"Bare your chest, Penelle." Torio stooped to where I was backed against the wall, on the floor. He tore at my shirt, exposing the flesh of my chest. "Are you going to tell?"
"I can't. I don't know."
Beyond his slim shoulder I saw Nina's face, pallid, her dark eyes glistening with horror, her lips compressed as though to stifle a scream. Torio had a small cylinder in his hand, with the naked length of wire connected to it. The wire was glowing now—red, orange, white, then violet hot.
"A few lashes with this," Torio hissed at me. "Whatever you know will come out then." His pale face was blazing.
"He will talk even more quickly if you try that on the girl," Mokk growled.
"No!" I burst out. "No, damn you! We don't know where it is! I can't tell what I don't know."
"We'll see," Torio muttered. He dangled the wire at my face. The violet light of it was blinding; the heat scorched my skin.
"Stop! Oh, stop it! I'll tell you!" Nina's anguished cry rang out. The light and heat receded from my face.
"Oh, so you're the one who's willing to tell?" Torio swung on her; snapped off the current in his wire and flung it away. "All right, where is it? But remember, by the gods, if we don't find it where you say—"
"It's there." She gestured to the wall. "My father told me it's there."