Free The Eye of God (The Fall of Erelith) by RJ Blain Page B

throat beneath the collar. “Answer me!”
    “I failed my master,” he whispered, cringing from anticipation of the pain from the collar. It didn’t materialize, but that didn’t stop his legs from quivering.
    “Is that all? Fool of a master you had, then, wasting a slave like you in the Arena. Want revenge? I can help you. Wealth? I can provide it. Tell me, slave. Just how valuable are you?”
    The man’s grip tightened. Then, the pressure eased and Terin gasped for air, stumbling when he was shoved forward.
    “Don’t think you can deny me, slave. I’ve felt your collar’s warmth. At least he knew a little of your worth. Your collar won’t allow you to do anything that will purposefully risk your life. All I have to do is tell you to obey or I’ll kill you, and you’ll have to obey, won’t you?”
    Terin trembled from more than the cold of the water soaking him. A hand struck him behind his ear.
    “Don’t make me ask twice,” Catsu warned.
    The collar’s punishment forced a yelp out of Terin. He jerked his head in a nod.
    “What have you been ordered not to answer?”
    “Who my master is. What my duty is. Anything other than my number. Anything about my master,” Terin gasped out. The collar cooled, and he shivered at the tingling the punishment left in its wake.
    Catsu laughed. “So self-important. Very well. Cooperate, and I won’t demand the answers to those questions.”
    When the man said nothing more, Terin focused on forcing his feet to move fast enough to keep from being shoved. He stumbled over his own feet, and without Catsu’s help, he would’ve fallen.
    “If I didn’t know better, I’d believe you a pleasure slave with how clumsy you are,” Catsu grumbled. “Walk like you mean it, boy. Still, I shouldn’t complain. I couldn’t have asked for anything better than this. You’ll do nicely.”
    Terin flinched at the man’s pleased tone, kept his mouth shut, and tried to walk without stumbling. He weighed the odds of his escape against the strength of the man’s hand on his throat. As though reading his thoughts, Catsu’s grip tightened on him. Being shoved along every step of the way, he splashed through the sewers to a junction in the tunnel.
    “Go right.”
    Terin obeyed.
    “Do you have any questions?” Catsu asked. The grip on his neck eased and the man’s hand slid down to press against Terin’s spine between his shoulders.
    Expectant silence spurred the collar to warn Terin again, and he shook his head.
    “Well aren’t you the good little slave,” the man muttered. “This is far enough. Out of the water. Ech, so quiet. Even when asked, you don’t have anything to say? Ask me a question, boy.”
    “Why didn’t you kill me?” Terin sucked in a breath when the realization of what he’d asked hit him. It was one of the forbidden questions, one a slave was never to ask. His life and his death belonged to his master, and no one else. Clapping his hands over his mouth didn’t take back his words or quell his fear of rebuke.
    “No wonder your master didn’t want to be known,” Catsu muttered. The man shoved him forward a step. “I didn’t because I didn’t want to. That’s all you need to know. Step lively, boy.”
    The collar remained inert, and without its warmth, the cold numbed him to everything but the incessant chatter of his teeth and the heat of the man’s hand against his back.
     
    ~*~
     
    Terin walked in a daze with Catsu’s ever-present touch anchoring him to consciousness. If the collar tried to warn him of disobedience, the numbness enveloping him smothered its power.
    A sliver of light appeared in the wall next to him. Terin scrambled back and sucked in a breath, and Catsu’s arm once again coiled around his throat to keep him in place.
    “Enough, slave,” the man growled.
    The light illuminated the shape of a door that creaked open. A shimmer played over the sewer wall and revealed a wooden door covering a hole in the stone.
    “This