Arrowland by Paul Kane

Author:Paul Kane
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, General, Science Fiction
ISBN: 9781907519130
Publisher: Abaddon
Published: 2010-09-21T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

How exactly had he got into this mess?

He was dangling, suspended, above a fire in what had once been the castle's reservoirs.

He thought he'd been so clever, but like always he was really only making all this up as he went along, trying to turn something hopeless into a fighting chance.

Maybe this was his punishment for hurting the woman he loved more than life itself. And, in his defence, the Widow's mumbo jumbo did have an effect on him initially. Some kind of weird hypnosis or mind control. The best way he could describe it was like having a waking dream, where you were doing and saying things you wouldn't normally, but had no control over. He cast his mind back to when they'd first been alone together, back in the Vaults where he'd been chained to the wall. She'd had him stripped naked and he'd assumed there would be some kind of torture involved, especially as he was surrounded by such implements. Maybe it was just his turn, he thought. Both Mark and Jack had suffered at the hands of Tanek - Mark coming away having lost a finger, while Jack's mental scars ran deeper. If they could brave it, then so could he. He'd had to face worse: up against tanks, jeeps, helicopters, armed with only a bow and arrow.

But torture had been the last thing on her mind.

"I do admire a man who's not afraid of being in the raw," the Widow told him as she'd scrutinised his body, approving eyes passing over his taut muscles. "I've been waitin' fer you to come. Expecting yer."

"So you said. Some kind of tip off."

The Widow might have suspected they'd strike sometime, but couldn't have known exactly when without some kinds of heads-up.

"Could say that." The Widow laughed. "But no the kind that you'd believe. Not yet, anyway." She'd approached him, and placed a hand on his chest. "Good, strong heartbeat," said the Widow, then ran her hands over his torso. Then her hand moved downwards and she gave an approving and extremely dirty smile.

"Would you like me to cough?" Robert spat.

"Sense of humour. I like that. A perfect man in a lot of ways: fit, strong. Yer know, a lot of men have disappointed me over the years, Robert."

"You do surprise me."

"Something tells me you won't disappoint."

He strained against the chains that held his wrists and ankles. "Don't fight it. You and I both know something more powerful than either of us has brought us together. There's something special between us, something we share."

"And what's that?"

She leaned in and breathed: "A kind of magic. 'Course, yours has been weakened, but I can help get it back. Also helps me with what's about to follow." The Widow told him about how it was all in the cards that he'd come and they would one day rule this country, if not the world, together.

"With the help of good old German ingenuity, I suppose," said Robert.

She waved away his comment. "Means to an end.

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