‘But to know, we must dig, we must seek, we must pry and we must cut.’ He lifted his finger, studied the bead of sweat upon it. ‘We must go into the base and find out what makes you work, what makes your heart beat and belly tremble. And you will show me.’

He pinched his fingers together, a brief flash of fire behind his eyes as the sweat sizzled into steam. Grinning all the broader, he reached out to seize her by the jaw, running the tip of his blade down her body, gooseflesh rising in the wake of the gentle, razor grazing.

‘You will show me everything.’

The urge to indulge him rose inside her, the urge to wail and scream in the hopes that someone would hear her before that knife angled just a hair and slid into the tender flesh of her abdomen. In his grins, real and reflected, was a suggestion to do just that, to obey if she sought to survive.

DO NOT. The Howling rang out inside her head. He perverts instinct, destroys reason. Do not scream. Do not show fear. Do not even think.

And as soon as she knew this, her breathing stilled, her eyes dimmed, the fear seeping out of them. His own grin diminished slightly, seeing such a thing. She knew then that he could not succeed, that he could not exploit fear as he had hoped.

‘Get away from her!’

Not hers, anyway.

They both looked to the corner: she with a quick, fervent glance, he with a slow, lurid stare. Asper had found her nerve, sitting up straight in her bonds, staring fire through tear-stained eyes, trembling against the ropes that held her. Her lower jaw was clenched tightly as she leaned forward, baring teeth at him.

‘Don’t you touch her,’ she hissed.

Damn it, Asper, Kataria growled inwardly.

She looked back to Sheraptus. He apparently sensed her thoughts, offering her a lurid grin. The malicious glimmer in his eyes was as unmistakable as the swell of his breeches. Kataria was more horrified than she suspected she ought to be to know that neither were meant for her.

‘Close your eyes, if you want,’ he whispered. ‘Shut your ears as best you can. Just know …’ He swept his stare to the bound priestess. ‘You could have stopped this.’

Asper’s resolve seemed to melt with every step forward he took, her fear becoming more apparent, every quiver on her flesh bare to his pervasive stare, every lump disappearing down her throat heard with painful clarity. Kataria desperately wanted to turn away, to not hear, but found herself bound by his words as surely as the ropes.

She had caused this. Asper would suffer.

For me.

‘It never lasts long, does it?’ Sheraptus almost cooed as he descended upon her. ‘The defiance, the hope, the anger, the sorrow … You can always come back.’

He shrugged. His robe fell from his shoulders. Kataria beheld purple muscle; red lines from which blood had once wept painted a picture of hate and fury upon his flesh.

‘They fight back, at first, but that’s only one of two constants. After that, it becomes so many things: pleading, persuasion, bargaining until finally …’ He sighed. ‘The second constant. Nothing. No more fear, no more noise. They’re … broken.’

‘S-stay away from me,’ Asper whimpered, pulling back. Kataria noticed her shifting to one side, tucking her left arm behind her as she did. ‘Don’t touch me.’

‘Yes, that’s usually how it starts.’ He canted his head to the side. ‘But … not with you, no. You’re wearing a mask, aren’t you? You only want me to think you’re like the others. There’s something within you … something I have felt before.’

‘I don’t know what-’

‘You do. I know you do, because I do.’ Sheraptus raised a brow. ‘Some qualities go deeper than breed. Some qualities, as loathsome as it is to admit it, are inherent. In you, I sense our instincts … that which drives us to kill, to cause anguish and suffering with no reason other than that’s what we do.’

‘You’re wrong,’ she gasped, her voice a whimper. ‘You’re wrong!’

‘Never.’ His eyes flared to crimson life. ‘ Neverwrong.’

He uttered the alien word, his hand rose and she followed, suspended by an invisible force. She shrieked, the sound ringing in Kataria’s ears, drawing Sheraptus’ smile wider. His hand extended, he took a step forward and staggered. His spare hand went to his brow as he swayed on his feet.

‘Master,’ Xhai said, stepping forward with hands outstretched. ‘It’s the crown. The Grey One That Grins slipped it to you to weaken you. You don’t need it.’ A needy whine slipped into her voice. ‘These overscum women, you don’t need them, either. They’re both making you weaker.’

‘Weaker?’ He turned to her with an expression of hurt on his face, though the fraud behind it was obvious. ‘Xhai … do you think I’m … weak?’

Obvious to almost everyone.

‘N-no, Master!’ she said, shaking her head violently. ‘I am just concerned for-’

‘Unnecessary, Carnassial,’ he hissed with sudden fury, turning back to Asper. ‘I don’t like using magic for this. It dulls everything. What can be learned when all qualities and variables are dashed?’

He growled another word, shoving his hand forward. Asper was flung against the wall of the cabin, her scream choked in pain, her struggling impotent as he strode forward. His eyes were wide, white. His lips trembled, shifting between grin and animal need.

‘Knowledge gained through nethrais nothing. It’s too swift, too open to doubt. True knowledge is found through observation, through experiment. Slowly.’

He waved his hand. Asper’s shriek was cut short as she was flipped about by the unseen force, her belly pressed against the cabin wall, her bound arms presented to him. He reached out and placed a hand upon her naked left shoulder.

‘And here is where it all starts … This is the source of it, the beginning.’ His hand slid down her arm, tightening here, pinching there, counting off each knuckle in her fingers. ‘Such pain in it … I can feel it in you, feel them screaming. But this … this is merely a vessel.’ His hand slid lower, rested upon her buttock. ‘Show me, little creature, where the true suffering lies.’

Kataria didn’t understand his words, didn’t even hear him. She could only hear Asper’s whimpering, the screams choked inside her, the shuddering dread in her flesh. She could only see Asper’s tears pouring from her eyes, over her red cheeks and into her clenched teeth as she tried to shut them against him, against everything.

She could only feel Asper’s fear, her rage at how little she could fight against him, how she could do nothing as his fingers slid up past her loincloth.

To his sigh of contentment, she wished she could shut her ears … and then tear out his throat.

‘Ah …’ he whispered. ‘There it is.’ He smiled, pressing his body against hers. ‘Just takes a bit of trauma, doesn’t it? Everything with your breed does. It’s the catalyst that makes you shift so constantly. Yours will emerge, I think, only after more, only after …’

He paused, looking up and away from her, staring into nothing. Xhai seemed to pick up on this instantly, stepping forward with a furrowed brow and clenched fists.

‘Master?’

‘We,’ he whispered, ‘have company.’

Before she could even form a suspicion, a chorus of screams rang out from the ship’s deck and assaulted Kataria’s ears. The sound of metal clanging, voices chanting, a thunderous roar, alien words. Through it all, barely audible through the wood, she heard a voice screaming itself hoarse with her name.

Lenk.

A human, the Howling answered. Not important.

‘We’re under attack,’ Xhai snarled. She stalked to the wall, seizing her massive metal wedge of a sword. ‘Nothing but worthless high-fingers out there. I’ll be back.’

‘No, no,’ Sheraptus said. ‘That will take a bit longer than I’d like. I’ll handle this personally. Stay here and guard them.’