Dropping to her haunches, she plucks open the rough coat Lenka gave me. “Not so bad under here. But the smell.” She huffs out a breath. Standing, she snaps her fingers. “Bring her.”
Two males appear from the shadows and drag me to my feet. They hold my arms tightly, half-carrying, half dragging me into a large stone room not unlike the ones at the keep. Here, though, is a much smaller pile of treasure in one corner, it’s glittering gems and gold no match for the mountains of similar goods held by the Golden Horde.
I don’t fight. The icy air and the sudden landing drained whatever fight I might’ve had. Not to mention that the malesholding onto me are almost as big as Vander and his brothers. There’s nothing I can do.
We wind through hallways, none of them quite as fine as the DragonKeep. I try to keep in mind which way we twist and turn in the vain hopes I could possibly find my way out. That hope fades quickly, especially when the walls become more cavelike and rough. We’re deep inside some mountain or perhaps buried underground. Voices bounce off the walls, several warriors peeping from chambers or lounging in shadowy nooks. All of them watching me.
Ahead, the female—Sela, that’s her name—begins stripping off her clothing and tossing it away. The air feels damp, warmer the farther we go.
Then the sound of rushing water greets my ears.
I’m dragged into a wide cavern, the walls glistening silver with hanging rock formations that look like fingers. Others jut from the stone floor as if desperate to reach the spikes overhead. In the center is a wide pool, the water steamy and almost milky.
Sela walks into it, sinking low and spinning to face me.
“Strip her.”
My fight returns. I try to yank my arms free from my captors, but one of them collars me around the throat, holding me still as the other yanks at my clothes.
I scream and kick, but the sounds of ripping fabric tell me this is already over. I have nowhere to hide, no one to protect me. Hot tears well in my eyes and roll down my cheeks as the male in front of me grips the DrudgeGolem tunic and rips it down the middle, then roughly shoves it down my arms.
When he grips my pants, I swing wildly at him. My fists glance off his shoulders as he shucks my pants and panties away, ripping them from my legs and leaving every stitch I’d been wearing in a heap.
“Burn those.” Sela flicks her fingers at the pile. “Go.” She floats backwards and stops, her gaze on me.
As soon as the males release me, I cover myself and cross my legs. My tears still fall. I can’t will them away, can’t stop whatever is happening to me.
“Vander!” I scream his name in my mind though I know it won’t help. I’m under stone and dirt, trapped with a DragonKin who has no qualms about treating me like property. Like an animal.
“Get in the water. I can’t bear the stink of you any longer.” She holds up one finger, the nail sharp and light green in color, and crooks it at me.
I don’t want to. But I also don’t want to run back the way I came, not when there are dozens of DragonKin between me and any possible freedom. I’ve no doubt there are guards outside, probably the same males who stripped me.
“Must I drag you?” She sighs, irritation in her tone.
Knees shaking, I take small steps forward, then wade into the water. I can’t see my feet, can’t guess at what might be lurking in the depths of this wide pool, but I don’t see another option. It’s either stand completely naked and shiver or get in the water and hope to hide myself at least a little bit.
“Your body isn’t bad. Save for your limp, the healed wound on your leg.” She looks at my breasts as if she can see through the somewhat opaque water. “The rest of you is quite good in fact.”She rests on a ledge toward the back of the pool, lifting out of the water a bit. Her small breasts are wet, the nipples hard. She doesn’t cover herself, doesn’t seem to care that she’s naked in front of a stranger. “The last mortal I saw, his skin was pocked all over. Skinny, too. He didn’t last a week.” She wrinkles her nose.
The water is warm, soothing some of the aches from the journey and the landing, but it does nothing for the tension that keeps my arms wrapped around me. I don’t know what’s about to happen. I can’t trust Sela won’t gut me in the next few seconds or perhaps set me loose for her warriors to kill. There is no safety here, not with her.
She keeps her gaze on me. “I’m sure Vander has far nicer accommodations in the DragonKeep, doesn’t he?”
I sink up to my neck in the water. I don’t know what to tell her. Is she trying to get secret information about Vander’s home? When she took me, she claimed I’m her mate. I don’t know what she meant. For the entire frozen journey, I went over what happened again and again. Lenka betrayed me. Trying to get over that pain is like trying to forget a splinter under your skin. Why would she do this?
“I’ll have that mountain eventually.” She shrugs and slides back into the water, coming closer to me with unnatural speed. “It belongs to me, just like the DragonLands. Just like all of Oblivion. The dragons are meant to rule over all, one day bringing the mortal realm back into the fold where it belongs. Your lives are ours to toy with.”
“Our lives belong to the gods.” It’s a reflex, something the Raingreen Priory taught us to say from the moment we could speak.
She smirks, her eyes flashing a brighter orange. “Little one,weare your gods.”
I flinch back, but she grabs me by the nape of my neck and slams me underwater, holding me beneath the surface. Flailing with panic, I try to fight off her hold, but I can’t. She’s far too strong. I’m going to die here, to drown in this pool. My mind screams, panic tearing through my chest like a wild boar. It lasts and lasts, my air dwindling, my thrashing growing weaker. I don’t know how much longer I can hold my breath. My lungs burn, my body clenching with the effort at not inhaling.
Her hold disappears, and I surge upward, coughing and sputtering as I break the surface. I gasp in breath after breath.
She backs up, a grin on her face making her look even crueler than before. “Here.” She tosses me some sort of a sponge. “Scrub that shit off now.”
I fumble it, and it falls, splashing more water and DrudgeGolem muck into my eyes. It stings, my eyes watering as I try to swipe the mud away.
