Chapter 128: Chapter 128
The strange man walked like someone who had never needed to check if he was being followed.
I thought about running.
Not yet.
The cave ended, eventually, in a way I hadnโt expected, the rock giving way to open air and the open air being entirely different from the open air I had started the day in. This place was colder. Greener, in the dense way of somewhere that didnโt get much light. The trees here were different. They were older, closer together, the canopy above them doing something abnormal to the sky, making it smaller and more contained.
I had been down here long enough for the light to be going.
I pressed my lips together and kept walking.
I kept looking around, noting the direction we had come from, the direction we were going, the landmarks I could identify in the dimming light.
The forest opened, and a clearing appeared in front. Huts and straw houses, arranged like a community that had been here long enough to develop habits. Torches burning at intervals, the flame of each one catching the growing dark and pushing it back a few feet.
I looked straight ahead and kept walking.
The man stopped.
He stepped aside and looked at me.
I hesitated a bit before entering.
The man came in behind me.
I turned.
He looked at me with the expression of a man who did not repeat himself as a matter of principle.
Something moved in his expression.
"A virgin," he said.
"That makes it better," he said. "Climb on the bed. Iโll make it easier, or I tell you one more time and I make it harder."
I sat on the edge.
He didnโt hear it.
He came forward and his hands were on my clothing and I was shaking so hard I could feel it in my jaw, and I kept praying - not out loud anymore, inward, directed somewhere I hoped was still listening - please. Please. Someone. Please.
The inner garment - a thin cloth that concealed almost nothing - was the last thing between me and the answer to the prayer not being answered. I pressed my hands together over my chest and looked at him with everything I had - every piece of hope, every piece of terror, everything...
I was shaking.
He began to remove his own clothing.
"Lord Raul."
"My lord, weโve been waiting for your return - we have something for you..."
"My lord." A pause. "We have your worst enemy. Right here, outside your door."
Then he almost smiled - not a warm thing, a cold harsh smile. "The only enemy worth that description is Terrell of Black Wolf," he said. "And since thatโs impossible..."
"...youโll wait until Iโm finished."
The sound of something - someone - being moved against their will. The sound of boots on ground, of a struggle with an end already determined, of men who had the numbers and were using them.
A figure was thrown through it.
Terrell.
But his eyes...
