The Princess Bride

Chapter Twenty-Six: Torture

At first, when he hired the Weseltonian, he was convinced it was best that someone else do her in, all the while make it appear the work of soldiers of Guilder. And when the man in black had somehow materialised to spoil his plans, the Prince came close to going insane with rage. But his basically optimistic nature had reasserted itself: everything always worked out for the best. The people were infatuated with Elsa now as they had never been before her kidnapping. And when he announced from his castle balcony that she had been murdered-he already saw the scene in his mind: he would arrive just to late to save her from strangling but soon enough to see the Guilderian soldiers leaping from the window of his bedroom to the soft ground below-when he made that speech to the masses on the five hundredth anniversary of his country, well, there wouldn't be a dry eye in the Square. And although he was just the least bit perturbed, since he had never actually killed a women before with his bare hands, there was a first time for everything. Besides, if you wanted something done right, you did it yourself.

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That night, they began to torture Jack. Count Black did the actual pain inducing the Prince simply sat by, asking questions out loud, inwardly admiring the Count's skill.

The count really cared about pain. The whys behind the screams interested him fully as much as the anguish itself. And whereas the Prince spent his life in physically. Following the hunt, Count Black read and studied anything he could get his hands on on dealing with subjects of Distress.

"All right now," the Prince said to Jack, who lay in the greatly fifth-level cage: "Before we begin, I want you to answer me this: have you any complaints about your treatments this far?"

"None whatever," Jack replied, and in truth he had none. Oh, he might have preferred being unchained a bit now and then, but if you were to be a captive, you couldn't ask for more than he had been given. The albino's medical ministrations had been precise, and his shoulder was fine again; the food the albino brought had always been hot and nourishing, the wine and brandy wonderfully warming against the dankness of the underground cage.

"You feel fit, then?" The prince went on.

"I assume my legs are a little stiff from being chained, but other then that, yes."

"Good. Then I promise you this as God himself is my witness: answer the next question and I will set you free this night. But you must answer it honestly, fully, withholding nothing. If you lie, I will know. And then I'll loose the Count on you." 

"I have nothing to hide," Jack said. "Ask away."

"Who hired you to kidnap the Princess? It was someone from Guilder. We found fabric indicating as much on the Princess's horse. Tell me that man's name and you are free. Speak."

"No one hired me," Jack said. "I was working strictly freelance. And I didn't kidnap her; i saved her from others who were doing that very thing."

"You seem a reasonable fellow, and my Princess claims to have known you many years, so I will give you, on her account, one last and final chance: the name of the man in Guilder who hired you. Tell me or face torture."

"No one hired me, I swear." 

The count set fire to Jack's hands. Northing permanent or disabling he just dipped Jack's hand in oil and brought a candle close enough to set things bubbling. When Jack had screamed "NO ONE-NO ONE-NO ONE- ON MY LIFE!" a sufficient number of times, the Count dipped Jack's hand in water, and he and the Prince left via the underground entrance, leaving the medication to the albino, who was always nearby during the torturing times, but never visible enough to be distracting.