Aery sprinted through the market, babbling apologies at all the people she jumped over and around. Silly and Ame had been pestilent that morning, not doing anything she'd told them, because they wanted to go meet the new training master. Once she'd finally gotten them settled down for the day, she'd been late for meeting Celaena.
She turned down an alley, less crowded that way, to figure out where Celaena was. She'd heard a fruit merchant a ways back chattering about a golden-eyed, golden-haired thief who had taken one of his prize apples. Which meant that Celaena would probably be somewhere around here, enjoying an apple.
She heard a sound, like a knife clearing a sheath, behind her, and twisted. A hand snagged in her long braid as she dodged, and being so off-balance she fell, kicking and punching at her attacker. But he, or she, was too fast and strong, and within seconds Aery was pinned, face against the wall, a dagger to the back of her neck. A tiny needle went into the side of her neck, and the world fuzzed out.
~~~~~
What she could see of the room she awoke in did nothing to reassure her. It was dank and dark and reeked of fear and something almost metallic... Blood? No. No. Not. Happening. No.
Her hands were bound to a stone block; so were her feet. She could only move her neck a little. And she desperately wished she couldn't even do that. For next to her, laid out on a wooden tray, were all sorts of... Knives. Drill bits. In the corner of her eyesight she could see a brightly glowing furnace... A faucet over her head. Wait, what? Why was there... Oh. God.
She tugged on the cuffs, but she didn't think she'd get out, not really. But how had... whoever had captured her... How had they known who she was, or where she was going?
~~~~~
The door to the room opened. The person who came in (she would bet it was a man) wore a blood-red mask, rather like the kind of masks she'd gotten for herself and Celaena. He just stood there for several moments, looking at her, until finally she broke the silence.
"Well? This is hardly proper courtesy to show a guest." Her voice trembled as she said it, though. But, at least, the man finally quit staring at her.
"Ye don' talk none, 'less we ask ye questions." He walked over, stood right over her. "There be a 'spiracy to off some'un important. You been sneakin' around the town, you an' yer lady friend, up to no good, like as no. Spill it."
It was fear that made her mind dull: "I wouldn't know. Celaena and I have absolutely no connection to the conspiracy to "off" the king."
The man froze and looked down at her slowly. "I didn't say anything about the King. And... Celaena. Would that by any chance be Celaena Sardothien, the most wanted woman in all the realms?" The man's uneducated accent was gone, replaced by a nearly royal one.
She froze. She'd said too much. But who could it be who needed murdering but the king? Still, she wouldn't talk. She'd already said Celaena's pseudonym. She didn't need to spill Celaena's identity, and certainly never her own.
The man laughed. Reached up, jiggled the faucet over Aery's face. And instantly the water poured down, freezing cold, in her eyes and nose and down her throat choking her. Gasping, sucking in water, coughing it out and finding that there was no air anywhere.
The faucet turned off as quickly as it had turned on, but the damage was done. Her lungs felt like they were on fire; she coughed and hacked and gasped and turned her head away to throw up all the water she'd swallowed, coughed some more. The man was standing over her again. She looked up at him through streaming eyes.
"Do you want to talk?" He asked, almost kindly.
She shook her head, rasped the word "No."
The man smiled down at her, sweetly. Brought a baton out and cracked it on her lower arm, fracturing it in multiple places. She SCREAMED. Again the baton came down, breaking the bone even further. Through the haze of pain Aery saw another person, more likely a woman, based on the shape of the body, came in from a second door. She took a knife from the tray beside Aery's head and something from the furnace. The thing from the furnace she tossed to the man, and Aery saw what it was, and instantly felt the urge to throw up. An iron, glowing yellow. The woman stood over Aery, the blade dangling from her hand. Like the man she wore a beautiful blood-red mask with rubies and gold gilding.
"We've wanted to nab one of you for this for the longest time. Pity you're so little. You'll not even be much fun. I'm patient, unlike my comrade. I'll ask you two more questions: One, would you prefer the knife or the iron? Two, this is the last chance I'm going to give you to talk for a while, so I hope you'll consider that."
"Go kill yourself." Aery rasped, looking up at the woman with hatred.
She chuckled, a well-bred chuckle. "Pity. You're such a fighter." The knife whipped around, opening a long thin gouge down Aery's chest. The woman smiled, sweetly, and started opening tiny criscrossed cuts methodically, up Aery's arms, across her chest and down her legs.
"You can talk at any time, sweetheart, and I'll stop hurting you and give you a mage-balm."
Aery groaned, bit her tongue to keep from telling them everything. How could a body even physically hurt this much?
"Very well then. My companion will have his turn with you." And the glowing metal came around and buried itself in her shoulder. Why wasn't she passing out?! She screamed and jerked, yanking against the bonds, but it still kept burning her and burning her.
"Stop! Stop. I-i don't know what conspiracy you're talking about! But I have no reason to lie to you. M-my name is A-aerienna Silverheart..." She gasped in agony as the poker was removed from her shoulder, but she kept babbling. "My mistress is Celaena Sardothien. No! No! don't burn me again no please, please. W-we left A-adarlan i-in pursuit of a m-murderer an-and I was supposed to be app-apprenticed to Aelin's old master, s-so that I-i could learn m-more assassin skills." Then she realized the name she'd let slip out. And so did her captors.
They looked at each other and laughed. "Well well well! We thought we had a minnow and it turns out we snared a shark." The woman lightly caressed Aery's cheek. "I don't doubt that you know nothing. After all, you're just a little girl, not even bloomed yet! And what master would entrust such a big secret to one so young? But Aelin... That name sounds awfully familiar. Aelin Galanthius, perhaps? The lost princess who was thought to have been kidnapped by the assassin's guild?"
The man spoke, a tinge of humor in his voice. "Don't you see? It's the perfect trap. You're the bait, and once we have Her Royal Highness in our hands, she'll tell us everything to free you. And if not, we'll persuade her."
"You'll never break her." Aery whispered. But then the burning iron plunged into her flesh again, and this time she welcomed the darkness when it swamped her.