“None of us enjoys being in the same room with an evil one such as her, but it’s my duty to question her, and at least you could make it smell a little better for me.”
“Yes, Sister, I’ll do it for you, then, for a true Sister of the Light, so you won’t have to bear her stink at least.” Millie spat in Verna’s direction again.
Verna was near to tears, humiliated to know that Millie thought those terrible things of her. Everyone else did too. She was no longer positive that they were untrue. Her mind was so dizzied by the tests of pain that she could no longer trust that she was thinking straight to believe in her own innocence. Perhaps it was wrong to be loyal to Richard; he was, after all, a mere man.
When Millie finished, then Leoma would start again. She heard herself sob at the helplessness of her situation. When Leoma heard the sob, she smiled.
“Empty that reeking chamber pot,” Leoma said.
Millie huffed in disgust. “All right, all right, just hold your skirts on and I’ll empty it.”
Millie pushed the bucket of soapy water closer to Verna’s pallet and collected the brimming chamber pot. Holding her nose, she carried it out of the room at arm’s length.
After she had shuffled off down the hall, Leoma spoke. “Notice anything different?”
Verna shook her head. “No, Sister.”
Leoma lifted her eyebrows. “The drums. They’ve stopped.”
Verna started with the realization. They must have stopped while she was asleep.
“Do you know what that means?”
“No, Sister.”
“It means that the emperor is close, and will be arriving soon. Maybe tomorrow. He wants results from our little experiment. Tonight, you either forsake your fidelity to Richard, or you will answer to Jagang. Your time has run out. You think on that, while Millie finishes cleaning up a bit of your stink.”
Muttering curses, Millie returned with the empty chamber pot. After she put it in the far corner, she went back to scrubbing the floor. She dunked her rag in the water and slopped it on the floor, working her way toward Verna.
Verna licked her cracked lips as she stared at the water. Even if the water was soapy, she wouldn’t care. She wondered if she would be able to get a gulp of it down before Leoma stopped her. Probably not.
“I shouldn’t have to do this,” Millie grouched to herself, but loud enough for the other two to hear. “It’s bad enough that I now have to clean the Prophet’s room, now that we have another. I thought I was done with going in there to clean the room of a madman. I think it’s about time a younger woman had to do the work. Strange man, he is. Prophets are all loony, they are. I don’t like that Warren any more than the last one.”
Verna nearly burst into tears at the mention of Warren’s name. She missed him so. She wondered if they were treating him well. Leoma answered her unspoken question.
“Yes, he is a bit odd. But the tests with the collar are bringing him back into line. I’m seeing to that.”
Verna turned her eyes away from Leoma. She was doing it to him, too. Oh, dear Warren.
With a knee, Millie pushed her bucket closer as she scrubbed the floor. “Don’t you be watching me. I don’t like your filthy eyes on me. Gives me the shivers it does, like having the Nameless One himself watching me.”
Verna turned her eyes down. Millie tossed the rag into the bucket and dunked her hands in deep to wash it out. She looked back over her shoulder as she worked the rag in the water.
“I’ll be finished soon. Not soon enough for me, but soon. Then you can have this vile traitor to yourself. I hope you won’t be kind to her.”
Leoma smiled. “She will get what she deserves.”
Millie brought her hands out of the soapy water. “Good.” She jammed one wet, callused hand against Verna’s thigh. “Move your feet! How can I wash the floor when you sit there like a lump?”
Verna felt something rigid against her thigh after Millie took her hand away.
“That Warren is a pig, too. Keeps his room a mess. I was just there earlier today, and it stunk nearly as bad as this sty.”
Verna moved her hands to each side of her legs and put them under her thighs as if to balance herself while she lifted her feet for Millie. Her fingers found something hard, and thin. At first, her dull mind couldn’t decipher the feel. It came to her with a jolt of recognition.
It was a dacra.
Her chest constricted. Her muscles stiffened. She could hardly make herself breathe.
Millie suddenly spat in her face again, causing her to flinch and turn away. “Don’t you be looking at an honest woman like that! Keep your eyes off me.”
Verna realized Millie must have seen her eyes open wide.
“I’m done,” she said as she straightened her sinewy frame, “unless you want me to give her a bath, and if you do, you’d better think again. I’m not touching that evil woman.”
“Just get your bucket and go,” Leoma said, her impatience growing.
Verna had the dacra gripped so tightly in her fist that it was making her fingers tingle. Her heart hammered so hard she thought it might crack a rib.
Millie shuffled out of the room without looking back. Leoma pushed the door closed.
“This is your last chance, Verna. If you still refuse, you will be turned over to the emperor. You will soon wish you had cooperated with me, I can promise you that much.”
Come closer, Verna thought. Come closer.
She felt the first wave of pain coursing up through her. She flopped back on the pallet, turning away from Leoma. Come closer.
“Sit up and look at me when I speak to you.”
Verna could only let out a small cry, but she stayed where she was, hoping to lure Leoma closer. She would have no chance if she lunged from this far; the woman would hobble her before she made the distance. She had to be closer.
“I said sit up!” Leoma’s footsteps approached.
Dear Creator, please bring her close enough.
“You will look at me and tell me you renounce Richard. You must renounce him so the emperor can enter your mind. He will know when you have quit your loyalty, so don’t think to lie.”
Another step. “Look at me when I speak to you!”
Another step. A fist snatched her hair and jerked her head upward. She was close enough, but her arms seared with pain, and she couldn’t lift her hand. Oh, dear Creator, don’t let her start the test with my arms. Let her start with my legs. I need my arms.
Instead of beginning in her legs, the nerve-burning pain shot down her arms. With all her strength, Verna tried to lift the hand with the dacra. It would not move. Her fingers twitched with stabs of pain.
Despite her straining, her fingers tugged opened in spasms and the dacra fell out.
“Please,” she wept, “don’t do my legs this time. I’m begging you, don’t do my legs.”
Leoma’s fist in her hair tilted her head back, and the woman struck her across the face. “Legs, arms, it doesn’t matter. You will submit.”
“You can’t make me. You’re going to fail and…” Verna got no more out before the hand struck her face again.
The searing pain jumped to her legs, and they flopped uncontrollably with the jolts. Verna’s arms tingled, but she could at last move them. Her hand groped blindly along the pallet, frantically searching for the dacra.
Her thumb touched it. She curled her fingers around the cool metal handle, pulling it up in her fist.
Summoning all her strength and resolve, Verna plunged the dacra into Leoma’s thigh.
Leoma cried out, releasing Verna’s hair.
“Still!” Verna panted. “I have a dacra in you. Stay still.”
One hand slowly lowered to comfort her leg above the dacra in her thigh muscle. “You can’t possibly think this will work.”
Verna swallowed, catching her breath. “Well now, I guess we are going to find out, aren’t we? Seems I have nothing to lose. You do—your life.”
“Be careful
, Verna, or you will find out just how sorry you can be for doing something like this. Take it out, and I will pretend this didn’t happen. Just take it out.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s such wise advice, advisor.”
“I have control of your collar. All I have to do is block your Han. If you make me do that, it will go worse on you.”
“Really, Leoma? Well, I think I should tell you that on my journey of twenty years, I learned a great deal about using a dacra. While it’s true that you can block my Han through the Rada’Han, there are two things you had better think on.
“First, while you can block my Han, you can’t block it fast enough for me not to touch just the tiniest flow first. From my experience, I judge that that would be enough. If I touch my Han, you will be dead instantly.