Exiled Guide Tamed the Beasts novel · Chapter 14 of 24
Chapter 14: The Night Before
I got my arms around his shoulders and held on while he shook.
He was cold and wet, and the gold light ran from my hands into his skin and stayed there.
"Say it slowly," I said. "Say what you see."
"The first night," Stellan said. "The door opened, and I thought, here she is."
He swallowed.
"You came in with the little lamp, and a wire coil in one hand, and a pick as long as a finger. You locked the door and sat on the edge of the cot. You said, Don't move. I'm going to take the first one."
"The first bead."
"Yes."
"Did I say what they were?"
"You said they were not there to calm us."
His eyes were fixed on a point past my shoulder.
"You said they were a leash. The Warden holds the other end, and she can stop a man's heart through it. You said you had read her slate and found the word for it."
The tank slopped quietly against the steel.
I did not breathe.
"I asked why you were doing it. You said, Because someone has to, and I'm the only one who can get in the room."
"Why not tell the others?" I asked. "Why let you think I was torturing you?"
"I asked that too." He closed his eyes. "You said the Warden listens to everything. You said if even one of us stopped hating you, she would look closer, and she would find the cuts, and she would kill all four of us before you finished."
"So you had to hate me."
"You said, Hate me where she can see. Hate me loudly."
His mouth twisted.
"I was very good at it."
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