PART I
1
Blades.
Thousands of serrated edges…biting…tearing…shearing through muscles, veins, organs.
Agony. The agony.
“…coming along…healing…”
Voices.Who?Dreams.Where?
Nay.
Nightmares.
“…long do you give…?”
Darkness.So much darkness. Body…floating…excruciating…
Can’t move.
“…doesn’t leave. Keep him here…need him conscious.”
Thick, tarry darkness encompassed him, filled his lungs, his mouth. There was no distinction between sight and shade, sensation and pain.
Were his eyes open?
Did he move?
What faces belonged to those ghostly voices that filled his mind?
Where was he? Whatwasthis limbo?
Goddess, thepain!
If ’twas consciousness he suffered—this, this…agony—’twasn’t where he cared to stay. This in-between was too much to bear. What idea of movement he had speared razor-sharp pain through every vessel in his body. ’Twas hellfire’s river scorching and searing every bloody cell of his being, melting the very fabric of his soul.
Not dead. Death would be far more kind.
Vibrations wracked his head. Voices surrounded him in this sea of torture. Rushed. Frantic.
Hollow. Distant.
“…him more. Another pulse. Keep him awake…to bring…”
Goddess, nay! Let me die!
An unwelcome attack on his brutalized system drew ribbons of red into the blackness of his mind. Those tentaclesslithered and curled, closer to where he believed he lay suspended.
Was he still breathing?
A new burst of acute agony enveloped him. The blackness beat back the red. He screamed in this realm he lay. Screamed, his soul tortured and punished.
So cold…
“Bring him back. He’s…last…to Daeanna…”
