14-3
Vantaiga struggled to keep her senses about her while being carried like a limp sack in one arm of the Snake King. The monster carried her through the dark caves of its mountain lair. Their way was lit by flickering clay oil lamps on the walls. Behind the hulking serpent beast walked the Master of Servants. Behind him sauntered a dark, leathery doglike creature that reached as high as the tall Master’s waist.
Vantaiga clung to consciousness while she dangled in the crook of the Snake King’s arm. She struggled to swallow through a bruised throat. The blood rushing to her head was adding a pounding headache to her already scattered and fragmented mind. She tried to pull her thoughts together but found she couldn’t assemble a coherent reality. The jostling sway of the cave walls would fade out to trees and animals that would fade out to flows of magic through earth and air that would fade out to the Master of Servants looming over her.
The group made their way around a bend that led to an unlit corridor and small cavern that was Vantaiga’s prison home. The Snake King unceremoniously tossed her to a corner, giving her a swipe with his tail as he left the grim tunnel. The Master of Servants summoned a light at the end of his fingertips and knelt down by the debilitated woman. He grabbed her by the chin and twisted her face upwards to examine her eyes.
With a sore, rough throat Vantaiga swallow and stared unblinking into the mage’s light. Pieces of her mind were coming back together, and she was starting to understand the difference between what was really happening and what were her memories. She tried to speak through her rasped throat but only managed an incoherent mumble.
The Master of Servants grimaced. “It was a good session today. I was able to learn much from you.”
Vantaiga forced herself to blink at his blinding light and croaked, “Wha…?”
Her tormentor let go of her face, dropping it to the ground. He then began examining through her hair and looking over red marks in her scalp. “Your recovery will be slower. We were longer than normal today. We found something very interesting. The plants aren’t just teaching you magic; they are giving you magic. I wasn’t expecting that.”
Vantaiga tried to shift and raise her head but found she was too weak and confused. She slumped back and let the cool floor ease her scattered mind. She tried again to speak but could only manage to say, “What?”
The Master of Servants sneered and looked over the red welts along her neck and throat. “Maybe I’ll start leaving your constrictor on. I like it when you can’t talk.” He gave her a wicked, twisted smile. “Or scream.”
Vantaiga lifted herself with trembling arms. Her head hung limply between her shoulders as she uttered, “Why?”
The Master of Servants laughed as he stood to leave. “Because I shouldn’t have to listen to the whines of a woman if I don’t want to.”
Vantaiga coughed to clear a lump from her sore throat and shifted to try and raise herself further. She shook her head in an aching wobble to creak out “Why… this?” before her strength gave way and she flopped back down to the stone floor.
A hot rage flashed over the Master of Servants. He kneeled over her and pulled the hair away from one of her eyes so she could look at him. “Because you owe me. I lost my position because of you. I was cast out of my Order because of you. I lost my chance to study great magic from great sorcerers. Now I’m forced to study the magic of a beast and a slave girl in a cave. Give me the secrets of your plants and magic to return to my Order, and I will set you free.”
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He stood up and walked from the dismal cavern. “Speak no more, or I will cut out your tongue. I can still extract knowledge from you without you being able to talk.” He pointed to a spot at the entrance of Vantaiga’s prison and commanded the nightmarish dog that followed them, “Guard!”
The strange animal’s eyes flashed red at the Master of Servants, but the man just struck his finger again to the entrance. The creature slowly lowered its head and lay down where he pointed. The Master of Servants dowsed his small magical light and left Vantaiga alone in the dark silence with the fiend. Too confused and tired to be afraid, Vantaiga closed her eyes and tried to let what sleep she could manage come to her. Sleep was the only thing she could think of to smother her splintered thoughts and broken mind. She fell asleep listening to the rattle of her chest, a small, familiar murmur in the darkness.
***
Vantaiga awoke on the hard ground. Pieces of memories of the day’s ordeal slowly came back to her. She didn’t know where she went for her torture, or how she got back. All she knew was that, for now, her pain was over. She groaned and lay back down, oblivious to the cold rock.
Her awareness remained on the beast warden and its unrelenting eyes. Everything else seemed vague and blurry to her. She did not know how long she’d slept or even how long she had been held captive. The Master of Servants talked about a “day’s session.” How many “sessions” had she had?
She tried to think. Was it five? Ten? She couldn’t recall them clearly enough to tell. They all seemed the same repeated agony to her. All she knew was that eventually the undulating shadows cast from the unseen light beyond her prison would form into a hulking serpent and a tall, thin man. Then her suffering would begin again.
She felt about the darkness of her cave until she came to a plate with the remains of the meagre scraps she was fed. She found something that she assumed in the darkness was meat. She slowly crawled forward to offer the morsel to her unnatural guard. She spoke soothing words as she approached. Perhaps this time it would accept her offering. She never saw it eat or being fed, so it must be starving for whatever nourished it.
The creature shifted forward and sniffed the small piece of food in her outstretched hand. With a growl, the fiend stood up to tower over the crouched Vantaiga. It licked its lips and stared intently into her eyes, its own eyes glowing red. With a start, Vantaiga backed away from the beast. The monstrous dog didn’t just look at her but through her with a hunger for her soul. When she retreated, the glowing eyes of the creature faded, and it sat back down with a groan of either annoyance or disappointment. Vantaiga couldn’t tell which.
She returned to her now all-too-familiar posture, lying in despair, waiting alone in the darkness, and staring at the glinting, unblinking black eyes of the beast that contained her. Behind the fiend, the shadows of the jagged wall undulated to the unseen lamp beyond. In the still quiet of the cave, they had become a simple and reliable comfort to her. They shifted and moved to a fluid rhythm that gave her some sense of stability.
The shadows weaved over the rocks and spilled into the crevasses. They flitted up the walls and across the floor. Never would a shadow appear and stop. Never would a shadow slowly move around the bend and take form at the edge of the wall. Never would a shadow step deliberately and soundlessly down the corridor towards her and the guarding beast.
Vantaiga blinked and focused her eyes. Confusion mixed with fear as she struggled to make sense of the impossible shadow. She realised the shadow was a person creeping up behind the creature. As it moved closer, she could discern the outline of a bow extending above its shoulder.
Vantaiga’s eyes grew wide, and she sucked in a gasp. Her heart pounded with elation, but she quickly stifled any further reaction. The beast raised its head and turned its leathery ears towards her. It studied her for a second and then cocked its ears backwards, its eyes flashing red.
