Perdition (The Dred Chronicles) Read Online Free

a single wound he’d ever taken in his life showed on his skin. Instead, he carried the scars elsewhere, damage so deep that he’d become a human-shaped thing. Ironic, because that was what they’d wanted him to be, so many turns ago, the fate he’d fought so hard to avoid.
    “Queensland,” he repeated mockingly. “How precious.”
    The giant stirred and growled again, taking another step toward him.
Don’t,
Jael thought.
I’ll have to kill you.
There was a macabre serenity about knowing even a severed spine couldn’t end him, but the horror and pain lingered. The period afterward was most horrendous, where he lay paralyzed and helpless, feeling what his enemy did to him yet there could be no release; he was tied to his broken meat like a cursed devil from the old stories. So he feared no violence. Not anymore. The universe was an infinite sea of blood in which he could swim but never drown.
    “I’m bored,” the woman said then. “Best of luck, pretty lad. You’ll need it.”
    She spun on her heels, threading toward the dark corridor beyond. The lights flickered, yielding an intermittent burst that made it look as if she glided, taking only one step for every meter. Despite her leather and chains, she was graceful. Quiet. And he could hear so many things.
Too many.
This place would drive him mad in short order, and it wasn’t as though he had far to travel.
    He expected her to pause to give him a chance to reconsider, but she didn’t. In fact, she’d already written him off. That tore it. With inhuman speed, he closed the distance between them and leapt over their heads, dropping down into a fighting crouch before them.
    “Maybe I was hasty,” he said. “It’s a curse.”
    “Come on then. We can’t linger.”
    Her two minions fell back, talking softly. Jael heard every word though they were trying to be subtle. This was a skill he didn’t advertise, but he could’ve told the woman at his side that she had slight arrhythmia.
    “What do you think of the fish?” the blond giant asked.
    “Too soon to say. He seems smart enough . . . and skilled. Not crazy.”
    “Do you think she took him because he’s pretty?”
    “What do you care?”
    The giant sighed. “Because I’m not.”
    Hm.
So the big scarred brute had a thing for the princess in chains.
I wonder if she knows.
    Before he could calculate how the information might serve him best, he stopped cold, held up a hand. Occasionally, his acute hearing proved useful in other ways. Jael could also hear the slight hitch in her breathing when the décor changed. New territory, he guessed. She was afraid, but the adrenaline kicked in. The woman beside him was ready for a fight—wanted one—and that was . . . enticing.
    “Party guests on the way. Shall we show them a good time?”
    She nodded. “Let’s.”
    He had no weapon, but it didn’t matter. The enemy couldn’t have anything more than shivs, chains, hunks of metal forged into something equally primitive. There would be no blasters, shredders, or disruptors. Which made for a fine melee . . . for him, anyway.
    Jael whirled into battle as the convicts broke from the shadows. They all wore the same colors, and they carried homemade knives. They radiated a desperate, frantic air; he’d seen the same light in the eyes of holy warriors—fools convinced they were dying for a holy cause instead of just dying.
    Punch, block, roll. He came up behind his target and broke his neck cleanly from behind. The giant’s surprised grunt told Jael the other man was surprised he had the brute strength to manage the maneuver. Everyone was, until they realized he wasn’t normal. That he was other. Then the whispers would start, even here.
    It was hard not to stop and watch her because she was beautiful like a ferocious storm. Her chains twirled and lashed. He leapt them while the henchmen held back, clearly worried about getting in her way. But he wasn’t afraid of a misdirected blow. It was only pain, his old