realized that she had already waited too long. His strength was returning rapidly. She should have hit him with the lantern when she had the chance; she should have followed her first instinct and gone after him with the knife when he was still supine and had his eyes closed.
'Pull the bag over there,' he said, pointing towards the lantern.
When she bent over to grab the rope, he hit her from behind, hammering both hands together into her kidney.
Aural fell onto her knees, gasping.
He waited until she could hear him clearly before speaking.
'I apologize for being so crude about it,' he said. 'I detest that kind of brute violence, but you really must learn to do what I say, exactly when I say to do it. Next time I tell you to put the lantern down and return to me, you do it right then, right that instant, not when it pleases you. Do you understand?'
Aural nodded her head.
'Well, good. Everyone's entitled to a first mistake.
Let's not discuss it any further. Pull the bag over to the lantern.'
Aural was surprised at how easily she could drag the sack. It seemed to slide across the floor as if it were lubricated. When she got to the lantern she could see that the bottom of the sack was coated with a sort of gray slime.
'What is it?' she asked. He had kept pace with her as she dragged the bag, seemingly unable himself to walk any faster than her six-inch stride would take her.
'Guano,' he said.
'What's that?'
'Bat shit, honey.'
She noticed now that he had the same slime on his boots, his pant cuffs, some almost as high as his waist.
He must have waded through it at some point, dragging the sack.
'It doesn't smell bad,' he said. 'Isn't that interesting?
It's because of their diet.'
'I'm glad you told me.'
'You don't have to worry. The bats never come in here.'
'Might have made a nice change.'
'Nothing ever comes in here,' he said, giggling.
'Except you. On your belly.'
He started to say something, then put up a hand to cover his swollen eye and held his other hand out for balance. He swayed, then stepped back, away from Aural.
Now, she thought, take him now, leap on him and pound his head against the rocks. But she did nothing but watch him.
'Kneel,' he said when he had recovered himself somewhat. Aural knelt, facing him. Here we go, she thought. Now he unzips his fly and reveals his ambition.
She thought of the woman she had spoken about to Rae who had cut off her husband's penis and thrown it out of the car window. I'll bite it off, she thought. That ought to distract him for a while. But he made no gesture towards his fly.
'Now onto your stomach,' he said. Aural moved forward as she slid onto her stomach, getting as close as she could to her boots and the knife's hiding place without moving the boots. When she was still he knelt on her back, freezing her into position with his weight. His hands fumbled at her waist, undoing her jeans, then struggling to pull them down her legs. She tried to raise up to assist him but he pushed her back down.
'I'll do it,' he said brusquely. When her jeans were as far down her legs as the ankle irons would permit, he sat with his full weight on the small of her back and undid her handcuffs. Aural thought of going for the knife then, was about to try to roll him off and lunge forward to the hiding place, but he moved much too quickly for her.
With a motion that had the sharp precision of practice, he yanked her onto her side and refastened the cuffs on either side of the ankle-iron chain so that she was now bound with her hands at her feet, forced by her constraints into the fetal position.
'There,' he said, obviously pleased with himself.
'Oh, neat,' she said.
'Comfortable?'
'Personally, I love this. Wouldn't you like to join me, sugar? We could share these cuffs.'
'I have already joined you,' he said. 'I'll never leave you again.'
He knelt in front of her so that he could see her face.
'Will you lead us in prayer?' he asked.
'I tell you what,' she said. 'Why don't you have the first go at it?
I'll catch up with you the second time around.
'I'd think you'd want to pray,' he said.
'Sugar, there are lots of things I'd like to do right now, but you know, you just can't do everything all at once.
I'm so excited about what you and me are going to be doing together here with me trussed up like a turkey that I can't think of anything else.'
'Everyone always wants to pray now,' he said, baffled.
'Everyone?'
'The others.'
'You mean you've had other girls? Well, now, that does it. You just cut me loose and take me home right this second.'
'You'll pray later,' Swann decided.
'I'm a professional prayer. Get me an audience and I'll be happy to say a few-'
'Sweet Jesus,' he intoned, cutting her off, 'give us both the strength to get through the terrible ordeal that is about to come. Give this girl the courage and fortitude to survive for as long as she possibly can.
And give me the patience not to rush things, let me proceed with the care and attention that she deserves. In Jesus' name, Amen.'
'Nice sentiment,' said Aural. She felt a cold chill run down her spine that had nothing to do with the temperature in the cave.
'You're a little frightened now, aren't you? I can tell.'
Aural refused to give it to him, but didn't trust herself to speak.
'It's all right to be afraid,' he said. 'I'm always nervous myself before I begin. It's good, though, it helps to heighten the sensations.'
Not a word, Aural vowed to herself From here on, no matter what he did, she wouldn't cry out, she wouldn't speak, she wouldn't so much as grunt for him. Whatever he had in mind, he would have to do it by himself, she would not help him.
He was rummaging through the leather sack, taking out the candles and a carton of cigarettes. Suddenly he clamped his hand to his swollen eye and bared his teeth as he groaned in pain and confusion. Aural watched him squeeze his good eye shut and sway back and forth on his knees.
He dropped one hand to the ground and continued to moan, hanging his head like a sick dog. When he straightened up at last, Aural could see tears on his face and he looked frightened, but whatever it was, it had passed. He sat back on his heels for a moment, gathering himself, then ripped open the carton of cigarettes.
Swann put a candle at Aural's head and another at her feet and a third behind her, then lit them. Like some kind of altar, she thought. And she was the sacrifice.
He turned off the lantern, and the shadows in the cave went crazy, dancing wildly in the flickering of the candles.
The darkness closed in around them and Aural could no longer make out the ceiling or the walls. There was only her, only Swann, only the gyrating shadows to bear witness. Aural's world had shrunk to a little fold of light in the universal blackness and she was at the center of the earth.
Swann lit a cigarette and coughed. 'Filthy things,' he said. 'I don't understand why anybody smokes
