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When I woke the nextat the end of e sharpened into the short-haired ht?"
"Yes," I said The first night in a long tih my head felt as if wool had been shoved into it, and a rank taste in
The es, made a noncommittal sound and told me breakfast would be a while
As I waited, I scanned the infirular room held twelve beds, six on each side, and spaced so that they fore The sheets on the es Orderly and precise, the rooer in control ofsurrounded by neatness offended me, and I had a sudden desire to ju them out of line
I was farthest from the door Two empty beds lay between the three other patients andI had no one to talk to The stone walls were bare Hell,decorations At least it smelled better in here I took a deep breath The clean, sharp smell of alcohol mixed with disinfectant filled eon’s fetid air Much better Or was it? There was another scent intermixed with the medical aroma Another whiff and I realized that the sour odor of old fear emanated frouards had me cornered There was no escape Yet I had been saved by a strange buzzing noise that had erupted fro A prihthts about that buzz because it was an old acquaintance ofthe past three years, I forcedhad erupted, and to ignore the emotions
The first couple of months of Brazell’s experie a ball or duck a swinging stick, harh until the ball had turned into a knife and the stick into a sword
My heart began to pound With sweaty palered a scar onmy hands as if I could push away the fear Pretend you’re the inednext to a fevered patient while she babbled
What cath and endurance tests, she answered Si heavy stones above her head for minutes, then hours If she dropped the stone before the time was up, she hipped She was ordered to clutch chains dangling froht inches above the floor, until Brazell or Reyad gave pero
When was the first ti? I prompted the patient She had released the chains too early too many times and Reyad became furious So he forced her outside asix floors above the ground, and let her hold on to the ledge with her hands
"Let’s try it again," Reyad said "Now that we’ve raised the stakes, maybe you’ll last for the whole hour"
The patient stopped speaking Go on, tell me what happened, I prodded Her ar froers were slick with sweat; her ue She panicked When her hands slipped off the ledge, she howled like a newborn The howl mutated and transformed into a substance It expanded out, enveloped and caressed her skin on all sides She felt as if she was nestled in a war on the ground She glanced up at theReyad watched her with his face flushed His perfect blond hair an unusual hted, he blew her a kiss
The only way she could have survived the fall was by ic No Absolutely not, she insisted It had to have been soic
Magic, a forbidden word in Ixia since Coicians had been treated like disease-riddled mosquitoes They were hunted, trapped and exteric was a death sentence The only chance to live was to escape to Sitia
The patient was growing agitated, and the other occupants of the roo at her…Me Small doses, I told myself I could handle the memories in modest quantities After all, I hadn’t been hurt by the fall, and Reyad eet to me for a while But his kindness only lasted until I started failing his tests again
To distractI was up to fifty-six when Valek arrived
He carried a tray of food in one hand and a file folder in the other I eyed the stea omelet with suspicion "What’s in it?" I de pills? Or another new poison?" Every muscle in my body had stiffened I tried unsuccessfully to sit up "How about giving e?"
"How about so to keep you alive?" Valek asked He pulledposition and offered a pipette filled with my antidote Then he placed the tray of food onpills The ht" Valek’s voice held a note of approval "Taste your breakfast and tell me if you would allow the Co when he said I’d have no days off Sighing, I smelled the omelet No unusual odors I cut the ona small piece from each section, I put the, I waited to discern any aftertaste I sniffed the tea and stirred it with a spoon before sipping Rolling the liquid over ue, I detected a sweet taste before I sed