“To the Women’s Tower. I’m new. I was just transferred here from the Heart Cards.”
The man gave a spiteful sniff and spat on the ground. “You look like a Heart Card with that pretty face. Be glad you left. They are a bunch of weak, ignorant bastards who love to boast that they protect the King. Instead their lives are spent guarding doorways to empty chambers and watching the royal family count their jewels.”
On the floor, Dinah wiped the blood from her mouth and thought about the ring hidden in her cloak pocket. Counting, indeed.
“Well, at least you have joined a real deck of Cards here.” He clapped Wardley on the back. “You’re young and strong. You’ll do well here, if you learn to stomach the smell and the screams. I’m Yoous, the head torturer of this tower.”
A bellow, a sound of pure agony, floated up from below. The Club guard leaned back and closed his eyes. “Ah. I revel in the screams. That sound means that justice has been accepted, and that Wonderland is back on its way toward balance and harmony. Learn to love the screams, boy.”
Wardley nodded his pale face. Dinah kept her head tilted toward the floor. The prisoner who had so frightened her leered out at her from his cell, licking his lips. “My Queen. . . .”
“So, where do I take this one, this . . . detriment to society?” Wardley yanked her chains roughly.
The Club gave a loud guffaw. “You must be new. Did Erinsten send you?”
Wardley raised his lip in a sneer. “Does Erinsten do anything?”
The man gave a laugh and stroked his long mustache. “This is most certainly true. He does not. Well, he should have told you that there is no Women’s Tower. All prisoners are housed according to their crime, not their sex. This is the murderers’ hive.”
The Club began to circle Dinah. “Are you a murderer, my little blackberry tart? Who did you kill? Your lover? Your children?” He pushed her hood back and ran a hand down her thick black braid. “Shiny hair for such a commoner. Were you a whore perhaps? One of the King’s whores?”
Wardley pressed a finger against his forehead and rubbed, as if he was remembering something. “Erinsten said that she is to be housed with a Feena Boker, yes, I think that’s the name. Or Fina?”
The man stepped back from Dinah with caution. “Faina Baker?”
Wardley snapped his fingers. “Oh yes, that’s it, Faina.”
“Faina Baker is in here for high treason. She is in the top cell of the Seventh Tower.” He peered at Dinah. “That makes you worse than any man in this tower. I’ll keep my distance.” He leaned forward and trailed his fingers down Dinah’s cheek. “What they do in that tower is worse than death, worse than any torture we do here. I pity you, my pretty.”
Wardley gave Dinah a yank and they started to make their way back down the spiral.
“I wouldn’t go that way if I were you. We just gutted a man down there, and you don’t want to get blood all over your boots. Take the Iron Web. You better get used to it. Clubs use the web, otherwise we never see the sun.”
Yoous picked at his teeth with his huge black fingers. Wardley let out a grunt and began walking back up the spiral, dragging Dinah behind him.
“You’re going the wrong way. Oh gods, here; take this door.” He walked between two cells, and a short and narrow hallway opened up before them. It led to a thin metal door.
“No locks?” asked Wardley in disbelief.
Yoous gave a laugh. “You think a prisoner would try to escape the Black Towers? Knowing that there is more torture to come when they get caught? No, no one tries to escape. Besides, they would just escape to the Iron Web, where there are always dozens of Cards going about their day. That or fall to their death. They have no dream of escape. Their minds are worn down by the towers themselves.” He ran his hand across the wall, black and thick, and covered with a sticky sap. “Do you know the legend of the Black Towers, son?”
Wardley did, and so did Dinah, but he just shook his head. Yoous took a seat on a decrepit bench, his legs spread wide in Dinah’s direction. She looked away.