"Wake him." Leran sipped his bloody drink.
Ky slapped Tayvis, splitting his lip.
Tayvis coughed. He looked awful with one eye swollen shut and blood trickling over his chin.
Leran rose leisurely from his chair, sipping his drink. He twisted Tayvis' wrist to the light. The diamond tattoo showed clearly. Leran sniffed disdainfully.
"Patrol Enforcer." He dropped Tayvis' wrist, turning to me. "And which branch do you work for? You're good, Dace. You almost had me convinced of your wild story."
A piercing scream echoed from beyond the closed door. I shivered.
Leran finished his drink. He held the glass out. One of his men took it away. "Tell me everything you know and I might let you die quickly. Not painlessly, though. You've cost me too much." He folded his arms and waited.
Tayvis watched me over Leran's shoulder, licking fresh blood from his lip.
"Everything?" I stalled, still trying to find a way out.
Leran planted his hands over my tied wrists. "Everything."
My mind raced. "Hyperdrive theory was first postulated by Maricus in the year . . ."
Leran backhanded me across the face. I tasted blood.
"You said to tell you everything I know." I deliberately goaded him. It was the only strategy I had.
Leran hit me again.
I put on the best card-playing face I had. I hoped I was good enough to bluff my way past Leran. His hard gaze gave me little hope. I couldn't guess what lies he would believe, what lies would keep me alive. The truth wouldn't help.
Leran raised his hand. He smiled coldly when I flinched. "Which one will break first? I wonder." He folded his arms. "This is your last chance, Dace. Tell me exactly why you're here, who you're working with, and how much they know."
I kept my mouth shut, staring at Leran with the blankest look I could manufacture.
Leran drummed his fingers on his sleeve. "Bring in the monk."
I risked a glance at Tayvis. He shook his head, just a little. Whatever Leran planned, Tayvis didn't like it. I probably wouldn't, either.
Leran's man escorted a short man in a ragged brown robe into the room. The man bowed to Leran, then fidgeted nervously with the ends of his rope belt.
"You have it?" Leran asked.
The man dipped his hand into a pouch hanging from his belt. He held a tiny glass vial. Oily blue liquid shifted sluggishly inside.
Leran watched me as he took the bottle from the monk. I didn't have to fake confusion.
"Don't tell me you don't know what this is. Pure shara. The most precious substance I've ever found. With this, a man could rule the universe."
I covered my fear with bravado. "You're delusional, Leran."
He didn't hit me. He held the vial in front of me, tilting it so the liquid swirled inside.
"This bottle contains ten normal doses. A normal dose usually doesn't leave permanent damage. A dose five times normal causes much pain. Madness is common. Most of the time, it passes. Eventually." He twisted the seal from the bottle. "Last chance, Dace."
I didn't say a word. He'd picked the one drug, the one torture, that would have no effect. I had a psychic rating of zero. The testers at the Academy hadn't believed it. They repeated the tests numerous times, always with the same result. I was as psychic as a rock.
"How much do you care about your partner?" Leran turned to Tayvis, holding the shara high. "Talk and maybe I'll let her die easily."
The man in brown glanced between me and the bottle Leran held. "It is not right."
"You object, monk? You're a bit late. I bought the drug; it's paid for in full. You should have spoken before you took my money. Not that it would have done you any good."
Leran grabbed my face. I clamped my mouth shut. He expected me to fight. It would make him suspicious if I didn't. He squeezed my cheeks, digging in with his thumb and finger. He dribbled some of the blue liquid between my lips. He shoved my chin up, holding it until I swallowed.
Its acrid taste left an unpleasant tingling in my mouth. The shara slid down my throat, thick and slimy, burning coldly all the way to my stomach.
Leran stepped away, holding the bottle, still two thirds full. "Shara works rather quickly. I will pull the information from your mind, whether you wish it or not. Fight me. Make it hurt, Dace."
My belly rumbled. I swallowed gas that tasted the way engine coolant smelled.
Leran's smirk slipped. He snapped his fingers. One of his goons pried my mouth open from behind. Leran poured in another dollop.
The bitter taste was stronger than the first dose. I gagged. Leran grabbed my jaw in his fist. I had to swallow or choke. I swallowed the shara.
Tayvis jiggled his chains, rattling them against the wall. Worry lines creased his bruised face.
Leran leaned over me, waiting for something to happen. I belched loudly. He jerked back, whirling on the monk. "What have you done with this? It's useless. You watered it down."
The monk raised his hands. "It is the same as always."
"Then prove it! Take it yourself." Leran shoved the vial under his nose.
Leran's goons stepped closer, hedging the monk in. He swallowed nervously before taking a tiny sip. He shuddered. Leran snatched the bottle from him. The monk grabbed his head and winced. Leran held the vial up to the light. It was half empty.
"More, Dace? Even an implant won't protect you at that level. Although I thought the Patrol did not use implants, considering they are highly illegal. Just who do you really work for?" He held the bottle in front of me. The shara glistened.
"She isn't Patrol," Tayvis said. "Let her go, Leran. I'm the one you want."
"So predictably noble of you. Was she correct in saying you were just the muscle for this operation?"
Ky yanked my head back, his hand tangled in my short hair. Leran squeezed my face, pouring the rest of the bottle down my throat. The shara landed in my stomach, oily and slick. I burped.
Leran dropped the empty bottle on the floor. His icy green eyes stared into mine. Nothing happened, at least not that I sensed. Leran snapped his fingers at the monk.
The monk shook his head. "The dose is too much already."
"I'm not paying you to advise me."
The monk pulled another vial from his pouch. Leran snatched it, jerking the cork from its mouth. He held it over my face.
"This will drive you mad, regardless of your safeguards. This is your last chance."
Tayvis yanked at his chains.
Leran held the bottle in front of my face. He grabbed my cheeks and squeezed. This time he didn't hesitate. He poured the whole bottle in, then jammed my chin up, his hand covering nose and mouth. The bottle tinkled as it hit the floor
The shara slid down my throat, oily and cold. Leran let go of my face. I gagged and coughed, my stomach roiling. Leran lifted my chin, searching my eyes. He stared in disbelief. He whirled on the monk.
The monk flinched.
"Why doesn't it work?" Leran turned to Tayvis. "What is she? A new kind of android?"
Tayvis stared with the same disbelief.
"You didn't know?" Leran's eyes showed dark, fully dilated by the drug, as he turned yet again.
The monk groaned. Ky doubled over, holding his head. Leran's goons stumbled away. Tayvis winced. I felt nothing from his psychic attack.
The monk writhed on the floor, holding his head and moaning. Leran tore the pouch loose. He pulled out two more bottles of shara.
My insides clenched. I would be very sick if he made me drink any more.
Leran uncorked both bottles and forced shara down my throat. I gagged and tried to spit it out. Leran jammed his hands over my mouth and nose. The biting taste of shara stung the back of my throat.
Leran cradled my face between his palms, his pale green eyes boring holes into my head. His goons retreated to the far side of the room. The monk on the floor groaned. Tayvis shuddered, jingling his chains against the wall. I deliberately gathered saliva.
I spit into Leran's face.
He swore, wiping his face with his sleeve. He stumbled into the wall. Ky slowly collapsed. The monk curled into a ball.
My stomach twisted with cramps. Everything in the room seemed to rotate in slow motion, unreal and strange. I burped. The taste of acid and shara filled my mouth. I swallowed it back down.
Leran glared. One eyelid twitched rhythmically. The color drained from his face. "Hrissia'noru," he breathed.
He whirled, his robe flaring dramatically. "Bring him!" Leran shouted at Ky as the bald man struggled to his feet. "Get the baron. We're leaving the witch to burn. We can't leave any evidence behind."
He was afraid of whatever he'd seen in my face. I had no idea why. I'd never heard the name. He stumbled out the door.
His goons lurched into the Baron's wing.
Tayvis sagged in his chains, suspicion in his eyes.
"Trust me, Tayvis," I whispered and hoped he heard me.
Ky's boots scraped loudly across the floor as he fumbled to drag Tayvis from the building. The door slammed, leaving me alone, tied to the chair.
"Unh."
Not quite alone, I amended. The monk sprawled on the floor near my feet.
I wriggled in my nest of ropes, flinging myself forward. The heavy chair scraped across the floor.
The monk's eyes blinked open. He stared at the animal heads on the wall. "They wish to be released. Their souls are trapped in torment."
"They're dead." I jerked my wrists, trying to loosen the knots.
His head snapped around. His eyes stared blankly, the pupils dilated until the iris was hidden. He slowly crawled to his knees. He knelt in front of me, searching my face.
I sniffed, catching a hint of a teasingly familiar smell, engine lubricant and paint fumes, but not quite.
"Soulless One." The monk bowed his head until it rested on the floor.
The smell grew stronger. My eyes watered from the fumes. "What can I offer you to untie me?"
A smile spread across his face, like sunrise across the sky. "All my life I have longed for this. I never believed it possible. The Soulless One has returned. Myrln will speak again."
"Nobody's going to speak unless you untie me." I finally recognized the smell as afletane, a chemical notorious for spontaneous combustion. "You'd better move fast."
"I have beheld the Soulless One. I shall die happy." The monk grinned like an idiot as he lay down at my feet.
"I don't want to die yet." Judging by the smell, the afletane concentration was rising. I slammed side to side, rocking the chair.
The monk rose to his haunches, his idiot smile morphing into a puzzled frown. "Why do you fight? The infidels have gone."
"But they left . . ."
The main door exploded into flames.
"That," I finished.