Unwilling to Succumb (The Dragon Lorde #2)

Chapter Fifteen: Inn of Expectant Mothers

Tortured screams shook the chamber, sending a chill through two young men, Alexander and Elijah, as they stood by the door. In the middle of the room, laid a woman, tied to a wooden table, her limbs shaking against the bonds that held her.

Face slick with sweat and fingers curled into his palms, panted Thale, as he stabbed at the cloudy walls of the women's mind, with his own. But no sooner had he graced the barriers of her mind, before he was thrown out.

"Let me in!" Thale roared, into the women's ear, her screams instantly fading to whimpers.

One week.

One week had passed and he still had yet to break her. Time was running out. Lorde Vincent was growing impatient. And he? Lorde Thale? He was growing very, very angry.

Of all the men he had tortured, never had he imagined a woman to be the most difficult. But it was the truth and he to move forward, for he must break her. Because this woman was the key. The key to everything.

Thale's boots clicked against the stone floor, as he circled the table and the woman tied to it. What was he missing? Which step had he overlooked?

Then Thale's cold heart pinged.

Why of course. The last and finally step was, love.

Love and all the torments that belong with it.

Thale chuckled humorlessly, before stepping closer to the woman. "There are many weaknesses in this world, whether it be pride, greed.... or even love. But the fragment of this delightful awareness, is everyone has a weakness. Including you."

The woman's brown eyes, now dull and lifeless, sparked back to life.

Thale smiled in satisfaction. "Unfortunately for you." He brushed a hand across the sticky skin of her cheek. "I happen to know what it is."

"N-no." The woman croaked out; her lips shriveled like dried prunes.

Thale placed a finger on the woman's lips, silencing her. "Oh, but I do. Your weakness is as predictable as any other, pathetic human being." Thale began to pace around the table, again. "Physical pain isn't always the answer, not when there is way to drive pain in the heart and for you, there is a way."

"You see, your father has come to say 'hello' perhaps to you, or to the delightful items around the room. Though I believe you wouldn't want that, now would you?" Thale stopped his pacing, burning his gaze into the women's. "You have a choice, my love. Either let me in, or hear the screams of your father, as he is ripped apart in front of you."

The women clawed against the robes bounding her, her eyes ablaze, as she mumbled under her breath.

"What's your choice, love?"

"I-l'll let you in. I'll let you i-in."

A wicked smile grew on Thale's face. "I thought you might." Then he turned his attention towards his apprentices at the door. "This is how you break a prisoner. This is how you win."

The two young men's eyes were widened against the candlelight, with black pupils smaller then drops of ink. Either in fear or fascination, Thale did not care, for he never desired to teach these bumbling fools in the first place.

Thale's mind reached out towards the woman, slowly driving his way through the dark fog of her barriers. But rather being pushed out, he was sucked in. Pulled fiercely into her mind with a soft 'pop' in his ears.

A mind is a rather peculiar thing, much like an ancient library adored by its wrinkled possessor. There was no sky above or ground below, there was only darkness. Apart from the infinity of shelves filling the blurry darkness, alit with a warm light. Whether the shelves were vertical, horizontal, upside down, or floating inches off of the unseeing ground, it all depended on the organization of their bearer.