Whatever the Unkindness were up to, it had to be either upstairs or in the basement. Jen enhanced her hearing as much as she could and lay down on the floor. She pressed her ear to the boards and held her breath. A faint grinding reached her along with some muffled grunts. Someone was doing something down there. Whether the gang or some unlucky worker sharpening harpoons they’d learn soon enough.
“Someone’s in the basement. Fan out and find the stairs.”
With their enhanced senses it didn’t take her team long to locate a door built into the wall. Rhys opened it and Talon had slipped through before she could say anything. Jen stood by the door, waiting for Talon to finish his scouting. The grinding she heard earlier sounded louder by the open door.
A minute later Talon returned, his face pale. “You won’t believe it.”
“What?” Jen asked.
He shook his head. “I don’t have the words. Come on.”
Jen followed her shaken subordinate down the short flight of stairs, the rest of the squad on her tail. What could he have seen that shook him so bad? At the bottom, a short hall led to a doorway through which came a dark, crimson glow. Something about that light chilled Jen to the bone.
Talon motioned “down” with his hand and they crouched as low as they could. Jen eased down the hall and peeked through the doorway. Her breath caught in her throat and her stomach twisted.
The doorway opened out onto a catwalk that ran around the perimeter of a deeper room. Down in that pit people, both men and women, lay strapped to vertical tables.
Their clothes hung in tatters. Hundreds of shallow cuts covered their bodies. Gags kept them quiet as people in long coats circulated amongst the prisoners. When a wound stopped bleeding one the torturers would slice a fresh grove in their flesh. Most horribly, the blood running out of the wounds flowed up toward a black circle in the ceiling a few feet from Jen’s head.
Every so often a drop of some black liquid dripped out of the circle and into a stone bowl placed under it.
Jen stepped back from the doorway and clenched her fists. It took every ounce of self-control she had not to run down there and kill every one of those monsters.
They needed more information. She didn’t see any sign of Master Shen or the servant girl or for that matter Dominic Santen. It didn’t look like they planned to kill those unfortunate people, just bleed them. Judging by the number of scabbed over wounds some of them had, they’d been prisoners for a while.
“What now?” Talon gripped his swords and looked as eager as she felt to go down there and do some cutting of their own.
“I noticed a door on the far side of the catwalk. There must be some cells around here where they keep their prisoners. We have to try and find Master Shen. Whatever’s going on down there it’s beyond my comprehension. If we go stumbling into something blind some of us are going to get killed. Rhys, Edward, and Alec, stay here and keep watch. Talon, you and me are going scouting.”
They left the others by the doorway and slipped out onto the catwalk. Whoever built it had bolted it securely to the wall; it didn’t creak or wobble when they put their weight on it. Jen inched along, careful to make no noise. She glanced down into the lower level. A gang member was sharpening knives on a grindstone. That explained the noise.
A woman with long, limp brown hair looked their way. Jen froze and motioned Talon to as well. They stood in the shadows and the woman was close to one of the braziers that provided heat and light for the torture chamber. She doubted the woman could see a thing in the deep shadows close to the ceiling.
Jen let out a silent breath when the woman turned her attention back to the horrors close at hand. The door was only fifteen feet away, but it took Jen and Talon five minutes to reach it at the crawling pace they set. Jen pressed the dark wood and the door swung open without a peep. She looked up and sent a silent word of thanks to whatever angel watched over crazy warlords. Talon closed the door behind them.
Beyond the door waited a pitch-black hall. Even with her enhanced sight Jen couldn’t make out much. Her nose, unfortunately, wasn’t hindered in the least. The stink of sweat, waste and blood filled the hall. She hated to risk it, but they needed more light.
“Open that door back up.”
“You sure?” The doubt in his voice came through loud and clear.
Jen wasn’t sure of a damn thing except that she was blind in the dark. They couldn’t help anyone if they couldn’t see them. “Open it.”
He eased the door open and dim light filtered through, just enough to let her see the row of cells lining the hall. Her lip curled in a snarl. If she’d wanted to kill the Unkindness before, now she really wanted them dead, and not necessarily quickly.
Ragged figures filled the left-hand cages, their bodies covered with freshly scabbed-over cuts. Grime covered them and from the smell she guessed their chamber pots had been emptied…never. She squinted, trying to make out the details of their faces. Master Shen had to be here somewhere. He’d only been gone a day so he should be in better shape than the others.
Jen worked her way down the hall. None of the pathetic figures reacted to her. Whether they couldn’t see her, or they didn’t have strength enough she didn’t know. She reached the end of the prison and someone groaned from her right. She turned and, alone in a cell,
