Queen of Hearts Complete Collection: Queen of Hearts; Blood of Wonderland; War of the Cards. Colleen Oakes

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ a limb, lose a limb, we all will lose our limbs and heads today …”

      “Quizzer, let that prisoner go!” boomed a very loud voice from behind them. The man let go of Dinah with a final shake of his head and sunk back into his celled cave, hissing, “I’ll be watching you, my dark-eyed queen, yes I will!”

      Dinah stepped back in shock. They turned. A fat man, larger than even her father, waddled up before them. His Club uniform—a thin white tunic overlaid with a gray breastplate and gray wool cape held in place by a club clasp—stretched out to fit his massive girth. Over his breastplate, the Club symbol was encompassed by a much larger skull. She had seen this symbol in a book once or twice; this man was a torturer. Dinah looked at the ground. She felt a slight twitch of fear ripple up Wardley’s hand and through her chains.

      “Thank you for your aid. I’m to take this filthy wench to the Women’s Tower, but we must have taken a wrong turn. I apologize.”

      The shrill scream of a prisoner circled up from below, followed by pleading whimpers. A tear leaked from Dinah’s eye, cutting a clean line through the dirt on her face. Without warning, the torturer reached out and struck her hard across the face. The blow took Dinah’s breath away, and she fell to the ground. Wardley looked stunned, unsure what to do.

      “Who are you to have sympathy for that man? He is no longer a man. Once you enter the Black Towers, you become a part of them. You belong to the Towers and to the Club Cards. You are the dirt under our feet, the waste in our privy, a slave to the tree. Do not weep for that man, for he deserves what he is getting. His screams say that he is thankful for the king’s justice, thankful to repay his debt to Wonderland. Soon your screams will say the same thing.”

      Dinah stared at the ground.

      “Where did you say you were taking her, boy?”

      “To the Women’s Tower. I’m new. I was just transferred here from the Heart Cards.”

      The man gave a spiteful sniff and spat on the ground. “You look like a Heart Card with that pretty face. Be glad you left. They are a bunch of weak, ignorant bastards who love to boast that they protect the king. Instead, their lives are spent guarding doorways to empty chambers and watching the royal family count their jewels.”

      On the floor, Dinah wiped the blood from her mouth and thought about the ring hidden in her cloak pocket. Counting indeed.

      “Well, at least you have joined a real deck of Cards here.” He clapped Wardley on the back. “You’re young and strong. You’ll do well here, if you learn to stomach the smell and the screams. I’m Yoous, the head torturer of this tower.”

      A bellow, a sound of pure agony, floated up from below. The Club guard leaned back and closed his eyes. “Ah. I revel in the screams. That sound means that justice has been accepted and that Wonderland is back on its way toward balance and harmony. Learn to love the screams, boy.”

      Wardley nodded his pale face. Dinah kept her head tilted toward the floor. The prisoner who had so frightened her leered out at her from his cell, licking his lips. “My queen …”

      “So, where do I take this one, this … detriment to society?” Wardley yanked her chains roughly.

      The Club gave a loud guffaw. “Did Erinsten send you?”

      Wardley raised his lip in a sneer. “Does Erinsten do anything?”

      The man gave a laugh and stroked his long mustache. “This is most certainly true. He does not. Well, he should have told you that there is no Women’s Tower. All prisoners are housed according to their crime, not their sex. This is the murderers’ hive.”

      The Club began to circle Dinah. “Are you a murderer, my little blackberry tart? Who did you kill? Your lover? Your children?” He pushed her hood back and ran a hand down her thick black braid. “Shiny hair for such a commoner. Were you a whore perhaps? One of the king’s whores?”

      Wardley pressed a finger against his forehead and rubbed, as if he was remembering something. “Erinsten said that she is to be housed with a Feena Boker, yes, I think that’s the name. Or Fina?”

      The man stepped back from Dinah with caution. “Faina Baker?”

      Wardley snapped his fingers. “Oh yes, that’s it, Faina.”

      “Faina Baker is in here for high treason. She is in the top cell of the Seventh Tower.” He peered at Dinah. “That makes you worse than any man in this tower. I’ll keep my distance.” He leaned forward and trailed his fingers down Dinah’s cheek. “What they do in that tower is worse than death, worse than any torture we do here. I pity you, my pretty.”

      Wardley gave Dinah a yank, and they started to make their way back down the spiral.

      “I wouldn’t go that way if I were you. We just gutted a man down there, and you don’t want to get blood all over your boots. Take the Iron Web. You better get used to it. Clubs use the web, otherwise we never see the sun.”

      Yoous picked at his teeth with his huge black fingers. Wardley let out a grunt and began walking back up the spiral, dragging Dinah behind him.

      “You’re going the wrong way. Oh gods. Here, take this door.” He walked between two cells, and a short and narrow hallway opened up before them. It led to a thin metal door.

      “No locks?” asked Wardley in disbelief.

      Yoous gave a laugh. “You think a prisoner would try to escape the Black Towers? Knowing that there is more torture to come when they get caught? No, no one tries to escape. Besides, they would just escape to the Iron Web, where there are always dozens of Cards going about their day. That or fall to their death. They have no dream of escape. Their minds are worn down by the Towers themselves.” He ran his hand across the wall, black and thick and covered with a sticky sap. “Do you know the legend of the Black Towers, son?”

      Wardley did, and so did Dinah, but he just shook his head. Yoous took a seat on a decrepit bench, his legs spread wide in Dinah’s direction. She looked away.

      “They say the towers were here before any of us, before Wonderland proper, even before the Yurkei tribes arrived. They were always here, huge black roots, twisted into a spiral, exactly seven of them. When the Yurkei came upon this land, they worshipped the towers and built their homes around them. Time marched on, and the towers grew thicker and thicker, until they were a massive black tree, stronger than steel, immune to fire and ax. We carve the doors out where there are gaps in the roots. The Yurkei called them ‘Meis Yur,’ meaning ‘the Old Root.’ They worshipped them, but when the first Wonderlanders arrived, they saw the truth—that the Black Towers were evil. There was a sinister presence about them—they made you sick, made you crazy, made you crave touching their sap.

      “You know the rest. Eventually Wonderlanders pushed the Yurkei back into the mountains where they belonged and built Wonderland Palace and its townships. The Black Towers stand as a warning to Wonderlanders—break the law and enter the Towers. Centuries came and went, and the first set of Club Cards built the Iron Web.”

      “But if the wood cannot be penetrated—” Wardley began.

      “Aye. It cannot be. The iron walkways are completely self-suspended. They were designed by Jackrey, the best architect that Wonderland has ever seen. All the walkways are connected, but СКАЧАТЬ