Cora listened. The bag clung to her face. She forced herself to take steady breaths, and waited for them to come again. Behind her eyes danced how she would write this moment.
They took my journal. We burnt my books. Mother was right, though. There will always be more books.
She could smell her breath in the bag, as it puffed back and forth across her mouth. It was rank. Her tongue dragged across her teeth, feeling the film. She raked her top teeth across her tongue and swallowed the slime.
Cora twisted her back, her shoulders. Her neck cracked loudly as she rolled it back. The restraints dug into her wrists.
They bound me tight, but there is still plenty of room to move. To stay limber.
She heard a click. Her eyes flew open. Pinpricks of light flickered in front of her through the loose canvas. Cora examined them and drew steady breaths.
“Are you ready to tell us?” The same voice as before.
Her heart quickened against the ropes. “I will tell you everything you need to know.” Cora had said this before.
A rough hand lifted the bag from her head. The greying officer smiled down at her over his crooked nose. He looked like torturers everywhere, the hate visible in his brown teeth, his beady eyes. “What were the weapons on top of the tower?”
Mother was so proud of those cannons.
“Coretta Hart, Duchess of Terndowns.” Cora fixed her gaze forward.
The slap came hard and fast. She did not flinch this time.
“How did you make fire like that?”
Broke Mother’s heart when we traded the water in the garden for pitch.
“Coretta Hart, Duchess of Terndowns.”
“You think you’re funny.”
The man moved to a bag on the floor. He pulled a knife from it.
Cora swallowed so she wouldn’t smile.
His power is limited, and I have all the cards. He can do anything but kill me, and in that, I will survive.
He dragged the knife down her leg, cutting the trousers open. He ripped at them.
Fleshy, but may get infected later.
He held the blade to her calf. “What were the weapons on the top of the towers?”
If he hobbles me, I shall crawl.
“Coretta Hart, Duchess of Terndowns.”
The edge breached her skin. She could feel the warm blood trickling more than the dragging steel.
This is going to be slow. Boring.
He asked her about the fire again. She told him everything he needed to know.