Page 80 of Wicked Thieves
“Physician. Fancy seeing you here amongst the rest of these traitors. I wage Councilman Santir sent you again.” The Watchman snickered, the sound grating on her ears as she peered through the sliver in the door where faint light granted her the opportunity to see into the corridor.
The sound of footsteps and the rattling of chains scuffling across the limestone floors greeted her before a too-thin man wearing tattered, soiled clothes stepped into her line of vision. A long beard took up much of his hollow face, and his eyes were lacking any sort of light. It was nothing short of a miracle that he was standing, let alone walking.
The man begged in his feeble voice. “Please. My family. You said you would take me to see my family.”
“Of course I will,” Horia eased out, much like a parent would to their child. “Come now.”
Anelize held her breath as Horia and the prisoner were led past the doorway by the Watchman. Their ascent up the stairs agonizingly slow as the prisoner struggled to move any faster. Anelize only allowed herself to move when she sensed that Horia was no longer nearby, his heart fading into the night.
Finally feeling safe enough to breathe, Anelize released an exhale.
“Is someone there?” came from somewhere behind her. Anelize tensed before slowly turning. Nothingness. With the door closed everything was doused in pitch black. The voice—a woman’s voice—called again, “Is someone there?”
That was when she heard the rattling of chains dancing and chiming from every direction all at once. As if awakened by her presence.
Anelize swallowed thickly. “Hello?”
“Is someone there?” the woman repeated, the same pitch as before. As if mindlessly repeating the words.
“I’m here. Where are you?” Anelize asked as she stepped farther into the room. Her heart lodged tightly in her throat.
This time, when the woman repeated the words, it came from somewhere to her right. Anelize turned to peer into the darkness, waiting to see who laid beyond.
A pale hand with long cracked fingernails and boney fingers shot toward her face, and she gasped, stumbling away until her back hit the stone wall behind her. The sound of something clashing with metal rang out in a thunderous wave as she stared wide eyed at the woman standing behind the bars of a cell. Her outstretched hand swiping the air where she’d been standing, her eyes wild and desperate as she stared straight ahead through the long strands of her hair covering her gaunt face.
“Is someone there, is someone there, is someone there?” The woman sobbed as she continued swiping at the air where Anelize had been standing. Her eyes frantically searching.
“She cannot see. Nor will she stop that incessantyammering,”another voice drawled, making her flinch as she looked to her right where a man with shorn hair was sitting along thebars, cross-legged and hunched forward. His own eyes lifeless as they stared at her. Not in desperation, but out of curiosity. A predator assessing his prey. He looked no better than the woman, but at the very least, he sounded coherent enough to form other words.
“She does this every time we have a visitor.” The man smiled, granting her a view of his yellowed teeth beyond his cracked lips. “But you are new, aren’t you?”
The woman eventually settled only enough for her to drop her hand and disappear back into the shadows, her voice saying those words repeatedly in a soft melody.
“Are you…Vedrans?”
“Vedrans.” The man took in a sharp breath before he released a haunting cackling laugh, “Yes, that’s right. We are Vedrans. Mighty, powerful, fearsomeVedrans.No one is coming. No one will remember. But we will remember. We will never forget.”
Between the man’s laughter and the woman’s melody, they started a dissonance throughout the cells that jarred her enough to get back to her feet. She turned toward the door, needing to get out of this place. Get away from the horrors in this cell as bile rose up her throat.
That was when she heard it. The heartbeat she knew better than anyone else’s. The one she would hear even in her dreams.
Anelize stopped short and turned back toward the cells. Her hands trembled as she reached them out before her. Her breaths sawed through her lips as she followed the sound of that heartbeat. So close yet so far for her to reach.
“Enid?” Anelize whispered into the darkness. When herhands brushed over the cold bite of the metal bars, she flinched. Chains rattled again, and she waited. Certain that the faint warm glow of golden light, like the sun, belonged to her sister. There was no one else like her. Her voice shook as she said again, “Enid.”
Was she hurt or asleep? Why wasn’t she answering?
“Anya?” When a soft, delicate sound rasped her name, Anelize very nearly released a sob of sheer, knee buckling relief. The tears that flooded her eyes were instant and all too consuming for her to try to stop them. “Is that truly you? Am I dreaming?”
“Yes,” she breathed out. “It’s me.”
Chains rattled again, dragging over stone slowly, so slowly it made every passing second sheer agony. It was so dark she could hardly see her own hands as she stretched them between the bars. Only serving as a reminder of the reality she would soon face if this damn curse wasn’t broken soon.
“Am I dreaming?” Enid asked once more, and for a moment Anelize panicked that she would be just as far gone as the Vedran woman behind her. When she spoke again, tears rolled down her cheeks.“Anya.”
The feel of something soft touching her fingertips made her tense until she gently closed her fingers around what she realized was hair. Golden hair in thick curls. Anelize whimpered as she brushed her fingers through her sister’s hair before finding her face. Feeling her cheek, running her thumb over it, as she brushed away cold wet tears. She was so cold she could have been a corpse.
“Oh, Enid.” Anelize’s tears were unending streams from her horror and sadness.
