The large man moved his sword to Lio’s throat.
“I can’t! I told you it’s not locked. Something must be jamming it.” Lio sputtered.
“You,” the impatient Myrmidon demanded of another. “Open it.”
The man bowed to Adan, sheathed his sword and approached the door. He tried the handle. No luck. He positioned his hands near the top hinge and pushed.
Lio winced in anticipation of the sound of cracking wood. He waited for the door to give under the pressure, but quite the opposite happened.
The door blew off its hinges and into pieces. It flew outward toward the Myrmidon and sent him sprawling backward amidst a chaotic mix of debris. The man hit the ground and didn’t move.
Lio dove for cover. He shielded his eyes, peeking out from under his elbow as he watched the events unfold.
A huge shadow loomed just inside the door. The two soldiers nearest the doorway brandished their swords and approached it with caution. The large, dark shape changed almost instantly into something much smaller. Perhaps in the dusty, dark hallway the Myrmidons couldn’t tell what it was or perhaps they were just foolhardy. Whatever their reasoning, they continued their advance.
Lio, however, knew what they faced. His throat closed as he watched the terrible scene. Anxiety weighed on him. He struggled for breath.
The Myrmidons charged the storage room at the end of the hall. Mia rose swiftly in response, lunging at one of the soldiers, striking like lightning.
The Myrmidon landed in a heap, knocked over by the single blow that sent him rolling out the doorway. Blood poured from multiple gashes. The man squirmed as he choked out his last few breaths.
When he saw what happened, the third Myrmidon stopped dead in his tracks and backed away. Adan grabbed Lio’s arm and ripped him up to his feet like a doll.
“Stop!” he demanded from behind his hostage. “Or I’ll pop the head clean off your little teacher here.” The shadowy form in the darkness paused and refocused, calculating. “He’ll be dead before you get past me,” Adan warned. “One by one my men will kill everyone in this place, including your friend’s bloody brother upstairs. When I’m done with him I’ll find your family.”
Mia didn’t move.
“Enough people have died because of you today,” the Myrmidon chastised. “If you had simply come with us without all this trouble, your friend would still be alive. Tell me, how many more will have to die to save your skin?”
The dark form in the shadows looked from Lio to the large man who restrained him. She was weighing her options. The thundering of Lio’s heart was relentless. Sweat rolled down his face.
Mia approached the light, shifting back to her human form before stepping out of the shadows. The Myrmidons never even caught a glimpse at the beast that had killed two of their own.
Lio breathed a sigh of relief, but a sick feeling rushed over him. Mia would be captured, and her fate would be cruel. So would his.
Mia scowled up at her would-be captors with clenched fists and wild eyes. Slowly, she left the dim storage room and raised her hands in surrender.
“What are you?” the Myrmidon asked. It was the last thing Lio remembered before the Myrmidon raised his boot and the world went black.
REALITY
Lio’s eyes snapped open, his mind scrambling as he choked for air. A vague terror gripped him like a nightmare as he struggled to remember.
Thoughts and images flooded his mind, but they were incoherent scenes of reality and nightmare.
What the hell happened? How long have I been out?
Slowly, his thoughts aligned themselves. The images racing through his mind solidified as he tried to focus.
A searing pain in his forearm interrupted his moment of clarity. Lio cringed and twisted in the darkness.
He was on a cold floor. Using his good arm to determine the extent of his injuries, he worked his fingers down his shoulder, whining when he reached his elbow. The pain was almost unbearable; he couldn’t stand the pressure of his own fingertips. His hand brushed something hard sticking out from a tear in his cuff. He realized it was bone before he passed out again.
When he awoke the second time, his mind cleared more quickly. A more complete once-over revealed that his arm was the worst of it—all digits and appendages were accounted for.
His mind sharpened a little more. How did this happen?
“Myrmidon,” he muttered to himself, “and a big bastard too.”
Adan had fired Lio into the cell so hard that Lio’s arm had snapped like a twig. He wasn’t sure if the bone had broken on impact with the wall or the subsequent connection with the floor, but one of the two did him in.
The Myrmidon was unbelievably strong. Even for an augment, Lio thought to himself. The man had been well crafted.
How did I get to this point? Why was a Myrmidon even after me? He wished he could pass out again.
He wished for some time until it became apparent that wishing wasn’t going to cut it. And since the thought of jabbing himself in the arm-bone again was more than his stomach could handle, he took stock of his surroundings instead.
Painstakingly, the professor righted himself against the wall. The cell was dark, though light trickled in through a tiny hole in the exterior wall behind him. It provided enough illumination to make out a door on the far side. The glint of steel was unmistakable. Beneath the door Lio could see the dim flicker of torchlight. He was encased in thick, solid brick.
Brick was a building material used liberally throughout his newfound surroundings. Other than the foul-smelling bucket in the corner of the room, the entire cell was comprised of solid brick. It was a far cry from the accommodations he had become accustomed to at Ipsamesh.
Curious, he scanned the brick floor as he fished around in his pocket with his good hand. He retrieved a small coin and scratched at the strangely smooth bricks, digging as hard as he could, raking the coin across the surface of the floor. He couldn’t even make a mark.
They’ve been changed, he realized. The brick had been modified—augmented to be harder than normal. Escape-proof. Breaking in or out was impossible. There were many tales of the prison’s fortification. No criminal had ever escaped and it was where the worst of them were kept.
Lio clenched his fists and tried to forget the pain in his arm. He wished he had a painkiller, but not just any drug. He wished he had ku.
He closed his eyes as he thought about the drug, imagining himself crushing the tiny plant between his fingers and inhaling the thick red smoke that rose from it when it burned. He longed for its effects. He wished to see once more with new eyes, to watch the dancing auras of light all around him. He licked his lips. The craving was getting to him. His eyeballs felt itchy just thinking about it. He hated the feeling. Instead of figuring out if he could somehow break free, he distracted himself with thoughts of getting entranced. It was a thought that crossed his mind countless times a day.
He missed it constantly—every single day for the last seven years. Addiction was only one of many undesirable effects the drug caused. He had reacted badly to prolonged use. Many people did. Eventually, he had realized he had to quit. His life had been a shambles at the time.
Ku…
Pain ripped his mind back to reality, radiating from his elbow where he had thoughtlessly jarred it against the wall. He considered setting the bone himself. The thought was unbearable. He needed a healer. He would even settle for a sage.
His attention was diverted from the pain when he heard a faint voice through the dark hole in the steel door.
“What