Chapter Three

  Part Two

  “Kidd is here” Line said to the others.

  Kidd smiled “how long do you think you can keep me here?” he laughed “I will get out eventually”

  “You won’t”

  Kidd just laughed further.

  Prince Vax’dian gave a look towards Hyde, who understood immediately what he meant. Hyde walked forward, raised a leg and kicked the chair backwards causing a loud thudding sound as the chair hit the stone underneath it. This caused Kidd to halt his laughter.

  Prince Vax’dian turned to look at Line “he is unharmed?”

  “Of course”

  “And here I thought you were interrogating him”

  Line tilted her head at him “he is unarmed and tied to a chair, I’ll be honest, I felt kind of bad for hitting him”

  Kidd began laughing again, but was cut short as Hyde placed a foot on his neck.

  Prince Vax’dian looked Line over, like he wanted to say something but ultimately decided against it “what did you want to ask him? I’ll ask for you”

  This time Line looked Prince Vax’dian over, she still didn’t fully trust him. But seeing as she had already shown him the way through the two mazes and how to open the doors, she felt like trust was already out the window. Slightly annoyed at herself, she pulled out the small wooden box she had been keeping on her and handed it over to Prince Vax’dian “do you know what this is?”

  Prince Vax’dian took the box from her and looked inside, his eyes widened slightly “how do you have this?”

  “So you do know what this is” she gestured towards Kidd “his group within The Sect is smuggling this, I want to know who wants this”

  “well now my good Inspector, it seems we are investigating the same thing” Prince Vax’dian smiled at her “Hyde”

  Hyde pulled Kidd and the chair back to its original position, Hyde then unsheathed one of his short swords and held it against Kidd’s neck.

  “Kidd, was it?” Prince Vax’dian continued without waiting for a response “do you like playing games? I know I do. But this one though is really simple, I think you will understand the rules in no time” he gave a subtle nod towards Hyde, who moved the blade away from Kidd. Prince Vax’dian continued “if you do not answer my questions, you will lose a body part. Do you understand?”

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  Kidd smiled “I understand”

  “good”

  “But” Kidd let out a small laugh “what if I answer with lies?”

  Prince Vax’dian thought this through for a moment, before there was a flash of metal. As Hyde flicked his wrist, cutting Kidd’s pinkie finger off with a clean cut. Line tensed at that moment as blood sprayed from Kidd’s stub that used to house a finger. Kidd jolted in pain and let out a painful cry.

  “You won’t lie to me, will you?” Prince Vax’dian asked

  Kidd didn’t answer, he was too busy trashing about in his chair.

  Hyde picked up Kidd’s disembodied finger and placed it on his knee “you dropped this” this was the first time Line and Ali had heard him talk, and it was for a messed-up joke.

  Line looked at the blood and listened to Kidd’s cries and couldn’t help but to hear those cries turn to cheers. Ali put a hand on Line’s arm, bringing her back down to reality.

  Kidd saw this and forced himself to calm down “Inspector? Are you scared of a little blood?”

  “no”

  “Then what is it that you are scared of?”

  Line new that Kidd was just trying to play with her, but she couldn’t help to shudder at the thought of that place “aren’t we the ones supposed to ask questions?”

  Kidd laughed “of course, I apologise” even in this situation, he could still be this arrogant, but also in this situation, Line doubted her reaction would be any different.

  But now Line had seen him in pain, she now fully understood this man “Ali, let’s go” she turned and left the room.

  *

  Line and Ali waited outside in the hallway for a short while, before Ali couldn’t take the quiet anymore. But before she could speak up Line asked “what happened with the chicken?”

  Ali frowned at her “you actually want to hear my chicken story?”

  “yes. I do”

  Ali beamed “oh, that story. Alright where was I-“

  The door they were waiting outside of opened, and walking through it was Prince Vax’dian and Hyde. When they closed the door, it clicked and the glow from the sigil died down.

  “I’ll have a healer come down to treat Kidd” Line said.

  Prince Vax’dian gave a nod and handed Line her box back “here”

  Line took the box and led back through the maze, up the spiral staircase, and back out into the library. Before turning back to Prince Vax’dian “he didn’t say anything did he?”

  “he did not”

  “I thought so. There are only two types of people that would make it that far up the ladder in an organisation like The Sect. So either Kidd was extremely loyal or extremely conniving. It’s why I didn’t interrogate him so hard, I already thought he was the extremely loyal type”

  Prince Vax’dian looked at Line “my good Inspector, what is it that you do fear?”

  Line turned to face him, slightly surprised with a change of conversation “I’m sorry?”

  A pause “you also look vaguely familiar to me”

  A pit in her stomach grew “I’m sure we have not met before”

  “how old are you?”

  “I fail to see how that would be of any concern to you”

  “Indeed” He paused for a moment before continuing “Anyway” Prince Vax’dian seemed to have changed his tune “I think we shall be taking our leave. Thank you for keeping Kidd”

  Ali smile “please, it’s nothing”

  Line slowly turned her head towards Ali.

  But Ali continued “if you ever want to see him again, you can just find Line”

  Prince Vax’dian returned the smile “of course” he then bowed and turned to leave, Hyde mirroring his movements.

  When they were gone, Line fully faced Ali and gave her a glare “what was that?”

  Ali shrugged “what?”