The Dark Half of the Sun (The Young Ancients: Timon) (36 page)

"Oh, that's good. I hate it when I find out that the people from the screen are actually monsters. It ruins everything I see them in from that point on."

It was strange, but through the pain, Timon could see how that might work. They had those things in their homes, even where they slept, big windows that showed them people as if they were a part of their lives. They weren't though. Some were just players, and that meant that when the scene was done, they went back to being themselves, but the Austran people didn't see that part very often, did they?

There was another half turn and another scream, the Countess moving her face down next to his, her lips suddenly on his sweat stained cheek.

"Does it hurt little one? My dear perfect little lamb?" Her voice was kind and gentle as she spoke the words, which clearly marked her as insane. The Larval wasn't doing much better, wanting to go on about Kincaid, until the Countess turned and shook her head.

"Stop that. I don't know who that is and you're making me jealous. Who exactly is this Rue woman to you? Are you lovers?"

The Larval stared at her and shook his head. "If only. She's an actress. It doesn't matter. Let's set this up." He looked at Timon and smiled, a soulless thing that sent a chill up his spine. Or would have, if he could have spared attention for things like that.

"Here's the plan then, Timon. May I call you Tim? Anyway, we set a trap for your brother, Torrance Baker, The Great Unknown Factor. My brothers and I did. He came and rescued one of his sluts, but we failed to catch him at all. So we intend to do a little better this time. What we plan to do is use your communications device to contact Tor. Now, it's true, he hasn't been answering his, but if we leave it on, we think he just might eventually. Then, when he speaks, you'll serenade him with screams. If he doesn't come to rescue his poor little brother very, very soon, we'll kill you." He seemed to be staring at something in the distance then, taking at least a minute to refocus on Tim.

Without waiting to be told, the Countess triggered the first sigil on the white device, making it glow blue and seem to hover over the surface, above the others by a bit. It didn't move and no voice came.

It wouldn't. The first thing almost everyone that could had tried regarding Tor was just using the device, knowing he had one that traveled with him. It was never answered. Tor probably knew that something like this would happen and had gotten rid of the thing, so that the Larval would learn not to try it.

Less than fun for him, being the object lesson, but it made sense. Of course he wasn't getting out of this alive. That was a known thing already. The Countess had to know that if he was ever found at all to have been tortured by her, there would be a war. Timon wasn't certain that was the case, not really, figuring that Count Lairdgren had spare grandchildren, and time to make more. A war ate up a lot of resources and killed your own people. Diplomacy far less so.

His brother wouldn't be coming either. Sure, they were brothers, but they hardly knew each other and Timon knew something that the Larval didn't. The programing that had made his brother a virtual slave had been broken by an ancient King. The man, Cordes, had put his mind into his brother, at least in part. For some reason that hadn't destroyed Tor at all, it had just freed him to be whatever it is he really was. He could leave Timon to die, even horribly, if he had to. Now. He couldn't have before.

There was no need to talk to them about it. They weren't going to suddenly decide that his personal charm outweighed their desire to kill his brother. What he didn't get was why the Countess was taking part. It made some sense, the woman clearly enjoying herself already as he screamed, but she hadn't seemed too thrilled by the idea of war before. At least she'd held most of her troops back.

Because she was in on the attack plan. It clicked, just as the Assassin lengthened his legs another eighth of an inch. He gasped and tears came to his eyes, but he didn't scream this time. That got the man to frown and work the lever more vigorously then, until the other hip made a wet popping sound. It was a white hot pain, the likes of which he'd never imagined at all.

The dark haired man with his boyish and evil looking face looked baffled. "I really would have thought his shoulders would give way first. They normally do. Well, you are a special case, aren't you? A Revered One and all that. Young though. Too bad. If you were older you might have figured out what was going on in time to stop it. Or at least have a chance to escape now. Instead you're just bait. A bit of meat on a hook, to reel in the big fish. Not even important enough for anyone of note to miss." There was a head shake, meant to be mock sympathetic.

He was also supposed to protest about how important he was. That wasn't going to happen. He couldn't stop them from hurting him, or doing anything they wanted, but it wouldn't matter. No one was coming for him... and shouldn't. He smiled then, a pained thing that was probably more of a grimace. The Countess read it right, looking excited for some reason.

"Do you have a thought then Timon? Or are you just enjoying yourself?" She eyed his crotch, her face moving closer to it then, a little kiss on his distended right hip sending agony through his body. "I don't see a reaction yet, maybe you just need some help?"

Her hand moved to his penis, covering it gently, moving in small circles. It didn't do much, since the pain was helping to keep him distracted, so she raised her eyebrows and used her mouth. That worked, unfortunately. In a minute he was hard and in so much pain he could barely feel what she was doing. The Assassin watched him closely and after a few seconds started rocking the winch lever a little, in time with the movements the Countess was making. Each time her mouth came down, a flare of pain moved through him. Then again as pressure was released.

She kept it up long enough that they both had to be getting bored, when his body released, spasming painfully. As if having been waiting for the moment the man turned the lever hard. Timon felt the world go black, rather than seeing it. There was more screaming then, even as his shoulders still didn't slip out of the socket. He also didn't go all the way out.

That he got as close as he did probably had to do with the drugs still in his system. He looked at the Countess and forced a smile, which got her to go still.

"I..." He stared at her, his voice much harsher now than when he'd woken up. "I kind of thought you'd be better than that."

As attempts to be mean went it wasn't very good, but he felt a little rocked and shaken, what with the horrible torture and her forcing herself on him. The only good thing was that as the pain increased, his mind cleared. It didn't do a thing for the discomfort, but he was starting to be able to think again. If he survived long enough he could go into a combat rage and...

Pull himself apart on the chains. No, he needed a better strategy than that. Unless nothing else was left. No matter what he wasn't going to be the bait they wanted, even if he had to kill himself to stop it. As if not wanting to let the momentum drop the Assassin and the Countess did other things to him then. Nothing nearly as bad, for a while at least. He was slapped a lot by the woman, much of that on the groin. She seemed to find it funny when he grunted, even as shooting pains made his stomach cramp up. The Larval did something completely different and pulled out a tiny needle, like the ones that doctors sometimes used, and injected something into his neck.

The Countess stared at the man, looking nearly angry finally.

"To control pain?"

Holding the now empty thing up, showing it had all been used, the Larval smiled again.

"No, to the contrary, this is pure pain. In a few moments it will begin, a burning inside his veins that nothing will slake or mitigate. It is said to be the most painful thing on the planet. Eventually most die from it. I doubt he will, being what he is. Not as long as we give him water regularly. Are you ready Timon? This is going to be very instructive I think."

As it turned out, he wasn't ready for it at all. About five minutes into it he was ready to beg for death it was so horrible. Everything was agony. As if to amuse herself the Countess started stroking and sucking him again, over and over. He didn't sleep, or relax or feel anything except the desire to die. He knew time passed, since they had to take turns watching him. Even Nora grew bored with it after a while, not playing with him anymore at all. Instead she took to telling him about what was going to happen next.

"When he answers his device, we need you to scream. To beg for him to come and save you, but you've stopped doing anything but moaning a little. That will hardly do. So what I'm going to do is take my big sharp knife, and as soon as it's time, I'm going to cut you. Do you know where I'm going to do that?" Her hand played at his groin again, which this time didn't betray him. It hadn't in a while, since it was all associated with pure pain now.

"That's right. I'm not going to be quick either. I'm going to do it slowly, explaining to your brother what it is that I'm doing to you, one little bit at a time. Sawing back and forth until you're no longer a man. I'm not even going to leave your cock. All of it is going to go. Then we'll burn it shut, so that you can never use it again. It will kill you, but slowly, over days, the bad water not able to get out. Doesn't that sound interesting?"

It hurt too much to answer, so he didn't, feeling bored with her anyway. He really doubted that he'd feel it anyway. The Larval hadn't lied at all. It was about the worst pain a body could feel. She repeated herself several times, until the Larval came back. He was slightly more entertaining at least, not trying to threaten him at all.

"You really are a strong one, you know that? I'd let you go if I could, but I need your brother. He'll destroy the world if we don't kill him and us Larval are the only ones that can. I know it isn't fair to drag you into this, but please understand, this isn't about things as small as you and I, this is for the world." He didn't sound all that sane, true, but at least his insanity was fresh and ever changing.

The next time the Countess came she brought her knife with her, sharpened it and then made small cuts on the bottom of his scrotum. There was a flash of pain, which he barely noticed and then the woman ran from the room. He looked down, to see if there was anything left of him. There was, but it did not look good. Flesh hung to the side of his member, blood pouring out. She'd removed about half of what was there, still hanging on, but a pool of blood was forming under him. He thought that was the case at least.

He smiled.

Death was one way out after all. The dead didn't scream and couldn't be hurt, he didn't think. The Larval came back, and assassin or not, he knew how to hold a body together well enough to stop the bleeding.

"Stupid cunt." The man worked quickly as the woman dithered in the background. "We still need him. It's one thing to threaten to unman someone, but if you do it, they'll fight on a level that you can't imagine. Never take away everything. Never make it so that the
only
answer is death." He finished his work in silence and stood back, glaring. "If I'd known you were a mental defective I would have gone with one of my other options. Tried to take his sister or mother. I would have, if all our data didn't show that this is the one Tor actually likes."

They discussed the merits of different kinds of torture for a long while, as he tried not to writhe overly. If he were a better builder, he could have freed himself, he thought. A cutter or explosive weapon in the right place might do it. If he were in less pain, he could have tried. Or even gone into a rage. His mind just wouldn't let him. He struggled to just try not to think then. It was impossible, but the only thing he had left. He was going to die. But first he had one thing that needed to be done.

Timon had to protect his brother.

There wasn't a lot that he could do that way, and it might not be needed at all given that it had been days already. The only kindness was that the pain was finally starting to recede. It wasn't a sudden thing, and he wasn't certain it was real at first, but as he stopped thinking, and finally did a decent job of it, his sense of things slowly moved away from him. It was still there, but distant now. Maybe the drug was wearing off. Maybe it was just the focus he finally managed.

They made a mistake, after some time. It was a simple enough thing really. The Larval needed to sleep, like anyone else and the Countess got hungry and went for a meal. It was decently clear that no one was coming for him, and that his brother, as she liked to put it, just didn't love him as much as they thought.

It wasn't a huge thing that he'd managed, not really. It was just a simple cutter. One that was about eight inches long. Not a huge weapon or anything. It had taken him... A very long time, lying as he was, still bound. He'd linked it to the cuff of his right wrist, so that when activated it could reach the chain. That was all. From there he could cut the others. Provided he could move enough. He didn't hurt anymore, his mind feeling slow and dead in its total focus. They'd made a mistake, leaving him too long like that.

With a single thought he had the first chain free, the invisible line of movement that caused things on the smallest level of being to go two directions, directly away from a center line, working without any resistance at all. Even through the trance he'd been living in it hurt, the sudden release of pressure. It meant he was truly damaged, no doubt. He moved anyway, since it didn't matter if he lived through it, he just had to finish his plan. It really wasn't about surviving after all. It hadn't been since he'd taken the first sip of Nora's poisoned wine, most likely.