She was stuck in this cursed place but hell, she didn’t have to put up with this kind of thing in her hearing all the time.
Palming the laser at her thigh, she strode down the corridor, swept through the curtain onto the dais, yanked the other curtain aside and looked around.
As usual, food was piled high, people were copulating, hounds fought, and people ate as though in the politest of company.
Looking up above the table of eating people, Rani saw the source of the screams. The man hanging by his wrists was screaming and blubbering almost incessantly. She could understand why when she saw the long strips of skin flayed from his body to hang around his ankles and drape down to the table below. Now and again, one of the people at the table would grab a strip of skin and yank it free.
The man was almost skinned alive. Was skinned alive, in fact, except for those long strips around his ankles. Blood dripped down onto the table and even as Rani watched, one of the women reached up with a knife, carved a deep chunk of flesh from the man’s calf and tossed it to one of the hounds below the table.
They were going to cut the man to pieces, agonizingly slowly.
The blood started to pound in Rani’s ears and gorge rose in her throaandin her t. But worse was the little twist of something deep inside herself, a twist that seemed to drive deep.
The bastards swinging from the roof deserved everything they got, no doubt about it, but it didn’t mean she had to watch or let further atrocities be committed.
Bugger this.
Lifting her laser, Rani aimed and shot the screaming man between the eyes.
The abrupt ending of the screams was almost deafening. The occupants of the table looked around, some angrily, some merely curious.
The woman who’d carved the flesh from the man’s calf stood up, her eyes glittering angrily as she tried to see onto the darkened dais. “Who did that?”
“I did.” Coming down the steps, Rani took aim at another body swaying over another table, the bloodied lips emitting whimpers. She shot him dead. “I did this, too. And this.” Coming down the dais, her heart started to thump a heavy tattoo in her breast. Five bodies swung from the roof and five laser blasts ended their miserable, tormented lives.
By the time Rani lowered her laser, she was facing a line of angry people. The only ones who didn’t know or care what was happening were those still copulating in pairs and groups around the edges of the hall, and those eating further back in the hall.
“You’ve got no right to kill The Overlord’s entertainment,” the woman snapped.
“I do what I want to do.” Rani looked down at the woman. “When I want to do it.”
“Listen, you crazy bitch - ”
Welcoming the confrontation, Rani raised the laser, laid the tip of the barrel against the woman’s forehead and waited silently.
The woman stopped talking, her eyes still glittering angrily but her lips pressed tight together.
“Got a problem?” Rani drawled. “Spit it out, then.”
“Does The Overlord know what you do?” The man behind the woman almost barked out.
“Do you see him behind me?” Rani palmed the other laser holstered at her other thigh and pressed the tip against his forehead. “I’m not anyone’s lap hound, little man, and you’d do well to remember that.” She looked coolly around at them all. “All of you remember that.”
“You can’t take us all on,” another man snarled.
A pulse beating in her temple, she stared at him unblinkingly. She wanted to hit him, wanted to lash out at every one of these disgusting creatures who lived in this Godforsaken and cursed place.
“Want to bet?” Lifting her leg suddenly, she planted it in the stomach of the woman and shoved her hard backwards. In a swift move, she pivoted while still moving and slammed her heel against the man’s jaw, sending him sprawling backwards into the people behind him.
Someone laughed and applause came from different directions.
The line in front of her surged forward, hatred on their faces, violence almost spilling from their very pores. Any signs of civility vanished within seconds.
The first three people hit her hard but she was ready, using the barrels and handles of the lasers like bludgeons.
As the people closed in around her, she exploded. Every bit of anger and rage, frustration and horror she’d held deep within her poured out in violence.
Shent ize="+0 felt like she could almost tear the scum apart. Power surging through her, seeming to boil up from inside her, she swung and kicked, punched and ripped. She moved faster than she’d ever moved before, a fraction quicker, staying just seconds ahead of her attackers, blocking their moves with ease.
The crowd suddenly seemed to shift, thinning, and a presence beside her had her swinging around on the defensive, bloodied fists at the ready.
Fredrico fought with grimness, no expression on his face as he took a hulking brute down with one swipe of his sword. He glanced briefly at her, nodded, and ploughed forward into the crowd.
Behind him came his crew, their ruthlessness and machetes letting them cut through the crowd like a scythe through paper. Grunts and curses filled the air, screams and the sound of lasers firing.
Seemed like none of these idiots cared who got hurt with the laser blasts, and right now, Rani didn’t care, either.
Pushing forward, she cut her own swath through the people, until finally they all fell back, some unconscious on the ground, some bloodied and on their knees, some wailing, others huddled back against the walls, and a lot simply running from the hall.
Fredrico didn’t give pursuit, nor did his men. Rani stood there, her breath coming fast, more than aware of the gawking onlookers.
“Raise your lasers,” Fredrico said quietly from beside her.
“What?” Turning her head, she saw him glancing around, his gaze grim. He turned that grim gaze to her. “Raise your lasers, show them you take victory.”
Show the rabble who was mightier. Show them who was tough. Show them that she wasn’t to be messed with. It was a ruthless game older than time.
If she wanted to play the game. Which she didn’t.
“Go to hell,” she said quietly. Louder, she looked around at the crowd and snarled, “You can all go to hell!”
She strode from the hall to stunned silence, then a roar of cheering and foot stomping echoed through the hall.
A rebel was a novelty. The warrior had proven her worth, and her plain disregard was for them all. The bloodthirsty crowd loved it.
Anger seemed to burn even hotter inside her, her frustration not appeased by the short but bloody fight, and Rani stalked through the dimly lit corridor on the right, not caring where she went. She could feel the violence simmering not far from the surface and she moved along faster.
“That wasn’t the wisest of moves,” Fredrico remarked, coming alongside her.
“Like I give a vagrat’s arse,” she retorted caustically.
“It could have turned ugly in there.”
“You don’t think skinned people bleeding into the food isn’t ugly?” She snorted. “Or pulling strips off them for fun? Those carrion eaters got what they deserved.”
“Those men hanging were being punished.”
Rani stopped abruptly, swinging around to face Fredrico furiously. “I don’t want to know what they did, Freddy. I don’t want to know what makes those eating food with the blood of the condemned running through it did. I don’t want to know what makes them enjoy the perversions in this bloody place. I do know I don’t want to be here.”
His face was expressionless, that same bloody infuriating calmness about him asg eabout h he looked up at her.
That calmness just ticked her off more. “But I’m stuck here. I can’t even attempt escape and go home without bringing some foul, hellish bastards right into the Lawful Sector and wiping out the remains of my people. So don’t tell me what’s wise, Fredrico. I know what’s wise.”
He arched one brow.
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That made her blood boil even hotter. Knotting one hand into his shirt, she jerked him up on tip toe and snarled into his face, “Don’t look so bloody pious, pirate. You’re no better than those bastards back in the hall.”
“I never said I was,” he replied evenly.
“And I never asked you to get involved in the fight!”
“It was my job.”
“Job?” She thrust him from her in disgust. “Oh yes, it’s your job to make sure The Overlord’s magic trick doesn’t get hurt. Doesn’t get a slice taken off her precious hide. Well, you know what, pirate boy?” She jabbed him in the chest with a stiff forefinger. “I wish you’d left me in that ice. I wish you’d thawed me out and let me die. It would be better than this!”
“Which one?”
“What?”
Unperturbed by her rage, he asked again, “Which one? Leave you encased in the ice or thawed you out?”
“Both. One. I don’t care! I just wish you’d let me die!”
Those cold blue eyes drifted over her face before locking onto her gaze again. “That wasn’t my decision to make.”
“Oh, that’s right. You’re just the errand boy. ‘Do this, Freddy. Do that, Freddy.’ And your reply? ‘Yes master, whatever you say master, right now master’.” Hands on hips, she added harshly, “You’re nothing but a lap hound.”
“Finished?” he asked mildly.
“Does nothing here worry you?” She flung out one hand. “Working for a creepy alien being, a walking corpse, playing with hellish things I don’t want to even think about, and living amongst this filth?”
“Looking back on it, it’s not the lifestyle I’d have chosen, but I can’t change the past.”
“So do something about it.”
“Can’t.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Maybe it’s ‘won’t’. I do prefer walking around in one piece to hanging above a table in the hall.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll ensure you’re not tortured. I’ll shoot you.”
“Is that a promise or a threat, because I’m not totally sure.”
“Take it either way.”
“Yes, well, based on that I think I’ll refuse your kind offer.”
There was no goading the space pirate into a fight. His calmness infuriated her and his dry words tickled her sense of humour.
“Is that a smile I see starting?” Fredrico queried, his gaze drawn to her mouth.
“No,” she replied sharply. “You don’t amuse me.”
“Really? I must try harder.” Catching her arm, he added, “You haven’t seen much of the fortress. Let me show you around, it’s time you saw a few things.”
Rani jerked her arm from his hand, surprised at the t tised atstrength in his grip. “I don’t want a sightseeing tour.”
Without looking back, Fredrico started walking away. “Knowing the home you live in is advisable. Always know the layouts.”
Glaring at his back, Rani folded her arms and seethed. She didn’t want to walk around and be shown the sights. She wanted to fight someone. Anyone. Frustration still roiled inside her and she felt edgy.
Glancing around at the empty corridor, she looked back at Fredrico walking down the corridor and gritted her teeth. So what if she picked a dozen fights? What good was that going to do her? She was stuck in this place for now.
Besides, if she was going to kill anyone it would be Phemar, the mouldering corpse on two rotten legs. She had a real bone to pick with the zombie. Maybe she’d find out where the risen-from-the-dead laid his grotesque head for a snooze. She could lop it off.
Kicking one booted foot at the stone floor, she scowled. Yes, the bloody pirate was right. It was time she knew the layout of the fortress and surroundings. She’d spent three days and nights skulking in her chamber. Spending the rest of her life in there wasn’t an option.
Ceri would have slapped her silly by now. The thought of her sister made a small ache start deep inside her. How she missed her. But at least she was safe. The one satisfaction she had was that The Overlord obviously didn’t know, or didn’t care, that her sister had somehow survived and was safely on her way home.
Taking a deep breath and mentally throwing back her shoulders, she strode after Fredrico. To give the blonde man credit, he didn’t make any snide remarks. She wondered if he were capable of anything but that cool, calm politeness.
Still spoiling for at least an argument to take her mind from her sister she asked, “So, what shakes that nauseating composure you have?”
“I have no idea,” he replied easily. “Nothing’s shaken it in a long time.”
“How long?”
“More years than I care to think about.”
“Huh. You’re not that old.”
“Fishing for private details, are we?”
“Shy about your age?”
“I’m thirty-four.”
They reached the end of the corridor and turned left.
“Just a baby.” Rani looked around.
“No older than you.”
“Crap. I’m forty three.”
His smile was slow. “Technically, yes, but you haven’t aged. Your body is still twenty nine.”
“I wondered why I had no grey hair.” Still twenty nine? She’d thought her age hadn’t shown because she’d been in some kind of hibernation for fourteen years. “Gosh, I do have something to be grateful for, don’t I?”
“Every little bit helps.”
“Huh.”
Fredrico gestured around. “The fortress has many corridors. Some are simply there to confuse enemies in case of attack. Mind you, if they get this far we’re no longer up shit creek without a paddle. We’re at the bottom of it.”
“Cheerful thought.”
“But the corridors do have hidden exits for those of us caught.”
“Wow, safe
“I knew you would be.” Rather than going to the end of the empty corridor, Fredrico came to a stop halfway down and tapped an erratic tattoo on one of the stones. “Your hidden escape route awaits you.”
Rather than enter the dark tunnel yawning in front of her, Rani looked at the walls of the corridor. “There’s nothing to distinguish the trigger rock.”
“That’s the whole idea of a secret tunnel, so no one knows.” His eyes held a glint of amusement.
Rani just looked at him.
“You need to accustom yourself with the positioning of the trigger rocks.” Fredrico shrugged. “If you don’t know it, you’ll be trapped in the corridors.”
“Another cheerful thought.”
“Consider it your homework for the next few days.” Fredrico entered the tunnel, his voice drifting back to her. “You don’t go anywhere in the fortress unless you use the hidden tunnels.”
Entering the tunnel, she looked around as the wall slid closed behind her. Immediately torches flared on the walls, lighting the pathway of the narrow tunnel. “So who is going to show me the stones?”
“I will be your guide,” he replied. “For the first day. After that, you lead me.”
“Such faith in my powers of observation.” She looked down at him, noting the way the light reflected in his blue eyes.
“You’re a Reeka warrior. I’d expect nothing less.”
“News for you, Freddy. I’m considered one of the worst for directions. Ceri always laughed her face off when I led my sister warriors in yet another wrong direction. It’s why Karana took me off the point when we were scouting or on the run. I’d always lead us into a dead end or right into the midst of the enemy.”
Fredrico’s gaze was searching. “That must have hurt you.”
She shrugged. “Not really. When you’re running for your life you want someone who knows the way.”
“And when you’re fighting for your life?”
Rani grinned. “Karana always had me up the front.”
“You were a good fighter.”
“One of the best,” she stated simply.
“Goo
d. You’ll need to be.” He led the way through the tunnel. It wasn’t long before it branched off in three directions, one up a narrow flight of stairs, one down a narrow flight of stairs, and one straight ahead. “You can choose to go down a floor, up a floor, or straight ahead.”
“Nifty.”
“Very. Which way do you want to go?”
“You’re the leader.”
“No, I’m the lap hound, remember?”
Rani looked witheringly at him. “Then being given the choice should be a real novelty for you.”
He laughed suddenly, a deep, rich laugh that rolled through the tunnel and curled around her with a warmth that caught her unawares. It transformed his face, chasing the chill from his eyes and the calmness from his features, replacing it with a youthful expression that gave her a glimpse of the carefree man he probably used to be.
“I bet you annoyed the crap out of a lot of people,” she remarked.
“I did my share,” he admitted with an easy grin.
“So how did you end up spreading your cheer in this hellhole?”
The merriment left his face to be replaced with his usual calm expression. “Just lucky, I guess.”
“Or not.”
He shrugged and turned away. “Which way shall we go?”
Sorry to see the glimpse of mischief gone, Rani shrugged in turn. “I don’t care.”
“Then we’ll go up.”
She followed him up the narrow staircase, wondering what had brought the once-merry space pirate into such a foul domain. “So what did you do to end up here?”
“I don’t feel like talking about it.”
“I do.”
“Tough.”
Was that a touch of irritation in the normally calm voice? Rani felt a little prick of satisfaction. “Come on, Freddy, you can tell me.”
Pausing on the step above her, Fredrico glanced down at her, his eyes once again cold as he raked a ruthless gaze over her. “We’re going to come out into the hall above the one we just left - ”
“Just give me a hint of why you’re here.”
“Leave it, Rani.”
“Pshaw, you can’t be that bad.” Folding her arms challengingly, she eyed him. “Well, yes, you’re a bad bastard, but evil? I’m not so sure.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Reaching out, he touched the projecting stone high in the wall and a portion of the wall slid open. Stepping through, he continued, “This is the hall above the great hall.”
Shattered Soul Page 16
