Wordlessly, Ullen stuffed the shirt into his mouth and gave a nod to the madam without looking back.
The madam reached under the leg of her pants and pulled out a knife that she then unsheathed. As she moved to press the cold steel against his warm flesh, she began to talk.
"They must have loosed hundreds of arrows at us. But of them all, only one struck true. Did you have anything to do with it, or was it just dumb luck?"
Ullen just grunted, unable to reply with the shirt in his mouth. He had nothing to do with that, but it didn't matter. They had survived, that's what was important.
He chomped on the shirt as she cut into his shoulder, hardly making a sound. It still hurt, but compared to the torture he had received at the hands of the Nihtki just hours prior, it was like stubbing a toe.
Which was to say, it still hurt a fair amount, but he was able to bury it for the most part and keep still. All the while, the madam talked.
