Free The Mad God's Muse (The Eye of the Lion Saga Book 2) by Matt Gilbert Page A

the
shattered tooth. Such terrible nightmares plagued him, visions of
Lara’s body being stabbed over and over, his unborn child
knowing the kiss of steel before it knew the sweet taste of air in
its lungs, blood running in rivers. Sleep itself had became an
enemy, one that stole upon him at his weakest moments and tormented
him beyond the limits imposed by the reality of the waking world.
    Ironically, he had found the
tooth something of a comfort for a while. It drove the memories from
his mind and held back sleep. But then it grew worse, and he could
not sleep at all. At best, he dozed for a few minutes at a time
before awaking to sheer misery again. His captors offered him no
relief. Salastin took great joy in his agony, and told him to pray
harder.
    If he had only had the most
basic of tools, just a simple knife or an awl, he could have done
something, perhaps, but since his last acting out, they no longer
even gave him eating utensils, just a metal bowl.
    In a state akin to a living
nightmare, Aiul lost track first of time and then reality. He had
moments of lucidity, but they came less frequently as the days and
nights passed. It seemed to him that at times, he was back in the
cell where he had watched Lara die, and at others he was here again,
with Salastin pounding the door, asking if he had died and spared
them both any more misery.
    Aiul had gone beyond caring. As
strong as his will had been, the passing months of deprivation and
misery ate at him like acid, burned away his resolve until there was
little left but a shell. He no longer prayed for salvation, merely
death. It was not in him to take his own life, not with the pride
and the lust for vengeance that burned within him, but he would have
welcomed that burden be lifted from him by some merciful accident of
injury or disease.
    It will come soon enough.
The infection will spread. I'm doomed. It will be a hard death, but
the pain will eventually stop. That's all that matters, now. The realization was comforting.
    It was then, as Aiul lay
waiting for the end, drowning in despair and disorientation, that
the voice first spoke to him.
    It was no mortal sound that
assaulted his ears. The words were horror shaped into words, meaning
imposed upon a thousand screams, the dripping of blood, the scurry
of insects over corpses. His nightmares paled to insignificance
compared to the fear that gripped him at its sound.
    “ How long will you
suffer here, child? ” it asked, only that. Then silence.
    Aiul curled himself into a
fetal position, gripped with a terror he could not explain. For long
hours, he sat like that, motionless, afraid even to move, scanning
the dim corners of his cell, looking for the source. He tried to
tell himself that this was simply a delusion brought on by a brain
infection, but he could not quite convince himself that was true. At
last, he fell into an exhausted sleep. The nightmares still played
in his head, but they were weak things now. The images were the
same, but whatever had chilled his soul with those few words had, it
seemed, numbed his capacity for horror. The visions of Lara were
just images now, meaningless against the backdrop of raw, primal
fear he had experienced. Even the agony of his rotting tooth seemed
dulled, grayed out, insignificant compared to the voice.
    When he awoke, confused, trying
to decide if he were truly awake or in a fever dream, the voice
struck again, this time playing on all of his senses. The prickly,
burning snap of the hangman’s noose going taught, the reek of
rotting flesh, the taste of ash and bitter poison, the stomach
twisting emotional blow of betrayal by a brother, all poured over
and into him, a tide of corruption and depravity that threatened to
drag his mind into its depths with its undertow.
    “ Blood calls for
blood, ” said the voice.
    Aiul screamed. He screamed
again, and again, and again. He did not stop until at last Salastin
burst in and beat him into unconsciousness.

    There was no