Honor Among Thieves (The Honors #1)(84)

“It won’t,” Chao-Xing said, with a frozen smugness, though she was probably channeling Typhon. “Nadim has always shown weakness and impulsivity. Since you and Honor Teixeira came aboard, you’ve encouraged this behavior. We gave you tasks to complete and you deviated from them. Nadim knew the boundaries. You have failed to comply and broken regs. Now he’ll pay the price, and you will be returned home in disgrace.”

The hell we will.

“I don’t even know what rules he broke!” I said. “You could at least tell me that.”

Okay, so that was a lie. I just wanted to keep them talking. From this side of the force field, I had no hope of mounting an escape. Stalling was a time-honored tactic for coming up with Plan C on the fly. With all my heart, I wished I had some way to contact Beatriz. She must be worried. By now she must suspect that things had gone wrong.

Marko answered. “That is not our responsibility. There is no more to say.” At the very edges of my awareness, I felt Nadim stirring. Starting to fight a little on the end of his tether. That distracted Typhon, and he let go of Marko and Chao-Xing; their body language shifted, just a little, like they were waiting for a blow they couldn’t avoid. Both blinked rapidly as their eyes adjusted again, and Chao-Xing stretched, as if she had been forced to stand in an unnatural position for too long.

Flesh puppets, I thought.

Marko slumped against the wall. He’s clearly exhausted. He’s fighting it more. Chao-Xing was more wholly in Typhon’s grip.

“You shouldn’t have done this,” Marko told me quietly. “He won’t let you go. Keeping you away from Nadim—Typhon knows it hurts.”

“Marko, what’s going to happen to Nadim? The Leviathan won’t beat him again, will they? That was—”

“Awful,” he finished for me. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I couldn’t stop it sooner, but—the bond—”

“You’re deep bonded,” I said. “I know. What’s your pair-bond-name?”

“You’re not supposed to know about any of that.”

“So he didn’t tell you what rules we broke?”

Chao-Xing said, back still rigidly turned toward us, “The Elder is under no obligation to tell us anything.”

“Then that’s not much of a bond, is it? I mean, two-way street and all.”

She didn’t answer. I wondered if all her humanity was gone already and what it took to do that to a person. A shudder rolled through me, contemplating it.

“We don’t choose who we bond with,” Marko said. “What’s your point, Zara?”

“My point is that he eats your soul and doesn’t even think of you as people,” I said. “Is that how the Elders work? How the Leviathan really work?”

“You don’t know anything about it.”

“Of course I don’t, because you’re keeping those of us on the Tour in the dark! Well, guess what? We’re turning on some lights and looking around. If you’re smart, Marko, you’ll do the same before it’s too late.”

“If you want to talk yourself into worse treatment for your Leviathan, keep going.” Chao-Xing folded her arms, but I didn’t miss the faint smears of moisture on her cheeks. She’d wiped away the tears without eliminating the evidence. Something I said moved her. If only I knew what . . . I could dig at that fissure. Maybe we couldn’t win this battle with a frontal assault, but I’d already infiltrated their fortress. The whisper of an idea scratched at the edges of my mind, not ready to emerge in the light just yet. I’d give it time to germinate.

“Worse than death?” I asked softly. “I’m not letting you take his voice away and drive him out to die alone. I can’t. And I can’t believe you’d let that happen, either.”

I thought for a second they’d keep talking, but then Marko shook his head. He and Chao-Xing exchanged a look. “We have duties,” Chao-Xing said. “And there’s nothing to be done. Nadim’s fate is already decided.” She hesitated after a couple of steps and looked back. “I’m sorry.”

She actually was. A little.

“Marko—” I called out after him.

“I can’t,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

Nothing to pass the time in here, just silence and my own thoughts. For the first time since I came aboard, I couldn’t feel Nadim, and the emptiness chewed at me. Based on what Marko had said, it must be the same for him. He’d be half-mad, wondering what they were doing to me. That little crack in the wall between us had been sealed tight, probably by Typhon.

Don’t let them hurt you again. Keep healing. Stay strong.

With every moment that ticked away, Typhon towed Nadim closer to the Gathering. Taking a breath, I shored up my flickering resolve.

No prison was escape proof, and this one was more of an improvised closet. Carefully I scanned every centimeter of my surroundings, but I didn’t find anything that could help me. Just the bunk . . . and the bucket. They probably expected me to use it as a makeshift toilet, but I had a better idea. I already knew that Leviathan were susceptible to music. Marko sang, so Typhon must respond to lower registers. My voice lacked range, hovering around a husky alto, but I’d make do. I had one advantage that perhaps Typhon didn’t know about.