"Where shall we start?" Shomies circled me, her revealing dress flowing in a wave of red light. Every inch of her was biosculpted to absolute flawlessness. Her doctor was good.
She grabbed my hair, pulling my head back. She stroked her perfectly manicured nails along my throat.
"Who are you really working for?" She pressed her fingernails into my skin.
"Myself."
"Liar!" She shoved my head to the side.
I stayed on my knees. Her garden gave the illusion she rested alone, but I knew she'd keep her guards close.
She arranged herself on a padded couch, spreading her dress across the cushions. Every move was artificial, calculated to show off her body. She sipped golden liquid from a cut glass goblet while she studied me.
The garden reflected her obsession with perfection, every plant sculpted into shape. Waxy white flowers bloomed, filling the air with a cloying perfume. Sparkling water spilled down an artificial waterfall, tinkling into ever larger basins.
A boy lounged near her couch, holding an intricate, stringed instrument across his lap. He plucked the strings, the music mixing pleasantly with the murmuring water. His blond hair trailed in long curls across his bare shoulders. He caught me watching and smiled seductively.
Girls fluttered in, their gauzy dresses floating around them as they arranged trays of food. They flitted away once their task was done.
The boy ran one hand over the strings, a lilting trill that caught the essence of the girls. He glanced sideways. His smile widened as he met my gaze. He played another mocking snatch of melody, pompous and fruity, his mocking smile now aimed at his mistress.
Shomies carefully selected a single grape, biting it delicately in half. She ignored the boy and his music, swinging one foot languorously off the couch as she ate the fruit.
"You still lie," she said when she finished. "Try again, Dace. Who do you work for?"
"You?"
She signaled. One of her guards stepped forward, looming over me.
"Try again." She toyed with another grape.
"What do you want me to say? I work for Leran? Or Clyvus?"
"How about Barricion Muir and the Patrol." Shomies smiled, like a reptile preparing to eat a very tasty meal. "Who is he? Your partner? Your lover?"
I didn't bother to answer. She wouldn't have believed me. I knelt on the hard stone and watched the boy play his instrument.
Shomies frowned as she threw the grape into the flowers. "Perhaps torture will loosen your tongue."
"Baron Molier already tried."
Her mouth twisted, ugly and hard. She snapped her fingers at the guard.
He dragged me into the mansion by my arm, his fingers digging deep enough to leave bruises. He kicked open a door, then threw me into the room beyond. I rolled to a stop on more bare stone.
"Shomies leaves all of her messes for me to clean up." A woman leaned over me. She tilted my head and examined my face clinically. She would have been beautiful if she had any life in her face. She touched a bruise below my eye, clucking her tongue. "Fetch some water," she ordered the guard.
"Yes, Lady Vunia." He marched from the room.
Vunia stepped away. The door hung open. I shifted, ready to bolt.
"I wouldn't try," Vunia said, her back to me. "Unless you really enjoy pain."
She turned, her face just as emotionless, but I sensed something else hiding below the surface. "Sit up." She held a metal cup.
"Why?" I studied her face, trying to guess her motives. I read nothing in her brown eyes.
A slight smile curved her lips. "Because it would be difficult to drink lying on your back. The odds of choking are much greater."
I didn't trust her in the least. She stood like a statue, holding the cup and smiling faintly. She was ice to Shomies' fire. I pushed myself into a sitting position.
Vunia knelt beside me.
I took the cup clumsily in my bound hands. I sipped, then spat out the bitter liquid. "You're going to poison me?"
"As amusing as it would be, no. It isn't poison. It's merely a restorative, juice from a plant native to this world. It won't harm you." Her faint smile never wavered. "Drink it, Dace."
"No." I spat again, trying to rid my mouth of the lingering taste.
"Then I will have Melio help you. He likes his women feisty. I promise it won't stop with drinking the juice. He can keep you conscious for hours, days possibly. Shall I send for him?" Her bland expression never changed, making her threat all the more chilling.
I drank it.
"Very good choice, Dace." She stood, graceful as a dancer, busying herself at a counter that ran along one side of the room.
Time passed. I sat on the floor and watched Vunia measure blue liquid into tiny vials. I eyed the open door again. "Is this some kind of torture?"
"Would you like it to be?" Glass clinked against glass as she continued to work.
I levered myself to my feet, then bolted for the door. I didn't make it. I fell onto my face on the cold floor, muscles loose and rubbery. Numbness crawled up my spine.
Vunia smiled, wide and cruel. "The juice of the grinacht causes paralysis of voluntary muscle systems." She rolled me onto my back. "If I dosed you correctly, your lungs and heart should still function. If not, you'll die quite painfully. You see, grinacht doesn't dull pain. Not in the least."
I tried not to gulp air. I didn't want her to see my panic.
She patted my cheek. "You really should have told Shomies the truth. But then it would have robbed me of my fun." She stepped away, her skirt rustling. "Melio, take care of her."
Chains clanked. A very large, very dirty man dangled a pair of metal cuffs connected by a rusted chain. He locked my limp wrists into the cuffs, then used the chain to drag me across the floor to the opposite wall. He looped the chain over a hook set high into the wall, lifting me as if I weighed nothing.
"Now, Dace," Vunia said, "you will answer my questions."
"No, I won't." It came out slurred. My head floated like a bladder full of air.
"Who do you work for?"
"Me. I'm an independent trader, registered with the Guild." My tongue answered while my brain screamed at it to shut up.
"Then why are you here?"
"Guards caught me." It was the truth, it answered the question. I had to concentrate to keep the rest of the answer from leaking out.
"You think you're being clever?" Vunia raised her eyebrows.
"Yes."
The huge man grabbed my chin and slammed my head against the wall.
My vision blurred. I hung limply from the chain.
"Why are you on Dadilan?"
"It was an accident." I couldn't stop myself from answering.
"So that much is true." Vunia folded her arms. "What of Leran? Tell me everything you know."
"His taste in clothing is awful."
She laughed. "Go on."
"He hates me. He sent Ky to kill me. He promised to help me but he never intended to. He's smuggling shara."
"What do you know about shara?"
"It's a drug. Tayvis told me." I bit my tongue. I tasted blood.
"Tayvis? Who is he?"
I chewed on my lip. I wasn't about to give him away if I could stop myself.
The giant shook me around. The world slid sideways.
Vunia crushed a plant under my nose. The acrid smell snapped me back to consciousness, but it didn't do anything about the fuzziness from the drug.
"Was he the man with you when you came to Gragensberg?" Vunia's voice was sharp as a knife, cutting through my mind.
"Yes." I ground it out through my teeth.
"Who is he?"
I fought to keep my mouth closed. The drug won. "Malcolm Tayvis."
"Who does he work for?"
I bit my lip again.
The giant pinched nerves in my neck. I let myself scream. It helped.
Vunia waited for me to finish. "You will tell me, one way or another. Who is Malcolm Tayvis? Who does he work for?"
The giant twisted my thumb. I screamed again. Vunia repeated her question. I refused to answer.
"He can bite off an entire digit," Vunia said calmly.
The giant raised my hand to his mouth, licking my thumb. Chills raced down my spine as I imagined his teeth sinking into my skin, of blood spurting free. His tongue ran across my thumbnail, wet and warm and sickening. I swallowed bile.
"Tell me now."
"Malcolm Tayvis works for the Patrol." I hated myself for betraying him.
"Why are you with him? Do you work for the Patrol?"
Once I'd given in, I couldn't stop. "Technically."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Whatever Tayvis decides it means."
The giant let go of my hand, a look of disappointment on his face.
"Do you work for him?"
"Yes." I gave up. I couldn't fight the drug any longer.
"What are you doing on Dadilan?"
"Looking for evidence."
"Of what?"
"Smuggling."
Vunia questioned me, verifying every detail. I answered because I had no choice. The numbness grew. I hung from my wrists, unable to stand. My words slurred. Vunia finally stepped away.
"She doesn't know anything useful," she said to the giant. "Take her to Aberius. I'm certain he has a use for her."
I was barely conscious as the giant carried me out of the room. I passed out before he put me down again.