Chapter 16 - Silent Screams

"In the claws of lions, even a serpent’s bite becomes a desperate weapon."

-Nest Of Serpests

by E.S.Mare

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I could hear them outside. They didn’t even lower their voices. Not even out of decency, or fear. These creatures were worse than anything my mother had ever warned me about.

“She’s not eating,” Adara said. Even the sound of her voice stirred something feral in me.

“She already threw up what little she managed to eat. She’s been sitting in silence for hours.”

“Did you check her wounds?” Lian asked, as if he hadn’t heard a thing. Even if he had, he wouldn’t have cared.

“She won’t let me,” Adara said, her voice tight with frustration. “When I get close, she shrinks back into the wall and hisses, baring her teeth.”

“Are you afraid, Adara?” Lian asked, a hint of anger in his tone. “The girl is wounded and starving. And you say she bares her teeth.”

“Maybe you should’ve thought of that before having that venomous ointment made for her,” Adara snapped. Was that mockery in her voice? Disgust twisted in my belly.

“Arlo even had to help me clean it off her back.”

“She sank her teeth into my shoulder,” Arlo chimed in. “Without the antidote, I’d be dead.”

“I think they’re telling the truth,” Adara said. “Isn’t it clear they’re not the ones we’re after?”

They were searching for someone. That much was obvious now.

Keeping us here was just a convenient excuse.

The golden-eyed lion wanted answers.

“She said he stole the sword,” Arlo added. “She doesn’t look like a looter, but appearances can be deceiving. She looked like a sweet little Snake—until she bit me. Nearly ripped my flesh off. I’m talking about the girl you called weak, Lian. If she had her strength back, she would’ve swallowed us whole, like prey caught in a serpent’s jaws.”

A looter?

Is that who they were hunting?

So that’s what this was about. Not who we were. Just what we might be—looters.

“You said she couldn’t even wring a chicken’s neck this morning,” Adara threw in.

“That was before she sank her teeth into me.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“When did you start trusting Snakes, Adara?” Lian asked.

“I don’t,” she said instantly. Her voice dropped, and I couldn’t make out the rest.

Footsteps echoed across the warped wooden floor, but I didn’t raise my head.

I kept my arms wrapped around my legs, my head buried against my knees. As long as my back didn’t touch the wall and I stayed still, the pain was manageable. The nausea had dulled into a quiet ache I now knew too well. My stomach was empty—nothing left but the occasional dry heave.

When I felt someone approaching, I lifted my head fast and winced at the pain. I snapped my head up and locked eyes with Lian, fury blazing.

“Bring the ointment,” he said to Adara.

I braced myself and leaned back against the grooved wall, knowing it would hurt more. The pain hit so sharp it flashed lightning behind my eyes. I muttered a curse—half of it for the Lions—just as he stepped closer.

“Stay away!” I hissed. “Don’t touch me...” The bitter taste rose again, but I pushed through. “Don’t touch me!”

Without taking his eyes off me, he called again, “Adara! Bring the antidote as well!”

Adara shook the small flask as she stepped from the hearth, rolling her eyes. In her other hand, she held the ointment box.

“Antidote... Sure. Let’s call it that.”

Arlo laughed.

Neither Vilas nor I had spoken, so they clearly had no intention of healing me. The girl’s mocking words proved it. I’d swallowed that lie once already.

This time... I didn’t know what they’d feed me to make Vilas speak—or what they’d rip from us to silence him.

How had I ever believed a Lion could show mercy, when their cruelty had all but wiped out a race?

Yet my mother’s voice surfaced, uninvited: Every soul is born with compassion. Some bury it with their conscience, and plant savagery where it once grew.

And savage weeds had long overtaken the grave Lian had dug.

“Don’t…” I whispered. But Lian grabbed me by the wrists and dragged me toward him. The chains bit into my skin, branding me with every move.

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When my hands landed on his chest, I clawed him. He breathed through clenched teeth and wrapped his arms around me, crushing me in place. If my palms weren’t pressed to his skin, my ribs would’ve been.

I trembled, powerless.

My stomach churned.

I couldn’t stand, let alone walk.

But I still had a weapon.

When I bared my teeth, he growled, “Sink those into me again, and I’ll rip every one of them from your mouth.”

He pulled back, locking his golden eyes on mine.

“Do you understand me?”

“I understand,” I said softly. I drew a breath, trying to calm the rising nausea.

“I understand.”

He realized I understood—right when my teeth sank into his neck.

He flung me to the ground with a curse.

Flames licked across my back, and I screamed.

When I tried to rise, he slammed both hands down on my shoulders, pinning me in place.

The anger had vanished from his voice, but it poured from his eyes—

blending with the twin rivers of blood running down his neck.

“Adara,” he barked, “throw that poison in the fire and find me a pair of pliers!”

I thought it was Adara approaching, but it was Arlo who knelt beside us, a half-eaten piece of salmon still in his hand.

He clicked his tongue and smirked.

“You’ll look awful without your teeth. Such a waste of a pretty snarl.”

Lian turned his glare to him. Arlo just took a giant bite of salmon and walked away.

Before he vanished down the corridor, his voice floated back:

“Oh, and your dress is undone—your glittering serpent-hide and those sharp, bony hips are all out in the open. You’re all bones, Snake girl. No wonder you hiss instead of speak.”

Lian turned. A small tube slipped from beneath his shirt and swung free.

I didn’t bother to wonder what it was—he wasn’t looking at Arlo.

He was looking at my legs.

Heat flared in my cheeks—fury, not shame. Arlo laughed again, and Lian must’ve realized what the fool was doing because he roared, “Arlo!”

I writhed under him, trying to slip free, but the motion only scraped my back harder across the floor. I groaned in pain.

His eyes snapped back to mine.

In a sudden move, he turned me on my side and pinned my legs with his.

When he gripped my wrists and pressed them to the floor, I screamed.

“Adara! Wherever you’ve slithered off to, come and take a look at her back!” he bellowed.

“Pliers?” Adara called.

I cursed.

“Ada!” he shouted. “Do as I say, or I’ll tear out your teeth instead!”

Adara grumbled. I thrashed under him, soaked in sweat—as if I hadn’t already drowned in it.

When she moved behind me, I shrieked,

“I’ll kill you! Don’t touch me!”

As Adara pulled down the back of my dress, even the slightest brush of fabric against my skin made me flinch. She didn’t answer. Instead, she silently pressed the searing ointment to my back. I cursed so violently that Lian eventually threatened to cut out my tongue. But in the end, the pain and struggle drained the last of my strength. At least my stomach had settled a little, as if pitying me.

When I finally fell silent, Lian let out a breath of relief.

"The fever’s rising again," said Adara.

"Give me the antidote," Lian ordered.

The moment Adara released my wrists, I felt the throb return—made worse by the rawness of my burned skin.

He then gripped my neck.

“Hold her hands!” he barked.

If I hadn’t lost all feeling in them, I might have clawed her again like I intended. But that cursed Lion must have gripped me so tightly, blood hadn't reached my fingers for some time. As Adara pinned my hands, Lian pressed a small bottle to my lips. I clenched my mouth shut.

“I really should have ripped your teeth out,” he growled, fury pulsing in his grip. “Drink it, or you’ll die.”

He claimed to dislike games—but few played them as cruelly as she did.

I kept my mouth sealed, which only stoked his fury. He grabbed my face and squeezed so hard it forced my mouth open. The bitter liquid ran down my throat. Tears welled in my eyes, and when he finally let go, I doubled over in a fit of coughing.

I gagged.

Choked.

My throat burned—along with my back and wrists.

And for a brief moment, I truly thought: I’d rather be thrown into a pit of snakes than remain in the hands of these Lions.

And truly, I would have.

When the coughing subsided, I crumpled to the floor, trembling. My eyes filled with tears—not from pain, but from sheer anger.

“If you hadn’t resisted, you wouldn’t be in this state,” he said, as if to provoke me further.

“And if you hadn’t poisoned me,” I growled, though my voice barely rose above a whisper.

If only... If only I had the strength to kill them all.

Right now. One by one. And make them bleed.

I’d been thrown into dungeons more times than I could count. Whipped. Starved. Left to rot.

But never—never—had I felt this powerless.

And never had I hated myself more for it.

Tears spilled—not from agony, but from shame. From helplessness. With the last strength I could muster, I raised an arm to cover my face.

I would not let them see me like this.

I hadn’t even cried when my father laughed at me in the middle of my suffering.

Then Raiden’s voice broke through, too bright for such a moment.

“So, you finally killed the Snake whore...”

“If you call her that again, I’ll rip your jaw off, Raiden!” Lian snarled, teeth clenched.

He fell silent for a moment. “What’s wrong with you?”

Suddenly, someone scooped me up—arms sliding beneath my knees and shoulders.

Raiden sounded more surprised than I was.

“That Snake—where are you taking her?”

“When you earn the right to question me, ask me again,” Lian answered coldly. “Arlo! Do something useful. Get out of my sight.”

Before I could see where we were going, Lian dropped me onto something far softer than the stone floor.

“Skinny legs,” Arlo muttered, “try not to get too attached to my spot.”

I didn’t move my arm away from my face, but I could tell he’d set me down on that same worn-out sofa.

Rough hands pulled my arm aside, forcing my face into view, but I didn’t meet his eyes. I buried my face into the sofa instead.

“You hear Arlo!” His voice turned to ice.

“You have until tomorrow, Rattle’s Song. Tell me the truth by then—or you and your friend will be thrown to a pack of lions who will tear you apart. Try anything, and the same fate awaits.”

He gave me a dismissive glance. “That is—if you’re still capable of anything at all.”

I didn’t respond. I just covered my face again—but something inside me twisted.

Was that really an antidote they forced down my throat?

If it had been poison, I’d be dead by morning. Then he wouldn’t need to threaten me with anything.

But my doubts didn’t last long. He made it clear—again and again—what would happen if I stayed silent.

And it wasn’t just death. It was to be handed over to the lions.

I was stunned by how deeply they hated us—enough to rip us limb from limb.

If a Lion were ever thrown to the Snakes, of course they’d face hatred. Maybe a beating. Maybe a dungeon.

But this... this savagery...

We weren’t so different, really.

As Lian walked away, his voice lingered like poison in my ears.

“Cover her with something. Her pathetic shivering is starting to annoy me.”