Page 71 of Of Nine So Bold

“I think you can be better than this,” I urged, keeping my attention on the sandy-haired giant instead of the one currently on his way to crushing my arm. “Morethan this.”

His ice-chip eyes returned to me.

Norbert just laughed. “What the fuck do you know?” Turning, he hauled me around and then flung me forward. Pain shot through my arm from the motion, and then my shoulder joined the chorus when I tumbled across the cavern floor.

His henchmen stalked past him, grinning viciously.

“Pipsqueak here wants to lecture us on leadership,” Norbert called to his father. “I say we show him howrealleaders deal with insubordination, eh?”

Still standing where he was, Brock didn’t move to follow the others.

“Yeah,” one of the henchmen chimed in. “I want to see how quick we can tear a human apart when they don’t have their little tools to protect them!”

I scrambled to my feet and backed up, trying to keep Norbert and his buddies in view. “Please,” I said. “This isn’t who Erenlians are. This is what the Aneirans want you to become.”

Ignatius shook his head, pain and regret on his face. Nearby, Brock just looked on, his dead expression unreadable.

The bullies circled me.

“This is how they want to break you,” I pressed. “By making you hurt anyone weaker than you, when you should be helping each other survive and stay strong.”

“Well, then,” Duke Ensid offered calmly, like he had all the time in the world. Even now, he hadn’t moved from where he sat on the other side of the cavern. “I see the humans think they can tell us who we are now.”

Hate twisted Norbert’s face. “The hell they can.” He grabbed for me.

Ducking fast, I darted between him and his buddy. Whirling, the giants started after me, driving me to retreat until the gate bars bumped into my back.

The metal burned. I gasped at the bite of magic, stumbling forward a step just to escape the pain.

Norbert stopped, the hatred on his face flickering toward confusion. “What the fuck is your problem, pipsqueak? The bars don’t hurt humans.”

Oh crap.

I swallowed hard. “I… I’m not?—”

“Enough.” Duke Ensid rose to his feet.

Appearing confused and wary again, Norbert half-turned, his attention going between me and the duke. Behind him, his buddies hesitated as if they weren’t sure what to do now.

Duke Ensid scanned the room imperiously, drawing all focus to himself. His shrewd gaze seemed to be reading everyone, and when he glanced at me, there was a gleam in his eyes like he’d finally found a use for the worm on his hook.

“The arrogance of humans knows no bounds, does it, my friends?” His voice was reserved and quiet, like a leader delivering painful news. A unique bend of the stone walls where he stood amplified the sound, making his words carry through the cavern.

Rumbles of agreement followed from the crowd, and the duke nodded as if in shared understanding. “It shouldn’t shock us, not after all we’ve suffered. Yet it still does, no? For a people to be so depraved? So violent? Humans lock us up. They take our magic. They use us until our bodies break and kill any who get in their way. And now—now!” He shook his head as if dumbfounded. “They think they can tell us whatstrengthmeans?”

He made a contemptuous noise, somehow communicating derision and yet also pride. “But humans don’t know us. Ourhistory. Our legacy that will endure no matter how they try to break us down. They don’t know thattruestrength isn’t something they can understand. It isn’t somethingtheycould ever possess, because strength doesn’t come from humans. True strength belongs to Erenlians!”

Around the cavern, cries of agreement rose.

The duke gestured toward me as if re-introducing me to the crowd. “Yet here they are, sending in one of their own. They wrap him in spells to make itappearlike their magic hurts him. They pretend he’s defenseless and trapped in here with us, when we all know they would come to his aid at the firstrealmoment of need.” He sneered. “They think we’re such fools that we’ll trust him. That we’ll let him in on the plans that will one day set us free.”

I glanced at Ignatius, confused. Wait, what was he talking about?

The scholar’s eyes never left Duke Ensid, and his wary expression provided no answers.

With a rude noise, the duke continued, “How dare this fool think he—small and pathetic as he is—could tell us whotrueErenlians are? What the power of atrueErenlian is?” The look he leveled at me was so scathing, it could have carved my flesh from my bones.

But it was his icy words that made a cold spike of fear shoot through my veins.

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