“It was painful for a few days. I think she was going easy on me.” He muttered something under his breath about ‘being taken lightly.’ “Took a day or two before I could heal no matter what I tried.”
“A day or two? Ha. It’s been two weeks and my injuries are still breaking down healing attempts. Taken lightly indeed.”
“Breaking down?”
At Wayne’s perplexed look, Zoe started to explain. “The nuns’ lightning has a very interesting property in that–”
Zoe slid her chair back and half stumbled to her feet.
“Zoe?” Wayne rose from his own seat and put his hand on her arm. “Are you–”
“Quiet for a moment. I need to think.”
Could it be that easy? How could she have missed it before.
“I need to find Ylva,” Zoe said as she ran from the room, foregoing her cane entirely.
“Zoe, wait!”
Wayne started hobbling after her, but she barely paid him any attention.
Outside the dining room, Zoe stopped and looked around. Ylva wasn’t sitting on her throne. She eyed the alcoves. What were the most likely room Ylva would be in? The torture chamber? The prison? The bath?
Zoe couldn’t recall her ever entering the bath, but that didn’t mean she never went.
She started off with the prison. It was the most important room at the moment, after all. Though, stopping to think about it, she wasn’t entirely certain that their guest had spent any time inside after the first day. At least, Zoe hadn’t seen her leave the torture chamber.
Still, no harm in checking.
Ylva’s prison was almost an exact replica of the other cell houses found outside. It might have even been the original space for cell house two that Ylva had decided to shove off to the side.
The barred windows let in what appeared to be real sunlight, though they did not look out into the real world. On the other side of the glass was a massive beach.
A very wrong beach.
All of the sand had a dark-gray hue to it. The sunlight, while normal looking inside the prison, did not warm the solid gray sand or the black water. It was just a white orb hanging in the sky like some featureless moon.
One of the other archways connected to the beach, but all of the mortals had been forbidden from entering without Ylva’s explicit permission.
But, Zoe wasn’t here for the view.
She ran up and down each of the three floors. No Ylva.
Worse, no prisoner.
Zoe turned to head back down the stairs.
Wayne was hobbling up those stairs with his cane, panting for breath. “You’re sure in a rush,” he said between breaths.
“Sorry. You didn’t need to follow me all the way up here.”
“You ran off looking for a demon like you just got possessed by one.”
Zoe opened her mouth to tell him what she was doing. She changed her mind at the last-minute. “Do demons actually possess people?”
Wayne shrugged. “Ask the diabolist.”
“Anyway,” Zoe said with a shake of her head, “just had an idea that could solve at least one problem.”
She started down the stairs at a more sedate pace for Wayne’s sake. A difficult task. She was itching to run–to find Ylva as soon as possible.
As they headed towards the torture chamber, Zoe explained Eva’s condition. A summary. There wasn’t time to get into the finer details.
The torture chamber was directly adjacent to the prison. Considering the size, the chamber should have been visible from the prison windows if not completely obstructing them.
Should being the key word.
Zoe had long given up trying to make sense of how the layout worked in Ylva’s domain. She was half convinced that the archways were portals to their respective rooms, given how much overlap there should be between some of the larger rooms. Especially the bedroom and the bathroom. Both of those rooms could fit almost the entirety of Zoe’s old house.
For as much wonder and awe that Ylva’s domain elicited, the torture chamber only brought up feelings of disgust. Even the eye-stalk room was more strange than disturbing.
It wasn’t the rusted iron cages lined with small spikes. Nor was it the wooden wheel slowly rotating through a trough of boiling water. The racks, and iron maidens, and tools that she couldn’t begin to guess the purpose of didn’t bother Zoe.
Just the very presence of the room implied its use.
What purpose could such a place serve to one who could induce kneeling with a mere word?
Zoe wrinkled her nose. The constant scent of urine and feces did not help.
And yet Zoe knew that their prisoner had spent time within. Almost all of her time, in fact.
Unfortunately for Zoe, the nun wasn’t in today. The racks lay empty, the cages wide open.
No torturer either.
Wayne limped up to her side, staring at the room with narrowed eyes.
Not waiting to answer the questions he was sure to ask, Zoe turned to leave.
She stopped short. Another step would have had her running into Ylva.
The demon’s dead eyes turned first to Zoe then to Wayne. Her ice blue lips parted as she began to speak.
“We observed your entrance.”
“Ylva,” Zoe said, “I was looking for you.”
Her gaze remained steady on Wayne.
