Page 71 of Chained

The undercroft is vast. My small handheld light illuminates a tiny portion of it as we move across the open space and towards a number of tunnels which lead away.

“How long did you spend down here?” I ask, the hairs on the back of my neck rising once again at the church-like silence of the place.

“Too long,” Maxym replies, quietly. “It is not a good place. But it is a place for a raging gladiator whose blood will not cool.”

I squeeze his hand, huge and warm, in mine. He looks down at me briefly and his face is filled with love.

“But now I never have to come back here again,” he says. “As I have you.”

Warmth blooms from my center. For all my silly, presumably hormonal, concerns back at the bath and pleasure house, my heart knows Maxym. It knows no matter what has happened in his past, it is his past, and I am his future.

We can do this. We can beat the Bogarok and those controlling them, I feel it in my bones. Maxym will be free.

Ahead of us is a yawning mouth of a tunnel. Maxym releases my hand and draws his sword, flicking his head at Retah.

“Wait here,” he says to me. “Be ready.”

I pull out my pulsar and he smiles.

“Always ready,” I respond.

“Good,” he says. “With me, Retah.” The pair of them advance into the darkness, leaving me alone in a pool of light.

I can hear my breathing. I certainly wish I had Maxym’s ability to see in near darkness because this light feels like a beacon.

Ahead, in the dark, there is a low, horrible slicing sound.

“Maxym?” I take a step forward, the darkness somehow feeling like it’s closing in on me.

I call his name again as I walk a few more paces to the tunnel entrance.

Only there is no longer an entrance. My foot hits something solid. Something metal which rings at my touch. A door?

“Maxym!” I bellow out, thumping my fist against it.

“Looks like we caught ourselves a tasty snack for the Bogarok,” a voice sniggers in the dark.

I spin around to be faced with a large, bulbous Habosu.

Of course it would be Habosu working with the Bogarok. I roll my eyes.

“You really don’t want to do this,” I say, lifting the pulsar.

Neither of them move.

“A little female with a pulsar too large for her,” he says. “One she needs to hand over before she gets hurt.”

His eyes travel down my body, although I already know Habosu find all females other than their own kind repellant. They light up when he sees the rounding of my stomach.

“And a female who carries Gryn young,” he says gleefully. “My masters will be pleased.”

Could this Habosu be any more hench-alien? It’s like he’s been programmed or something…

Which is when it hits me. The way Maxym described Klynn as being rendered unconscious, the way he was affected by the proximity of the Bogarok the second time he encountered them.

“Mind control,” I say out loud.

“What?” The hench-Habosu is taken by surprise at my announcement.

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