Here are the links to catch-up, read again or start from the beginning
Episode List From 1 – 52
Then: 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
Images below from Google, Getty Images, and Pixabay
Please read the start of the story using the link above. I promise, it’s well-worth the time to check it all out. At least then, this excerpt will make more sense)
“David, I know that you are relatively young in the great scheme of things, but you have a great knowledge. You know something and I would like to know it.”
Her voice was quiet and calm but her hands were wringing the riding crop she held.
“I hesitate to use threats or violence, but rest assured, if I need to, I surely would. Do you believe me?”
David sat up on his make-shift bed and looked at her as she spoke. His eyes were full of new-found bravado – a much altered expression from the one that she had seen last on his face, when she had given the order for him to be taken away.
Since that order, she had not visited and had been pleased with the reports from his interrogation.
Under her express orders, no torture was used. David seemed to have realised that she was loath to use the method but he was mistaken in the reason for it. He imagined that Hazel was abiding by the First Laws. He was about to be educated on that subject.
“No Hazel, I don’t quite believe you. I think that if you were allowed to torture another Wolf in order to gain information for the greater good, then you would have used it by now. I think that you have to abide by the same law that we do – First Law. I also believe that you, above all others, have to keep to the letter of that law and that you would be in far greater trouble if you were to bend even one aspect.”
He sat back on the cot, leaning against the damp and filthy wall, a look comprised of contempt and nonchalance on his face.
“That is what you believe?” Hazel asked.
He nodded his answer, not bothering to speak his reply.
“Then you are a bigger fool than I first took you for.”
He was astounded by the speed that she covered the empty space between them both.
She grabbed him by his coat collar and drew his face up close to hers, holding him up off his bed, as she whispered to him.
“I did not allow my Sentinels to use torture on you because I want to see your reaction when the silver is passed over your testicles.”
She held his face close to hers for a moment and then threw him back down on his bedding.
He was shocked at her use of the word ‘testicles’. He had never heard a lady use the word in his presence before and Hazel knew that his genteel upbringing would be his downfall.
“You will tell me where the Throwback is hiding David, because if you do not, as I believe I told you when we arrested you, then you will be held as liable as the Throwback is for any death or injury to any of my Sentinels. Believe me when I say this, for it may be the most important thing that you will hear. If any one of my Sentinels – or indeed, any Wolf – is killed, then I shall invoke an ancient punishment, a Pack Judgement. At the end of that, if you are found guilty – and of course, you will be – then the Pack rends you limb from limb and you are left to writhe on the ground, just a torso and a head, until one of the relatives of the dead feels that you have suffered enough and ends your life for you.”
She watched as his face drained of colour.
“It is not pleasant. I have seen it only a few times but it is effective in the fact that it deters Wolves that hear of the judgement from straying from the boundaries set in First Law. If, on the other hand, no-one is killed, only injured, then I shall invoke a Pack Kill. You know what that is, I suppose?”
David‘s eyes were wide as he imagined how the Pack Judgement would go for him but he managed a feeble nod in acknowledgement of the question.
“Good, then I have no need to explain; only that the hunt would wait until the injured Wolf was recovered enough to join in and he or she would be the one to make the kill. Now, this is your very last chance. Do you wish to tell me where your son is?”
“Are you open for negotiations, Sentinel?”
The timbre of the younger Wolf’s voice was respectful and tinged with fear which made his voice shaky but he continued after clearing his throat.
“I ask that because my son has killed only Humes, I would like to fulfil my dead wife’s wish that I bite him and make him Full Wolf. It is for her sake that I ask this, not mine. I always hoped for her to be bitten and made Piaculum for me so that we could both enjoy the benefits of being Wolf together. Though she was only Hume, I did love her and I was trying to gain permission to bring her over to us when she became pregnant and we fled.”
For the first time, David raised his eyes to Hazel’s and held her gaze. Hazel could see the emotion in his eyes and the desolation at the loss of his wife and the potential loss of their son.
“I realise that my son has succumbed to a kind of madness but I believe that he could be brought over to us and would, in time, make a fine addition to our Pack. His knowledge of medicine and surgery would be invaluable to our kind if only you would consider the trade? I propose his life in exchange for his service to Wolfkind.”
Hazel watched David make his proposal. The Wolf was desperate, that was true and quite understandable under the circumstances. It was a desperate plea for his son’s life, but he would be an asset to Wolfkind into the bargain. Hazel did not have to consider long.
She nodded and said, “Very well. If we can capture him quickly, with no damage done to any of my Sentinels, I agree in principle. This is, of course, subject to the Lycaeon’s final judgement. I would present his case favourably if it came to it, I give my word.”
“Then that is good enough for me. I shall lead you to his laboratory so that he knows that you have not trapped him.”