Moon Rise (Twilight Shifters Book 2) (12 page)

"But he is," Aein said, unable to keep her body from shaking violently.

"He is just trying to build the fear."

"It is working."

"Aein?" said Lars, sitting down and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.  "When they bring you in to torture you, tell them whatever it is they want to hear.  Don't try to be brave.  Don't try to save anyone.  They'll get it out of you one way or another, so say it at the beginning and save yourself."

Aein could not believe what Lars was saying.  "If they find out... if they know what we know... if they get there and..."  She scanned the barred window outside the cell block for any sign of life.  She knew someone must be listening on the other side.  She lowered her voice.  "If Lord Arnkell finds out about what we found in the swamp and gets to it before Queen Gisla, everyone will be destroyed.  No one will be able to stop the shift.  Everything will crumble."

"It doesn't matter, Aein," said Lars.  He took her face in his hands and smiled.  "We're dead.  You and me?  We're gone from this world.  If everyone on this planet becomes a werewolf, it doesn't matter. Our story is done.  Let them fight it out among themselves.  Let them kill each other off."

"You don't mean that," said Aein.

"Really?" said Lars, kissing her cheeks.  "You think I don't?  Lord Arnkell left me in that swamp to die.  He made you turn your best friends into werewolves because he wanted more land.  I killed my friends.  Our friends are about to kill us.  Don't you see?  Right?  Good?  It doesn't exist.  Whoever has the power?  He wins.  And right now, that is Lord Arnkell.  He's got all of these people believing he can save them from their problems and they are willing to do anything for him.  They're so blinded by his pretty words, they're not even paying attention to what he's saying.  They are going to sacrifice themselves to fix a problem he created.  And Aein?  It doesn't matter.  Queen Gisla would do the exact same thing."

"No, she wouldn't..." Aein protested.

Lars laughed.  There was a harsh edge to his chuckle.  "You think she wouldn't?  She sent her troops into the swamp where they were slaughtered by a harpy."

"That was not her fault.  She was trying to hold the border and keep everyone safe—"

His voice thickened.  "She sent in another group, who was also killed.  And then what does she do?  She sends in us.  It would have just been you and me if Finn hadn't forced her to let him go.  Three people.  She sent three people to hold the border.  And why?  Because saving that precious cure is more important than our lives.  She should have sent an army, Aein, but she didn't.  Save yourself.  She doesn't care about you.  You are a pawn.  Tell Lord Arnkell whatever he wants to hear."

"Stop this," said Aein.

"You need to stop following these leaders blindly just because they were anointed by someone at some time as a leader," explained Lars.  "You were moon-eyed over Lord Arnkell—"

"Stop."

"You think the entire castle didn't notice the way you doted on him, the way you were ready to do anything to get him to notice you?"

"Why are you saying this?" she asked.

"And then the way you were able to just flip sides and join Queen Gisla.  Why was that?  Was it because Finn swept you off your feet?"

"No!  I was trying to save our lives!"

"Our lives can't be saved anymore, Aein.  You're in a cell, about to be tortured and then killed, all to protect the one person, our very own Queen Gisla, whose decisions put you here."

"I was trying to save you," she wept.  Her face was hot and sweaty as she clung to his torso.  His chest rose and fell, but caught on his breath.

"I am already lost," he replied, wiping away her tears.  His voice cracked.  "
You are
already lost.  All that remains is how badly it is going to hurt before we die."

The door opened and a hooded man walked into the room flanked by two guards.  "Lord Arnkell requests the pleasure of your company."

T
he room was dark and sweltering.  There were no windows, no way for anyone to know who was inside and what was being done to them.

On the far wall was a fireplace.  Metal pokers heated in the coals beside the bellows, ready for use whenever the mood struck.  Manacles hung from the ceiling.  On a bench were wicked looking instruments - knives and pincers and spoons with sharp edges. 

In the center was a flat table.  They dragged Lars in and forced him down.  He struggled as they bound his wrists and ankles in silver cuffs.  The cuffs were attached to two giant wheels at either end, which could be turned to stretch him until his limbs ripped out of their sockets.

They threw Aein into a chair and bolted her hands and legs into place with silver straps.  It faced the rack so that she would have to see everything they did to Lars.  Lord Arnkell walked into the room, taking off his gloves and smiling at the sight as if it were a pleasant picnic on a sunny day.

"We have until sunset until they change.  Let's make sure we make the most of it, shall we?" he said to the torturer.  He came over and crouched before Aein.  "Knowing you're a woman of reason, I thought we might start by asking you a few questions.  Now, I should warn you, you will want to think hard before you open your mouth.  If you tell the truth, everyone will be safe and sound.  But if you answer and I think you are lying to me, we're going to give that wheel a turn."

Lars fixed his eyes on the ceiling as they turned the rack, pulling his body taut.  He clenched his teeth and grunted, but he did not look at Aein.  Her throat became dry, realizing that if she told Lord Arnkell everything, the Haidra kingdom would fall.  Everyone would be trapped as a werewolf forever.  Civil war would kill thousands of people as they rebelled against Queen Gisla.  But if she didn't speak, she would have to watch the man she loved being torn apart.  Her decision alone would determine how much pain he endured before he died. 

"Shall we begin?" asked Lord Arnkell.  He picked up one of the daggers and tested the tip of it on his thumb.  "First question, why did you poison my people and bring about this war?"

Aein fumbled, unsure how to answer.  "You made me," she answered truthfully.

Lord Arnkell waved his hand and the wheel on the rack turned another notch.

"NO!" cried Aein.  She looked up at Lord Arnkell.  "What do you expect me to say?" she asked.  "You know and I know the truth.  I am telling you the truth!"

Lord Arnkell held the blade inches from her cheek.  His eyes were dark and soulless.  It was like staring into the eyes of a reptile.  "I want you to admit you are responsible for everything that happened here."

"I am," she said. "I am completely and totally responsible for everything that happened."

"AEIN!" cried out Lars, trying to get her to stop.

Lord Arnkell turned to the scribe.  "Be sure to note the prisoner confessed to treason."

Aein watched in horror as the man wrote down the words onto a parchment.  She had signed her own death warrant; she had given Lord Arnkell exactly what he needed to feed her to the werewolves.  But it was the truth.

"Now, would you like to tell me why you committed this act?" asked Lord Arnkell.  There was a warning on his face, some message that Aein could not read.  What could he possibly want her to say?

"Cook Bolstad told me to," she replied, terrified it was the wrong answer.

Lord Arnkell tutted, but he did not motion for another turn of the wheel.  "How fortunate you are able to blame a dead man for your treason.  To place the blame at the feet of someone who is not here to defend himself."  Lord Arnkell walked around in a circle.  "What did that old fool give you that keeps you from turning?"

"He... he didn't give me anything..." said Aein.

Lord Arnkell motioned to the rack and Lars let out a terrible, high pitched scream as his bones were pulled from their sockets.

"I swear!" said Aein.

"You told us it was a white mushroom with brown flecks," said Lord Arknell.  "Where did you find them?"

Aein remembered back to the night that Lord Arnkell captured her and tied her to a tree for the wild werewolves to tear apart.  She had told him a lie.  She had told him there was another mushroom.  She tried to remember her lie.

She didn’t answer fast enough and the torturer turned the rack another click.

"One of our men stopped shifting into madness the morning after we captured you.  He said he ate something from your pack but did not see what it was."

Sweat prickled on Aein's forehead.  She remembered.  There had been one berry she had missed and he had eaten it. 

Lord Arnkell leaned into Aein.  "He said it didn't taste like a mushroom.  He said it tasted like a fruit.  You wouldn't have been lying to me about the white mushrooms now, would you?" he asked.

She looked at Lars.  He was panting from exertion, trying not to cry out.  His wavy, auburn hair dripped with sweat.  Blood trickled from his feet and hands where the manacles cut into his skin.  But he would not look at Aein.  He was letting her make the choice - him or an entire kingdom filled with people who loved and laughed.

"Oh, he can't help you," said Lord Arnkell, pointing at Lars.  But then he paused, taking in the unspoken energy between his two prisoners.  "Perhaps we have been going about this wrong.  You seem a little distracted, Aein.  I need to make sure that you are giving me your full and undivided attention."  He turned to the torturer and said, "Get a hot poker and take out her eye."

"I know where it is!" shouted Lars.  The torture stopped.  "She had never been to the swamp before and I led her to the clearing with the white mushrooms!" he cried.  "She can't tell you because she doesn't know where they are.  I'm the one who knows the swamp."

Lord Arnkell snapped around to face Lars.  A slow, satisfied smile crept across his face.  "My.  Of all my soldiers, I am surprised you're the one to speak.  She must be very important to you, Lars."

"Just don't hurt her and I'll take you to them," he panted.  "I'll show you.  They are in the swamp.  It was a mushroom she ate, a mushroom she said tasted like a berry."

Aein realized Lars needed help to lend credibility to his lie.  She shouted, "Stop, Lars!  Don't tell him!"

It earned her a cuff to the side of her head that left her ears ringing, but the bluff seemed to have worked.

"White mushrooms that taste like a berry?" asked Lord Arnkell, leaning forward with interest.  "Are you sure it wasn't a berry?"

Lars nodded his head.  "We went back to the swamp to collect more.  They are in season.  We were about to harvest them all when your men happened upon us."

"How fortunate you eluded them," Lord Arnkell hissed.

"If you eat enough of this mushroom," said Lars, "you can stop the shift.  Aein ate it the morning we first arrived.  I ate the brown mushrooms and now shift.  Aein ate the white mushrooms and she is immune."

Lord Arnkell’s mouth opened slightly.  "Fully immune?" he said. 

Aein spat at his feet, earning herself another blow.  But her perceived reluctance to talk made them believe the story.

"And why have you not eaten this white mushroom?" asked Lord Arnkell.

Lars was focused upon Aein as if somehow he could communicate his plan to her through the power of his thoughts.  "There wasn’t enough.  We were supposed to bring it back to Queen Gisla."

"What a good little soldier," said Lord Arnkell.  He motioned to the torturer to reduce the pressure.  He turned back to Aein.  "Don't worry.  As soon as he shifts, all of these nuisances will go away and he'll be right as rain in the morning.  You, on the other hand, I believe do not shift," he said, taking a threatening step towards her.

"I'll take you to the harvest," Lars promised, his voice desperate.  "They are growing now.  When Queen Gisla hears you've captured us, she won't come.  We mean nothing to her.  We're foot soldiers.  We're the price of war.  She'll go straight to the mushrooms, I promise you.  You may kill us, but Queen Gisla will still have won."

Lord Arnkell tapped the knife on his front teeth.  "Hmmm..."

"I vow I will take you to them if you promise not to touch her."

Lord Arnkell turned back to Aein and smiled pleasantly.  "I promise not to touch her unless you make me.  If you lead me to this mushroom and it ends the shift of my good and honest people, I will give you both a day's head start before I set my hunters on you."  Lord Arnkell turned to his guards.  "Take Finn and get him cleaned up.  We leave before sunset."

As they were releasing his bonds, he begged, "What of Aein?"

Lord Arnkell seemed mystified by Lars’s question.  "I am not touching her.  It is so easy to lose people.  I think it might be safest to leave her here in this exact spot until we get back."

"You can't leave her chained to that chair for the months it will take for us to get to the swamp and back again," said Lars.

"Yes, I can," stated Lord Arnkell flatly.  "You made me promise not to touch her, and so I shall not.  So you had better be quick and not dilly-dally on the road.  Every day you delay is a day she is trapped down here.  I think it will prove very educational for her to witness any interrogations that need to take place while I am gone, to see the fate that she sidestepped because you were loyal enough to tell your lord and master the truth.  Who knows?  Perhaps she will grow so attached to this place, she'll never leave again."  He turned to the guard.  "If for some reason you think she is trying to escape, break her legs."

"That was not a part of the deal!" shouted Lars as the lifted him off the rack.  "I won't show you anything if you hurt her!"

His body was limp and he was unable to hold himself up.  Two soldiers had to carry him as his legs dragged behind.  His green eyes, full of tears, looked back at Aein and she realized this was the last time she would ever see him.  They would kill him as soon as they got to the swamp and realized he had lied.  But he had bought them both time. 

"Like I said, I won't harm either of you unless you make me." Lord Arnkell leaned forward into Aein's face.  "Don't give us a reason to hurt you and everything will be fine."