Promising Light (19 page)

“I’m right here!” With a burst of
strength, she pried her hand away from the young man behind her and
hit Niculai in the throat. He let go of her arm, coughing, and his
dagger clattered to the ground.

Sierra leapt for it. As soon as she
grabbed it, the young Protector tackled her from behind. She
twisted her body under his, lunged out blindly, and felt the dagger
slice through skin. He let out a yell, putting his hand on her face
and pushing her head onto the ground. Niculai wrenched the dagger
out of her hand and kicked her in the side.

“That’s enough for now,” Niculai
said, his voice hoarse.

Sierra heard the cell door open,
and the young Protector stood. She sprang after him, but they
slammed the door shut. Niculai smirked at her, and she spit in his
face. He wiped off her saliva, glaring at her. “We’ll be
back.”

The younger Protector followed him
up the stairs as he held a cut on his shoulder. She listened to
them go up the steps. When she heard the door shut, she looked down
at her arm. The blood was smeared everywhere, including on her
dress. The wound throbbed as she looked at it. She swayed at the
sight of the blood, swallowing hard. She’d get dirt in it if she
wasn’t careful, probably already had.

After sitting down, she tore off a
piece of fabric from her dress. She felt Evan’s eyes on her as she
tied her elbow up as tightly as she could with one hand and her
teeth. The cut on her neck was shallow, more of a nick, and it had
already stopped bleeding. She finally looked at him.

“You’re not Sierra,” he said,
baring his teeth at her.

“Yes, I am! I’m your wife, and
they’re going to kill me unless we tell them where the ancient
texts are.”

“She’d never ask me to do that,”
Evan said, some of the fierceness leaving his voice.

“Two years ago, maybe. Before they
told me I could break some curse and talked us into trying to have
a baby. Before you were dead.”

“If I give them the ancient texts,
they’re all dead.”

“Evan, they’re just stories and
legends. And what makes you think they’ll be able to find them just
because we tell them the tigers know where they are? They’ve been
lost for centuries!”

“What makes you think they’ll even
let us go once we tell them? They’ll kill us!” Evan shook his head,
averting his eyes. “There’s still hope. The ancient texts…” He
continued to shake his head. “I’m not telling you anything. I know
you’re not her.”

Sierra shook her head, looking down
at her elbow again. Some blood had seeped into the fabric, but the
flow seemed to be slowing. “Think what you want. The Protectors
can’t break through that Cosa magic.”

“They must have. They have Jared
working for them. They probably have the real Sierra somewhere,”
Evan said. “Tortured her… or used Cosa magic to get into her head…
and sent you in here to get my secrets.”

Sierra said nothing as she gazed at
Evan. Her husband, alive but broken, not even convinced she was
sitting in front of him.

Finally, she asked, “If I was one
of them, then why aren’t they looking for the tigers? If they broke
the paired Cosa magic, they’d already know where the ancient texts
are.”

“They probably are looking for
them.”

“Then why did they come in and
torture me to ask for them?” Sierra moved closer and sat in front
of him. He pulled his legs back so they wouldn’t touch hers. “They
don’t know. Because I didn’t tell them. Because I’m not one of
them.”

Evan merely shook his head,
avoiding her eyes. He closed his eyes and mumbled to
himself.

“What are you doing?” she asked,
fighting to keep the anger from her voice.

He didn’t answer, just murmured
unintelligible words. She moved and leaned her back against the
wall across from the cell bars. Her feet were only inches from
Evan’s; they were so close and yet so far away from each
other.

* * *

Chapter
Eleven

Mid-day, Sierra heard the door
open. She got to her feet, tensing. She still hadn’t convinced Evan
of her identity. If it was Niculai again, she feared how far Evan
would let him go. Feared that he’d torture Evan instead.

A moment later, a plump woman
reached the bottom of the steps. She held a tray in her hands, and
she approached the cell, looking at Sierra with a cautious look on
her face. A jug of water sat on the tray, as well as a loaf of
bread and two bowls of stew. “For you two,” she said with a thick
accent.

The woman held out the jug of
water, and Sierra slowly took everything into the cell. Evan gave
her a weak smile. Once she left, Sierra turned to Evan. “Could she
help us?”

Evan glared at her. “Leave her out
of this. She’s been good to me while I’ve been here.”

“Would she get us
help?”

Evan didn’t respond.

She sighed and brought the food and
drink over to Evan. The water was the most refreshing; cold and
pleasant on her throat. “I stopped eating a few days ago,” Evan
said, staring at the bread in Sierra’s hand. “I wonder if that made
them want to find her even more.”

“You’re not going to eat?” Sierra
asked.

“No.” He pushed his bowl of stew
away.

“Evan, you need to eat. You need
your strength if we’re going to get out of here.”

He let out a low laugh. “You
pretend like you’re going to help me.”

“I am because they’re going to
kill us if they don’t get what they want,” Sierra said. Ever since
Niculai had left, she’d thought about telling them what Jeshro had
told them, but she wasn’t sure if Evan would ever come to believe
she was truly herself. Or if he’d ever forgive her. What was worse,
dying for a family that had taken everything away from her or
losing her husband again?

Even if she told them that the
tigers knew where the ancient texts were, would they even believe
her? It was such a vague statement it didn’t even help. Would they
let them survive, or would they just kill them once they had the
information they needed?

One thing she was almost sure of:
they’d try to torture Evan the next time they came to coerce her
into telling them. She shuddered to think of that, but she had to
hope that they might unchain him from the wall. If she could get
the upper hand in the battle, they could escape. If Evan trusted
her enough to go anywhere with her. She was almost sure the only
way he would trust her was if she killed one of them. She had no
problem with that after seeing what they’d done to him.

A couple hours passed, during which
Sierra tried to keep her body alert. Evan had already fallen
asleep, but she stretched, tore off the skirt of her dress so it
only reached her knees, rewrapped her elbow. It had stopped
bleeding, but she was sure she’d gotten dirt in it and hoped it
wouldn’t get infected. She used what little water they had left to
wash it.

When the door finally opened, she
stood a foot away from the cell door, their bowls behind her back.
Evan stirred awake as she listened to the footsteps on the
staircase. A moment later, Niculai approached the cell with a
different Protector from before, larger in stature and mean in the
face. She should have guessed they’d replace the runt from
before.

“Sierra, this is Han,” Niculai
said, motioning to the large man. “He’s not a Protector; he’s a
Thieran.”

Sierra glared at the both of them,
and a chill of fear spread over her. Thierans were known for their
magic capable of restoring or destroying the human body. Paired
with Protectors, their greed only intensified their
brutality.

“Does he still think you’re one of
us?” Niculai asked, nodding to Evan.

“Yes,” Evan answered for
her.

“Then we’ll have to change our
tactics, won’t we?” Niculai walked along the cell bars, passing the
door. Han followed him, his eyes fixed on Evan.

Sierra’s heartbeat quickened. They
weren’t going to come into the cell. That didn’t give her a chance
to grab the keys. She heard them jingling against Niculai’s leg as
he walked until he was close to Evan.

“Don’t,” Sierra said, stepping
forward.

Han raised his hands, approaching
the cell bars. If he got close enough, maybe Sierra could grab his
hands.

“Don’t, please,” she said, but the
last word was drowned out by Evan’s screams. Han’s fingers twisted
in the air as Evan writhed and thrashed.

“Stop it!” she shouted. “Stop it,
leave him alone!”

Han froze, and Evan fell limp.
Sierra ran to his side, dropping the bowls next to him. “Evan,” she
whispered. She touched his face; it was damp with tears. “Evan, I
have to tell them.”

“They already know,” Evan groaned.
“I know you’ve already told them… because you’re not
Sierra.”

He turned his face away from her.
Sierra looked at Niculai and Han. “Jeshro told us that the tigers
knew where the ancient texts were.”

“What?” Niculai said.

“Before our wedding, he said he
trusted us, and he told us that the tigers knew where the ancient
texts were.”

Niculai bared his teeth. He
motioned to Han, who grinned and moved his fingers again. Evan let
out a yell, his body twisting in pain.

“Stop it!” Sierra screamed. “I
told you what we know! That’s it!”

Han stopped again at Niculai’s
command. “Do you think I’m stupid?” Niculai practically hissed the
last word. “Do you think we’re going to take any story? We want to
know where the ancient texts are!”

“We don’t know!” Sierra yelled.
“The tigers do.”

“What
tigers?”

“I don’t know,” Sierra said
through gritted teeth, fighting back her tears.

“The tigers you were working with
at the circus?”

“I told you all we know! For God’s
sake, let us go!”

“God?” Niculai laughed. “God
doesn’t listen to Avialies.” He looked at Han, who used his magic
again.

Sierra grabbed the bowls and stood
up, fixing her glare on Niculai. “I’m not an Avialie,” she said,
although Niculai couldn’t hear her over Evan’s screams. She jumped
over Evan’s legs and grabbed Han’s outstretched fingers. She yanked
his arm toward her and down against one of the horizontal bars.
Sierra heard something crack, and he yelled out. She flung one of
the wooden bowls at Niculai’s face; he turned to avoid it, but it
still caught him in the eye. He crouched down, and Sierra’s hand
snaked out for the keys.

Suddenly, pain seized her entire
body. She crumpled, letting out a scream. She squeezed her eyes
shut, trying to think clearly, but all she could think about was
the pain and how much she wanted it to stop.

A second later, it was over.
Panting, she flung the second bowl at Han; his eyes widened and he
ducked, but not quick enough. It hit him in the nose, blood
spraying. Niculai was unlocking the cell door, his dagger in the
free hand. Sierra grappled for the water jug, which didn’t contain
water anymore, but her and Evan’s bodily fluids. Just as Niculai
opened the door, she flung the contents of the jar into his face.
He let out an angry yell and dropped the keys. She grabbed them and
ran to Evan.

She fumbled with the keys while
Niculai and Han regained their composure. She’d just unlocked his
chains when the pain seized her again. She covered her head, trying
to block out the screams before realizing they were her
own.

When the pain stopped, Niculai and
Han were on them. Niculai pinned her to the ground. He growled at
Han, “Let me take care of this.”

Urine dripped from his nose onto
Sierra’s face, and his hands went for her throat. She kicked and
struggled, but his arms were unrelenting. She saw the water jug out
of the corner of her eye, and she reached for it before crashing it
into the side of Niculai’s head.

It was only wooden, but it was
enough to knock him senseless for a moment while Sierra pushed him
off of her. She grabbed his dagger from the ground, and Evan’s
screams filled the cell again. She turned toward Han, who was using
his good hand to wrack him with pain. With a shout, she charged
toward him. She had the idea to stab him, but he saw her at the
last moment and switched his magic onto her.

She fell to her knees, the pain
just as horrible as the first time. How long could this go
on?

It stopped, and Sierra looked up to
see Han sliding down the wall, unconscious of dead, blood from the
back of his head streaked on the stone.

Evan, who must have tackled him,
turned away, his teeth bared. “Give me the dagger.”

She held it out for him without
thinking, but the moment she realized he might use it on her, he
plunged it into Niculai’s chest. She gasped and turned around,
covering her mouth.

Evan grabbed her arm. “We have to
go.”

Sierra stumbled to her feet, and
they stepped over Niculai’s body. He reached out for her ankle, but
she kicked him off. Evan slowed as they went up the steps, but she
pushed him up. “Come on, we have to go,” she said,
panting.