Mated to the Warg (Wargs of the Outland, #1)

The Oubliette

The vishwa dragged Rowan over the edge. She hung from her chains, kicking and twisting as the drone spider-crawled down the wall. At least he hadn't thrown her over like a sack of night soil. Her ribs were already injured, and her head was still throbbing. A fall might've knocked her out. Warg healing was fast, but not fast enough.

Merritt and Meera were sitting huddled on a small ledge just above the waterline. It was a narrow length of rectangular rock hemmed in by rapid water and sheer walls of rock. The narrowest width was abutted by the same drop-off the vishwa was currently scuttling down. It was an inescapable trap. An oubliette, accessible only from above—and only if you were a vishwa! If the water didn't kill you, the queen would.

Rowan decided she'd rather drown than watch Hessa eat Thrax. The thought shot through her like poison, a debilitating insidious thing that seeped into her bones. She tried to focus on something else lest it numb her to death.

From this new vantage point, she could finally see the eggery. A privilege that'd only cost her her freedom. Things had happened so fast when she'd been caught that she hadn't noticed it before now. It was a giant egg, hewn from black Myrkheim rock. Borne out of the depthless, swerving water like a towering island. There were strange widow-like vents spread in a spiraling way towards the top, but the lowest one was high above the waterline. Too high to reach even if she could swim across that terrible water. Which, obviously, she couldn't. Nor was there any way to climb from the roaring moat up the smooth rock. Only a single stairway, like a sky bridge, connected this strange eggery to the main crescent mother chamber.

When the vishwa reached the jagged bottom, Meera and Merritt scrambled out of the way. Rowan barely made a sound as the drone dangled her from the wall by her iron chains. She let loose a cry of frustration, wishing she could shove her thumb in its eye—let the nixrath burn its brains. She was eye level with its dead gaze. Then it pressed two links together, one over the other.

With a sharp gasp, she watched it raise her dagger high above its head as though it meant to stab her. She squeezed her eyes shut as the dagger hurtled downward. But the vishwa plunged her mirok dagger deep into the rock, impaling the wall through the iron links. She was now fixed to the rock with iron and mirok ivory.

"Bastard!" she spat, aiming a kick between its legs. The pincers flared in a weird grin as though she'd merely tickled it's sexless groin. "Ugh!" She gave up, shoulders slumping as it withdrew up the rocky overhang.

It stumbled a little, looking slightly enfeebled. Rowan threw a vengeful glare at it clawed its way up the wall, knowing the prologue proximity to her ring had enervated it. Would that it had killed the thing altogether.

She gritted her teeth, pain shooting through her shoulders. A few hours of this torture and her bones would slip out of their sockets! She tried to point her toes towards the ground, but it was just out of reach. With a frustrated sob, she stopped fighting. Hanging meat, that's what she was now.

Poor Meera was limping and bleeding from her head, but she hurried over nonetheless and hugged Rowan around the waist. She held her up as best she could, taking some of Rowan's weight. It helped a little.

Meera'a tear-stained face was trembling with a smile. "I hate that you're here, but...it's so good to see you, milady!"

Rowan's head dropped back against the rock, her eyes filling with tears. "Stop calling me that, Meera. I'm just Rowan. Useless, stupid Rowan."

"But you're my lady! You always have been and always will be." Meera hugged her waist even tighter. "And you will get us out of here. I know you will. You're never without a plan!"

But this time she was. Her head was a complete blank except for the black spots swimming in vision. Her mind numb but for the throbbing in her skull. She turned her face away, not wanting to destroy Meera's fragile hope. But with her face averted, she was now looking at Merritt. He was sitting with his knees under his chin, his arms shivering around his shins.