Another scene from Only A Name. Still pretty rough since it only had a basic edit on it. But again it shows what kind of world Scat and the boys are coming from.
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Scat spit at him, hoping to hit his face. She succeeded only in hitting his boots. He laughed, and drew the now dirty boot back. He kicked her in the mouth. Scat spit blood and teeth as her head rocked back on her neck. She blinked as stars once again clouded her vision.
“Don’t think that I intend to keep you alive any longer than it takes me to pry the information out of you,” Shiny Boots said conversationally as he wiped his boot none-too-gently off on her shoulder. “You’re worth more to me dead but the information you have is virtually priceless.” He and the other guard walked off.
“Scat, you okay?” Colwyn asked.
Scat spit blood again. “Bastard just knocked a couple teeth out,” she said. “I’ll live. How about you?”
“Trussed up like a pig for the slaughter but alive for now. Manus is unconscious and they dragged Kieran off a while ago,” Colwyn said. “My guess is that’s him we’re hearing.”
“These the same bastards that got Dermot?” Scat asked.
“The one voice, the guy who just kicked you, sounds very familiar,” Colwyn said. “This probably is the same group.”
“So, any thoughts on how we’re supposed to get out of here?” Scat asked.
Colwyn lowered his voice. “How are you for magic?” he asked.
Scat winced. “Not good, Col,” she said, lowering her voice as well. “Summoning without any kind of preparation takes a lot of energy. I already used up a significant portion of my magic tending to the sick. Everything I had left went into destroying the house.”
“Damn,” Colwyn said. “I’m about tapped out too from rescuing Dermot.”
“No one is expecting us, are they?” Scat asked.
“We weren’t even supposed to be in this area. We tracked the bastards that captured Dermot nearly a sennit before we rescued him,” Colwyn said.
It was what he didn’t say that worried Scat. Without her magic, or outside help of some kind, there was a strong chance that none of them would be getting out of this alive. Neither Manus nor Kieran held even a fraction of the potential that Scat and Colwyn did. With both of them still suffering mage drain, there was little they’d be able to do.
Scat tested the ropes she was tied with. The way the rope along her back was connected there wasn’t much chance she would be able to work her hands free. As she tried to shift her position she discovered that the ropes were around her knees as well as her ankles. “Damn,” she muttered. “This isn’t how I planned on leaving Hilstgate.”
Colwyn snorted. “This isn’t how I planned on seeing you again,” he said.
“Depending on how – thorough – they are, I might be able to pull enough of the low magic out of the area,” Scat said. “But that also depends on if they’ve got mages of their own too. Any mage will be able to sense what I’m doing and move to block it. Too many times and it won’t take them long to figure out which one of us is casting the magic.”
“They don’t seem to know that I’ve got magic,” Colwyn said. “They keep referring to you as a witch, though.”
“That makes me think that they’ve had contact with someone in the city who’s seen me work,” Scat said.
One of the guards chose that moment to come over. He kicked them both in the side. “No talking,” he said. “Or the next time it’ll be your jaws we break.” When he was satisfied the two of them were sufficiently cowed he wandered off.
How close are we to Hilstgate, Scat wondered. There are those in the city who wouldn’t stand for this if they saw it. But we’d have to be pretty damned close for us to get out of this with help from the city guard. Unless – and now Scat began to wonder if she’d been too injudicious with her power use – it was one of the city guard who’d helped get them caught.
Scat risked a small probe along the lines of power she could sense humming just beneath the surface of the ground. If this group did have a mage they’d try to trace the probe. As low as her power was there was a good chance they wouldn’t know it was from her.
Something emerged from the dark, striking hard against the side of her head. Scat cried out in pain. “No magic, witch,” a voice snarled in her ear. “Or the next time it’ll be your head I take off and to hell with my lord and his conspiracies.”
That’s…I know that voice, Scat thought dazedly. “Eamon?”
A squat, ugly beast of a man settled down on his haunches in front of her. “Thought you’d seen the last of me, did you, Mistress Kellyn?” he sneered. “Should’ve left me to die. Now I’m cursed because you used your witchcraft to save me.” He moved and Scat was able to see by the fire that the arm she’d so carefully reconstructed was mangled beyond repair. “Had to have it broken again just so I could get rid of your taint.”
“Take yourself elsewhere, witch hunter,” Shiny Boots said, coming over to check on the prisoners.
“She was trying to use magic,” Eamon said. “I was just telling her that was a stupid idea.”
“I said leave,” Shiny Boots said. “I know you want to kill her, and I won’t allow that until after I’ve gotten my questions answered.” Eamon slouched off. “Do not try any of your tricks again, witch, or I will let Eamon play with you. He owes you quite a lot, from what he tells me.”
“I saved his arm and his life,” Scat said.
“You should’ve left him to die then,” Shiny Boots said. “It would have saved you a lot of trouble. Though it wouldn’t have saved you from me.” The lord wandered off again, leaving Scat alone in the dark with her thoughts.
Scat dozed fitfully, woken several times by Kieran’s cries as he was systematically tortured for information. From what she could tell, Kieran wasn’t budging and this was making their captors very angry. She caught Colwyn’s hurried whisper to Manus to keep silent. Then she slipped into unconsciousness again.
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