I Am Seer - Book 3

Chapter 17: Dinner or a Show?

Martimus pressed his lips together, and his eyes searched my face. I could see that he wanted to say something, but for some reason, he was hesitating—as if he were questioning whether or not I could handle it. Ha-Won pushed the door open before he could speak, however, and behind him, I caught sight of a throng of well-armed guards.

"She's still alive after all." One of them chuckled. "What a relief." His expression was marked with diabolical glee.

"Bree," Martimus murmured, and my gaze returned to him to find his features markedly pale. "Wait. Don't do this." His voice was barely more than a whisper. "Not yet."

"But—" I began, frowning in confusion. He'd just gotten done telling me that I had to bear up under Hyun-Won's punishment for Kotaro's sake.

"Tell them you're not going yet. Tell them you need more time." He breathed, and fear danced across his expression. "You're not ready."

"What are you saying?" I said.

"What? Is she deaf now?" The soldier in the hall said, and I realized he must have been saying something else while I was too absorbed in conversation with Martimus to notice. "Some Seer she is." And they laughed.

"You're not ready yet." Martimus' voice rose slightly in volume.

"But you just told me..." He shook his head violently, cutting off my words.

"He's going to try to break you." He said. "He's going to—"

"I said: get out of the way, old man." One of the guards roughly shoved Martimus aside.

"Bree!" Martimus struggled to put himself between me and the soldiers. "Don't drink it! Don't accept anything from him! He's going to—"

A wicked crack resounded as one of the guards struck Martimus over the head. The old man crumpled like a paper doll, and horror filled me. With a cry, I reached out for him, but a hand closed viciously around my arm, jerking me violently out of the room and into the dingy hallway. They were toying with me. Testing me to see how far they could push before I would snap. They wanted me to break, and I wasn't going to give them that satisfaction.

"Get your hand off me." I growled. "I can walk on my own."

The soldier chuckled and released me with a mocking flourish. It took all my self control not to bury my knee in his groin. The only thing that stopped me was all the work Martimus had put in to making sure I looked immaculate. I couldn't destroy that. Not yet.

"If I find that you've harmed him more after I get back, I will—I promise—rip your throat out and watch you gag on your own blood." I didn't know where the ferocity in my voice came from, but I found that barely hidden dark part of myself wishing that they would do something and give me an excuse to follow through with my promise.

The man beside me simply chuckled as if he knew something I didn't, and he bowed derisively, indicating the direction I should walk. Ayan, Bohai, and Juniper were nowhere to be seen, but there was another group of guards waiting for us at the end of the hall. I ground my teeth as I moved through their midst, and my pounding headache threatened to deafen me. Whatever was about to happen, I had to bear up under it no matter if Martimus and the others believed I was ready or not. Tonight was a culmination of everything we had prepared for so long.

Cruel silence was my companion along the way. The only sound in the dim passageways was our footsteps grating against the stones, and had my senses not become so numb, I might have felt unnerved. As it was, however, I was too focused on staying upright until we got to wherever Hyun-Won was waiting for me.

A low, groaning hum split through the quiet, and despite myself, I flinched. I knew the soldiers around me noted my reaction, and I muttered a curse. The humming grew louder, and other voices joined in until the tunnels around me were filled with the dissonant sound of a hundred voices vocalizing melodies that seemed to have no relation one to another. If they meant to throw me off with the sound, they succeeded.