harsh voice brought sanity.
“Answer me, girl,” snarled Daria.
Don’t fight back, counselled the Raven. You can’t win. Try to get over rough ground as easily as possible. Submit for the moment and wait for an opportunity.
“Yes,” Yani whispered, not looking at Daria. Her voice was trembling with hatred. Hopefully Daria would read that as fear. Yani knew that she should beg for mercy but she was too angry to do it. She just lay there face down on the bench, hearing her own breath rasping in her throat while the Raven whispered soothingly in her head.
“Did I hurt you?” cooed Daria mockingly. “How naughty of me.”
The bitch! thought Yani furiously.
Stop it! whispered the Raven. You are only angry because you are afraid. But warrior’s recklessness had seized Yani.
So Daria wanted her, did she? Perhaps that made an opportunity.
“Please lady,” she said softly, sweetly and deceitfully. “Please don’t hurt me any more.”
She rolled over slowly, letting her skirts ride up her legs. Her bodice was still open and she let it gape so that her breasts showed. She moved her chained hands with false grogginess from her forehead along down her body, brushing over her breasts with her fingers as she did so, arching her back sensuously.
For a moment she saw or thought she saw naked desire on Daria’s face.
Then the mage let out a shrill shriek.
“Cover yourself, slut,” she screamed and burning, juddering pain burst over Yani. Pain that went on and on until the rage was burned out of Yani, and then the strength. Pain until she began to weep and truly beg for mercy.
Suddenly it stopped.
“I will not kill you today, whore!” said Daria Symina with utter coldness. “But be warned. My brother wanted you alive. But he didn’t say in one piece. Or sane.”
Yani huddled on the floor of the carriage where she must have fallen. Cushions were scattered all around her and grit from the carriage floor dug into her cheek. Her every nerve was jangling. A wave of despair filled her and she wanted to cry. The mage on the ship had been evil but this Daria...
The carriage kept rocking beneath her as if nothing had changed. The Raven came into her mind. The rustling of its feathers was full of the whispering of the life force and it spoke the morning chant, comforting her.
The blessings of life enfold and encircle you always. Do not despair. We shall find another path.
Slowly cold, calculating calm returned.
Meanwhile the carriage charged on and on at a headlong pace. Every time they stopped to change horses, someone lead them past the carriage window and Daria performed some spell on them. But she never left the carriage, and there was no opportunity for Yani to escape.
The second time they stopped to change horses, Daria kicked Yani hard in the kidneys and ordered her to get up. By now Yani, immersed in the calm of the Raven, saw Daria from a long way away with an eye only for strategy. She was quite young this mage, no older than her early twenties. Remembering her previous need for deference, Yani showed as much fear as she could, which wasn’t difficult as she would have wished.
“You’re not so tough, are you?” sneered Daria. “They told me your people were great mages, but you’re not. You’re just some snivelling ordinary. Just meat. Tell me, why is my brother so hot to own you, Meat?”
“I don’t know, Lady,” said Yani.
“So what are you then, if you’re not a mage? A servant? A kitchen maid perhaps? Or are you just some whore who kneels down and takes it in the arse like a bitch?”
Fighting spirit burned up in Yani’s chest, but she pushed it down. Daria stroked her arm.
“How did you get such big muscles?”
“Among my people I am counted a warrior,” snapped Yani, despite her best intentions.
Daria threw back her head and laughed contemptuously. “A warrior! A lying bitch, more like. A laundress more like. Yes, I bet you got those muscles heaving round sweaty sheets at some inn, didn’t you? She leaned closer. “And I’ll bet you learned to fight being gang raped on some smelly dung heap. A warrior! Ha! You’re just a woman.”
Daria seemed to lose interest. She leaned back against the brocade cushions and sighed. Perhaps she was growing tired. Unless they drew on the life force, even powerful mages had limited power and Daria was making heavy use of her magic. She kept peering through the blind at the window in a way that made Yani suspect they were moving through dangerous country. Were they expecting an attack? Sweet life if only!
Daria did not touch Yani again all that day, but every now and then she shot questions at her.
“Are you Tari really so full of life force? Tell me how these special links with the life force work? Are you some kind of nature mage?”
To all these questions Yani answered, as submissively as she could, “I’m not a mage. I don’t really know.” Daria was horribly well-informed. She knew of the Tari’s connection with the life force and that demons desired Tari lives above all others. She sneered for a long time over the Tari’s reverence for life. She even knew that Tari could not kill without experiencing the death of their victim. Very few people knew these things about the Tari even at home in the Archipelago. How had Daria learned so much?
From the wording of Daria’s questions it seemed as if she and this brother of hers had been expecting Yani for some time. She even asked Yani how she had liked Cav Cannus, the horrible old mage who had tormented her on the ship. Yet she did not seem to know about any plot to capture those who might try to rescue her, which was odd considering what the mage on the ship had known. But she was no fool.
“I suppose one of these great mages will try and rescue you,” she asked several times. “Answer me!”
“No!” cried Yani, as she had to the mage on the ship. “My people despise warriors. I am a person of violence. A killer. An outcast.”
“You’re lying. There is someone following us even now, isn’t there?”
“No, they will not come for me. All my life I have fought to defend them. And yet they despise me.”
“Lying bitch. Did I not teach you enough respect?” said Daria, hotly lunging at Yani.
Yani shrank back into the corner. “No, Lady. I swear I’m not lying.”
Daria slapped her face several times, but physically she wasn’t very strong and the slaps didn’t hurt all that much. “You’re lying.” She seized Yani’s hair. “Tell me the truth or I will hurt you as never before.”
Yani reacted as if Daria had hurt her more than she had.
“No, Lady. I... I really don’t know the answer. I am an outcast. I... maybe they will send someone.”
“They would not want one of their own to be fed to demons, would they?” hissed Daria in her face. “They would not want death mages probing you to find out more about your people. If all these stories are true, the Tari would be like gold to us. If you were mine I’d come after you, if only to kill you to prevent you from being mindsearched by such as me.”
“Yes, Lady. I’m sure you’re right, Lady,” cried Yani breathlessly, hoping to plant seeds of doubt into Daria’s mind.
“Pah! Weakling. You are disgusting,” said Daria. “I shall enjoy watching my men cut you about.”
She pushed Yani down onto the floor of the carriage and turned away. This was bad. It was hardly worth the trouble of planting seeds of doubt in Daria’s mind. If Daria even suspected Marigoth was coming for her, she’d be ready for her. And now she was talking of mindsearching Yani.
Mindsearch.