Chapter 10-Terrible Power and Sweet Reunion

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The man left me alone after that chilling announcement. I could only bring myself to be thankful that he had left the torch burning outside the cell so at least I could see. Not that there was much to see.

After I was sure he was gone I moved to stand at the cell door again, wrapped my hands around the thick metal bars and peered out into the gloom the torch's light couldn't reach.

I was in one of what appeared to be a long line of cells on either side of the stone hallway. I couldn't see into any beyond the empty one across from me, but I eventually surmised they were all empty too when no one responded to my shouts.

I asked Obsidian to check for me, just in case and crouched down to allow him to slip down my arm and away. The sake stayed close to the walls, sticking to the shadows that his black scales blended into as he slithered along the cells.

"There is no one else in this place." He reported as soon as he returned to back to curl around my wrist again.

There weren't any other prisoners then... but there weren't any guards either.

I withdrew back to the thin cot and tried to form a plan, the cold making it a bit hard to think clearly. I still didn't know much more about my situation, except I'd been taken by the Marquis' men. Probably the same sort of men that abducted other children for the trafficking ring for him, though I couldn't get the shop assistant's apology or the other man's muttered comment that I obviously wasn't meant to hear out of my head. Maybe I was the two men's first job?

If I didn't escape though, I had a pretty decent idea of what was going to happen to me. I would be passed off to others who were far more... experienced with this sort of thing. I shuddered at the thought, then banished it to the back of my mind as unhelpful.

Instead I tuned my mind to my assets. I didn't have very powerful magic without Blizzard, Ruger, and Kale around to direct it through, and couldn't even use the little left in me that Miss Rina taught me to, not without any dirt nearby.

But... I had the power stored in Obsidian. I studied the small snake that had crept down my arm to coil around my wrist. He patiently studied me back with flat yellow eyes, tongue flickering out a few times to taste the air.

Well, if there was ever a time to use him, it was in a nearly hopeless situation like this. Even so, I still shied away at the notion of using the power I suspected he held.

My stomach suddenly growled loudly, interrupting my bout of indecisiveness, and I put my hand over it. I had been alone for hours now after the smaller kidnapper left, and who knows how long it's been since I last ate. I was regretting my earlier attitude about sweets. I would give anything for even a cake now.

My throat scratched with thirst as I swallowed thickly.

Did they plan to starve and dehydrate me into complacence? Maybe that was a trick from the kidnappers handbook.

But just as I was thinking that, there was a scraping screeching sound. Metal over stone, I quickly surmised. Like a door opening. I fought the urge to rush to the bars of my cell, instead laying myself down as listlessly and pitifully on the cot as I could. It wouldn't hurt to have them underestimate me. I closed my eyes and forced some tears to fall, to complete the picture. My friends had always told me minoring in theater would be useless, but look at how handy it was.

I didn't hear anything after that, but when I opened my eyes, there was someone crouching at my cell door and sliding a tray of food under it.

It was the shop assistant, the one who had taken me in the first place. I was reminded then of how quietly he moved.

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