The Sorcerer's Abyss (The Sorcerer's Path) (49 page)

A few stifled chortles broke through the indignant muttering echoing around the chamber.

Paulina glared back at the girl just as fiercely. “We shall see if you hold such arrogant contempt when the rope is tightened around your neck tomorrow.”

“I think we both know that’s not going to happen,” Ellyssa retorted with amusement.

“I beg your pardon?”

“We all know you cannot afford to kill me. I had time to think about this last night, and it all became quite clear. Fennrick overplayed his hand when he told me I could live if I played nice. Obviously, none of you can access the book, a book I hear The Academy and every practitioner of magic has been coveting for more than a millennium. That pretty much makes me the most important person in the world right now, which really sucks for me because I was looking forward to my execution.”

Duchess Paulina leaned forward and pierced Ellyssa with her glare. “Child, there are far worse things than death, I assure you. Continue this pointless obstinacy and I promise you will learn that very soon!”

Ellyssa could not control herself. Every eye in the chamber went wide as her near maniacal laughter rang off the walls.

The Duchess leapt to her feet, shaking with rage. “Fennrick, take her below and get her cooperation! I don’t care if you have to flay the skin from her body to do it!”

Her same three guards marched her from the chamber and down the hall, her continued laughter masking their heavy footfalls. Fennrick shoved her into her cell with enough force to make her fall onto her cot. Ellyssa rolled back to her feet and sneered.

“You insult the Duchess and make a mockery of us all!” Fennrick shook in outrage. “Do you really think we are bluffing? You said it yourself; there is nothing more important than unlocking the secrets of the Codex. certainly not the life or comfort in some willful, spoiled little girl who has found herself in the middle of something far bigger than herself.”

Ellyssa’s body tensed and contorted under the sudden magical assault. There was neither a flare of light nor arc of electricity, but she felt as though lightning danced across her skin and resonated in her bones. She could not completely stifle the animalistic grunt of pain escaping her clamped jaws.  

Fennrick finally paused in administering his torture. “You bring this upon yourself. You can put it an end to this pain any time you choose.”

Ellyssa looked up at him through tearing eyes, and the room once again filled with her laughter. “You call that pain? Remove these shackles, take me out of this room, and I will show you pain. I have experienced pain beyond anything you have ever imagined! You are pathetic, Fennrick, you and the rest of your ilk.”

Fennrick’s blood boiled at the audacity of the girl and renewed his assault with vigor. But no matter what he tried, she just laughed at him even more whenever he stopped. Soon, not even his anger could keep him going. He was not a trained torturer, and his imagination was as limited as his stomach for causing continued pain, especially when doing so was garnering nothing in return.

Ellyssa looked up from where she lay sprawled on the floor and found herself alone. She climbed onto her cot and curled into a ball. Despite her bravado, pain was pain and nothing could ever completely inure her to its effects, but something inside her refused to relent.

She knew the pain would stop if she cooperated. It would be so easy. But doing so would mean she was in no better position than she had been in Bakhtaran. The Duchess promised her a comfortable room if she simply supplied The Academy with answers, just as Vila Mushadan provided her palatial surroundings for using her magic to help steal his country’s throne. She was still a prisoner and still a slave, but she would fight them to the very end. Eventually, they would have to kill her, intentionally or by accident.

Either way, she would win. Even if she wanted to live and was willing to surrender, Ellyssa knew something in her mind would stop her from doing it. It was at that moment she knew she was broken and only death could fix her.

Fennrick needed to report his progress, or lack thereof. He relished reporting his failure as much as the thought of continuing his tortures. The inquisitor had never thought of himself as squeamish, he would kill the girl in an instant given the order to so and not lose a wink of sleep, but to inflict pain on a girl barely out of childhood was not something he cared for.

His worst fears were borne out when he stepped into Elias’s office. The senior inquisitor sat at his desk while Duchess Paulina reclined on a plush sedan drinking a glass of red wine. Fennrick took a deep breath and sat in a chair where he could capture the other two occupants in his field of view without undue head turning.

“I was hoping you would be wrapping up soon, Fennrick,” the Duchess said over her glass of wine. “Is the girl singing a different tune now?”

Fennrick looked to the ceiling then back at the Duchess. “No. It is the same tune, same song, and louder than ever. I applied the most pain I thought advisable, and she laughed in my face.”

“Then apply more!”

Fennrick shook his head. “I don’t think it would help. It may even cause more harm than good, especially if it drove her over the edge and made her completely unreachable.”

Paulina swirled the wine in her glass before bolting down the remaining scarlet liquid. “Is she insane?”

“To a lesser degree, I believe so. She is not the sort of lunatic gibbering type of insane, but I believe her touched in the head. My reports indicated she suffered some significant abuse on Bakhtaran, and she holds a significant amount of remorse and guilt over the death of Lord Giles. It is this reason I fear pushing too hard. Her mind is in a fragile state, and pushing too hard could irrevocably shatter it. Doing so could lose the Codex to us forever and that would not do.”

“No, that certainly would not do at all,” mused the Duchess.

Although technically not under her control, having the inquisitors headquartered within her city gave a significant boost to her powerbase, more so even than The Academy did for Southport since the inquisitors actively patrolled and even defended against minor border issues while under the auspices of her command. Delving into the secrets of the Codex Arcana would increase her power. It could even one day give her the means to make them a separate entity from The Academy and secure the throne.

“Perhaps the crudeness of brute force is not what we need here,” the Duchess supplied. “There are a plethora of torture techniques utilizing discomfort and mental strain instead of simple pain. Of course, we will still have to monitor her carefully, but I think that tree may yield more fruit.”

“I think it would be best to err on the side of caution by not expecting instant results,” Fennrick cautioned. “This will likely be a time-consuming process if done properly.”

Paulina nodded. “I think you are right. I have a man who is skilled in such things. I shall put him at your disposal. Elias!” the Duchess shouted. “Are you even awake over there or is there truly nothing intelligent you have to add to this discussion?”

The senior inquisitor practically jumped out of his chair. “No, Your Grace. I mean yes, Your Grace. All are very sound ideas and I fully agree.”

“Idiot. Now, are you equally incompetent as a host, or is this glass going to magically fill itself?”

Elias leapt from his seat and grabbed the nearby bottle of wine. “Of course, Your Grace, forgive me.”

CHAPTER 1
6

Azerick slowly opened his eyes and examined the room in which he lay. He reclined on a pallet of furs laid over what he assumed was a mattress of stuffed straw atop a stone plinth. Several wool blankets were layered upon his unclothed body, which was protected from their coarse fibers by an undyed silk sheet.

The room was shaped like a half sphere. The circular walls and domed ceiling appeared smooth and polished with great effort given in their shaping. Natural crystals grew from much of its dark surface, a few of the larger ones glowing with a comfortable white light. Other than his pallet, there were no other furnishings.

Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Standing in the archway leading to a larger chamber was a woman unlike any he had ever seen. She was tall, very tall. It was hard for Azerick to gauge her exact height from his reclined position, but he guessed at least seven feet in height. However, her size was the least defining of her features.

Her skin was a pale blue and glimmered as if covered in millions of tiny diamonds. On closer inspection, Azerick saw they were extraordinarily fine, crystalline scales. Her eyes were large, almond-shaped, and the color of molten gold. The pupils looked like the blade of a black dagger splitting the iris down the middle. Her ears swept back slightly and came to a delicate point. A thick braid of hair like spun silver as fine as silk hung over her left shoulder where it nearly touched her waist.

She was incredibly thin, almost frail looking, but Azerick immediately sensed enormous power radiating from her. Even her voice held power as she spoke, sending a tremor through his body despite its soft tone.

“Good, you are awake. How do you feel?”

Azerick felt his panic rise as he quickly discovered a great many things wrong. “I can barely move! What is wrong with me? Where am I? Who are you?”

“I will explain everything in its due course, but you must remain calm,” the creature said softly. “I am Lissandra, and you are in my home. Do you know your name?”

Azerick searched his mind but found nothing except grey emptiness and a few vague recollections. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything! What is wrong with me? What happened?”

Lissandra pursed her lips in consternation. “It appears the process of bringing you here caused some damage to your mind. It is not unexpected, and as frightening as it seems now, it could have been much worse.”

“I don’t know who I am, where I am, or how I got here, and I cannot do more than twitch my body! How could it have been worse?” Azerick shouted, the fear making his voice tremble.

“Your mind could have been irrevocably destroyed, casting you into an incurable madness. Now you must remain calm. I will do everything in my power to set things aright.”

Azerick took several deep breaths to calm his frayed nerves. He realized panic would not help and only calm, rational discussion would improve his situation. It did not appear as though the creature meant to harm him, at least not at the moment, but there were a great many questions he needed answered.