Kingdom of Dragons by Melody Rose

Author:Melody Rose [Rose, Melody]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-07T18:30:00+00:00

20

Kehn

“It would seem we have a mischievous group of adventurers out to steal our prize, if I understand you all correctly.” Gurtni snickered as she rubbed her hands together.

“You should,” Uri growled. “Since you gave us a truth-telling potion, it is not as though we can do any differently.”

“You could stop talking,” I said to Uri through our mental link for the tenth time. “You do not have to answer every question they ask you.”

“It goes against my nature,” Uri snapped back to me.

“Just bite your tongue or something,” I suggested.

“Then that would hurt,” Uri complained.

I closed my eyes and fought the urge to roll over and smack the sphinx. Though that would still be really difficult to do, considering I was tied up. All of us were, including Uri. She was strung up like a pig ready for the roast, hanging upside down with her paws connected to a stiff stick.

They captured Xavier in a cage, and he flitted about, clearly irritated. He sat at the center of the dining table across the room from us. Heloise, Stella, Troylan, and I were stuck in chairs, backs to each other, in a circle. Our hands were tied behind the chairs with rough rope that scratched painfully at my skin every time I tried to wiggle out of it. Mine and Heloise’s hands were close enough to touch, and we’d been fiddling with each other’s ropes for a while now to no avail. The only thing we gained was red and inflamed wrists.

The truth-telling potion was more of a compelling potion as it weakened our ability to resist Gurtni. Her voice sounded like a siren’s song, nearly impossible to resist. It made our limbs move of their own accord, bending and crouching to tie one another up. Tears leaked out of Stella’s eyes when she had bound Heloise’s wrists together. All the while, her girlfriend murmured words of encouragement. That was until Gurtni caught them and forced Heloise to stop talking until Gurtni told her to.

It was a unique kind of torture, something I had never experienced in all my years of training with the king’s guard. But it reminded me of Gideonia’s gift to Eva. It was the same style, forcing someone to do things. However, unlike Eva’s gift as she had explained it to me, we were all aware of the movements our bodies unwillingly made. We knew the words coming out of our mouths, spilling everything from our mission to defeat Reon to our parents’ names, were secrets meant to be held within. Yet there was nothing we could do about it. Weirdly, Eva’s method of completely clearing their mind of conscious choice was more humane than this unstoppable torture.

The only choice we did have in the matter was to keep our mouths physically shut. Gurtni could compel us to open them and speak, but she seemed too impatient to do all that.

“Deedren,” Gurtni called to her husband, who disappeared into the other room, “have you sent a message to the king?”

“Yes, dear,” Deedren replied in a gruff and dull tone.

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