Chapter 2

Torment

Eragon awoke and became aware of the early morning fog. It was dreary and thick. He could not even see Saphira, who he knew lay less than ten paces away. He slowly rose to his feet, looking around warily. This was the dreariest he had seen this new land in all their time traversing it. "Saphira," Eragon called out, first, aloud, then with his mind. He neither heard nor felt a response. He immediately started to worry. "Blodhgarm," he called with his mind and his tongue. Once again, there was no response. Eragon was starting to panic now. He franticly cast his mind about, desperately searching for something, anything he might be familiar with. After he was just about on the verge of giving up the pursuit, he felt Saphira's presence, briefly, but he felt it. It was just enough to kindle hope within him.

He immediately set off after Saphira, running at full speed. Despite the fact that he had inhuman strength and indurance, he was unable to maintain his pace for the necessary distance and soon had to rest to gather his strength before setting off. As soon as he came to a stop, he reached over his shoulder for his pack, thinking he would be grateful to have something to sustain him, even if it only helped marginally. To his dismay, he found nothing and realized he had left it back at their campsite, along with Brisingr and Niernen. 'Well, too late to turn back now,' he concluded. He rested for a moment longer, during which time he fell asleep.

Sometime later, he awoke with a start when he felt a rumble in the ground beneath him. He quickly jumped to his feet and reached for Brisingr. Remembering he had forgotten it, he muttered a curse under his breath and instead began to prepare for a spell. What he saw next shocked him. He dropped his concentration on the spell and stared on in horror as he gazed upon the sight of Saphira chained to a colossal slab of stone, carried by humanistic creatures that were about twenty feet tall and had massive, roughly cut axes of stone slung across their backs.

He quickly came back to himself, despite Saphira's current predicament, and began to take stock of the situation. There were roughly a hundred of these giants surrounding Saphira and each one was nearly as blue as Brisingr. They all looked to be well built, even for a giant, and all seemed to refer to another blue giant, who stood at nearly 30 feet tall and carried an axe, just like all of his colleagues; however, this axe was nearly as big as him and seemed to be covered in runes that glowed a bright blue. Eragon instantly knew that if he was going to save Saphira, he would have to avoid the leader and that ferocious looking axe. Even as he triggered the invisibility spell that was part of his wards, the leader seemed to sniff the air and point in his direction.

Eragon watched their approach with a feeling of resignation, then relief as they stopped short and turned around. He thought they had just missed him by chance, but he soon noticed the strange way in which they were walking, each with an arm flexed as though it were gripping something. Eragon whispered the words in the ancient language that would enhance his ability to hear and found that they were speaking some strange, guttural language that he had never seen before. He quickly discerned that he could not understand this language and was about to cut off the flow of energy to the spell when he heard a familiar voice, that of Blodhgarm's, he realized.

As Eragon watched, the leader waved his strange ax in front of his face and Blodhgarm appeared, seemingly from nowhere. Eragon simply watched in utter dismay and despair. The leader called one of his men over. He was shorter than the rest, and slimmer, but he looked unimaginably cruel, perhaps because of the hunch in his back and the wicked gleam in his eye. The short, hunchbacked giant came over and, appearing very eager, pulled out an irregularly shaped dagger that appeared to be stained with the blood of various other creatures, then started to mumble sinister words and phrases over it. The blade started to glow a searing orange, as a fire poker left in the hearth to long would.

Eragon looked on in despair, knowing there was nothing he could do for Blodhgarm. The leader called to two more of his men, who brought forth a smaller slab of stone and bound Blodhgarm to it using stone chains much like the ones that now held Saphira. The hunchbacked giant shuffled over to the slab and drew the blade across Blodhgarm's arm three quick times. He seemed to wince in pain but then he gritted his teeth and kept silent while the blade was drawn slowly across his body many more times over the course of an hour. Finally, it seemed as though the torture would end when the giant put the blade away and walked back through the crowd of giants.

However, he soon came back with a bag that looked to be made of rough leather with bits of skin and fur still clinging to it. He reached into the bag and withdrew a pair of tongs. He then proceeded to slowly remove each of Blodhgarm's teeth. He tortured Blodhgarm in many different ways throughout the day, ending by severing each of his appendages and mounting the rest of Blodhgarm's body on a pole where he placed it in the ground before the leader. The leader grunted in satisfaction, taking a massive bite out of Blodhgarm's neck, before motioning the rest of the giants to join in. Eragon at once felt a profound feeling of sadness and relief come over him, knowing that Blodhgarm was dead, but that his suffering was now no more.

The leader quickly strode over to Saphira, where he proceeded to place his foot on her neck, drawing his axe back as he did so. The axe started to swiftly descend towards Saphira's neck. "NOOOO!" Eragon screamed in desperation and anguish as the blade was about to be driven home, only to be stopped when the very world around him seemed to fracture and then shatter, bursting apart. He instinctively closed and covered his eyes to protect them.

The world seemed to shake for several minutes before it ceased and he slowly opened his eyes to find himself in a high-vaulted, dimly lit, underground cavern. He slowly lifted his head and gazed around the room. He now noted that he himself was chained to a stone slab now. He looked around, but neither saw nor heard anything. There was, however, a deep, throaty chuckle that seemed to come from within his own mind and reverberated throughout his skull in a sinister manner. He was too tired to think upon it further and was only just able to comfort himself slightly with the thought that it had all been an illusion. He then passed out to the sound of that deep, throaty, sinister chuckle echoing within his own mind.