The Breaking (The Eternal Dungeon)

"'Do you have any questions?' the Seeker asked. 'About the routine of the dungeon? The times you will be fed? The questions you will be asked? The instruments of torture I use?'" The prisoner knew that the Eternal Dungeon was a place where suspected criminals were broken by torture, and he was prepared to hold out against any methods used against him – except the method he could not anticipate. Arrested on the charge of committing a particularly horrendous murder, Elsdon Taylor arrives at the Eternal Dungeon in fear of the harsh methods used by the torturers, called Seekers, to draw confessions from their prisoners. But his Seeker's methods are for more devious than Elsdon had expected. Now Elsdon is faced with a choice that will shape his future . . . as well as the future of his Seeker. A winner of the 2011 Rainbow Awards (within the "Eternal Dungeon" omnibus), this suspenseful novella (short novel) can be read on its own or as the introductory story for The Eternal Dungeon, an alternate history series set in a nineteenth-century prison where the psychologists wield whips. The Eternal Dungeon series is part of Turn-of-the-Century Toughs, a cycle of diverse alternate history series (The Eternal Dungeon, Dungeon Guards, Michael's House, Life Prison, Commando, Waterman, Young Toughs, and Dark Light) about adults and youths on the margins of society, and the people who love them. Set in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the novels and stories take place in an alternative version of America that was settled by inhabitants of the Old World in ancient times. As a result, the New World retains certain classical and medieval customs.