Pine Needles (Veil Realms Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

gash still remains, she quietly replies, “The darts don’t seem to have a long term effect on us.” Discreetly I massage my own shoulder taking in the scene, some women group together clinging to each other’s clothes, hands, and arms with a million expressions shadowing their faces. Only a few lay somnolently on the putrid ground, distinct welts and bruising exhibit the brutality of their savageness here.
    A younger girl from the huddle yells out, “Shut the hell up! They’re coming back.” As she quickly wedges her body in-between everyone, the blonde and I separate from the bars forming our own assemblage. Two males appear. Merging at the entrance of our cell chamber, from looking at them they are not as ample as the warriors. Wearing only golden arm bands clasping to their left arms and animal skinned pants, they almost seem humanistic.
    Flecks of gold outline several unknown symbols along their bare chest, stunned at their surreal perfected bodies I don’t even realize they are speaking to me. “Come.” Th e tone is more of a command than a request; the one closer to the entrance reaches in and clamps a dooming hold on me. The other cell guard literally steps in and tosses two dark haired females over either shoulder and marches out.
    Both thrash and scream with pleas for help and I dig the heels of my feet into the ground with no results of cessation. We follow a narrow stair-casing to a lower level . Once we enter a small landing I notice it opens up to a huge room. Water sloshes tranquilly against the four freestanding piers as the guard heaves the women in, I peer up to see a high rise ceiling which seems to provide openness to the stark room. 
    A guard turns to two more piers facing the entrance, which has insets for torches and lights them giving off a hazy afterglow. The one that effectively dragged me down here shoves me in the tepid waters. As they stand like statues on either side of the low lit entrance, three older tormented looking women rush into the waters before us.
    Stripping our clothing away, immediately I try to clutch my top, but relentlessly they rip away everything from our bodies, scrubbing fiercely the dirt and grime from our faces, fingernails, and eventually down to our feet. The girl beside me jerks back from the women, “Don’t touch me, I can wash myself!” Wrestling feverishly away she almost falls backwards into the water.
    The oldest of the three women, reaches out extending a hand to help her and with a gloomy whispering voice she speaks, “Hush... do not speak, because your lips may not ever mumble another word here again.” The girl bitterly slaps the old woman’s hand away, with a galling tone.
    “You shut up, you don’t know what you are talking about you old hag.”             
    The old woman feebly picks up the scrubbing brush and turns to the others, “It’s time. We are through here.”
    Before she wades away in the dismal waters I reach over and grab her arm begging her to explain, “What do you mean, what’s going on here...please, tell us.” Staring my imploring dark eyes at her, I cover my arm over my bare chest and take a step closer to her. Graying studious eyes peer back into my own, as she inches up to me, as if she is carefully considering her next move. Her ever-soft hand of time holds my face and then with her ethereal finger, marks an x across my lips.
    “My sister was taken by the warlords here, she spoke too much, angering them so, and they had her lips sewn shu t.” My heart falls with despair as I watch her and the other women step away from us, retrieving our clothing they seem to simply disappear through the limestone entrance.  I take a flaccid glance to the girls stepping in beside me as the maleficent guards guide us to another level, more catacombs of cells only larger and fewer women within each cell.
    Each guard tightly wraps leather bindings around our wrists and hoists us onto large metal hooks, lining the three