Spanners - The Fountain of Youth by Jonathan Maas Read Free Book Online

quickly and gave them commands as we tormented them for days, but they wouldn’t relent. None of the psychological tricks worked; they had no fear of death and no concept of honor. We cut children in front of their mothers, and neither child nor mother would give in to our torments.”
    “Did their class feel pain?” asked Adam.
    “Undoubtedly; we could see it in their eyes. We had wrung more tears from them in a fortnight than had been wrought during our entire previous rampage. But they resisted our methods with steadfast resolve, much like you resisted your own torment during the Inquisition; do you remember that, Adam?”
    “Unfortunately, yes,” said Adam, “though I’ve tried to forget.”
    “We didn’t know it at the time, but we were outmatched; their class doesn’t respond to momentary discomforts like ordinary humans do. Perhaps they were your class specifically; I believe your immortal class is called a tree ?”
    “Yes,” said Adam. “We ’re slow to pick up new technology, but we absorb wisdom and don’t respond to physical distress.”
    “Indeed,” said Diego. “These angels resisted our blades, and no threats would sway them. After weeks of failed intimidation, Juan tried a different method , and it worked. These Indians were highly sensitive to claustrophobia .”
    Adam’s heart skipped a beat, but he tried not to show it.
    “We locked them in small, dark boxes and they gave in,” said Diego. “They told us the secret dwelt within one of their own—a pale girl who lived far away. She held the power of both life and death; her blood gave life and her body brought death.”
    “Was this the Fountain?” asked Adam.
    “Indeed,” said Diego. “This girl was the Fountain of Youth.”
    “I didn’t know the Fountain of Youth was a girl, and that she also brought death,” said Adam.
    “ The Fountain of Youth can kill, and she’s more than just a girl,” said Diego. “She’s both life and death, power and destruction wrapped into one. They kept her in the far, far north; the cold muted her powers.”
    Adam drank another sip of the white tea , and Diego shook his head.
    “Juan, of course, was determined to find her,” said Diego. “So we increased our to rment, doing things that shouldn’t be done, things that would make Lucifer himself beg us to stop. They still wouldn’t reveal the location; it was sacred to them, so Juan brought the claustrophobia to the next level. He had us cut off their heads, and put those heads in a box. He did this to many of the villagers and showed what he had done to young Koriuaka, who immediately started to cry.
    “‘ The heads of your parents are very much alive in these boxes, ’ Juan told the young boy. ‘ The only way to cease their suffering is if you show us where the Fountain is; do you know her location?’
    “The boy nodded yes,” said Diego. “And that was that. We prepared for a journey north, cutting the heads off the old and placing them in boxes, and shackling several of the young and taking them with us. We trekked north for months, hunting animals along the way and wrapping ourselves in furs as the cold set in. Our young Arawak guides wouldn’t escape; they were too loyal to their elders.
    “And months later, we found her, trapped in a cave with eyes glowing and skin devoid of pigment. She had great powers, but in the cold she was just another girl, so she was easy to overtake and soon she was shackled to a post, completely under our control.
    “The naturals had said that her power lay in her blood, and Juan had prepared for this; he had brought great vats on our journey as well as leeches to prevent our blood from clotting. He then proceeded to sever her veins and let her blood drip into a vat. It took a week of cutting her skin to gain enough blood to fill the container, and when it was filled, Juan cut his own veins on his inner elbows and put his arms in the vat. He soaked it for an hour and soon developed a horrible