Nineteen B
She didn't turn. She didn't move. She blurred her vision so she was looking at nothing. Better to pretend she was bugging out from withdrawal than to answer coherently.
Z walked around in front of her and yanked her wrist to bring her face toward his. She focused on his face with disinterest. She began to tremble, not trying to stop it.
"You don't look so good, my dear," Z said with mock concern, "If you're a very good girl, I'll give you some of those nice drugs you're craving. But first you have secrets to spill. You see, I know you didn't tell me everything you saw last time we worked together. I don't put up with my employees lying to me, so you'll have to take your punishment for that. Then there is the little issue of you running away. I don't handle rejection too well, either, so you'll need to pay for that one as well. And you will tell me who helped you, because that person needs to pay for their treachery also. Where would you like to begin?"
Zoe continued to look through him, shaking violently at times. The headache was ramping up, and with it, the nausea. Apparently she wasn't as far into the withdrawal process as she had thought.
Z let out a sharp whistle and two men roughly grabbed her arms, dragging her to a post, the post of her vision, and tied her to it. Z walked menacingly back and forth in front of her, slapping a night stick into his palm.
"You really messed up, my dear," Z started, menacingly, "lying to me is not the way to start the relationship. You see, while I am the prince of lies, no one lies to me without consequences. You need to tell me everything you saw in those visions."
She remained silent, staring into space. He continued pacing before her. Suddenly he lashed out backhand, the stick breaking her jaw on contact. The pain exploded through her head and she screamed, collapsing to her knees, held upright only by her bound hands around the post.
"That was for lying!" he sneered into her face, holding her head back by a handful of her hair. "Stand up!" he demanded.
She had no strength to raise herself, and hung there sobbing.
Z whistled again and the two men dragged her up by her arms. She started to slide down the post when they let go, so they grabbed her under the arms, thrusting a rod through both elbows bent awkwardly behind her, holding her pressed against the post.
Z stood beside her, whispering, "You won't be running away this time." Then he picked up an ax, looking at it critically, flicking the blade with his thumb, weighing it in his hands.
"No, please!" Zoe cried. "I won't run away! Please don't!"
Z turned the ax the wrong way and swung, hitting her just below the knee with the back of the ax head. She screamed again as both bones in her left leg snapped, tearing through muscle and skin. She passed out for a blessed moment, but Z was prepared for that with an ammonia capsule he waived under her nose.
"No sleeping, dear. I'm not finished with you yet," Z said in a gentle voice, then with anger, "Now you will tell me what you saw in those visions that you didn't tell me before. It was about the Fist. Where is it?"
"I don't know, really I don't," Zoe sobbed.
"She's telling the truth," came a flat voice from behind her. Zoe couldn't see the person, but nodded vehemently.
"Okay, then who has it? I know you know more than you told me," Z leaned in to her face, then reached up and pressed mercilessly on her broken jaw.
She tried to pull away, biting back a fresh scream. She was getting light-headed, probably from blood loss, as she felt a steady stream of warmth down her ankle.
"Who has it?!" Z screamed, waving the night stick in the air again.
A familiar voice said, "Abigail has it, my liege."
How did she know that voice? Her head was spinning and she couldn't think straight, but she should know that voice.
"Abigail!" Z said. Turning to his men he demanded, "Find her!" Turning back to Zoe, "And now I need for you to tell me who helped you to escape," Z said quietly.
"I don't know," Zoe gasped. "They hid their face, and disguised their voice. I swear."
That flat voice came again, "She tells the truth."
"Well, I guess I will have to find the traitor another way," Z said conversationally. Turning back to Zoe, he continued, "It's really too bad you will have to be killed. You could have been a great addition to my cause, but you have shown yourself unworthy, so you will have to die."
At that moment, Zoe would welcome death.
Z walked away to his throne, picking up a goblet, he drank deeply. He called for something in that language Zoe didn't understand and a young teenage boy ran to him.
Zoe couldn't hold her head up any longer, and her right leg was shaking so much she feared she'd collapse onto the broken left leg at any moment. She tried to slide down the post, but her elbows were clamped too tightly to it. Her pain was beyond anything she had ever experienced. In desperation, she called out to God to take her life.
Instead, she heard the room erupt in sound. Lifting her head she saw Z's men pulling weapons from their sheaths as Grey's forces streamed into the room, cutting down several of the enemy before they had time to react. Z disappeared, while a number of others followed suit, leaving the dark forces soldiers unable to transport behind to fight the Legion of Light. Zoe felt someone removing the rod from her elbows and sobbed in a mixture of pain and gratitude. Lloyd held her up with one hand while he cut at her rope with a knife in the other. She looked at him and started to gasp her thanks.
"Don't thank me yet," he said.
She stiffened. The voice she should have recognized earlier...it was Lloyd's.
He was almost through the rope, and then he would transport away with her. Grey's men weren't going to intervene, because they still thought Lloyd was one of them. She had to do something, but what? She was weak, injured, and her only power was in seeing the future!
She remembered Grey saying Abigail was a seer, and she was able to make anyone believe anything she said. Maybe Zoe had that ability. She had never tried it. Lloyd was working on the last few strands, so she had to try something.
With every bit of authority she could muster, she said, "Leave me. I'm dead," then she collapsed to the floor as the last of her bonds gave way. She looked through her hair at Lloyd who stood looking confused. He glanced at the fighting going on around him, then disappeared.
Twenty
Grey had fought his way to her and knelt beside her, tears streaming down his face. She lifted her head slightly and heard him gasp. He gathered her into his arms and they transported to his home.
"You're alive! I was sure we were too late!" he sobbed, laying her gently on a chaise as he opened his phone. He pressed a number, then tersely demanded, "We need you," and hung up.
He knelt beside her, looking her up and down. She was pale, blood now dripping rather than pouring down her leg. The right side of her face was puffy and starting to turn purple, and the bone from her leg was protruding. He smiled anyway.
"You're alive," he said, with all the hope of a future together contained in those two words.
The doctor who had helped with the drugs for the memory-mining entered the library. He took one look at Zoe and said to Grey, "I can't handle that here. We have to take her to a hospital. She's going to need surgery."
Grey nodded and picked her up again. "I'm sorry," he said, "I know it hurts to move." They transported to an emergency room somewhere, and in a few minutes, Zoe had an IV and pain meds were being pushed into her system. Grey remained by her side until she fell asleep on the operating table, and he was there, head resting on the bed beside her, when she woke up in her room hours later.
"Hi," she said raspingly.
His head jerked up and he smiled at her, he reached over to the side table and picked up a cup. Using a spoon, he gave her some ice chips. They felt heavenly on her tongue, but as she let them melt, she realized she was cold, and as she started to shiver, the pain in her leg and face increased.
Grey pushed the call light button. A nurse poked her head in the door. Seeing Zoe awake, she smiled and came to the bed. "Hello, Zoe. Are you having pain?"
"Ye-yes," Zoe stammered through chattering teeth, "And I'm really cold."
"I'll get your pain medicine, and some warm blankets and be right back," the nurse said sweetly.
Grey had kept his face averted while the nurse was in the room, but as soon as she left he turned back to Zoe. "I'm so glad we found you. I can't believe you're alive. I felt sure you died just after we got there," he said, leaning over her and covering her with his own body to warm her.
"I-I-I think I may have c-caused you t-t-to think that," Zoe stammered.
"What do you mean?" Grey asked, confused.
"L-l-l-loyd is the traitor," she said.
"Lloyd?" Grey responded, sounding shocked. He shook his head and asked, "But that doesn't explain how you made me think you were dead."
"Lloyd was c-cutting my ropes, he w-would have transported away with me. I had to do s-s-something, so I tried to c-convince him I was dead. It worked. A-a-apparently it worked on the whole r-room," Zoe answered.
"You convinced him you were dead? I don't understand," Grey asked.
"Y-you said your sister can convince p-people of anything, so I tried it. I told him to leave me, I'm dead," she explained.
