Underland(14)

“You could have fooled me,” Kira replied in a snarky tone. “Your people kidnapped me, sold me to a slave trader, and then tried to feed me to a zombie.”

“Zeke,” Warrick corrected. “And you see how well that turned out, don’t you? You aren’t the one that is dead.”

“Zombies are already dead,” Kira snapped back.

Warrick brought a plate with sliced bread and cheese and set it before Kira. She waited until he motioned with his head for her to eat. Then, she snatched three pieces of bread and cheese from the plate before realizing she’d taken almost all of it. She could have given some of it back, but then thought better. She was the one that was injured and starved; she needed it more than he did.

Warrick watched her shove the bread into her mouth. He sighed sadly. “He was only half-dead. Zekes are the cursed ones, or half-dead. And don’t call them zombies. That’s going to get you in a lot of trouble if you plan to survive long. And it wasn’t my people. I don’t know if you noticed, but there are a lot of gods and races coexisting down here, scraping a living, trying to survive. You can’t bunch us all into the same group.”

Kira felt duly chastised. It was the same in her world. People assumed all homeless people were low-life drunks or drug addicts. “I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted.” Warrick went to his table and began to clean his instruments. He didn’t wash them in the sink or sterilize them, but pulled out a metal flask and dropped a few droplets of silver liquid on the tweezers, needles, and table. The bits of blood disappeared instantaneously, and a strong mint smell wafted through the room.

“What is that?” Kira asked.

“Never you mind.” Warrick quickly pocketed the flask in a pouch he wore on his leather belt. Kira knew from earlier that there were many flasks inside—he’d used a different one on her wound. He told her it was unicorn tears, but she was surprised when he clammed up about the flask he’d just used. Was it illegal? Expensive?

That was something worth keeping in mind for later.

Kira finished her bread and cheese and grabbed the last two pieces from the plate as she stood up to leave. “Well, thank you for your hospitality and fixing me up and stuff, but I think it’s time for me to go. So if you would be so kind as to point me toward the surface, I’ll be going.

“Can’t.” Warrick walked in front of her and blocked the door.

“Can’t point me to the surface or can’t let me go?” Kira stood with her hands at her sides. She stepped back, away from the centaur and felt around for a weapon.

“Both. What did you think would happen? That I would patch you up and help you escape? No, I can’t do that. I told you that we are all here trying to survive, and Remus owns me.” He pointed to the band on his wrist. “You, whether you agree to it or not, are his property and must be returned to him.”

She flung her hands in the air and yelled at Warrick. “Then why not turn me over right when you found me? Why go to all of the trouble to feed me and heal me!” She circled around and came to the table.

“Because if I would have turned you in at that moment, Remus could have killed you instantly, without even thinking. I hoped that delaying your capture, I’d buy you some time. You took the life of one of his fighters outside of a game. He has every right to demand your life in exchange.”

“He was trying to take my life outside of a game! Kill or be killed! Or maybe those same rules don’t apply to me?”

“They don’t. You’re human. You don’t have rights down here. Our laws don’t work in your favor. But I don’t think it’s your fate to die here today.”

“You lie!” Kira grabbed the glass from the table and threw it hard at Warrick’s head. He ducked, and it smashed against the door. “You are not a healer; you are some sort of sick, demented torturer! You planned this from the beginning.” Kira moved over by the couch, beside a window.

Movement outside alerted her to visitors. Her heart dropped. Two very large doglike creatures with red eyes were sniffing a path right to the door. Den, Remus, and a large ogre were on the dogs’ trail.

Warrick saw them at the same time. “They’re here. They were faster than I thought.” He shifted uncomfortably and wouldn’t look at Kira.

“You were wrong,” she seethed between clenched teeth. “You are worse than the monsters.”

Warrick must have changed his mind, because he suddenly moved into action and went to a trunk. A long howl pierced the darkness as the dogs began to circle the house and growl at the door. Warrick tossed clothes, books, and various items on the floor until he pulled out a small-sheathed knife. “Quick, hide this. Don’t use it now; don’t ever let them know you have it.” He tossed it toward her.

With a deft, one-handed catch, she plucked it out of the air and hid it in her boot.

She stayed down a moment to re-lace her boot, and Warrick rushed her, clamping a wet cloth over her mouth.

Struggling proved worthless. The smell was too much and…she went limp in his arms. Her world went black.





Chapter 7

Warrick hefted her feather-light body and once again pondered how she’d ended up down here. He slid her, unconscious, onto his examining table seconds before the pounding on the door.