The pirates lowered the ship somewhere in the Whistling Woods.
Hypnosia took a blindfold out of a compartment on their ship.
"No one is allowed to see the entrance but us," she told Cinder, in a harsh tone, so as not to blow cover.
Cinder liked this even less, but what could she do about it?
The ship doors opened.
"Good luck," Sikes leered and shoved Cinder out of the door hard so that she fell on her face.
Mino yanked her back up roughly enough, and the pirates waited for Hypnosia to pay them.
"Someone will drop off the payment," she said. "You know the rules."
"We want it now," Teach growled in a scary way.
Cinder heard Hypnosia move her hand to where she'd hidden a dagger earlier.
"Well, you can't get it now," she said thinly. "We don't carry that much lien on us."
"Teach," Anne spoke, "Leave her be. Do you want to get a penalty deduction? They've always paid up before."
Teach huffed, but let it drop.
Mino pushed Cinder forward.
They moved into the trees.
"The scouts will see us long before we see them," Hypnosia said. "And so will the Grimm. I suggest you don't do anything suspicious. From here, I can't help you except by playing along."
"Are you sure that Mala will not just kill me right away?" Cinder asked.
"No," Hypnosia said. "All I know is that she wanted you alive...but I hope not. They can't find us without you, can they?"
"You're both mad," Mino said. "But she's more mad. At least if they suspect nothing, we'll live."
"Maybe," Hypnosia said.
"You're the one who's mad to think that would be better," Cinder retorted coolly.
Mino went sullenly silent.
"I can't promise they won't do anything to you as it is," Hypnosia added. "I hope you were mentally prepared for that...but cheerful thought: Mala will not care if you kill any of her grunts as long as they aren't a favorite. She likes the people who have a bit more of a dark edge to them... They're easier to corrupt."
This was not as comforting as she seemed to think it was.
But Cinder took her meaning to be that, if necessary, she should defend herself. Or it bothered Mala that she did, why capture someone alive at all?
However, it made her wonder what happened to the other hostages, if this was a known fact?
The air grew cold as they got deeper into the trees.
Nothing was very clear for a while, because of the blindfold, but finally Cinder heard Grimm shuffling.
They didn't attack.
"We're nearly there now," Mino remarked.
There was more rustling. Maybe the scouts, maybe not.
The grass below changed to dirt and pebbles more than grass, and there was the sound of running water.
"Pick your feet up," Hypnosia instructed.
They seemed to be going up some rocky pathway.
The water got louder... It must be a waterfall, actually.
Then cold spray hit Cinder's arm, and the sound got loud enough to be a roar... They were right next to it.
Behind it, they entered what felt like a cold, dark cave from the air. And it was moist, too.
"Good news," Mino said dryly, "if they didn't want us to come in, they'd have sniped us by now."
"There must be more than one exit then," Cinder noted. "Just like they suspected."
"Shut up, prisoner," Hypnosia said, true to her promise not to sound helpful anymore. "We'll gag you too if we have to..."
She tapped on something. Maybe it was a button.
"Sesame," she said in a low voice.
There was a beep like it registered in some hidden keypad.
Then there was a grinding sound as the stone moved aside.
Cinder stomped one foot, and a glass sheen went out from it and traveled out past the water, just lightly, she hoped.
If Mino saw this, he didn't acknowledge it, but it was likely he didn't notice at all. He was focused on the inside.
Hypnosia didn't see either; she was too far ahead.
They pulled Cinder through the door.
The inside was musty smelling and much more cramped from the feel of the air itself.
But it widened out a few seconds later.
"Well, well, well," a new voice said. "Sand, back from the dead, are you? What's this you've bought?"
"A prize that will raise my cut higher than yours, you pig," Hypnosia said, dismissively. "Why don't you tell Mala we're here?"
"So who made me your messenger?" the voice retorted. "B---h."
"Do it," Mino said.
The person seemed to flinch.
They left.
"Boris seems more irritable than usual," Hypnosia remarked offhandedly.
But she might have been identifying him for Cinder's benefit.
[Boris sounds like Boar, like a pig, ha ha. Also there was that Rocky and Bullwinkle villain.]
They moved further in still.
The very feel of the air made her skin crawl. There was Grimm here too, she was sure of it...but even so it surprised her when something suddenly grabbed at her ankle.
She gasped.
Mino stomped on it.
"Those claw things grow all over the walls now," Hypnosia said. "Watch your step, prisoner... They all like to grab on to anyone who's not paying attention."
Claw things...no...
There were the sounds of more people as they moved further...and there was light behind the blindfold, so there must have been lamps in here. Probably from dust.
Cinder also noticed a strange smell: blood, sweat, filth, spices perhaps from food...and the musty smell of Grimm that you wouldn't notice unless they were close by.
It all combined to be pretty sickening.
Finally her two escorts stopped at a flat place (most of the ground was really uneven) and waited.
A bunch of footsteps came up.
But one step was more prominent.
And then a woman's voice, that was somehow harsh but not entirely unpleasant, spoke.
The very sound of her reminded Cinder of Salem, but yet it wasn't like her at the same time. Salem had been sly and surreptitious to the point of annoyance, but there was something off even about Mala's voice that somehow was worse. It was hard to decide what it was.
But she thought it might have been greed. Salem had been demanding, but she wasn't usually unhinged. Mala almost managed to sound demanding without sounding out of control--that was worse.
"What do we have here?" is what she said. "You two wayward sheep have brought back a wolf? Is it really the one I asked for? Or did you blow it all and bring me a consolation prize?"
"No, milady," Hypnosia spoke, sounding a little nervous, but that couldn't have been unusual for Mala's subordinates. "This is the one you asked for."
"Take the blindfold off," Mala ordered.
It was ripped off rather harder than necessary.
Cinder's eyes had to adjust to the dust lighting, since it was dim but bright after nothing at all.
She saw a slew of bandits, all very hard looking and glaring at her.
But the one who was most forward must have been Mala.
Mala was not as tall as even Raven and was less stocky than women like Joanna, who were often huntresses, but she was still somehow intimidating to look at. Her hair was brown but with grey streaks in it that did not match how old she seemed to be. She looked no older than Cinder herself, or at most, a few years more.
But her expression was old...old in that it was a cold, bitter expression, behind the anticipation.
She really was like a snake.
And she radiated the feel of Grimm, just like everyone else here did.
Cinder didn't see it yet though.
She didn't look for it. She was just staring at them hostilely.
"She matches the posters," Mala noted. "But then, she was down an eye when those were up... Let's see." She drew a knife and walked up to Cinder, who stiffened.
She looked around her. "I see glass shoes... This must be the real Cinder Fall. No one else would wear those in a fight."
Some bandits started laughing like that was clever.
Cinder thought of Royal making remarks and thought how much less scornful it sounded when he said it. Guess context did count for something.
She supposed that if Mala was going to kill her on sight, now would be the time.
"What do you have to say, Fall?" Mala asked. "After all these months dodging my men, you must have been pretty disappointed to finally be captured. But then, Sand is one of the best..."
Cinder didn't answer.
"Did they cut your tongue out?" Mala asked. "Because if they did, that's a pity. I had so many things to ask you."
She slapped her so hard that it drew blood.
Cinder regained her balance and looked at her with pure anger...but then she activated her Aura.
The cut closed.
Mala almost didn't seem to like it. She stepped back a little.
Some of the other bandits did too.
"Don't touch me," Cinder spat at Mala...literally.
Mala laughed oddly. "There, that's more what I expected. Well, good work, Sand, Toro. I suppose my confidence in your ability to retrieve her was well founded. I was a little worried when I heard you'd be captured though."
"All part of our plan to get closer," Hypnosia said smoothly. She really was a good liar. "It worked."
"You'll get your reward," Mala said. "And we'll all celebrate. One problem is out of our way. Now all that's left is to get rid of Branwen. Break out the wine glasses."
This was also a joke, but the other bandits seemed ready to take it seriously anyway. They cheered.
"As for you--" Mala pointed her knife at Cinder. "I have plans for you...but before I do any or all of those things to you, I think we should have a chat. I find prisoners are less coherent after my men have had their time with them."
That made even Cinder's skin crawl, but she hid her disgust.
Shine had warned them not to let them get to them... She'd anticipated as much... She just needed to stay focused...she hoped.
Hypnosia and Mino didn't say anything to stop this, as they couldn't have even if they'd wanted to.
"Oh, and you two--" Mala turned back to them. "I see they purged you of your power enhancements. That's a shame. You should stop by the doctor's tent and get that taken care of."
Mino shrugged.
"If it's all the same to you, milady," Hypnosia said, "I was hoping to eat first."
"Hmm, suit yourselves." Male didn't seem to care about them now. "Better to have your strength for that anyway."
Some of the bandits chuckled at that also.
Cinder wondered how long they'd be able to stall... If it wasn't a few hours, she was going to be here alone, effectively.
Mala motioned to some other lackeys, and they grabbed Cinder and hustled her after Mala.
* * *
Mala's meeting area probably wasn't her living quarters, based on the look of it, but a wooden and stone shack that was likely used for privacy, in a huge cavern.
Cinder could see more of it now. The place was as big as a dust mine... In fact it might have been one once, but was now full of tents and...Grimm.
At first it had been too dark to see them, but as her eyes adjusted, she saw the vine claws were all over the place... It was disgusting.
And eerily similar to the giant Avarice that Neptune and the Maidens had killed in the Grimm lands...only if it had been made out of a rock instead of...whatever Grimm were made of.
"Like it?" Mala noticed her making a face. "I guess it's not most people's taste, but I think they give it a certain living death kind of quality. Fitting, dont you think?"
"More so than you'll probably ever know," Cinder said tightly.
"I'd heard that you had quite the snarky attitude," Mala said. "I don't really care, but I wouldn't push your luck." With a cold look.
Cinder was pushed into the shack, and they hooked her cuffs to a chain in the wall.
"Leave us," Mala said.
The lackeys left.
Mala sat down. There was a chair in here.
The light was from one lamp.
"I have been waiting a long time for this," Mala said. "Honestly though, I'm kind of underwhelmed. I thought you'd be a lot angrier."
"I have to have a reason to be," Cinder replied coldly. "So far all you've done is make empty threats and act like Tyrian used to act between killings."
Mala didn't seem to take offense to that.
"Is that so...? I heard of him too. We could have used him here... I guess you think we're all psychopaths, don't you?"
"If the straightjacket fits." Cinder could think of no better comeback.
"Well, you're right." Mala leaned forward. "We are psychopaths. So maybe you'd better not aggravate us, hmm?"
She seemed dangerous right then.
Cinder pursed her lips.
"But you're wondering why I wanted to speak to you," Mala said. "Honestly, I wasn't going to at first. When I heard you resurfaced, I thought we'd just off you. That was what all the former Atlesians wanted. The older members did too. They heard about the Branwen tribe. Nice, by the way. I'm amazed that Raven Branwen allows you to work for her after that. She must be some kind of masochist."
Cinder didn't bother to answer that.
Mala went on. "But after Watts started to give us information, I realized that maybe you were a better catch alive. Obviously we have use for you...but before we do that, I have something to discuss..."
She held up a scroll...of course it had no service down here, but the image gallery would work.
"Do you recognize this man?" she asked.
Cinde was expecting someone she knew...but, to her great surprise, instead it was a picture of...Rhodes.
Not Theo, but the other one...her former mentor.
She gave Mala a confused look.
"I must say," Mala said, without a shred of emotion, "it was hard to pin down who murdered these people...but at the hotel, they said the only person who could have done it was the servant girl who some people saw go into this guy's room... Now normally, I'd just think that meant he was enjoying some kind of room service...but then you used weapons that belong to him."
Cinder frowned at her. "What are you, the police? That was almost 10 years ago."
"It was," Mala agreed. "But I think you still remember, right? Did you kill him?"
Cinder didn't answer.
"No matter, I already know you did." Mala leaned back, lowering the scroll. "No one else could have...but I have spent quite some time asking myself how. How did a trained huntsman lose to his own trainee? Care to elaborate?"
"All I care about is why you care to know?" Cinder asked. "What's some random huntsman to you?"
Mala just gave her a strange look. It wasn't a frown or a smile, it was just...flat.
Cinder's eyes widened. "You...knew Rhodes?" she asked.
"Oh, no," Mala said. "Not at all."
She looked at the image. "But I'm a little surprised you can't guess. After all, I've been told the resemblance is actually pretty strong."
Cinder looked at her more closely...and suddenly she saw it. Something about the shape of her face...
"You're related to Rhodes?" she said blankly. "No, that's not possible."
"Why? How much did you actually know about him?" Mala said, with a hard edge to her tone.
It was ridiculous.
"So what? You've been looking for me for 10 years, for revenge?" Cinder asked.
"Oh, no, don't kid yourself," Mala said. "If I had been, you'd have died a long time ago. It never takes me that long to find anyone. No, I had no idea you were involved in this at all till your friend Watts mentioned you were tied up in some murder in Atlas at about the same time. A little digging, and a few of our associates from Mistral later, I found out the connection. I really almost felt special--the woman who brought down Beacon and Atlas both actually killed my father. That's quite a notable person to have a grudge against."
"Father?" Cinder said. "Rhodes didn't have a family. No way...he..."
"He wasn't the most...scrupulous of men, right?" Mala said. "I know all about that."
"He never did anyone any harm," Cinder said. "I'm sure."
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I doubt he thought so," Mala said. She ran her hand over her knife. "Rhodes met my mother, Hellena, at a much less upscale inn than the one you worked at. They didn't have a real relationship or anything, but they hooked up a few times. I'm sure you know all about that. According to her, he never knew about me at all."
"Then how did you...?" Cinder was still reeling from this.
And what was worse was that Mala was so calm. She didn't sound angry at all. She was telling this like it was a report on the news.
"She told me who he was," Mala said, "after she joined the tribe... Joined is the wrong word. Was initiated into it. Back then the Baba tribe was run by a lecherous old coot, Gene the Ruthless (they called him). Took a liking to my mother, didn't know she was pregnant at the time...didn't really care once he found out. I was born here."
She gestured around.
"Gene always said I was his daughter...but that didn't mean much in the Baba tribe. Just meant that I couldn't leave. I didn't know any different till one day my mother snapped. She told me the truth. She said she wished she'd gone to Atlas when she had the chance. She thought he would have helped her."
She made a contemptuous sneer at that. "I believed her. She told me if I ever got the chance, I should go to Atlas, find Rhodes... I didn't get the chance till I was 18. I was strong by then...could hold my own. I got away, got on a boat to Mantle...and then to Atlas."
She looked at her knife and then looked up. "I was a few weeks too late. Actually, some people thought I might have been the one, said the main suspect was a teenage girl...but I was new, so they gave up that theory. I had no idea who it was. They just said it was a servant... I didn't learn any more. I went back to the tribe, figured there was no place else to go. I found out that Gene killed my mother while I was gone. Apparently, he didn't like runaways, and he guessed who tipped me off."
Cinder raised an eyebrow.
Mala shrugged. "So I killed him," she said. "I always planned to anyway... He gave me plenty of reasons before that, to put it simply. You know what I mean." She tilted her head. She still wasn't speaking with any emotion. "After that I was on a roll. A lot of the tribe was fed up with Gene and his goons, and we killed all of them and started to build our own name. But I made an oath to myself, that I would find every person responsible for what happened to me and I would make sure they paid for it. I figured, with the tribe backing me, I could make it happen. But I admit, I'd just about given up on ever finding you, till Watts let that piece of info slip. I couldn't believe it. Small world."
She pointed the knife at Cinder. "What do you have to say?"
"Only this," Cinder said, "that all this is news to me. And it's also nothing new. I'm only surprised that, in the end, your reasons aren't just greed. You actually want revenge?"
"To be honest, Fall--" Mala leaned forward and gave her a very caustic look. "--if my father was alive now, I'd kill him too. I figure it's just as much his fault as everyone else's that things went the way they did. I'm not looking for some hero to bail me out. I'm fine with what happened now. It gave me all this."
She gestured around with a dry smile. "But I'm just a little pissed off that you beat me to it...and perhaps that I didn't at least get to see the look on his face when I told him who I was." She shrugged. "Huntsmen think they're so righteous, but they're just as dirty as everyone else. And that's also why you piss me off. You seem to have this idea that you're above the rest of us because you've tried to reform. But it doesn't matter what you do for the law--the past never changes."
"Are you actually trying to claim that this is justice?" Cinder asked.
"Of course not." Mala chuckled bitterly. "Who cares about that? My point is that everyone is corrupt. Do you think the Grimm made us this way? I know you've been telling my associates that you keep capturing that. The Grimm are making them do these monstrous things. A nice fantasy that is. Humans are already corrupt. They don't need Grimm. The Grimm just show what was already there."
She stood up now, to look down at Cinder. "And you're still corrupt too. But I made an oath. Really, if not for that, I'd just recruit you. I'm sure you'd be good in a fight--you did off Bruiser...not that he didn't ask for it, lecherous fool that he was. But I've killed everyone else that ever did anything to me. I really see no reason to break that streak."
Cinder couldn't get over her tone. She was used to people being angry, but Mala didn't sound angry. She sounded as if she'd just set her mind to do this... and like she had contempt for anyone's life. That she was killing them just because it suited her fancy and not for any other reason.
Somehow it was worse than Tyrian...because he'd at least enjoyed it. It sounded like all Mala enjoyed was the proof that people were evil...nothing else.
"You're a monster," Cinder said aloud, like it was news. "I've met people who would do disgusting things many times, out of some sense of pleasure...but I think you're just doing it for the sake of doing it."
"You think I'm evil?" Mala said. "I've heard it before." She laughed carelessly. "I don't really care. What, do you plan to tell me the rot that all this is because some bad stuff happened to me and I've overreacted? Please, let's not kid ourselves. I think we're very much alike. Something stands in our way, and we cut it down. It's not that you killed that makes me loathe you."
She frowned. "It's that you think there's any difference between us or anyone else at all. Which is why I intend to make sure that you suffer a lot more before I finally let you die."
Cinder laughed.
That was the first thing that seemed to bother Mala.
She stuck her knife out. "Are you mocking me?"
"I just think this is ironic," Cinder said, feeling like she understood Watts for once. "There was a time when I would have done what you're doing...maybe. Actually even I wasn't quite this insane, but what's funny is that you think it matters."
"Matters?" Mala was puzzled.
"The world isn't going to care if you kill me to prove a point or torture me or whatever," Cinder said. "And when you are caught, which you will be, they'll put you to death for your crimes and all of your minions too, just like with everyone else like you, and all you'll serve as is an example to people after you of what not to do. So you made such a point out of this because you have no idea what else to do with your empty life now that the Grimm have eaten away all your better feelings, if you ever had those, and all you can do is cause pain and cruelty to others as a way to forget what it's like yourself. You're empty and small, and you have to pull me and the rest of them down to your level to feel like something. I understand it perfectly, but it's never going to work. Whatever you do, you'll feel the same."
This made Mala angry finally.
"You dare to talk back to me, you--" She cursed her out much worse than the pirates had.
She also hit her into the wall hard.
Cinder saw stars, but her Aura activated, and the pain subsided.
Mala gave her a look of disgust. "Well, of course you're lippy," she said. "They all start off that way. But give it a day or so and you'll lose that."
She tilted her head again, thinking. "And while we're at it, I'm going to find whatever it is that will destroy you, Cinder Fall, and I'm going to do it. And if any of your allies show up to try to help you, I'll destroy them too. All of you pretentious heroes need to go down. And once you've been broken, everyone is going to see that it's all bulls---. You're going to help me prove that."
She pulled her chin up to look her in the eye, though Cinder was glaring at her furiously. "And then I'll kill you," Mala added.
She dropped her. "You'll see what it's like to have all the hope drained away from you, bit by bit. Mark my words. No one leaves this place intact."
She opened the shed door and spoke to her guards.
"I'm done chatting," she said. "You can take her to the holding area. I don't care what anyone does to her there, as long as they leave her alive."
"Yes, milady," they said.
Cinder was taken away.
The holding area was just a bunch of makeshift cells built into one of the walls...and the Grimm claws were growing over these also.
"If you get any ideas about escaping," one of the guards said to her, "just know that those claws will grab anyone who tries to leave without permission and suck the Aura right out of them."
Cinder saw someone looking at her out of one of the cells.
Looked like another girl, but she didn't know if it was one from the village or a different raid. She was a mess though.
She peered at Cinder with a haunted look.
The guards shoved her into one of the cells, which had barred doors.
One of them tried to follow her in.
Cinder turned around and glass shards formed in front of her face and pointed at him.
"One step and you're dead," she said.
The guard looked at her askance.
"Leave her for now," the other guard said. "The fight will go out of her soon enough. No sense getting stabbed over it."
"Fine," the first said. "To be continued." He winked and shut the cell door.
Despite being able to summon the shards--though slipping her hands out of the Aura-blocking cuffs without them seeing it had been hard enough--Cinder didn't think she could break the cell without drawing the attention of the Grimm...and if they took her Aura, she wouldn't get far.
The time to escape wouldn't be right now... She had to wait till they took her out.
But they didn't know that she wasn't actually tied up, which was amazing that they hadn't realized the cuffs weren't on properly before when they hooked her to the wall, but she wasn't going to second guess it.
"Where did they take you from?" the girl in the adjoining cell asked her.
"They didn't," Cinder said. Then, thinking better of it, "I guess you could say it was the forest."
"You still have Aura?" the girl said.
"Yes..." Cinder realized that the guards hadn't seemed to notice that she shouldn't have been able to do that... Did they not care or were they just brain dead?
But Hypnosia had said that being here clouded the mind... Was it possible it made them stupider? More careless?
Their sheer numbers would mean it wouldn't matter, not to a bunch of weak prisoners like the kidnapped girls, but to a trained huntress--or close--it might make them more vulnerable.
However, how long before it got to her? She already had the creeps just from being here, but would she be able to stay clear-headed long enough to get out?
"It won't last," the girl said, as if confirming her fears. "Some of us tried to fight them at first...but they always win. The Grimm too... This place is hell."
"Didn't they try to make you join the tribe?" Cinder asked, hugging her sides.
"Some people they did...but some of us were too weak to fight. They said we were useless... except for one thing." The girl shuddered. "If you're strong, they'll probably want you to join them. Everyone does eventually...or they die."
Did that mean some people had resisted the Grimm?
Cinder didn't like to hear that they'd died for doing it, but if they had, then it was possible to, for a short time anyway. But who knew how long they'd been given before the tribe lost patience?
One thing was certain, this didn't feel anything like Raven's camp. Anyone could have realized this place was darker and more stifling.
It was almost like being in Salem's house, but even Salem had had limits to what she allowed in her associates. This was worse...
It made it much clearer what Shine had always said about Salem not being fully Grimm. Salem had had standards... If it was her one rebellion against the gods' curse to still have rules, then she'd kept it.
She'd been bad enough, but Cinder was starting to think she'd be the lucky evil mistress to be under out of the options available.
Mala was someone without principle, without rules except to do what she wanted, and her followers were probably just like her, except when she reigned them in for her own purpose... It was much closer to what pure evil would be like.
Though Cinder knew that Shine would have said no human being could embody pure evil. They still had a choice...but some of them were beyond hope. How many people here could also have been turned by now?
Cinder herself, she came to see, had played with the idea of evil more than she'd embodied it. Sure, if you play with it long enough, you become it. Evil will always make you what you want it to make you...but her approaching it for the reasons she had must have kept some ideals in her head, even if they were bad ones. That wasn't the impression she got from the Baba tribe.
So even bad ideals might be better than none at all. How could you reason with anyone like that?
But even thinking all this, Cinder wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet. She had little hope of reaching the bandit's minds, and that wasn't her goal, but she knew that Shine or Oscar would not have taken being imprisoned lying down. They'd have used it against the enemy, and that had been her idea...so she had to stick with it.
But was she clever enough to do it? She'd never been that good at reading people and turning things back on them... She hoped she'd learned enough from them to at least fake it for a while.