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Unable to bear the sudden quiet, I asked, "Valek?"

"What?"

"Why didn’t you fight the guards? I would have helped you"

"Eight men had draords pointed at my chest Any sudden movement and I would have been skewered I’ainst those odds Four arht is definitely too many"

I could hear the amusement in Valek’s voice

"Then we pick the locks and make our escape?" My confidence was based on the fact that Valek was a hter, a

"That would be ideal, provided we had sobut filthy straw, rat droppings and unrecognizable ainst the one stone wall I shared with Valek

After a long moment, Valek asked, "Was that your fate? If you hadn’t killed Reyad, were you slated to be chained to the floor, e of those captives burned in my mind My flesh crawled For the first tiht arding a ic fronificance of the wokan’s extra power cakan ical potential Then, while experi them mindless vessels from which to draw more power

"I think Brazell and Reyad were determined to reduce me to that mental state But I endured" I explained my theory about the captives to Valek

"Tell ht

I paused Then my tale flowed froushed with the sa down loss over the unpleasant parts Telling Valek everything about my two years as a laboratory rat, Reyad’s tortures and tors, the longing to be good for Reyad, and, finally, the rape that led to ed ht-headed with the release