Magnus had spent the last few days a prisoner to Borsh and his men, kept bound to a pole in their camp or kept to be walking behind a horse with his hand tied and his broken one flailing around him painfully. Magnus persevered through it though he thought perhaps falling and allowing the horse to break his skull might be a kinder fate than what his father would do.
They had set up camp and Magnus knew Lathos had went ahead to Gaius with news of Magnus's capture so he now had less than three days to escape or face his father. But Borsh had been very careful with keeping Magnus captive securely. There were no loose knots in bonds they kept his wrists behind his back and ankles together, nor was there a corner in the camp where Limerian soldier didn't watch for him making a break for it.
There really wasn't any hope. Why didn't he just allow himself to die? Something kept him going…Magnus had accepted death before but now for some reason a tug at his heart was telling him to stay alive when it seemed to cause him the most pain.
Perhaps it was because Cleo would be angry if he gave up. Such a thought infuriated him that she held such a power over him. The woman he held nothing but apathy for before now consumed his reason and stole his heart. The nerve of it.
Suddenly, a thundering roar of hooves reached his ears as it did Borsh's. They all got up and drew their weapons, the young soldier from before who stood close to Lathos while they spied on the rebels stepped in front of Magnus who was tied to the pole without means to defend himself from the unknown force.
Suddenly they came through the trees, red uniforms, they were Limerian.
"You gave us a startle." Borsh chuckled.
"Did we now?"
Magnus froze up, he knew that voice all too well. He looked to see Borsh was in shock as well, Gaius was on a horse before them looking amused down at Borsh. He had four men, Magnus didn't know these men but death seemed to radiate from them.
"Your men have my gratitude in returning my son to me." Gaius said, placing his hand at his heart. "You may relinquish him to me. Bring him here."
"Yes, your majesty." Borsh bowed quickly and went to the prince and unbound his chest from the pole and untied his ankles, pushing him to the king. "Here he is, he was conspiring with the rebels. Also his arm is broken. B-But we didn't do it, it was like that before we found him."
Gaius took Magnus by his hair harshly, making the prince wince and one of the men he brought came with horse and lifted Magnus onto it. He tied the prince's legs down to the saddle and bound his arms together and his wrists in front of him. Gaius really didn't seem to care Magnus's arm was broken.
"How unfortunate you saw such a thing." Gaius said, gravely. "I'm afraid such information isn't meant for such lowly people."
"What?" Borsh exclaimed.
"Your friend Lathos was very wise to tell me before you so stupidly brought Magnus through the streets of my kingdom, what would I look like if Magnus were a traitor? As far as anyone knows Magnus was their captive, nothing more." Gaius spoke looking at Magnus with hard cold gaze that the prince didn't break.
"I understand, we won't say a thing." Borsh put his hands up and his voice began to sound desperate. "We swear it!"
"I know you won't.." Gaius now looked excited. He drew his sword and in a swift motion took Borsh's head from his body. "Kill them." He said in a droll tone to the men.
Magnus now saw these were trained assassins, fighting with precision and grace. Four men took them out with ease, but only nine bodies were on the ground. Magnus saw the small soldier who stood to protect him, he wasn't amongst the slaughtered.
"Let's go." Gaius said. "Don't worry, Magnus. I won't kill you, though you may beg for it."
A gag was shoved into his mouth and sack over his head, just in case anyone who passed by didn't recognize the prince. His arm throbbed in pain and Magnus's head bobbed from not having control of the horse led by one of Gaius's trained men. He soon began to feel sick though he forced down the bile rising in his throat. Cleo would laugh if she saw him throw up like that.
Soon they came to a stop, Magnus was untied from the horse and the sack ripped from his head. He saw they were at small stone house, with a heavy lock on the door. Gaius led them inside with the men pushing Magnus with them. They threw the bound prince to the hard ground and Magnus looked up in fear seeing this was a special dungeon.
Chains hung from the walls, torture devices strewn out along tables, and dried blood on the cold floor inches from Magnus. The men roughly cut the rope from Magnus's raw wrists but replaced it with shackles and ripped the gag out of the prince's mouth making him gasp and cough for fresh air. He groaned, the already great pain having his arms above his head was enough on his broken arm. But he bit his lip and tried not to show emotion.
"Leave me with my son." Gaius commanded, the men bowed their heads and left. The king kept his gaze on Magnus for what seemed like an hour.
"Are you going to kill them too?" Magnus asked, in a chuckle.
"I trust those men. But I wonder if I'm a good judge of that anymore." Gaius grabbed Magnus's chin and got inches from him. "Considering the one I trusted most betrayed me. Why?!" Gaius sound actually hurt. This surprised Magnus, but it didn't lessen his resolve. "Why would my own son, my flesh and blood, betray me?!"
"Because you're a monster…a monster I refuse to be any longer." Magnus snapped back, Gaius threw back the prince making him harshly depend on the chains keeping his arms crisscrossed above his head and cry out from the force on his arm. He feared spending time like this would deform it and it'd need to be broken again.
"I'm your father!" Gaius snapped. "I raised you, taught you, and loved you! I spent your whole preparing you to be king!"
"As if you could let go of your crown so easily…the only reason I'm still alive right now is you don't have your hands on immortality yet." Magnus replied.
"I do love you, Magnus.." Gaius said, his voice for once unsure and shaky.
He seemed nervous, scared of admitting affection. Always trying to see Magnus as nothing more than his legacy, but somehow his son truly did mean a lot to him. Gaius just simply didn't understand how to express such tenderness and care. He spent years abusing his son and crafting his iron heart, only to have his work thrown away. The time and effort he put into Magnus to make him great, thrown away by a pretty princess. The thought made Gaius want to break Cleo's neck with his bare hands.
"That is why you'll spend however long it takes for you to see the errors of your ways in this prison, enduring whatever pain I see fit to punish you." Gaius placed his hands behind his back, now his voice even as if he were scolding a child.
"I have a constant reminder of what you see fit." Magnus said, curtly. "It was cut across my face."
Gaius stepped forward, his hand traced the scar lightly. His father hadn't touched him so gently since he confessed Sabina to be Magnus's mother. But it was gone when Gaius brought back his hand and struck Magnus across the face. The look in Gaius's eyes surprised Magnus, was that regret? But it was gone as soon as it was there, replaced by the darkness that had consumed his heart many years ago.
"Now is as good as any time to begin." Gaius chuckled. "We'll start easy." He picked up a slick dagger, nothing fancy but a sharp blade with dull hilt wrapped in a brown cloth. Magnus found it come what amusing it was there for the torturers comfort on his palms. How could one find time to register the irritation in their hands while they made another human bleed?
"Tell me Magnus…where exactly do your loyalties lie?" Gaius questioned, taking the blade running it lightly down Magnus's jaw and down his chest just enough to tear his shirt and leave his chest bare.
"They lie with what is right…for the good of my people." Magnus retorted. "I'll be damned if you remain on the throne."
"To bad you already are damned, my son." Gaius sighed, and suddenly the knife was in his crook of his elbow on his unbroken arm, Magnus's face twisted in pain as Gaius went heavy on the first mark. It was so painful and Magnus bit his lip to prevent giving in so easily.
"Tell me Magnus…shall we play a game?" Gaius spoke slyly. "Which hurts more? Your elbow? Your thigh?" Gaius plunged the dagger into his son's upper right leg. "Your forearm?" He dragged the blade horizontality across his arm three times. "Or perhaps, here?" He dug it into his shoulder, making the prince growled in anger trying to push it down but a scream broke from his throat as the king began to twist.
"I'd have never trained you in resisting torture had I known we'd come to this." Gaius sighed. "Most of the rebels break after the first stab honestly."
"I am your son truly…" Magnus chuckled. "A stubborn ass through and through…" The own insult to himself surprised Gaius, but the prince laughed through the pain the best he could. It sort of haunted the king, to the one thing he loved chuckling with bloodstained teeth and skin of Gaius's own doing.
"We're done for today.." Gaius sighed, and placed the dagger back on the table. He turned away and as he left two of men came in and cleaned Magnus's wound. Gaius wouldn't want them to become infected.
Surprisingly Magnus was lowered from the strained position in his chains. The guards secured them on two hooks in the back wall, giving the prince a little slack so he could rest his arm.
He stared at the door as they closed it and heard a loud lock, the haunting echo stayed with Magnus as his only friend in his stone prison.
He closed his eyes and imagined somewhere kinder, somewhere warmer, somewhere beautiful. There once was a time the image would be a flower struggling in the blanket of snow that coated Limeros, or the maze of his sister, or Lucia herself…but all he could see was the golden tresses of Cleo Bellos.
As long as she was okay, it was worth it.
/
A scream ripped from Cleo's throat as her eyes shot open and her hand popped from the ground, she had woken up Lysandra and Jonas by her nightmare but she couldn't calm down from it as her breath kept coming.
"I-It was Magnus.." She hiccupped, trying to push back tears, "I s-saw him being tortured."
Lysandra stood from her own went to her and rubbed circles on her back. "We'll get him back, Nic will return with reports about what they did with Magnus. Then we'll devise a way to rescue him."
Jonas remained quiet, he found it awkward to comfort her over a man he hated. He preferred silence in respect for Cleo's worry.
They had taken rest in a rebel sympathizers inn and finally getting some proper rest. Cleo had been against pressing on to Pealisa, desiring to go back to Auranos but they were already on the northern end of The Wildlands. They needed food and rest, so the opportunity had to be taken.
Cleo calmed down, her breathing had slowed and everything was fine. Though usually when you wake from a nightmare you can separate the twisted horror of it from realty, this wasn't the case. Magnus was going to be tortured, might already have it happening to him.
Cleo had never felt so guilty.
She wondered if it were wrong of her to suddenly care so much for the prince because of his action. Was it shallow of her to judge him now for this act and not who he was? She loved Theon so easily before, she wouldn't be so careless again. She didn't want to be heartbroken again and if she did indeed love Magnus, that was all that could come from such feelings.
"I think we should keep looking for Lucia."
Jonas's voice passed their ears and Cleo's blood began to boil. "Do you care at all?"
"Yes.." Jonas said, his voice desperate for Cleo to hear him out. "We can't do the same thing we did to save Lysandra, the king will expect it and Petros has disappeared anyway. Who better to help us?"
"Lucia.." Realization dawned in Cleo's eyes as a hopeful gleam began to take to them. "Yes! Lucia will be able to free Magnus easily and even if Gaius does stand in her way, his whole army is no match for her."
"Well, finding Lucia wasn't going anywhere for us before Magnus got captured." Lysandra commented. "What if Lucia doesn't even want to help? You've said their relationship is strained, yes?"
"Strained but not broken." Cleo said. "Lucia loves her brother, she'll do this…Oh I hope she's alive."
The door creaked open and Nic's bright red head of hair poked through. Cleo ran and embraced him, glad he returned safely. He patted her cheek and moved away to Jonas, she sat herself back on the bed. She kept imagining the hope of having Lucia as an ally would bring her.
"What's the report?" Jonas asked.
"Nothing." Nic said, rubbing his head in irritation. "Not a word breathed about Magnus's capture. The king isn't holding an execution, there are no rumors amongst the guards, it's like Magnus just disappeared from the face of the earth."
"Why would that happen?" Lysandra asked.
"I don't know." Jonas answered. "What do you think Cleo?"
"Gauis doesn't have a heart." She growled. "I can't imagine he'd pardon anyone who stood up to him, so I can't fathom why Magnus isn't being made an example of."
"I need a drink." Jonas sighed, and exited the room headed for the bar. Lysandra followed, leaving Nic and Cleo alone. He sat down beside her, he placed his hand on hers for comfort.
"I'm sorry.." Nic said. "But I don't understand…I thought you hated Magnus."
"I don't know, Nic." Cleo sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "There was once a time he was the prince of blood to me, a monster with an icy heart forged by years of brutal instruction from the demon king himself. But now…he's human."
"He killed Theon." Nic reminded her. "He ran a sword through his back like a coward."
"Magnus regrets it." Cleo stated.
"That doesn't make it okay." Nic retorted.
"Hatred is tiresome, Nic." A weak smile found itself onto Cleo's face, a small tear drop rolled down her face. "I've spent this eternity locked away in that castle loathing everything about the Damora family, the vile clan of demons. But now, I feel so exhausted with self pity. I'm tired of doing everything for the sake of vengeance and returning the favor to Gaius. I'm going to take back the throne for the sake of my people, not for myself."
"Yes, but why risk yourself to save the person who tormented you for so long?" Nic asked. "If Magnus really did sacrifice himself I doubt he wants you allowing yourself to be captured and make his actions in vain."
"Magnus exiled himself from the security of being Gaius's heir. He had a future, a kingdom he'd inherit; he chose to give it all up and save me. Now he'd being punished for doing the right thing, the least we can do is save him. Whether or not he sticks with the cause will be his decision."
Nic nodded and stood from the bed. "Whatever you choose I'll support you." Cleo smiled and went to back under the covers laying her head on the pillow, Nic left and joined Jonas and Lysandra.
Her thoughts traveled to the first time she saw Magnus become human to her. The day she saw that tear roll down his cheek in mourning for his mother, that one little tear changed everything.
If only she hadn't seen it maybe she could have let him go.
'Damn him.' She thought. 'This is cruelest thing you've ever done, Magnus. Making me feel for you.'
