The Living Tower

Chapter Fourteen: The Prisoner

The attackers came in the middle of the night this time.

Maybe the ten soldiers thought they'd have the upper hand if they attacked Val in her sleep, but the moment they set foot in her room, her eyes were open. She sprang out of bed and lunged at the closest, glowing claws already formed at the ends of her fingers.

Under the light of the moon that streamed through the windows, under the watching stars that peered through the glass, she fought.

A few of the soldiers managed to land blows. Surrounded in the tight space, her gaze darting frantically from soldier to soldier as she lashed out, Val felt gashes find their way onto her arms. One blade even left its mark on her abdomen. But the flurry of swinging daggers and swiping claws came to an end with her victorious. Though, instead of slashing the final soldier's throat or driving a sharp blade of magic into his chest, she knocked him unconscious.

The fog of sleep had still clung to Val's mind as she fought, and her head didn't fully clear until she was watching the soldier fall to the ground with the other bodies. The hand she'd used to deliver the blow to his head—enforced by a thin layer of her magic—tightened at her side.

The wounds scattered across her skin gave off a soft yellow glow as they healed on their own. Val had already known whatever magic lived inside her could heal, but this was the most it had done for her in a long time. The most she'd needed healing since that first day she'd killed.

She wasn't sure what its limits were. And she hoped she'd never have to find out the hard way.

Val was left more drained after this fight than she'd been after the previous break-ins, too, but she had the strength to drag the man she'd left alive up the stairs and lift him into the chair by her vanity. Lacking ropes, she cut off sections of the underside of her hair and used them to tie the man up. Its magical strength would be more than enough to keep him in place. She used a spare piece of fabric to gag him.

The buzzing in Val's head, the pounding of her heart, it was all too much for her to even attempt going back to sleep. She waited by the unconscious man with a book.

A few hours later, the first rays of the morning sun arrived, and Baiya followed soon after.

"Val, I—" Baiya let out a squawk of surprise when he saw the man tied to the chair. "What's this?"

"An interrogation." Val rose to her feet and glanced at the man. She snapped her fingers in front of his face, inadvertently sending a shower of yellow sparks at him. "Come on, nap time's over."

The man's eyes shot open. He immediately began to struggle. Unbothered by his muffled exclamations of distress, Val summoned a dagger.

"Interrogation?" Baiya flew to one shelf, lingered for a moment, then darted to another closer to Val.

"I'm going to find out who's been sending these men to kill me, and why," Val told him. "Care to watch?"

Baiya glanced around the room. "He didn't come alone, did he?"

"Of course not. The other bodies are in my bedroom." Val's eyes narrowed as she glanced at the man. "They tried to kill me in my sleep."

"In your sleep?" Baiya muttered. Lifting his head, he asked, "Well, what will you do with the bodies? Ellias isn't here to clean up after you!"

Val shrugged. "Maybe I'll throw them out the window and let the animals have them."

"Disgusting."

"Circle of life," Val countered. After a moment, she had the sense to reel back her annoyance and try something else. "Okay, I'm sorry. I panicked a little. But what was I supposed to do? I didn't exactly have much time to think!"