![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
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“Father,” she said carefully, “I don’t know anything about any conspiracies. Frankly, I can’t believe Alahnah does, either, but I can assure you that I don’t.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” he told her, and twitched his head at the monk standing behind her.
She couldn’t see the man, but she knew he was there, and her right hand shot towards her mouth as he reached for her. Her lips parted and her eyes closed in a quick, final prayer. Then her hand was at her mouth and —
Her eyes flared wide once more as the monk’s fingers closed on her wrist. He’d been primed and ready for such an order, and his own hand had started moving an instant before hers. Now it stopped her fingers a fraction of an inch from her lips. She twisted desperately around to face him, clawing at his eyes with her free hand, fighting to wrench free and get the locket into her mouth, but he only turned his face away from her fingernails and twisted the arm he’d captured up and behind her. Something popped and tore in her elbow and she cried out in anguish and went to her knees, her face white with pain, then screamed through gritted teeth as he twisted even harder to keep her there.
“And what do we have here?” the under-priest said very softly, bending over her as one of the guardsmen caught her other arm, twisting it behind her as well and stilling her desperate struggles.
She stared up at them, panting hard, fear and defiance blazing in her eyes. There was no hope to keep those emotions company, yet she refused to look away, despite the awful pain in her ruined elbow as the monk forced her hand to turn palm-uppermost, his strength mocking her own, and pried her fingers apart. The under-priest reached out and peeled the locket from her palm, holding it up to the light, and his eyes flamed with triumph.
“So we’ve netted a rather bigger fish than I’d expected,” he murmured, closing his fist around the locket and sliding it into his coat pocket. “Oh, I’ve wanted to meet one of you for a long, long time.”