“You got Marc arrested and brought me here to take my magic just so Iris can sound better?”
He knelt in front of me and tightened my ankle straps. “Yes. Unfortunately, the extraction process will kill you.”
My mouth dropped open. “W-what? You’re going to kill me so Iris can get my voice?”
“Nothing quite that simple, I assure you,” he countered as he stood and adjusted the wrist straps. “I will extract your magic and then feed it into her, rejuvenating her voice.” He whipped his head up, and his wide eyes were filled with hope. “Perhaps her body will be rejuvenated, as well. What a treat that would be! She would be young again, just like Mr. Torvus! She’d be able to sing for many, many more years to come!”
“There has to be another way to do this!” I insisted as I strained against the straps. “What if I transferred my magic like I did for Marc?”
“No,” he refused as he stepped away from me. “Lady Iris is too important to give her a piddly portion of your magic. She deserves the whole of it.”
Tears sprang into my eyes as I fought my futile war with the straps. “But you can’t just kill me like this! It’s murder!”
He strolled over to a table and stopped with his back to me. A heavy sigh escaped him, and he bowed his head. “Yes. That’s a guilt I’ll have to carry with me the rest of my life.”
“But you don’t have to!” I pleaded as a tear rolled down my cheeks. “You can just let me go! I won’t tell anyone anything-”
Theo slammed his hands on the table. The glass rattled, and so did my confidence. “Quiet!” he snapped as he hunched over his arms. “I will hear nothing of your pleas! I live to please my lovely Lady Iris!” He shot up and lifted his chin, attempting to appear as an angelic figure. I saw only a demon. He raised a fisted hand, and his unfocused eyes glimpsed a bright future. One without me. “She is nearly perfect, and with your voice, she will be!”
My heart pounded so loudly in my chest that I could barely think. An idea managed to get through the frantic thoughts. “You won’t get away with this! You signed me out! The Admiralty will know it was you who killed me!”
He paused and half-turned to me. There was such a cruel smile on his face that I shrank in my chair. “I kill you? Why, it won’t be I who kills you. I’ll inform the Admiralty that the notorious pirate Torvus intercepted your removal and killed you himself. No doubt to keep you from telling them anything of interest, but who can say with such cutthroats?”
“But you said it was bloodless! There won’t be any marks!”
He took a long knife off the table and held it up, admiring the razor-sharp edge. “I do regret having to mutilate your body, but you’re right. There have to be marks. You can take some consolation in that you will be dead when I make them.”
“That isn’t any consolation at all!” I screamed as I thrashed in my chair. “You’re insane if you think there’s anything good about this! You’re murdering me so a woman can use my voice to make herself rich! She doesn’t even care about you! All she cares about is herself-”
“Shut up!” he screamed as he raised the knife above his head. He stalked toward me and slammed his empty hand down on the arm of the chair, while the other held the tip of the blade only a few inches over my heart. His wild eyes burned with passion and fury. “She loves me! She loves-”
“Nobody but herself!” I insisted as I stuck my face closer to his. “I’ve seen her! She doesn’t even respect the flowers you send to her! She throws them out-”
He swiped the blade across my body. The weapon sliced open my left arm and part of my clothing. I let out a strangled gasp and tried to jerk back, only to be stopped by the chair. Blood poured from the gash in my arm and stained my sleeve.
Theo stumbled back, the wild look in his eyes dampened somewhat. He raised the bloodied blade to his face and studied the stain. His face had lost most of its color, and he swallowed hard. “I. . .I didn’t mean to do it. You made me do it.” His eyes lit up as he grasped that rational like a drowning man grasps a plank of wood. “Yes, that’s it! She made me do it! It’s her fault!” His gaze fell on me, and he wagged the weapon in my direction. “That’s what you get for making me do that!”
Every gasp of air was like sucking in pain. The hole in my arm gushed blood and stained my whole side.
Marc, where are you? I thought to myself as I clenched my teeth.
That’s when the door swung open and crashed into the wall. My heart leaped as a shadow appeared in the doorway, but not for long.
Not when I saw three people standing there in long overcoats.
Chapter 38
“What a bad view. . .”
The grumbler was Ramaro as he scurried through the rat hole with the rat in the lead.
The rear slowed and whipped its head around to glare at him.
Ramaro grinned back. “I was just saying you had a nice hole here.”
The rat’s tail twitched, but it continued on its way. They soon popped out of a hole, and the air was thick with the scent of decay. Perhaps it was from the mold that covered the stone walls, or maybe it was from the skeletons that hung from those walls.
The victim of neglect was attached to the wall by a pair of cuffs. Ramaro wrinkled his snout as he moved past the hanging dead and up to the cell door. He leaned out and inspected this new, and deeper, part of the prison. The layout was much more archaic, with a meandering stone passage lit by hanging torches. There were fewer cells, and they were even smaller than the one Rose had occupied.
