Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
I get to overhear a lot of things. Some of them don’t make sense because there’s no context, but others do. Vulcan isn’t used to being down here, but everybody seems to know Vendis already. Interesting.
Finally, the bumping and swinging and general journeying stops. Vendis speaks. This time, he does so with a tremor in his voice
“Wrath. We have done what others could not do. We have found one of the female humans and brought her to you, just as you commanded.”
“That’s fortunate for you, Vendis, given the state of your debt.” I hear a voice that I don’t think belongs to Wrath. Why? I can’t say. A gut feeling, I guess. It’s just a little too refined, a little too snarky.
“Show me.”
Okay, that’s Wrath. That voice has to be his. There’s more authority in it than I have ever heard in my life.
I am tipped out of the sack, poured onto a packed dirt floor like a bushel of potatoes brought to market. I come out in a tangle of limbs, taking several seconds to right myself enough to crouch on my hands and knees.
This is Wrath.
He is a very tall, very broad, silvery gray saurian with piercing green eyes, and a very large horn emerging from the center of his forehead. There is a bony flare at the back of his skull that goes down to his shoulders, protecting the back of his neck. He is built like a tank, so much larger and more imposing than any of the saurians I have met so far.
“That is indeed a human,” he says.
There is a charisma about him that I cannot ignore. He has a certain energy about him that makes me feel even smaller than I am, even weaker than I am, and even more helpless before him. When he speaks, his voice sounds like the earth itself is moving about. HIs voice is deep, resonant, and gravelly. Tectonic. That’s the word.
This can’t possibly be the saurian I was supposed to act as bait for. He could have anybody he wanted, of any gender, and any species. There is a ruthlessness to him that is very appealing, and frightening at the same time.
He moves and I feel my interior quiver. Wrath is the absolute antithesis of me. He is my polar antonym. He is massive and strong and charismatic and effective, and people respect and fear him. I am the opposite of all those things, and I know he is going to be disappointed when he sees me.
Wrath looks me up and down as I huddle inside the robes Vendis gave me. This is the last little scrap of safety I have. I am so glad I am not standing here half-naked. I can barely contain the trembling of my limbs as it is.
“So. This is the human female I have been hearing so many rumors about. The one who does exist, and then does not, and then mysteriously does again. The one who was in the park, the lake, the metal shop…” He recounts my previous locations in a gruff tone.
“I get around,” I admit. “I mean, not like that. I don’t get around in the… that sense. But I have been around the city, well, mostly the pond…”
“Enough babbling, girl.”
I am cut off by another saurian. He’s the one who spoke first, needling Vendis about his debt. This one has incredible black scales and wings to match. His eyes are golden and he looks like a dragon, though I’m sure that’s not what he is. He is very tall, and his tail is very long. He looks like a villain, in the most traditional sense. I sense waves of pure malevolence seeping from him. Notably, I have never heard of him. That’s strange. Lettie and the others talked about all the known figures in the saurian world. They definitely never mentioned this guy.
“Who are you?” I ask the question bluntly and artlessly.
Dragon eyes narrow at me. “You dare ask me who I am?”
“Sorry?”
“You are being interrogated,” the tall, evil alien says. “You will answer the questions you are asked, and you will not ask questions.”
“Okay.”
“You weren’t asked a question!”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“Again, not a question!”
“Easy, Zin. She is too scared to follow orders. Look at her. Plump little thing with big, frightened eyes.”
That is Wrath’s assessment of me. Plump. He doesn’t seem to mind that. There’s no disgust in his voice as he utters the archaic word. He seems pleased by it, if anything. I feel my face flush and I avoid his brilliant green glare.
I am still feeling very tremulous in his presence. He has a certain aura, an energy that fills the space. He’s not as aggressive as I expected him to be. He’s not being mean at all. The other one, Zin, he is the one providing the menace. His golden eyes have not left me since I entered, and in spite of Wrath’s insistence that he leave me alone, I get the sense that he might not.