" Cail whispered, the harshness of his voice hissing through the damp prison.

"No." Ryland's voice was strong, but forced, his belief in his words wavering, his body still rocking as he fought whatever demons had been placed in his head.

"I saw Ilyan kiss Joclyn. I looked into the window of Sain's mind and saw her kiss him. Her hands wrapped through that hair of his as he touched her, loved her, and
kissed
her."

Cail spoke softly as if to a lover, but the tone of his voice only triggered Ryland’s violence. His voice cracked and broke as he cried out at Cail’s words, and he pulled at his hair and clawed at the shackles around his ankles. I moved myself away from him as if his pain would infect me. His voice opened again into that same mournful whine, the deep hollow noise of it the sound of heartbreak and betrayal. I jerked as the loud noise broke the silence of our prison, my sharp intake catching my father's attention. He glared at me in warning before returning to Ryland's fit.

"And she kissed him back." Cail barely got the words out before Ryland lunged at the door to his prison, his hands shooting through the narrow space between the bars as he reached for my brother. Ryland's fingers moved and flexed, intent on clawing out Cail's eyes, but he couldn’t reach far enough, the chains that bound him to the wall and to Sain were too restrictive. I heard my father laugh and was sure that Cail was sneering, but I couldn't look away from Ryland.

He snarled like an animal as he continued to attack Cail. His eyes were feral, his growl deep and menacing. I
moved away until my shoulder could move no more, the desperate violence in his eyes scaring me.

"She loves him, Ryland. Joclyn loves Ilyan more than she loves you. What are you going to do about it?"

“Kill…kill…kill,” Ryland repeated over and over, his body rocking again.

“What. Are. You. Going. To. Do?” Cail asked, each word stronger than the last.

"I'm going to kill him!" Ryland pushed and tugged against the bars, his voice deep through his clenched teeth.

"And what about her?" Cail asked, his voice still containing that menacing taunt. "Are you going to hurt her? Make her pay?"

"Yes!" Ryland yelled, and Cail smiled more. “Hurt her…hurt her!”

"She hurt you!" Cail yelled, his voice moving into a taunt, and I knew at once what they were doing. Cail had gained full control of Ryland’s mind. He was manipulating Ryland into believing things that he wouldn't believe otherwise. The lines of reality and manipulated horror were so blurred I could tell Ryland had no idea what was what anymore. .

"Are you going to kill her?" Cail asked, the final brick in his bridgework laid.

"Yes!" Ryland yelled, his feral growling against the bars increasing for a moment before it dropped, before Sain's hand, unseen by both Cail and my father, touched his back. The touch
brought him back down to earth. The frantic movements slowed. Ryland’s body settled back onto the damp floor of the prison, his hands shaking as his fingers curled around his head.

"No," Ryland gasped, his face horrified at what had just happened. “Nonononono.”

"No?" Cail asked, even though his anger at the temporary glitch was obvious, his voice still held that manipulative tone. He didn't miss a beat, and Ryland began second-guessing himself.

"But she hurt you," Cail stated, moving himself closer to the bars again.

"It wasn't her," Ryland said, yelling as he tried to convince himself as well as Cail. “Wasn’t her, wasn’t her, wasn’t her.”

"How can you be so sure?"

"I know." Ryland lunged at the bars again, but Cail didn't even flinch, even though the raw aggression had returned to Ryland’s face.

"The way she knows you didn't just try to kill her, for the second time?"

Ryland's jaw moved as he tried to get the words out, but nothing came. Finally, two words left him, the conviction almost gone from his voice, "She knows."

"How?"

"She knows, she knows," he repeated.

"Why don't you show her
?" Cail asked, his lips twitching with a pleased sneer.

Ryland's eyes widened as Cail pulled a double sided blade from his pocket, the metal of the blade bright red. It had no handle and no finger hold. It almost looked like a shard of jagged stone, sharpened to a point on both sides.

Ryland looked at it as Cail extended it to him through the bars, his fingers twitching as he slowly reached to grab it. I couldn't take my eyes off the blade. I had seen these many times before I escaped, and seeing one again made my stomach turn. It was a knife made of blood and bits of soul. It had dark magic at its core, but I wasn’t sure what they were doing with the knife. I didn’t want to find out. I pulled against my chains, the metal clanking as I tried to move away, knowing there was nowhere to go. I couldn’t take my eyes off the blade, my breath coming in short little spurts as Cail held it between his fingers.