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“Nothing to say?” Cirail asks. “Shall I torture you, then?”

“No!” Reno gasps, falling to his knees. “Please, please, I can’t! Please, don’t! I can’t! I can’t! Please.”

He doesn’t seem to be able to stop the words tumbling out of his mouth in a panic. My heart catches, chest constricting. I know what that means.

“Not you?” Cirail smirks. “Fine. You heard him, Nasir. You’ll be the entertainment tonight.”

Reno’s eyes widen, his hands flying to his mouth. I take a deep breath, trying to steel myself. It’s my fault Reno ended up back here, and he’s been through so much already. It’s only right it’s my turn. That doesn’t make the icy dread coursing through my veins or the sinking feeling pooling in the pit of my stomach any easier to bear, though.

We’re both dragged upstairs, where Raiders are waiting eagerly. They’re sitting on makeshift chairs, tables, the tops of shelves, the floor, everywhere, eating meat and bread, drinking wine, and smoking joints. I wish I had wine right now. Or weed. Anything to dull the horror and the pain that’s to come.

Dornao and some of his men are there too, laughing and cheering with the Raiders. He’s clearly ready to betray us all for his new friends, and how the rest of Elign can be blind to it is beyond me. Then again, outside of Clea, they haven’t seen what I have.

Reno is thrown to the ground. He barely has time to land before three men are on him. Even with my eye swollen shut, it’s impossible to miss the hungry glint in Dornao’s eyes. I can tell that he’d love to join them, but he seems to be respecting some kind of hierarchical order I can’t quite decipher. From what Reno told me, I know there’s a strict order behind the chaos.

“Oh, hey, looks like you missed me.” Reno chuckles, though his eyes are empty. “I was only gone for one night, but I’m flattered.”

“Make sure he can see everything,” Cirail instructs before turning back to me.

I cower away from his gaze, but tied up as I am, there’s nowhere I can go. Cirail takes out a sharp knife, using it to cut my clothes away. One of the Raiders raping Reno holds his head with his hands, making sure he looks toward me. Reno is acting the same way he was last night, moaning and jerking the other two off with his hands, but there’s something different in his eyes. He looked broken before, but now there's a plea for help that I hadn’t seen yet. If only I could do something about it. I’m a doctor. I’m supposed to help people.

Maybe we can flee again tonight. If they leave us discarded on the ground like they did with Reno, we can untie each other and get away. Only this time we won’t go back to the village. We'll run and never look back.

Cirail steps away, and Tyb appears with a long braided leather whip. I take a deep breath. This is going to hurt, but I can get through it. I’m pretty sure Reno did.

They wrap my bound wrist around a hook and pull a rope until the pulley system forces me to stand on my tiptoes. Tyb walks behind me. The first lash tears a scream from my throat. The pain is worse than I imagined, searing my skin. The whip cracks again, and I tense as it rips my back open, right across the first lash. Reno flinches, but he tries his best to hide it. Another crack. Another line of fire. I was wrong. I can’t do it. I don’t know how Reno managed to survive and keep some of his fire alive, but I can’t. I’m not strong like him.

Another lash, then another. My back feels like a giant open wound, scorching fire throbbing through my every muscle. Everything is blurry. Everything hurts.

The cracks stop. Tyb unclasps the rope. I keel over in a boneless heap to the ground with a loud thud, which causes everyone to laugh. Even Dornao. Of course that traitor is laughing too. I must have blacked out while I was being whipped, because he’s now among the people raping Reno. I don’t even remember seeing him move.

Just when I let myself hope that my ordeal might be over for the night, Cirail approaches me, a battery-powered drill in hand. I can’t help but let out a terrified whimper, too exhausted to even cower anymore.

Cirail doesn’t use the drill right away. He puts it down and kneels before me, knife in hand. I shake my head. “Please… Please don’t…”

He plunges the blade into my left knee, slicing the flesh open deep enough that I can feel the revolting sensation of his blade scratching my bones. I think I’m going to be sick.

Cirail moves the blade horizontally and sinks it under my flesh, detaching skin from tendons. My hands tremble, and I can feel icy sweat forming all over my body. He puts the knife away and uses his finger to pry the wound open until I can see my own kneecap and patellar tendons. I can’t take my eyes away, driven by a grotesque fascination.

That’s when Cirail grabs the drill again and presses the button, making the bit spin with a deafening whirring sound.

“No, please, no! Don’t! Anything but that, please!” I hear myself beg, my words sounding distant to my own ears.

“You’ll do anything alright,” Cirail laughs. “And right now, this is what I want you to be doing.”

The drill pierces my kneecap, the vibration jolting my whole skeleton and pounding through my skull. I double over and throw up as my esophagus clenches in hard, painful contractions.

Cirail turns the drill off and cuts my patellar tendons with his knife, freeing my kneecap. My brain focuses on a single thought that it latches on to: It’s okay, I can walk without a patella. I’ll need to do some physiological exercises, but I’m young and healthy. It won’t be a problem.

I can’t think about anything else right now, not even about the fact that I might not live long enough for my patella to be a worry. Especially not about that.

Cirail slips a thin metal chain through the hole he punctured in my bone, turning it into a gruesome necklace. He clasps it around Reno’s neck.

“For me?” Reno pants as he bounces on Dornao’s length. “You shouldn’t have, that’s too kind.”

“If you even think about taking it off, I’ll tear both your kneecaps out with my teeth and shove them up your ass. Are we clear?” Cirail asks calmly.

Reno’s face grows ashen, and a glint of panic passes through his eyes, but he quickly hides it. “Oh, kinky. Don’t threaten me with a good time,” he says in a moan, unable to hide the tremors in his voice.