Change of Darkness (The Change Series Book 3) by Jacinta Jade (best new books to read txt) 📕

She wasn’t surprised at all to see that the male who had been the first to leave the formation was already down, a crumpled heap behind Captain Raque, who had then apparently turned around and was now dealing with the angry female.

The captain easily dodged a number of quick strikes that the female threw, then crouched low and struck out viciously at the female’s midsection with a snapping punch.

The female, whose hands had moved into an open-bladed attack towards the captain’s head, had no defence against the blow, the force of which could be seen reverberating up through her body and which caused her to stumble back a step.

The captain wasn’t done, though, and as the female’s head flicked forwards as her stomach caved, he almost casually reached up and landed an uppercut to her chin before throwing a blurred left hook into her cheek.

The female’s body resembled the straw figures Siray had once attacked, her figure bouncing around from the hits before she simply fell in the direction that the left hook had finally sent her body. She didn’t move after she hit the ground.

The captain looked up, straightening his bent knees. Took a breath. ‘Anyone else?’ His voice held a dangerous note, and Siray knew that the next person to leave the line would not survive.

She felt Tamot’s muscles tighten in his shoulders once more, and she gave him yet another squeeze. Another reminder.

‘I guess not,’ Raque said, smiling smugly, an echo of the smile Siray herself had given earlier that afternoon after her victory over Melora. It made her feel ill all over again.

Raque nudged the body of the female with his foot. ‘Have these two thrown into the pit. It’s about time their friend had someone to play with.’

The captives all seemed to stiffen once more as they remembered the pit’s existence, and that of the female who had been thrown in there the previous morning.

The Faction guards followed their orders, dragging the bodies of the male and female across to the pit, then lifting them bodily over the wooden posts and rolling them in.

Siray winced as she imagined the drop and the bruises both would wake up with. If they woke up.

A sudden howl from the pit made many of the captives flinch, and the hairs on the back of Siray’s neck stood up.

The captain merely smiled at the noise and opened his arms wide. ‘Food barrels are there.’ He pointed. ‘Enjoy.’

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A FEW OF the captives made a mad rush for the barrels. Siray assumed those who did so were the ones whose bodies were still processing the chemicals from the food they’d consumed earlier. Meanwhile, the rest of them headed over hesitantly.

She also had no doubt that the male and female who had charged Raque had taken double helpings of the drug-laced food earlier that day, and she thanked the Mother that she’d had the good sense to have only one serving.

Even when Siray and her group reached the barrels, they had to wait while the four captives who were still under the influence of the drug fought over who would be first to collect their portion.

The fights were short and brutal, with none of the captives holding back. Not one of them submitted, and it became a sort of rapid knockout round, with two of them overpowering the other two before they then turned on each other.

Siray watched in disgust as the last one standing limped over to the barrels to their meal, but then she looked away from the sight. Had she and others appeared similar when they had fought Melora’s unit earlier? Her stomach curled as she considered the three captives now sprawled across the ground, in varying states of consciousness.

Stepping around and over bruised limbs and bloodied faces, Siray joined the queue at the barrels—the first orderly line for food any of them had made here. Sneaking quick glances at the faces before and behind her, including those of her friends, Siray realised that they were all unsettled by the effect of the drug on their behaviour, what they had done, and even more by what they had just seen.

Reaching the front of the queue, Siray reached into the barrel to grab her supper but froze as another howl rang out. She turned slightly in the direction of the pit, but Baindan, who was behind her in the line, said quietly but firmly, ‘Grab your portion, Siray.’

She forced herself to turn back and snatch up the first piece of wrapped meat she saw, then moved away from the barrels towards where a weary Genlie and a patched-up Kovi were sitting down.

She had taken only a few steps in their direction when a shrill scream split the air, almost causing Siray to drop her food. Then she jumped again as she felt something warm grip her shoulder.

‘Steady,’ whispered Baindan from beside her.

She took in a deep breath, gave Baindan a tense nod, and resumed walking with him the rest of the way across the yard to Genlie and Kovi. She didn’t sit down, though, and couldn’t even bring herself to look at her portion, listening as she was to the muffled sounds coming from the pit.

She could hear grunts and the occasional muted thump, but apart from that, it was mostly silence now, which was almost more unbearable than the screams.

Standing by the rectangular pit outside of the perimeter of logs that ringed it were a couple of guards, who were chatting with each other and laughing as they watched whatever it was that was occurring out of sight below them.

Siray turned her face away, murmuring over her shoulder to Baindan, ‘We’re just entertainment for them.’

He shifted closer to her, almost so that they were shoulder to shoulder, although he continued to watch the guards from next to her. ‘In many ways, we are. But they are serious about transforming us into weapons for their own army too.’

She looked