Oubliette Lost by A.W. Exley

Author:A.W. Exley [Exley, A.W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A. W. Exley

Part V

1841: Allie

Chapter 17

Allie dressed, avoiding the mirror. While a custodian had removed the collar from around her neck, she was forever marked by it. Over the four year period of her sentence, the dark magic used to hold her mind open had seeped into her skin. The filigree work and runes of the collar were now perfectly inscribed around her throat. Those who served shorter sentences bore fainter marks. Some wore indistinct dirty smudges as though they hadn’t bathed for some time.

Due to the unusual length of her sentence, the collar had time to leave a perfect duplicate of itself. She would never be free of the device as it had become a part of her. There were other concerns that cast a black cloud over her mind. The collar was a thing of dark magic and it had claimed her. What if, one day, the marks on her skin reactivated and made her a helpless doll again?

A shudder worked over her skin at the thought of being at the mercy of others once more.

“Never again,” she whispered. To know for sure how her mind was altered, she would have to do the one thing as equally repugnant as becoming a drudge. She needed to let a custodian into her head to survey the damage.

She picked up her hooded jacket from the back of a chair and slid her arms into the sleeves. A black scarf around her throat covered the marks and at times she used it to conceal her face. She copied her clothing from one who still roamed her memory—Kisho. The Skin Dancer had left an indelible impression upon her.

In her time with the Whisperers and Runners, her handlers changed every four months. In two years chained to those guilds she experienced six different handlers rifling through her memories and treating her like a toy. But Kisho took the gauntlet twice, each time for a full year when for some reason, the Grim Reapers were deprived of her form to torment.

Questions swirled in the mist within her mind, the dominant one a single word—why?

Other memories confused her and couldn’t possibly be true. She imagined Duncan with Kisho. The two men with their heads bent together and even, on one occasion, a fierce kiss between them. Impossible. Yet that memory possessed sharper edges than the others from those years, and it refused to be erased.

Today, Allie and Weasel made their way to a lesser used quadrant of the sprawling palace. Here, the rooms sat empty except for determined spiders who thrived in the cold. Despite the sun outside, no warmth penetrated this deep. Allie huddled into her jacket as she stalked her prey.

Her father performed his task and handed over a short list of nobles who had once been part of the Consortium, and who continued to mutter of their displeasure at having a young woman on the throne. Within the palace, Allie gathered other whispers to her. One told of secret assignations that took place where no one else could see.

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