Betrayals Read Online Free PDF

it was now. He’d quickly passed out, but the next time he would be fully awake and aware …
    “That’s only a little better,” the woman said, still sounding dissatisfied. “If you can’t do better than that, I’ll probably leave you in the crate for good.”
    “I—don’t understand,” Valiant hedged, fighting to sound confused rather than terrified. “What am I supposed to be doin’?”
    “You’re supposed to be giving me pleasure” she replied slowly and clearly, as though she spoke to an imbecile. “You do understand what pleasure is, don’t you?”
    “I can’t seem to remember anythin’,” Valiant responded, now striving for an air of bewilderment. “Who are you, and what are we doin’ here?”
    “Oh, that’s marvelous,” the woman snarled, her expression vengefully spiteful. “He said you would probably be damaged, but he didn’t say you would be stupid! What good is my getting what I want, if you don’t know I’m getting it?”
    “Am I supposed to know you?” Valiant tried, sticking to the pretense of mindlessness. “What you’re doin’ feels wonderful, so just keep on doin’ it. But… shouldn’t I be doin’ somethin’, too?”
    “Oh, this is impossible!” Eltrina snapped, suddenly moving herself off him. “Not only isn’t he suffering, now he’s giving me orders to keep pleasing him! For your information, peasant, I give the orders, I don’t take them. And I hope your frustration level rises really high, because you’re under orders not to give yourself any relief. I’ll be back later— after I speak to that fool in charge of your sedation!”
    With that she stormed away, and a moment later Valiant heard a door slam. By then he had managed to turn to the side, and now braced himself somewhat erect with his right elbow and arm. Moving like that had been a battle, as what he most wanted to do was lie unmoving.
    Lie unmoving in a rather small bed, he couldn’t keep from noticing. In point of fact the entire room was small, and there didn’t seem to be any windows. Valiant’s heart began to beat faster, but the panic trying to flood him had to fight its way through whatever they’d drugged him with. The idea of being put in a tiny crate might bring him terror, but the drug allowed him to think of the room as “just” being small.
    Only a few drops of sweat dotted his forehead as he lay back, no longer interested in examining his surroundings. The room appeared to be something on the order of servant’s quarters, and except for a plain wooden chest and the bed he lay on, it was completely unfurnished. Aside from the lock on the door, which he’d heard being thrown after Eltrina slammed out….
    Despite the drug, Valiant had to fight for a time to keep the terror from taking him over completely. Locked in, drugged into helplessness… it was a wonder his mind hadn’t already snapped. His bare body had gone rigid as he struggled to free himself enough to move, enough to crawl to the door, at least, and try to break it down. Anything to get free, to reach the outer air where he could breathe …
    But moving proved to be impossible, and after a time his straining body was forced to admit it. Then he remembered what he’d been in the middle of before this insanity began, and he groaned aloud. He and the others had been taken somehow, cut down just as they were about to win the final competition. Jovvi, and Lorand, and Rion—and Tamrissa. He had no idea what had been done with the others, but that noble who had wanted Tamrissa … At this very moment he might be savaging her, and he could do nothing but lie unmoving in a bed!
    That thought set Valiant to struggling even harder, but it was still no use. The sweat now poured down his face and covered his body, but the drug continued to resist being bested. He was trapped and helpless—and had nothing to look forward to but Eltrina’s return and more humiliation. But despite all that he had to stay sane … and he