Page 20 of The Withering Dawn
One of the men lunged and when I sidestepped to evade him, I only ended up in the arms of the other one.
I knew pain. I understood it. I’d been enduring various forms of it since I was a girl. Everyone knew a level of pain throughout their lives. I’d known very few moments without it.
It didn’t mean I enjoyed it. And I enjoyed the feeling of a blade slicing through the flesh of my tongue even less. I’d only just gotten my voice back after so long and I was already attached.
I began thrashing, trying to get away.
Perhaps I should have eaten the broth and meat Nazario had given me. My stubborn rebellion prevented that, but the extra sustenance would have done me good at that moment. I hadn’t felt strong in years, but I knew I should have been able to fight those men if I was at my best.
When the second one grabbed hold of my kicking legs, I screamed, reaching back to pull at the stringy hair of my captor.
“He’ll hear!” one of the men said.
“Not over the storm, he won’t,” the doctor said. “We all agreed this must be done. The captain is not in his right mind.”
He moved into the cell as the men threw me to the ground. One pinned my arms above my head and the other sat on my legs, keeping me firmly in place.
“No,” I said. “No, please! I won’t hurt anyone!”
“Do not listen to her words, gentlemen,” the doctor said calmly, grabbing my jaw with one hand and squeezing, pinching my cheeks against my molars until pain radiated through my face.
I growled, opening my mouth only to snap at his fingers with my teeth. I felt feral and desperate. He drew back his hand and flicked it like I’d actually gotten him and then shook his head.
“We may need to take her teeth,” he said nonchalantly.
“The captain will not like this,” someone said.
“The captain is under her spell. He does not know what he’s doing. We must do this for all our sakes.”
I squirmed anxiously, whipping my head from one side to the other trying to avoid grabbing hands. When the doctor caught my chin again, he managed to shove something between my teeth, preventing me from biting down. Straddling me with his full weight, he hovered, the tongs and the small blade poised over my mouth. I screamed again, praying to whatever god would listen to free me of my own stupid decisions. I should not have climbed the net and gotten on that ship. I should have fled and surrendered to the mercy of the ocean. At least then I would not have built a fantasy around Nazario and his kindness.
I bucked and struggled against my captors, aware the doctor had a blade in his hand and could cut me at any moment. I didn’t care. When I felt the tongs clamp over my tongue I bit down hard, my jaw crushing whatever he’d shoved into my mouth and splintering it between my teeth.
“Hold her!” the doctor yelled.
“We are!”
He tugged on the tongs and in a motion too fast to catch, sliced into the side of my tongue. The burn of the blade sent my body into a frenzy. I used everything I had to lift my hips and throw him off of me just as the sea tossed the ship at a sharp angle. The doctor rolled into the bars with a loud thud and the men lost their balance, allowing me to wriggle free. I flipped over onto my stomach and pushed to my feet, the metallic tang of blood filling my mouth.
Someone reached out as I ran, catching my ankle. I went careening to the ground near the base of the steps, but whoever it was lost their grip with just one kick and I began to climb.
I emerged from the hold to see chaos above. The sky was dark and angry. Water was blowing from side to side. The ocean rose up like wings on either side of the vessel as the ship dropped against a thick wave. I heard shouting behind me and whipped around to see Nazario stepping away from the wheel, his eyes fixed on me. Cathal was with him and took over as he marched toward the steps leading to the main deck. With the sound of the doctor and his goons behind me, I could think of nowhere else to flee and instinctively ran toward Nazario, part of me still pleading for the mercy I knew he was capable of.
He reached the bottom of the steps and extended his hands to stop me.
“How did you get out?” he asked, not ignoring the blood seeping down my chin.
“Stop her!” Henry barked.
Nazario’s eyes tore upward to see the three men and, against all expectations, he shoved me behind him, putting himself between me and the doctor.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
“That creature must be stopped!” Henry shouted over the swelling storm.
I clung to the back of Nazario’s coat, glancing up to see Cathal tying off the wheel as if he was getting ready to abandon it and come to his captain’s aid.
“I gave no orders to touch her,” Nazario said.
