Page 97 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
They halted in sync before my glass cell. I held myself up in the water, paddling my arms to stay upright. I tilted my nose as high as the ivory bone helm would allow, feigning confidence, but the manner at which the beings assessed me made my skin crawl. Their eyes lingered over the skull helm, trailing down to the mangled hands lacking fingernails, then to each scale of my tail. Assessing my weak spots. Hells, I was weak all over.
“We will start easy on you,” the young woman said in disgust. “You’ll give Commander Raoku what he wants, or it will get ugly for you quickly.”
“Were you sent here to pry my submission?”
“We were sent here to either make you accept or kill you off,” she responded without hesitation.
I froze. I couldn’t comprehend why Raoku fought for my allegiance so badly, but I refused to give in. It sounded like I was needed, and I’d go to the grave making sure I wasn’t used.
“Korvik,” the lady said without breaking the slither of eye contact with me through the helm.
The man extracted a dagger from his side sheath, and it materialized at my face within the tank. I fumbled, trying to snatch the blade before they used it, but he puppeteered it. It dove for my arm, slicing a gash to the bone. I tried to scream, but the helm wouldn’t allow the noise, digging deeper into flesh. The blade attacked again, cutting a long slice from the start of my tail up to my ribs.
Agony sliced her jagged fingers through me.
I couldn’t see the weapon enough to grab it. It moved too quickly. The blade carved into my shoulder, and the wateraround me darkened, slowly bleeding into an inky blue that spread like something alive and slithering.
“Try a different blade now,” Raoku’s firm voice cut through my agonizing, screaming mind.
Why was he back?
The next cut was brutal, as if the flesh of my chest was torn with a serrated knife. It ripped slowly, pulling at each bit of skin, pinching nerves as they ruptured.
I stayed firmly upright, my mind growing faint with every agonizing slice.
“Next.” Raoku stared at me through scrunched eyes, scrutinizing and calculating.
“Korvik,” the woman ordered, and the militant man stormed away.
“I have to admit,” Raoku drawled, “you’re putting up more of a fight than I anticipated.”
“Why do you care?” I seethed, but the words escaped winded, especially through the water.
“Reasons you do not deserve to know of.”
Did they actuallyneedme? If they didn’t, I would have been killed already; however, they were intently adamant about forcing me to their side.
“You won’t win,” I breathed, “against her.”
Raoku chuckled, but I couldn’t find the strength to let it anger me further.
A shock ripped through my already torn body, sending me into convulsions that betrayed my strength, showing the agony.
“You think we haven’t been preparing? Do you really think anything the Ocean Mother marches with is enough to stop us?”
I couldn’t get words out. They formed at my tongue, my mind screaming ‘yes’, but my mouth betrayed me. They had noidea how powerful Thal’Maruun truly was, how she could twist creatures under her will with a lift of her finger.
“Our forces are thousands larger and marching toward the shores of Brigg Isle whereyour auntis preparing to demolishus. Do you have no empathy for our Bound? Or has she brainwashed you into thinking all humans on land deserve to die?” Raoku tried to use my heart to persuade me. It would have worked if I believedhecared at all about his own people.
The Terraguard Bound was walking into the Ocean Mother’s game, and I didn’t know if I would survive long enough to jump in between.
I floated in a cobalt bath inside the glass cell. My blood mixed with the water, slightly diluting its color. It was impossible to see Evelyn through.
I fought to stay awake while Raoku and his sidekicks cut into my flesh, shocked my worn body, and laughed as the bone helm around my head sent me reeling. I couldn’t hold myself upright anymore. Instead, I relaxed my muscles and hoped death would take me soon. Nothing mattered to me in that moment. I only wished the agony would end.
The small slit in the ivory helm only allowed me to witness parts of my torment… only the parts Raoku permitted. He held the power over me, sliding the blade and shocking me unexpectedly. Then, he laughed. At first, it set me on fire. But after hours of the agony, I would have followed the light to the gates of Aetheron if only to cease the pain.
My eyes drifted closed, body falling to the dark while Raoku and the militant woman discussed something in privacy. He fumed, his stance rigid and finger pointing into her chest, but she looked as if she were reassuring him.
