Gods & Thieves ✔

53. The First Blood and The Liar

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My head is heavy.

It's dark...

It's foggy.

My thoughts are cloudy, my body cramped, and when I try to move, pain pierces my shoulder blades as if my arms were twisted and fixed in somewhat uncomfortable position for a long while. Everything is numb. And my legs, on the contrary, feel light, as if there is no ground underneath.

Lo and I are going to the basement. I'm falling down the stairs! Twitching instinctively, I hear a metallic screech when my hands touch something. No, I'm not falling. I fell a long time ago.

"...and you missed it?" someone whispers.

"I've sent all our scouts in search of the First Blood and all our provocateurs on the trail of these two. I even came to them personally a couple of times, risking my face! What were you doing, huh? And how was I supposed to know of his Illa? In the last three hundred years, no shaman has shared their luck with another. Even you wouldn't share yours with me! This is a certain death, painful and slow..."

"Lo?" I try, but all that comes out of my throat is a muffled sound, and I realize that I have some feathers stuffed in my mouth. Or clothes? A gag?!

Almost choking in astonished fright, twisting again and finally remembering how to control my muscles, I find the floor under my feet. I open my eyes. There is no Lo in front of me, but there is a giant hall filled with sunlight. There is no burning smell coming from the street, no noise of fighting and screams, and it seems to me that this is really some kind of dream...until my eyes focus on the speakers.

"Maricela."

"Oh. Are you awake? We already began to worry you died'd before your hour." Standing in the center of the hall by some shimmering sphere with dark spots of aura, Ixchel smiles at me. She takes a step toward me, then changes her mind and remains standing next to her uncle and several other councilors. She just squints at me, curious. "Illa is really powerful. Tayen..." She clicks his tongue. "A prudent bastard."

I'm in the Throne Room, I realize, although I still have no idea how I got here.

"Don't talk to him," her uncle Tikhon grumbles in Maricela's ear.

Maricela shrugs off Tikhon's words. "Montejo is here to answer my questions. If he needs help, I will help. I'm not a monster."

There is, however, a distinct and melodious sarcasm in her voice.

As I come to my senses, my wrists start to hurt, and when I look up, I realize that I'm really tied up. The fright in my chest is mixed with mute anger when I realize that I, like a rag doll, was picked up by my arms with a chain and hung on the wall like a tapestry. The chain is obviously silver: it burns with invisible acid where it touches my skin, which slowly but stubbornly begins to turn red.

And I don't feel aura anymore. Even the shackles are too much for my body; it's not a collar yet, but it's not just an earring, either.

"You'll behave like a good boy, and you won't even die the stupidest death your ancestors have ever seen," Maricela comes up and coos to me as she removes a gag made of a piece of dirty cloth from my mouth. "Agreed?"

I spit the dirt and threads on Maricela's robe.

"Where's Loretto?"

"Don't you remember?" Ixchel frowns. "Hmm, they made a mistake with the lethargic concoction again...But don't worry, you'll remember, I'm sure."

As Maricela speaks, I just realize how much my body hurts. From blooming bruises all over the body to the itchy elbows that I cut in the fight with Gen. But if they beat me, Montejo, who needs to be alive, like that, then what did they do to Lo? Although it's hardly something terrible; Tayen is tearing everyone apart today. And fae is about to come. I must simply wait.