Equinox (Book One of the Firebird Chronicles) WATTY AWARD HIDDEN GEM WINNER 2015

Chapter Thirty: Screams and Reality

'All you have to do is tell me where she is...'

The golden haired girl was stripped to her underwear, and shivering. She lay on bare stone, bound at each limb by chains. As the figure behind her spoke, its gloved hand reached for a lever, sending the metal bindings rattling. Each crank of the handle ratcheted up another portion of the chains, and the girl's body was stretched further.

She screamed, her voice dying mid-way as it broke into sobs and gasps for air. She struggled against the metal cuffs around her ankles, exposing the bruising around them.

'Stop resisting, Freya. You know what happens to traitors. We can do this my way...or the hard way.'

The girl shut her eyes tight, and her mouth chanted words of prayer. The lever was pulled again, and the chains clanked as they pulled her apart like she was a stretching doll. Dolls, however, did not howl like hellhounds were devouring them slowly. This girl looked close to passing out. Droplets of sweat dripped from her forehead, pooling with her tears down her face. Weeks of muck and grime layered her skin, like the last time she'd bathed had been long ago. She trembled, and she cried in pain.

'She's...gone,' she breathed, and her voice sounded triumphant. 'Lumina is safe from you, and you will never find her!'

The cloaked figure went very quiet. The kind of quiet that signalled the calm storm clouds taking position. It drew its gloved hand along the girl's face in a pseudo-loving manner, as if mocking the gesture. Then, the hands corrected the lever, loosening it so that the girl's hands and feet relaxed, and she drew a shaky breath.

The figure turned back to her. 'I know she's here. On Angelica. She's awakened the Opal City again. Now, tell me...where is she? Who is helping her?'

The girl looked at the ceiling, and her gaze lingered there, away from the torture. She smiled as if remembering a distant memory.

'I don't know.'

'We have the entire Sapphire household in prison, Freya. They will be executed, as an example of all those who follow this usurper. Does that change your mind?'

The girl's expression changed almost imperceptibly. A flutter of confliction and a look of panic filled her face; her eyes widened and the muscles in her cheeks twitched.

Then she resumed her composure. 'Why should I care?'

'Your darling Fabian...I promised to spare him, in return for Lumina.'

At that moment, the girl seemed to look over in my direction, as if she knew that I-- a mere apparition-- was there. But I must have imagined it, because she shut her eyes once more and said, 'I don't know anything, Father.'

I woke to the sound of screaming and panic, only to realise that it was my own.

My body was coated in sweat and heat, and my blankets were in a disarray around my feet. Something was clutching my hand, and I was brought back to the dream of shackles, and screamed again, pulling at my arm. To my surprise, I wasn't chained, and my arm was released.

'Lumina! Lumina, it's me!'

My voice faltered, as I took in my surroundings. A pair of kind blue eyes, and a worried expression. Fabian was kneeling by my bedside.

There was no torturer, no chamber.

No Reia.

I didn't know if I was relieved or heartbroken. One look at Fabian's sad face and I felt a sob well up in my throat; without warning, I flung my arms around his neck, squeezing my eyes shut to hold back the tears that threatened to spill.