Lost

2. The first round of pain

Chapter Two

The first round of pain

The morning arrived sooner than I expected. I sensed it, as the rise of sunshine beamed through the smallest window I’d ever seen at the top of my cell. It was still summer, and weather in London was spoiling humans just as I heard. I barely slept, thinking about my escape plan and Harvey. The presence of the warlock made me extremely anxious. He talked for a bit, and then he must have gone off to sleep or something, because he stopped answering my questions. Idris should have sensed him in the cell. This complicated things. My body was still aching, but I pushed myself to get up and stretch. Harvey wasn’t very helpful, especially when I told him that Idris and I didn’t really have a plan yet. I had no idea how long he had been here, but I suspected it was from the moment when Baxley arrested him in the factory. His cell smelled of blood and sweat. I was shaking, probably from shock. My magical energy felt faint; the prison was preventing me from using it.

An hour after I awoke, my cell opened up, and the Dark One (the same one who directed Idris here) placed a bowl on the ground with something that smelled like rice. He didn’t even look at me.

My stomach growled because I realised that I hadn’t eaten anything for a very long time, maybe since we were at Rhian’s house in Draconia. The food in front of me didn’t look particularly appetising, but I was starving. I polished it off within moments, satisfying my hunger for now.

“They are coming for you, so you better think of a plan. They will break you there, and he will try to split your magic, little thief.” Harvey spoke unexpectedly, and I nearly jumped. I sighed loudly. Something was definitely going to happen, even Idris warned me he was powerless.

“Good, great. I already know what is going to happen to me, but my question is, what’s up with you? I thought warlocks were stronger than the Dark Ones. I was there when Baxley arrested you at the factory,” I said, trying to mentally prepare myself for what was about to happen to me. Harvey was a strong warlock, and I was shocked Baxley had surprised him like that.

“They claimed I had the dragon egg; someone must have spread lies about me.” He sighed, and another cold shiver crawled up and down my spine. I had the egg; maybe he was arrested because of me.

“Dragon egg?” I asked, snorting, but it wasn’t funny at all.

“You’re going to help me, and I’ll reward you,” Harvey continued. “The Dark Ones are foolish, and they are going to pay for everything; they will suffer greatly. Get ready, and get focused, warden thief, because you are going to endure a lot of pain. You won’t come back to that cell again, and that half Dark One will never betray his kind for you.”

I didn’t want to listen, so I continued to pace around the cell, because this, at least, made me feel a little calmer. I was strong, even without Avianna. I wasn’t supposed to have any magic inside me, but she fixed me—connected all of my broken pieces together. Baxley wasn’t going to break me, and I wasn’t planning to give him the satisfaction.

My heart skipped a beat, then raced triple time, when around half an hour later, I heard that someone opened the corridor cell. Idris hadn’t returned, which meant he didn’t have a plan. My magic was awakened but it was still weak. I needed to think of something and fast. Only a few sparks escaped through my fingertips when I tried to raise my internal energy.

“For Quesborth, this isn’t good,” I mumbled to myself, and Harvey laughed. He was a weak warlock now, but he was aware of my little secret. Moments later, Baxley stood in front of my cell, smiling. He was damn handsome, but he wore casual clothes today. The other Dark One unlocked my cell door with his magic, and then he was gone. I couldn’t move, my feet were rooted to the spot.

“It’s time, warden, time for you to tell me all your secrets. Do you want me to go easy on you, or do you want to make this hard? It’s up to you,” he said, tilting his head to the right. I clenched my teeth, trying to breathe in steadily. Fear, deep and penetrating, slipped inside my bones. I couldn’t show him that I was scared.

“What the hell do you want from me?” I asked, playing dumb. He c****d his head to the left and stared at me with a mixture of admiration and pity.

“We need your dragon creature. You stole her—the egg, and we all know it. The dragon never belonged to you. Tell me where she is, and I will spare you the torture,” he said, brushing the dust from his sweater. “We will send you straight back to Draconia, without any charges.”

“So, if I tell you where the dragon is, you’re going to let me go?” I asked, making sure that this was exactly what he meant. He smiled again, then shoved his hands inside his pockets and walked inside my cell. He was lying. It was just a game that he was playing with me. Harvey was listening in, and I suspected he was beginning to understand that I was the reason he had been locked up in the first place.

“You will be free in Draconia, but you would have to report to the Dark Ones once a week, to make sure you were being a good girl,” he said, still bargaining with me. I wanted to laugh. This deal was complete bullshit, and he and I both knew it. There was no way I could go back to Draconia and live my life like I had before I’d taken the egg. It wasn’t a life, and I would have to go back on the streets.

“Too bad, because I have no idea where the dragon you’re talking about is. We were separated when we walked through the crack,” I explained. There was that deep gut-wrenching feeling inside me—hope. I had to believe I was going to be all right.

“I see, so you want to make this difficult for yourself—too bad. I thought you were smart,” Baxley whispered, leaning close to my ear. A cold shiver of fear raced down my spine and, a second later, the other Dark One who I thought had left, barged inside the cell. A black bag was shoved over my head, and then I was dragged out. I tried to fight, using my energy, but my magic wasn’t strong enough. They were mages after all.

The kicking, the cursing, wasn’t doing me any favours. I couldn’t see where I was going. Someone, probably one of Baxley’s men, kicked me so hard in the shin, that I thought he might have broken my bone. I screamed, so they punched me in the back of my head. Blackness began to obscure my vision, and I crashed on the ground. I heard that voice inside my head, the same one I had been missing for a long time.

Fran, be strong; they aren’t going to break you. Idris will be with you the entire time, and we are going to be reunited.

Someone splashed freezing-cold water over my face, and I took a long deep breath, flinching. I looked around, disoriented. The water was dripping down my face as I regained consciousness. My legs and arms were chained to the wall. I tried to pull my hands to relieve the pressure in my wrist, but every movement was restricted. The bright lights were blinding me, but after some time, I saw Baxley standing in front of me. He was alone, and we were in some kind of torture room encased in glass. Idris stood on the other side, staring at me with a stone-cold expression on his face. My heart started pounding loudly in my chest, and blood rushed to my ears. If he was on the other side, that meant he hadn’t figured out how to help me.

This was it. Crap. Baxley wasn’t joking when he said he was planning to force me to talk. My head hurt; it was a dull, pulsating pain that slowly spread down my whole body. I knew Idris couldn’t do anything right now to help, and if he did, then we were both going to be f****d.

“It looks like you want to do this the hard way, warden,” Baxley said, walking up to me with his sleeves rolled up. I could literally see the hatred sparking in his eyes. That sick bastard was ready to kill me, and it seemed he was going to enjoy it. Instead, he pulled something from the back of the platform I was chained to, and then a moment later, I was lying flat on some kind of table. My clothes were intact, which meant they hadn’t tried to undress me while I was passed out. This was a positive thing, I guessed.

I had an odd moment of déjà vu. I sensed that I had been here before, maybe in the past, but the tortures in Dimond city were much less painful. There, they mostly starved me, or forced me into labour work.

Baxley leaned over me with a smile and sighed.

“So, tell me where the dragon creature is, the one that hatched out a few weeks ago?” he asked. The silence stretched for a moment while I considered my answer.

“I told you before, I don’t know. We got separated when we crossed the crack,” I told him. This was technically the truth, because I had no idea where she was right now. I was really worried about her, hoping she ended up with Rhian or at least Nicolas. She wouldn’t be able to survive in London on her own.

“Who else knows about her? And who has been helping you this entire time?” He continued to question me. Moments later, I felt pain in my right foot, and it quickly escalated everywhere. I refused to scream, refused to show any kind of weakness, but my breathing sped up. This felt like someone was piercing my skin with thousands of small needles. I arched my back, and then screamed as the pain increased with every heartbeat. I couldn’t hold out any longer.

Everything eased seconds later; a sheen of sweat gathered on my forehead. My chest was rising and falling in rapid movements.

“f**k you!” I shouted at Baxley who then came into view once again. This was simple; I concentrated on my magic, the energy inside my core that Avianna had given me. Then his hands were around my neck, squeezing it tightly, and I was losing oxygen quickly. I hated that he was so close to me, that I could smell his disgusting cologne.

“We will be here as long as it is necessary. Who has been helping you? Was it that other warden who escaped from Dimond city, or another warlock?” He kept asking. He wasn’t strangling me anymore. His hands were gone, or maybe it was only my imagination. Then it felt like he was ripping the rest of my energy away from me. This wasn’t possible because my cells were injected with it the moment I was conceived. Avianna told me my energy was muted, broken, and she fixed me.

“Give me the name, or your magic will vanish forever. I can make it happen; I’m making this happen right now,” he screamed into my face. It was the worst pain that I could have ever imagined, because I felt my energy, my magic slowly fading away from me. This wasn’t possible. He couldn’t do that, he didn’t have that kind of strength. I roared at the top of my lungs, cursing him off.

After some time, the pain finally eased off. For a long time, I just laid there, taking long whizzed breaths. My skin was shimmering when I opened my eyes, knowing that this was impossible. The tiny particles of magic were leaving my body. Baxley was removing it from me slowly.

The pain returned, and he mumbled spells under his breath. More magic was being ripped away from me, and I couldn’t stand it. I cried out, screaming with agony again and again. I pulled my hands, but the metal chains dug into my skin, causing more pain. Idris was there, and he was watching me.

I needed him and Arianna. My magic was fading, and no one was doing anything to stop it. Every part of my body, every cell felt like it was burning with raw fire. I couldn’t take this anymore. I wanted to die. I needed him to end this, or even Idris. For Quesborth.

Sometime later, sometime after, it felt like hours, everything eased, but my skin continued to burn, and my whole body was a giant wound. My magic was gone, and I couldn’t feel it anymore. Tears were spilling down my face. There was no way I could stop this, stop the sobbing, and I felt pathetic. Baxley leaned over my face, and then I saw that the lights in the room were flashing, and there was this horrible noise of the alarm going off.

Idris, where was he? Either way, I couldn’t be broken now, even if the pain was so bad.

“What the hell is going on? Why is the alarm going off? I was just getting started.” Baxley was saying to someone. When the pain eased, I saw him standing there and staring at me with fire in his eyes.

“No idea, but she can’t stay here. Maybe there is a possible breach or something,” Idris said with what looked like desperation in his eyes. He couldn’t lose it now; this wasn’t right or fair. We had gone so far together.

Baxley dragged his hand through his shiny hair, tightening his jaw. The alarm was getting louder and louder; my whole body was shaking. I felt like I had a fever.

“Fine, I’ll take her back to her cell, and you can check to see what is going on,” Baxley barked.

“It’s better if—”

“No, Idris, you have done enough. I need to make sure she will be able to talk. We have wasted too much time as it is. That dragon is mine, and the sooner I get it, the better,” he snarled, then waved his hands, and the chains dropped from my wrists. Seconds later, Baxley was dragging me toward the exit, taking me away from Idris once again.