Page 37 of A Scar in the Bone
Not, apparently, the reaction he wanted. He leaned forward, hissing into my face, “I intend to whip the dragon out of you this time, so there will be no mistake about what you are. Everyone will see. All the eyes looking at me now thinking me mad and you the unfortunate victim of my wrath … Well, they shall soon know the truth.”
He stepped back then.
Without looking away from me, he snapped his fingers. “Find a tree.”
The crowd parted to make a path for us. Two soldiers draggedme off until they found what they were looking for. A single tree standing in the middle of the camp.
My thick tunic was pulled over my head. Someone supplied rope. I frowned down at it. The tether did not look like the usual ropes. This rope was pale but glistening, practically glowing, almost like pearl struck by sunlight.
“Ah, this?” Stig shook the coiled loops. “This is not your ordinary rope. This is dragon rope … made from the sinew of your kind. You’ll not break free from this. Ever.”
Bile rose up in my throat. My wrists were bound separately, the sinew of my slain ancestors used against me, no consideration given for tightness. Hard hands seized the back of my under tunic and yanked down, rending the fabric in a loud rip, baring me to the waist.
My hands went to the front of my shift, holding it protectively over me. Apparently, I still possessed some sense of modesty.
It was a horrible echo of another time, another place. All those instances when I’d pressed my sagging gown to my chest with my back exposed to the air and to eyes and the blows. I could almost hear Kelby’s panting breaths. Blinking hard, I shoved away the memory.
The soldiers looked to Stig, awaiting final instructions.
“Bind her,” he decreed, motioning to the tree.
I was shoved chest first into the tree, forced to wrap my arms around its width and hug it. The circumference was so wide that my fingers did not meet, so they tethered me in place using more dragon rope, connecting it to the bindings cutting into my wrists.
I pressed my cheek into the scratchy bark, grateful for its solidness, for something to lean against.
And just like that, I was back.
Full circle.
Once again, the whipping girl.
10
TAMSYN
STIG APPEARED AT MY SIDE. “COMFORTABLE?”
I did not satisfy him with a reply, but that did not keep my breath from shuddering out past my lips, rasping against the tree where my cheek pressed.
“You know,” he continued in a far too casual tone, “you don’t have to go through this. Admit the truth. Show yourself,” he coaxed with a silken tongue. “Tell me if there are others and I can spare you the pain. I’ll make it quick. You won’t suffer.”
I’ll make it quick. You won’t suffer.But his meaning was unmistakable.You will die.This day. That was inevitable. He would kill me.
The only question was how much I would suffer first.
“You’re not unhinged,” I said with a crack of a smile, contradicting my earlier statement. “You’re just evil.” Somehow I had never seen this, but I was seeing it now.
“The only thing evil is you.” He nodded at me, a feverish light flooding his eyes. “You and your kind.” He stepped back from me, then and called out, “Bring me the flog.”
A collective murmur rolled through the growing crowd. Bodies pressed tighter around us, blotting out the light from the surrounding campfires.
Darkness shrouded us, the air turning colder, my hot breath gusting past my lips.
Suddenly Alise’s shrill voice rose up on the night. Evidently, she had not obeyed the order to remain in the tent.
“Stig! No!” I couldn’t look behind me to see her, but the soundof her voice was closer now. “You cannot do this to her. Not to Tamsyn!”
There was a sound of rushing feet and then Alise’s swift sob, and I imagined Stig had gotten in her way, stopping her from reaching me.
