Page 143 of Lady of the Drowned Empire

I tried to move, to escape, but my legs were numb after standing for so long. Pins pricked the bottoms of my feet. Nausea rolled through my belly immediately followed by a pang of hunger that left me feeling even sicker.

Pressing against the ropes, I tested for any looseness in the knots, but the ropes only dug deeper into me, cutting skin that had already been rubbed raw by my body pulling down on it while I slept. I felt a trickle of blood on my forearm, and a disgusting coating to my elbow. Nahashim blood. My legs must have been desperate to sit this whole time, refusing to hold my weight, or hold me up. They were letting the ropes do their job.

My mouth was uncomfortably dry. I was so thirsty on top of my hunger, all I could do was whine. And to top it all off, I desperately needed to pee. Gods, if only I could rub the sleep and dirt from my eyes with my hands. I felt like I’d be farther than Lethea if my hands weren’t freed soon. I needed to push all of the hair out of my face, I needed to scratch at the itches popping up all over my body. My skin was rolling with them.

But most of all, I needed to get out of here. Wherever I was.

I could already feel the panic rising inside of me. The fear. Now that I was fully awake, it was overwhelming.

I forced myself to take a deep breath. Rhyan would come for me. I had to cling to that. Cling to the idea that he would find me here, would travel, would save me.

But still, my heart pounded with uncertainty. With fear of where I was. With fear that Rhyan wasn’t okay. Wasn’t safe. What if I’d missed a snake? Or there were more? Or he was simply passed out, sick with exhaustion from too many jumps.

No.

He was okay. He had to be okay. And I’d be okay, too.

But if he wasn’t…fuck. I’d been the one to let go of his hand. I’d been the one to let myself be captured. And now I was…

My breath hitched.

Stay calm, stay calm, stay calm. I just had to breathe. There was a way out of this. There had to be a way out of this.

Blinking several times, I managed to get some loose strands of hair out of my eyes, rubbing my face against my lifted arms. And then slowly, my surroundings beyond the pole came into focus, and I remembered exactly what I’d seen before I lost consciousness.

I was in Korteria. I’d been captured by Ka Kormac. Reason stood that I was being kept prisoner in their fortress, in Vruskhire Keep—exactly where the Imperator had threatened to take me. I’d practically handed myself over to him.

Myself to Moriel.

No. No.

Deep breath.

Swallowing roughly, I looked around, taking stock of my surroundings. I was not in a prison cell, not unless Ka Kormac treated their prisoners like kings.

Thick gray stone made up the four walls surrounding me. Across the room from me was a leather couch, a dresser, a chest, a mirror. A large bed lay in the center, full of luxurious blankets and pillows made of satin, velvet, and fur. There was also a large closet and beside it, and a wooden dummy meant for holding armor topped with a dead wolf head.

This was no prison. I was in a bedroom.

The thought made my stomach turn.

A fire crackled in the fireplace beside the closet, the flames strong like they’d been recently tended to. Somehow, I doubted the fire had been lit for my comfort or benefit. It was for whoever lived here, whoever normally occupied this room.

And whoever that was, they’d been in here recently.

I glanced down at my body. I was still dressed, my armor in place. I sucked back a shaky breath. I hadn’t been violated—only captured and tied up.

Slowly, feeling was returning to my feet and legs as I shifted my weight, finding balance in my position, and I continued assessing my surroundings. Three floor-to-ceiling windows covered the wall to my right, the center one leading out onto a stone balcony faintly lit with torches. The night sky was fairly clear, and the fires of Vrukshire made the hills beyond the keep visible, snow caps reddened by flames.

I must have been asleep the entire day. I’d separated from Rhyan when it was still morning. But how deep into the night was it? Last time I’d called on Asherah’s kashonim, I’d slept all night until late the following afternoon. If the same thing had happened, the same use of energy, it was probably the middle of the night, at least.

I squeezed my eyes shut, blinking back tears.

Where was Rhyan? I remembered trying to communicate to him what was happening, but I’d also hidden the vadati beneath my shift, knowing I was about to be taken. I couldn’t reach it now, and the stones only worked when there was a clear connection between the speaker and the stone, a connection that only remained if one person kept talking. Silence turned its magic off.

The stone had no doubt gone silent hours ago. Rhyan might not even be conscious. And I worried he didn’t know which country I was in. I’d barely known every place we’d traveled to as we tried to escape the nahashim.

A sinking feeling washed through me as I looked back at the bed, at the wolf carved into the headboard. Ka Kormac had captured me and taken me to their fortress…but instead of a prison cell, they’d locked me in someone’s bedroom. Someone very high ranking in the Ka based on the room’s size.