Another scream flitted through the jail hall, and Magnus brought his hands up to his ears with a shaky groan. Guilt and fear was a burning knife sawing under his skin. How long would Azolirum hold this time?
“I visited an Ebronian gold mine once,” Nadine said to no one in particular. “It amazed me how much rock a hundred slaves could move in the span of the day. How much could they move with an endless supply of trolls, ogres, and the like?”
No one answered.
Even if Azolirum refused to talk, how long before the Soul Thieves found their way to another underground civilization by pure accident? They must have thousands upon thousands of workers at their disposal. How long before they were free to spread like a plague across the entire world?
A drawn out bellow echoed around them, sending a chill down Magnus’s spine. What were they doing to his friend? Magnus couldn’t stop the morbid possibilities from conjuring images in his mind’s eye. His insides tightened, and he stopped breathing when another wavering cry stretched through the block. Magnus’s head offered grim theater to go along with the misery.
“You need to calm yourself, Magnus,” Nadine said.
He turned to his bride, who held steady eyes on him. “They’re hurting him.”
“Calm.”
“What if they . . . ” His throat closed up. What if they came for Nadine?
Nadine shifted toward their shared bars. “We don’t know anything.”
As if that will stop them.
The thought must have been clear on his face, because Nadine tilted her head, and her gaze softened. “Accept that it’s going to happen. Don’t fight it. When they come for us, remember that no matter how bad it gets, it can’t last forever. Give in or hold out, our bodies have a set breaking point.”
Magnus lips parted. “Is that supposed to be a comfort?”
Nadine swallowed. “It will be. I promise.”
His tongue moved to ask how she knew. The answer formed before the words could. The Edging. His bride was no stranger to senseless pain. A deep empathy welled in Magnus’s chest. Inwardly he cursed the bars that held him apart from his hamma. Kept him from taking her in his arms as they awaited their fates.
Azolirum’s broken curses boomed through the jail. Some of the prisoners in the other cells shifted and moaned. One of those sounds rang with a familiarity that made Magnus’s blood turn from ice to fire.
“Nadine?” A muffled voice sounded from across the way. “What happened?”
Magnus’s gaze locked on the rat.
26
Deadlock
Magnus stared at Samar from his cell as he sat up and tossed a bewildered expression around at his surroundings. He’d taken a blow to the head, all right. Personally, Magnus might have preferred that the blow had taken his skull off, except for one thing. He pressed himself forward against the gate. “Do you have the Eye?”
Samar’s gaze settled on Magnus before his face twisted with contempt. “You.”
“Yes, me. Check your damn neck.”
“Do it!” Nadine hissed through the bars of her own cell.
Samar pawed at his chest. His fingers slipped underneath the cotton of his tunic and seemed to grasp at something. “I have it.”
Magnus exchanged looks of relief and reserved hope with Nadine. His bride turned to Samar and launched into a slew of Ebronian words. Samar’s expression changed from bewilderment, to confusion, to anger, to fear.
“What are you telling him?” Magnus asked.
“That he’s a fool. That we’ve been captured, and that he’s going to give me the Eye so I can get us out of here.”
Samar scowled at the pair of them. “No. I will not.”
Nadine gave the bars a shake but only managed to rock her own body. She huffed with frustration. “We’re here because of you, bastard.”
Magnus swallowed at her words. In spite of everything Samar had done, Magnus was the real one to blame. Yet Samar didn’t even have the decency to look chastened by her words. He struggled to get to his feet.
“This is what you’re going to do,” Magnus began. “Azolirum’s been taken for questioning. When they bring him back, you’ll use the Eye. Then Azolirum will free us.”
Crann and Hezek stirred at his words. Samar’s low laughter cut off their grunts of approval.
Samar glared as he walked his hands up the bars for support. “Is that how it will go then, barbarian? After all that’s happened, you think that now the Nozverak will just let you go? Even if they did, those creatures would never open my cell.”
Nadine hissed at him. “I swear to you, cur, your cell will be opened before I walk out of here.”
Nadine wasn’t going anywhere without the Eye. None of them would.
“What, then?” Samar shrugged at her. “If we do this, we won’t be able to use the Eye again for some time. Do we even know where we are? Can we fight our way out once we’re free?”
Crann spoke up. “My king wasn’t the only one to have lived here before the Soul Thieves. There are many ways out of the fortress. Secret ways. Ways we’d planned to use to get in.”
Magnus turned back to Samar. “We may only have one chance at this. When they bring Azolirum back, do it.”
“You must be deaf or stupid, savage.”
“They’re going to kill us!” Nadine yelled at him.
“They’ll torture us first,” Magnus said. “What are you going to do? Wait until they open your cell?”
Samar looked uncertain, and Magnus went on. “Wait until they’ve opened hers?”
Nadine scoffed. “He would.”
Samar’s lips parted. “I wouldn’t.”
“Then heed our plan, worm,” she shouted. “And perhaps I won’t take your head when I take back my Eye.”
Samar’s mouth flattened. Something between hate and longing stirred in his gaze, and Magnus had no doubt that if he’d been closer, he’d have reached for Nadine just then. The fool. She’d sooner bite off his hand then let him touch her. Had Magnus ever felt threatened by this pathetic man?
Time passed, and Magnus forced himself to sit and conserve his energy. Regna, he was thirsty, but he was too anxious to hunger. Where had their weapons been taken? Would they have to fight their way through? Or could they rely entirely on sneaking? And—Magnus’s stomach tightened at the thought—what if Samar was right? What if the Nozverak would simply abandon them to their cells? Especially after what Magnus had done.
He looked into the cell at his right. Crann was already staring at him, watching as though he’d known Magnus’s thoughts were about them.
“Will you free us or leave us?”
Crann blinked those glowing silver eyes at him. “What do you think?”
Magnus decided to answer honestly. “I think you will want to leave me but you will free me all the same.”
“We’re the only ones who haven’t broken our word, nozturel. Yet you expect us to honor an alliance you’ve all betrayed?”
Magnus took a moment before answering. He gestured with his chin in the direction of Nadine’s cell. “She hasn’t broken any promises to you.”