316
He yanked my hair again. I yelped at the sudden pain, which ended abruptly as he released me.
I lifted my head lazily, feeling dizzy as the barn and Laurent blurred before me. I blinked and saw that he held a blonde clump of my hair. He regarded it with mild surprise, then smiled at me.
“I’ll just keep this as a souvenir.”
He slid the hair into his waistcoat pocket as if it was a precious heirloom. I stared in horror and disgust. They were demented, every one of them, and Laurent was the most twisted of all.
“Any more questions, Helena? Or are you finished?”
I quivered in the ropes.
“What do you think, Simonet? Is she through?”
Simonet observed me without expression.
He descended from the platform and stepped toward me, examining my face like I was an intriguing insect. “She’s frightened, Your Grace,”
he said. “She knows it’s over.”
I stiffened to keep from losing control.
Anything I did or said now would only confirm the truth. I had no plan. No way out.
Laurent’s eyes and face relaxed even more.
“That’s what I wanted to hear. Now, Sharrad.”
He stepped back as Sharrad marched at me with the cloth strip. He ducked under my bound arm and stood up close behind me, his broad chest against my back. “Wait! Someone will find me.
You can’t –!”
317
The cloth came down past my eyes and was tugged between my lips. I struggled, my nerves flaring, as Sharrad secured the gag, turning the rest of my sentence into muffled gibberish. He knotted it tight against the back of my neck, catching strands of hair.
Laurent stepped forward, studying me with a satisfied smile. I could barely move. Now I could barely utter a sound.
He raised the crossbow to my face. “By the way, I believe this is yours.” He tossed it to the dirt beneath me. I stared down at it, loaded and ready to pierce their hearts. I tugged my wrists hard, which only tensed my sore muscles and kept my captors entertained.
Laurent gingerly drew the hood back up over my head. “No one is likely to travel this way, but we can’t risk some fool hearing you struggle.
Not before we’ve had our fun with you.” He stroked my cheek as if he were still the family friend I once trusted. “Think about how to apologize, Helena, to save a few of your friends.
You’ll have all day to consider it. Jacquard will be here to watch over you.” He smiled over his shoulder at a tall unshaven man who nodded from his seat on the steps. “The rest of us would be missed, but Jacquard’s position is …” He pretended confusion. “What is it you do again, Jacquard?”
Jacquard twisted his lip with annoyance.
“Cooper’s apprentice,” he said.
“Oh, yes, that’s it,” Laurent said, as if he had just remembered. “And a poor one at that. His 318
master might be relieved to do without him today.
But he can keep an eye on you here, to make sure you don’t – wiggle too much.” He grinned like the devil. “Until tonight, then.”
He walked out. Each of the Lycanthru filed out after him, smiling at me as they passed. A few of them waved. One devilish man made a chomping motion at me. I hung there between the pillars, a chill of horror surging through my nerves
