***
“Grace.” Her voice, so firm. Icy. Strong. Back to normal. I almost believed that I had dreamed it all, or that it had been a premonition, and that there was still time for me to stop it all from happening. My head was throbbing, and when I went to grasp it, I could not move. With a sharp gasp, I awoke.
“Alright, sweetheart.” Adam’s voice was saying, “It is alright. You are alright. Calm down. Breathe. Slowly. Breathe.”
We were all together still. Even Rohanna, Yumi, Jason, and Rael were still with us. Each one of us was bound to a chair, and the chairs were spaced evenly around so that we formed a circle. I was between Brynna and Adam, and Penny was on Brynna’s other side.
“My, my.” The Warden said, and my entire body tensed when I realized that he was standing right behind me.
“Grace DiAngelo. That is what your file says is your name. You bear a resemblance to the woman who carried you, but God, how I did not see the resemblance to the woman who made you, I do not know. So I suppose I should call you ‘Grace Elohimson.’” He said, “I should have known, but I doubted that it was truly possible.” He was moving, now he was right behind Brynna. “I truly did not think anything could be salvaged from this battleground of a womb.” His hand had snaked around Brynna’s front, and he grasped her lower stomach so hard that she might have grimaced, if she were not so proud. “Because it is a battleground, isn’t it, my love? So many men fighting and dying for it. Well, not so much for the womb. But for your perfect gash, they will fight and die. God, even your dear old Daddy could not resist the power of your sweet cunt, could he?”
“You motherfucker.” James spat. He was two seats down from Brynna, beside Janna. “Fuck you!”
“Oh, James…” The Warden said teasingly, as his hand came around to the front of her neck, and grasped underneath of her chin, “Do not become belligerent just yet. But by the One God, you know all about this. You know that so many men wanted this,” His hand was between her legs, and I squeezed my eyes shut, “…that they destroyed what lies beyond it. You were told all about it, weren’t you? Before? He made you aware, didn’t he?”
James glowered at him but said nothing, because the Warden’s hand was gripping Brynna’s throat a little harder.
“Knowing that the womb to hold her life was gone, how could I ever suspect that the beautiful child my brother tried to murder would live long enough for her to perform a successful pass?”
The Warden came around in front of me and kneeled down.
“Don’t you dare touch her.” Brynna hissed at her, “Don’t you fucking touch her!”
“Why should I not?” He asked, his head snapping in her direction, “You love her. You do. Oh, by the one God, you do. I can feel it in this heart.” With one of his bony hands, he reached out and placed his hand over her heart. “In this cold, cruel heart, I can feel the warmth of her love for you, Grace. For all of you.” He looked over at Yumi, Rohanna, and Jason, “Well, not for the three of you. But for the rest of you. And by the One God…” He actually sounded as though he were ready to cry. “I know what I must do.”
He looked at her, and when he saw the fire in her eyes, he began to laugh. He laughed so hysterically that a tear actually did escape his eye. But then, just as abruptly as it started, he stopped, and when he spoke, his voice was cold.
“So… Shall we determine the order, my dear?”
“Do not hurt them.” She requested, and he sighed heavily and covered his face for one second.
“I really wish you would stop speaking out of turn. Or saying such utterly irrelevant things. Giving me irrelevant answers. William?”
I screamed before I saw it. My hand jerked out, cutting my bruised and raw wrists on the cords tied so tightly around them as I reached out and grasped her hand. Penny and Idan were screaming and sobbing, and Brynna’s head was turned to Penny. Their heads were nestled together, but her hand was squeezing mine back. My other hand was holding Adam’s, and my head was turned to him as I cried hysterically. Any boldness that I had felt before had long since fled me. My heart was pounding, my breaths were hollow and quick, my tears were multiplying.
“Do not look, my sweet girl.” Adam whispered, “Do not look. Close your eyes.”
But I did look, and when I did, I saw Jason, his head fallen forward, smashed in at the back, blood and brain matter and skull on the floor in front of him, the guard called William standing behind him with a flanged baton. What horrified me most were not the contents that had streamed out of his head, but the way his eyes were blinking rapidly still, and his legs were still kicking…
“See? That was not even as cruel as I could be.” The Warden said, “I merely got rid of one of the expendables. But did that display make it inescapably clear to you, you insolent, infuriating, intoxicating little bitch, that you are to answer my questions with relevant answers, and nothing more?”
“Yes.” She answered, “Yes.”
“There we go.” He grinned again, and the red in his eyes was replaced with black once again, “Perfect. So, now, the order. I think, after we rid ourselves of the expendables, and then of the idem man…” Tony spat at him, and the wad of blood and spit nailed him perfectly on the left cheek.
“You fucking idem cunt!” The Warden was capable of going from calm to crazed in less than one second. It was almost impressive. Within a second of the spike in his rage, he was in front of Tony, punching him over and over again, and we were giving him exactly what he wanted, begging him to stop, screaming, fighting, clawing, until finally, he got bored, and returned to Brynna.
“After he is dead, we shall begin with the children. It will be quick. First the King and Second Queen’s son, the heir to the throne…” He walked over and squeezed Idan’s shoulder. Idan’s squeal of terror made the tears fall more rapidly from my eyes.
“You will not touch my son!” Adam barked, “Sick bastard! You sick fucking bastard, don’t you dare touch my son!”
“Please, please, Warden, I beg of you…” Janna cried, looking up at him with her huge eyes that were darker blue than they had ever been, “Please, take me instead. Please! I am begging you.”
“They have nothing to do with this.” James bellowed, “Let them go! This is between you, Adam, her, and me! Let the rest of them go.”
He rounded on James now, and pronounced, with the gusto and theatrics of a man performing some dramatic soliloquy, “But I cannot! Surely, I cannot. Not when the traitorous whore disobeyed me so! Not when she betrayed me in this way. After I doted upon her, and cared for her, and allowed her to get away with murder and intimidation and bribery and theft. After I allowed her to behave so criminally under my watch, she betrayed me. She told my brother that I was forcing myself upon her, when everything we ever did together was agreed upon! Yes! Yes! She said ‘yes!’ She wanted me!” His voice calmed, and he was speaking matter-of-factly again, “So it will begin with the children. First your dear Idan, then her dearest, dearest Penelope, and then her spirit-child, Grace.”
“Please… Warden…” Brynna whispered, and he rounded on her then.
“Ah!” He exclaimed, “Another strike! William! The next one!”
Rohanna’s scream left my ears ringing. My head was back underneath of Adam’s, and he was telling me to keep my eyes shut, and my eyes were shut, even though my mind wanted to look, even though my eyelids were trying to tear themselves open so I could see. It was her control over my mind that was keeping my eyes shut. It was Yumi, I knew. I knew because Rohanna kept screaming. She did not stop until William gave her a warning blow with his fist across the back of her head.
“It will be merciful to kill your children first.” The Warden continued, “Then they will not have to witness the merciless slaughter of their parents. They will not be forced to watch as I cut off your handsome man’s head, and lay it in your lap.” He gestured to James, and then to Janna, “As I force your beautiful lover to make love to you one last time, as I watched you do to her just a fe
w days ago. They will not see when I slice open her throat while she is still between your legs. They will not see when I hold my guns on the great Rexprimus, and force him to do to you what my brother ordered him to do to you all those years ago, in the cells of Shadow Village, and then, just as he wages his final war inside that sweet, treacherous cave of yours, I will rip out his heart with my bare hands. A part of me wants to let the children see it. To see those final moments. So that I know that you saw them see it. But I will be merciful. You do not deserve it, but I will be merciful, at least in that respect.”
He was back in front of Brynna, kneeling in front of her.
“But you, on the other hand, will not see my mercy. Do you remember how I said that I would put you out of your misery after you watched me slaughter every person you have ever loved? Well, that simply will not be. Your name is popular with the Unallied, even more so than the Second Queen’s. They know that you keep the King’s balls in your back pocket, that Tyre views you as a holy martyr, and that one of his closest men left his side to stand at yours. They know the power that you had over your populace, and many of those tribes want you. They are far worse than we could ever be, and I am eager for you to learn that. I am eager for you to see just how well-off you were here with me, just how very good I was to you. I only want to teach you a lesson, but once you are theirs, you are theirs. I will never see you again. You will live out the rest of your days, and the stench of their blood will never leave your skin, and the heavy feeling of grief in your heart will never weaken, and you will be a slave to the wills of animal-men. What do you think, my sweet? Tell me how all that sounds to you, so that we may begin?”
“Settling Duel.” She said, and beside me, Adam’s head jerked up, away from mine, and when I looked at him, I saw that his eyes were wide.
“Brynna!” He barked, “You cannot! Do you hear me? You cannot!”
“Say it again.” The Warden said, and I was more disturbed by the slow spread of the smile across his lips than I was by his earlier sudden ascents to rage and theatricality.
“Settling Duel.”
“Brynna!” Adam bellowed.
“For their lives.” She continued, her one black eye and one white eyes stuck firmly to the Warden’s black ones. “For mine.”
He stared at her, smiling, until he was simply, suddenly, not smiling anymore. Then, his face was very slightly contorted into an expression of pain and of grief. He reached out and gently grasped her face.
“By the One God… You are a stupid child. I have spent these years living between the legs of a stupid little girl. But if it is a Settling Duel you want, it is a Settling Duel you shall get. The people of this ship have been craving a good fight in your absence. We have much to which we must live up today. If you fight me alone, you will lose within minutes. I propose that we better your chances, for I am nothing if not a gentleman, and I will not allow a totally unfair duel. But I am also nothing if not the ringleader of the world’s most violent circus, and I must allow for a show that will keep my rabid crazies happy for months after you are gone. So let us do something we have never done before.”
“Let us.” She answered, her eyes still blazing into his.
“You will fight for the lives of everyone in this room. Should you, by some dark luck, kill me in the ring, my guards will not harm you or any of them, and upon our arrival in the next port, you all will be released. If you die in the ring, they will be slaughtered beside you.”
“Brynna, do not agree to this.” Adam whispered at her, “You will be killed. He will crush you in seconds. My love, my beauty, do not agree to these terms!”
“Oh, but I have not finished stating the terms, King Adam. To make it fair, you will have two others with you.”
“Let’s do it.” James said, “Adam and me, right? We’re in.”
“No, Commander Maxwell, not you and the King. It will be your dear woman and her dear daughters.”
At first, there was a stunned silence, and in that stunned silence, my stomach churned. My heart that was already beating a mile a minute picked up even more speed. I looked at Adam, but he was staring down the Warden, his eyes totally red—iris, whites, there was even a tinge of red to his pupils.
“You are a fucking lunatic.” Tony snarled furiously, breaking the silence, “You are fucking sick! I will stand in for them.”
“Oh, but that is no fun, idem.” The Warden said, “For though she loves you very much, though you are her dearest friend, you do not own the space in her heart that these two little girls own.”
“Penny is seven years old.” Brynna said softly, her voice trembling very slightly, “Grace is sixteen. They have never killed anyone, and they have not fully grown into their fighting capabilities. Please do not do this, Warden.”
“I will stand in for them,” Janna said, “Your people have wanted to see me in the Arena, but I have always been spared by either her or Tony. If all you are looking for is easy fodder to prolong the fight for a few more minutes, then you will have that in me. My shoulder was irreparably damaged during our first nights here, and I will be unable to fight for long. I will be able to fight for about as long as either Penny or Grace would be able to fight you.”
“While I love the idea of it, Queen Janna, and I love your sudden desire to be the sacrificial lamb, I will not waiver on this. No matter the insults you spew at me, or the threats of violence, or the pleas… It is Brynna, Grace, and Penelope against me in the Arena, or you will die as I have stated. Mrs. Olivier-Elohimson… The choice is yours.”
“Brynna…” Adam said softly, imploringly, beside me, “Look at me, my love.”
For a long second, she continued to stare down the Warden, but then, her eyes turned to meet Adam’s.
“You will not survive this. The three of you will be killed, and he will make sure that your girls die first, so that you can see them die. Please do not agree to this. Please, my love. I told you that you can do anything, and I meant that. But you cannot do this, sweetheart.”
“Listen to him, baby.” James said, “Please listen to him, because he’s right. After all you have done in here, he will kill you slowly, so that all those people out there who chant your name when you fight will know that he is strong, and you are weak, and they were stupid for thinking anything but that is the truth. Penny will die. Grace will die. You will die.”
Laughter. Sudden, and unyielding. She laughed so hard that her hand squeezed mine, and as she laughed, Penny’s tears calmed, and she nestled her head under our mother’s.
“Don’t you all see? We either die in this room, or we die out there. He kills our children first, and then he kills all of you, and then he kills me or sells me, either right here in this room, or out there. The best I can do is buy us some time, as they say. So, Warden, War Lord, whoever or whatever you are, I agree to your terms. We will fight. The three of us against you.”
He stared at her for a long while, smiling, and then not smiling, and then smiling again.
“You are so foolish, child. They speak volumes about your vast intelligence. They live in fear of it. But I know the truth now. I know that you are merely a disgraceful little fool.”
Out loud, she said nothing, but in her mind, which I infiltrated rather easily, she thought, I know.