Chapter 52. Defeated

had my doubts the little strumpet could carry this off,” Ama Svenka chuckled, “Letting your guard down in your old age, Zhou?”

She had not changed much since the last time he had seen her. There were a few crows feet making inroads in the skin around her eyes and the lines around her brow and mouth were deeper. She hid it well under white and black paint. Always a slave to drama, she had donned her finest outfit to impress and intimidate him but he could tell the corset was uncomfortable now that bearing children had widened her girth. Zhou was frankly amazed she had found someone to spawn with her and wondered if the unfortunate man was still around.

Her son had carried him into the gloomy depths of her laboratory and locked him to the metal frame where he was now spread eagled. Immobilized, he dangled at the center of the room over a round pit that seemed bottomless in the thin candle light. His slightest movement caused him to sway unnervingly and he feared the pair of rusty chains that suspended him would break and send him flying into the ghastly depths.

Ama Svenka moved down the steps toward the raised lip of the pit, gazing at him at eye level. The heat of her torch near his face singed his hair but he made no sound. She spun him around to look appraisingly upon his back and his skin crawled as her nails scraped softly over his tattoos.

“You’ve hardly aged,” she murmured, “and your body is still beautiful.”

She released the frame and left him to rock and spin dizzyingly. He raised his head to avoid looking at the shadowy hole focusing now upon the pulley and the length of chain that could raise and lower him at her whim. There was ample slack to send him into its depths and he very much did not want to consider that. The world stopped moving and he came to rest facing her. She stood before a wall that was concealed behind shelves of glass jars. They varied greatly in shape and color and each was stoppered with a heavy wax seal and a band of enruned silk.

“The trick is finding the one that suits you,” she murmured, “Are you not dying of curiosity my darling? Old Ama knows you have an inquisitive mind.”

She took down a gourd shaped green bottle and cradled it lovingly in her pale arms. Then she held it up to him, approaching slowly.

“This one? Pretty, is it not?”

He closed his eyes. Either she planned to imprison his spirit or there was something inside of it. In the dim light he could not see anything more that the deep green hue of the gleaming glass. Hatred burned within him, she was toying with him now that he was helpless and could not hex her into oblivion. A wicked grin marred her features.

“I have dreamed of this moment for many years and never imagined I’d have this chance,” she laughed, “Try to interrupt me now, Master Bei.”

“I am defeated and I am without dignity, what more do you want from me?” he said, his voice quiet in the dismal chamber, “Finish this.”

“I plan to, and when I’m done, no one will be able to find you, not even Shikai.”

Her words chilled him, her cruel laughter cutting across his nerves like a dull knife.

“But then again, neither will your enemies know where you are,” she continued, her voice grim, “Good thing I honor my deals or I could simply double my profit and sell you to any one of them. You betrayed a lot of your old friends when you switched sides.”

“You were never my friend.”

She spat into his face.

“I was never your whore, we were lovers.”

“I was young and stupid.”

“You are still stupid. I’ve been following your career with interest. After all, you are the father of my son.”

He stared at her in shock.

“The sixth god returns and you have bent yourself against his minions. Nothing I do to you now will match the fate that awaits you when Abaddon comes. You did not just switch sides, you picked the losing side. I pity you.”

“I did not abandon that path to win,” Zhou replied bitterly, “Nor was it easy to surrender, but it was right.”

She sneered at him and set the bottle on a work table. He had never loved her, even in the days when they had been intimate. They had used each other and he felt dirty thinking about it. Zhou watched her lay jars of ground gems and pigments out on the table, he knew them all too well. After all, she had taught him many bindings and no doubt her art had improved as his had over the years. He did not like to imagine what she was capable of doing to him now.

“I loved you,” she said bitterly, “and I could not compete with your dragon wench. I whelped your bastard and raised him, all the while you shed your past as a snake sheds its skin. But still you were a snake to me, you always will be. When love turns cold, all that remains is hate. I hope you enjoy your new life. I know I will.”