CHAPTER FOUR
Subject: Raeth Arteres
Date: March 12, 2185
Species: Neumarian
Condition: Deteriorating
Treatment: Denied
Status: Mental interrogation
Method: Neuro-alterer II
“This will hurt.” The grey coat laughs and places the metal contraption on my head. It teeters and almost falls.
I roll my lower lip under my teeth and watch the clock hand slide another minute. Where is Semara? I have to stall, or whatever hope I have of dying before they extract information will be gone. I wipe the sweat from my brow and wonder if the infection will take me first.
I hear the screws rotating and I know they are about to plunge into my skull. My eyes dart about and I sway back and forth on the bed.
“Guard!” I hear feet scamper into the room, but I close my eyes tight. “Hold her down or I’ll never get the probes in the right place.”
Strong, hairy hands press my shoulders down against the hard bed. My neck rests on a board. Is this how my parents felt before they were decapitated?
“W-where is the Princess?” I realize my mistake. Words spin through my head, but I can’t find one that will undo my grave error.
“You think her to be your friend, huh? I guess you truly are just a simplistic parasite.”
Hot breath blankets my skin. I hear the grey coat’s eye click away, but I don’t want to see his blurry Slag features up close, so I squeeze my lids tighter.
“She used you for information. A mere interrogation tactic. Do you really believe the princess would stoop to the level of a slave?” His deep, froglike laughter echoes in my head.
My stomach knots. He could speak the truth. Princess Semara tricked me. That’s why she isn’t here.
His foul breath drifts away from my face and I look toward the door and up at the clock. Please, don’t let it be true. I want to trust Semara, but maybe I’m just being the silly child my brother tells me I am. Always too trusting of others.
The minute hand stutters and rests on the eleven. Only five minutes left. I try to focus on what is real. I have no family left. All are dead. I must not betray my people. None of this is real. These are the things I must hold on to or the Queen will enslave Neumarians forever.
“Any last words?”
“What? It’s not t-time. W-we still h-have—”
“Oh no, I want to know if this will work before the Queen arrives. If you die on the table when I initiate the device, I can say you were already dead when I arrived.” The grey coat’s mouth curls up at the edges and his scarred bottom lip rolls under his yellowed top teeth. For a Slag, he doesn’t seem to have the newest upgrades. Well, besides his eye. He probably lost that during the war.
I have no family left. All are dead. I must not betray my people. None of this is real.
I want to fight, to scratch his one eye out and kick him where it hurts, but I have no energy left. Not even adrenaline can move me to fight now. I run my thumb over the upper edge of my leg. It won’t be much longer before the infection spreads to my blood and internal organs. I’ve seen many die of infection in the back room of my uncle’s saloon. It will not be a pleasant death, but at least it will bring an end to my imprisonment. I’ll be free.
