The rope tugged at my wrists as I struggled to get a foothold on the floor. He had tied me just high enough that my toes could reach, alleviating some of the strain on my outstretched arms, but not enough so I could plant my feet.

  My vision slowly returned, hazy at first. Then it cleared in the center, remaining blurry on the edges. I glanced to my right. Avian wiggled and pulled at her rope. To my left, Kiri hung silently with her eyes closed. I wasn’t sure if she was unconscious, but her chest movements confirmed she was at least breathing. Sani hung across from us, by himself. While Kiri and Avian were almost close enough to kick, he was three times as far. Why did Dante separate him from us?

  Behind Sani, the five young apprentices shuffled in place, their feet dragging against the floor. Ropes extended from their backs but weren’t tied around their waist or chest. Instead, they seemed to be attached to some sort of metal ring. The ring must be stitched into their leather vests. This didn’t look like something Dante threw together for this occasion. Did he normally keep them anchored to the wall?

  By the enthusiasm with which the apprentices pulled, either they didn’t comprehend the restrictions to their movement, or they wanted so badly to get at us they didn’t care.

  “It’s about time Layla sent me a human.” Dante stepped into view. He held a butcher knife, running its blade against a sharpening stone. “The forgotten haven’t been able to provide another as I had insisted.”

  “You’re bluffing. The forgotten wouldn’t strike a deal with you. They take, they don’t trade.”

  He shook his head. “They are yaksha, like you and me. As such, they need to eat and would love to learn a spell that makes them need less food to satisfy that urge.” He scoffed. “Mallma didn’t have the stomach to do what was needed. They could have had their dream for the small price of a human heart, but they baulked.”

  My eyes widened. “Are you using body parts of intelligent beings?” I shook my head. “It is against the beliefs of the True Blood Wigons and the Nasar Wigons.” My arms trembled as I pulled at my rope. “You are a Void Wigon!”

  “What I am is no longer your concern.” He brought ingredients to his table and started to set them up. “Why you are still alive should be your only worry.” He glared at me. “If this spell works, I won’t need you and your little friends anymore. I’ll give you a swift death. But if it doesn’t.” He exposed a toothy grin. “Well, meat is meat.”

  Trying not to think about becoming a meal, I watched as he went back to setting up his table. He planned on using Sani’s heart. But why not just cut it out of him now? He must need it to be fresh. He’ll kill Sani at the last moment, right when he needs the heart. That gives us some time.

  I wiggled my head and stared at Sani, trying to get his attention. Once he finally locked eyes with me, I pointed my head at my pile of puke. Just as Dante had suggested, three rats were eating the blue pile. His holdzilei wasn’t regenerated, but I hoped he had enough to give us a miracle.

  At first, Sani’s expression conveyed the immediate reaction I expected, he almost got sick watching them eat the chunks that weren’t well digested. Then his eyes widened, making me think he realized what I had been suggesting. He took a long breath and concentrated. His eyes turned white.

  One rat stopped eating and scurried to Avian. She kicked as it tried to climb her feet.

  Picking her to untie first made sense, since she was the more capable fighter. But she also wasn’t aware of the plan. “Look,” I said, pointing my head at Sani.

  She glanced at Sani. A look of realization formed on her face. She stopped fighting the rat.

  “Did you say something?” Dante walked over as the rat rounded Avian, moving behind her and scurrying up her back. It started chewing the rope.

  “I was trying to get your attention.” I paused. “So I could explain that we don’t have to be enemies. We can get you another human before you starve. Then I’ll come back and be your new apprentice.”

  He leaned close enough that I could smell the rot on his breath, which was somehow stronger than the unbearable odor of this room. “You’re past the teachable age, plus you’re not bright enough for spell-craft. I manipulated you and your crew without breaking a mental sweat.”

  The rope holding Avian’s wrists started to fray.

  Good fighter or not, she would face Dante unarmed. He had moved quickly with his staff when we fought, and she didn’t see well enough to find a weapon in time to even the odds. I scanned the room, my eyes locking on her daggers, which were in the corner. “What do you think Layla will do when she realizes your double-cross? Perhaps she doesn’t care what happens to me, Kiri, and Sani, but Avian is one of her own. You know she is different. That is why I don’t see our belongings, but noticed you kept her daggers in the corner by your bed.”

  Avian nodded as her bindings broke free.

  I wrapped my fingers around the rope and pulled as hard as I could, bending my waist at the same time. Before he could move, I wrapped my legs around Dante’s stomach, locking my ankles and squeezing.

  Dante punched me while struggling to pry off my legs. “You think that will work?” He pushed harder than I thought he could. My ankles started to separate. “Perhaps I let them eat you while you still live.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Preoccupied with me, he didn’t see Avian dart to the corner. Her swift movements were silent, like she skipped across clouds. Once she had the daggers, I let out a loud, high-pitched sound.

  “Stop that,” Dante said.

  She aimed her dagger at my head first, zeroing in on the noise, then she adjusted her angle and let the dagger fly. It nicked one of my fingers as it sliced through the rope. My body fell backward. I flexed my abs to keep from hitting my head, using my legs and Dante to hold myself up.

  His head turned as he realized what was happening. “You think you can defeat me?” He reached for his powder sack. Then he poured some onto his palm. Grinning, he lifted his hand.

  Before he could blow, I did. Sending the powder back into his face. “You won’t get me with that twice.”

  Dante clawed at his eyes. “Foolish boy!”

  Avian threw a dagger, striking him in the back of his head with the hilt. His eyes rolled back in his head as his legs gave. He crashed to the floor, bringing me with him. My back hit first, knocking the wind out of my lungs. I unlocked my legs and slid them from around him. Then I spun and moved forward, jumping on Dante and pinning his body to the ground.

  He didn’t struggle. His eyes were closed, but his chest rose with each breath.

  When I got to my feet, Avian was cutting Kiri’s ropes.

  Sani dangled from the rope, not moving. I rushed to him and lifted his body. No movement. I put my ear against his chest, hearing a slight heartbeat. “I think he still lives.”

  Avian said, “He likely used most of his life-force. He’ll be out until he regenerates enough.” Her tense body relaxed. “He must have ended his connection with the rat when he still had enough holdzilei to live.”

  She cut Sani down while I lowered him to the floor.

  Then we both grabbed ropes and tied Dante, pulling him up until his feet didn’t touch the ground.

  Avian picked up the butcher knife he had dropped. She used it to cut off his clothing.

  “What are you doing?” Kiri asked.

  “We don’t know what tricks he has sewn into the garments.” She removed several hidden potions and two sacks with different powders.

  Dante’s naked body reminded me of a shaved owl. After making sure he remained unconscious, we gathered our supplies and rifled through what little he had that wasn’t garbage. I put his mortar and pestle in my bag, considering at first to disassemble his crafting table, but it didn’t look like one designed for easy travel.

  “You rob me?” Dante said, finally coming to.

  “Consider it payment for our trouble,” Kiri said.

  He nodded toward Sani. “I can heal him.”

  Avian shook her head, “None of your potions will regenerate his life-force. Nor are you human, so he can’t skim yours.” She put the butcher knife to his throat. “What went wrong with your spell?”

  “Why would I tell you anything?” He spat out a crooked laugh.

  “Because I will let you starve to death if you don’t.” She looked him up and down. “It won’t take long.”

  Dante peered at me. “They aren’t yaksha like you and me. Can you trust a Fidi, human and elf.” He scoffed. “Have you never heard what the bards sing of them?”

  “After what one had to say about me, I wouldn’t take their words as truth.”

  “Get me down from here and let me have the human’s heart. I’ll teach you everything about spell-craft that you’ll ever need to know.” He grinned. “A winter with me, and you’ll be more powerful than any yaksha from Mallma.”

  I glanced at the five apprentices. “I’ve seen what happens to those foolish enough to work with you. They are different from you. Mindless. Driven only by hunger. What you made them drink was different. Not a failed formula, but one meant to turn them into what they are.”

  He grinned. “Very perceptive. Perhaps you aren’t as dull as I had thought. That is why I won’t turn on you like I did them. They never had your potential.”

  Kiri shoved a dirty rag into his mouth. “A moment ago he was too old and not bright enough to be trainable.” She pulled a rope taunt in his mouth, then tied it behind his head, keeping the gag in place. “You likely saw the blue on that rag. I didn’t want to waste a perfectly good swatch of cloth, so I used it to clean up the puke and rat droppings first.” She snickered.

  “I think I know what happened.” I locked eyes with him. “Nod if I’m right. If you cooperate, perhaps you won’t die from starvation while dangling from a rope in this disgusting place.” I paced, holding my hands behind my back. “We know what you already claimed. Mallma refused to give you a human, because they wouldn’t allow the use of a human heart. But you knew it was the only way to make your spell.”

  Dante grunted. Then nodded.

  “You made a deal with the Forgotten. They’d give you a human, and you would tell them the secrets of the spell.”

  He nodded again.

  “But you didn’t want them to have the recipe, because they could reverse it. You didn’t want Mallma to have it either. You planned on using it yourself.”

  He shrugged. Then nodded.

  “The Forgotten gave you a human, and you made your spell. The reason you didn’t have one of your apprentices try it, is that you knew the Forgotten wouldn’t give you a second human unless you gave them the recipe. But if you took the potion, you could run from here, needing very little food.”

  He turned his head away.

  “But you were wrong about the heart. The human heart wasn’t what you needed.”

  He looked back at me and choked on his rag, trying to chuckle.

  “That can’t be it,” Avian whispered. “Why would he want Sani’s heart if it wasn’t the right recipe?”

  “He needed a human heart to reverse the spell.”

  “How did he turn his five apprentices unless he had more potions?”

  I scratched my chin. “Maybe he made more than one potion. He drank his while it was fresh, which is why he kept his mind.”

  Kiri said, “Why would he give an apprentice a potion that didn’t work?”

  I thought for a moment. “It was his first time trying it. He might have thought it didn’t work because he took it too soon.” An idea snapped in my head. “What if he was so certain because he knew the potion didn’t react in a way a human heart should have made it react? He wasn’t human, was he?”

  Dante’s eyes widened for a split second, then his face went expressionless. Perhaps I was onto something. Or he wanted me to think I was.

  “Don’t you think he would notice if they brought him someone who wasn’t human?” Kiri asked.

  “Not if they gave him a tysaura that had transformed itself into a human.” I glared at Dante. “Nod if I’m right.”

  He mumbled something through his gag.

  I stepped forward and lowered the rope.

  Dante spat out the dirty rag. “Interesting theories, lad.” He grinned. “Let me tell you the only truth that matters. Your little crew already has Mallma chasing you. If you don’t release me right now, you’ll have a Void Wigon after you too. In case you think killing me will solve your problem, consider this, the Forgotten allowed you to travel inside their forest because I told them you would help me with my spell. If I die, so does their chance at getting what they want. They will find you. And what they do will be worse than death.”