Author's Note: Hello everyone! Thanks to all who reviewed chapter three. It is greatly appreciated! Once again, sorry about the delay, I was gone for a few days to watch the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was amazing! But anyway, moving on. Here's the fourth chapter….
Disclaimer: I do not own Eragon,Eldest, or any of the characters in this story. They are all Christopher Paolini's.
Chapter Four:
Eragon stared straight ahead, ignoring King Galbatorix. He had been in the King's throne room for the better part of an hour, yet he had not uttered a word. Now he could tell that the King was beginning to get frustrated.
Galbatorix had started out nice enough, clearly wanting to gain Eragon's loyalty with flattery. And it was true that the King had a way with words. Upon arriving, Eragon had found himself enraptured by the picture of Alagaesia that the King created. But Eragon knew better. He had seen what could happen from Murtagh when someone believed Galbatorix's twisted lies. So he resolved to keep his mouth firmly shut and had sat there at the table with the King, not making eye contact, and not speaking.
"You know," Eragon heard Galbatorix say, "You are not leaving this castle until you swear loyalty to myself. There's no escaping. And you can forget about anyone coming to rescue you. There is no way they could get in. No way for you to get out."
Eragon glanced up to see the King smirking at him. Quickly, he looked back down. He had pretty much realized this, but to hear it put so bluntly felt like a knife through his heart.
"In fact," the King continued, "Your friends have probably forgotten all about you by now, or fear you are dead."
Forgetting that he had vowed not to speak to the King, Eragon said, "They would never abandon me." But at the same time, he heard the truth in Galbatorix's words. Remembering his own thoughts from earlier, he began to feel guilty about how he had thought that his friends had abandoned him. His friends probably thought he was dead, but he knew they would never stop looking for him, if only for his body to prove that their Rider had died. "They would never forget about me," Eragon said quietly, as if to assure himself of this fact.
"Never?" Galbatorix questioned. "Never say never, boy. You might be in for a surprise."
"Ha," scoffed Eragon, gaining confidence. "Of one thing I am quite sure, and that is that my friends will never stop looking for me."
"Even if they believe you are dead?"
"Especially if they think I am dead, because they will want confirmation of my death."
"Oh," Galbatorix pondered. He sat at the other end of the table from Eragon and stared at him thoughtfully.
"What?" Eragon couldn't help but ask self-consciously.
"Oh, it's nothing really…" Galbatorix trailed off, baiting Eragon.
Mystified, Eragon wouldn't let it go. "What?" He asked again, more harshly than he meant to.
Galbatorix's stare was hard and cold. Eragon felt it on himself and looked down at the table. On a plate in front of him sat some form of roasted meat. Looking down at it, Eragon began to feel sick. With nowhere else to look, he slowly brought his gaze back up to the King's.
The King had not stopped staring at him, and the look made Eragon shiver. Galbatorix's eyes were narrowed slightly and his index fingers were pressed together on the bridge of his nose. His eyes glinted hard as they met Eragon's, making Eragon immediately regret asking what he was thinking.
Galbatorix stood up and began pacing at his end of the table. Occasionally he would stop to pause and look over at Eragon. Eragon forced himself to sit still. He felt like a bug underneath a magnifying glass, and he couldn't help but feel that he was going to end up getting squashed.
"Well," the King began, "You see, you act so high and mighty… Eragon! The great Shadeslayer! You think that you would do something differently from your friends right now if you were in their position. That you would go searching for a friend missing-"
"I would!" Eragon cut in sharply.
"Or thought dead." Galbatorix continued, ignoring Eragon. "You think you would. Because, of course, you wouldn't want anything bad to happen to that person, if they were still alive. You wouldn't leave a friend stranded, left alone, to face whatever enemy they had to face. And as you said earlier, you would look for that person, even if you thought they were dead, because you wouldn't want them to meet some horrible fate."
"Right," Eragon confirmed. "My friends will look for me. They'll come for me."
"Keep telling yourself that, boy," Galbatorix said quietly, menacingly.
"They will!" Eragon shouted. "They won't forget about me!"
Galbatorix stared at him. "How can you be so sure?" He asked.
"Because they're my friends, and friends don't abandon or backstab each other," Eragon replied. Then under his breath he muttered, "Not that you would understand…"
"You think you're so great," Galbatorix intoned, "But you're no better than me. You abandoned one of your friends, yet you act like you do no wrong."
Eragon stared at Galbatorix.
"Yes, you pretend that you are a wonderful person, the one that will save everyone, but you and I are more alike than you think, Eragon. You say now that you would never abandon your friends, that you would always search for them, if only to find their dead body. But I ask you, where were you when Murtagh went missing? Did you search for him like you now claim you would? Or did you never consider Murtagh your friend? Perhaps he was someone not worthy of being saved?"
Galbatorix grinned as he watched the blood drain from Eragon's face. "Yes," the King continued. "The great Shadeslayer is not as great as he thinks he is. Abandoning his friend is not a very noble act, is it? I mean, you would agree with that, would you not, Eragon?"
"I- I did look for him," Eragon said quickly. "I didn't abandon him!"
Yet as Eragon spoke, he began to remember that day. He remembered the Urgals attacking, and jumping on Saphira only to arrive too late. Hearing Ajihad's last words. Seeing that Murtagh and the Twins weren't there. He heard Saphira's words in his mind like she was speaking them to him again. They may still be alive. Would you abandon them? And he remembered the fatigue he had felt. He thought that he would never be able to catch the Urgals in the tunnels. That he would get lost. But he hadn't abandoned them, he had sent in Arya to look for them.
"If you tell yourself that enough times, you might actually start believing it," gloated Galbatorix, bringing Eragon back to the present. "You know, when Murtagh arrived here, he told me that you would come. That you would never abandon him. 'My friends will come, they care about me,'" mocked Galbatorix. "Now that I think of it, you sound remarkably like he did. I saw in his mind how he hoped that you would come and rescue him. I told him it was pointless to believe in such novelties, but still he hoped. Eragon! The great Shadeslayer, who also happened to be his one friend. Of course you would come! But… you never came. And slowly, that hope started dissipating, until it was no more."
Eragon felt sick to his stomach. "Stop it, please stop it," he whispered.
"Why Eragon? Why should I? Don't you want to know? Doesn't it make you feel good to know that someone put so much trust in you, and someone that doesn't trust people very easily at that! You know what? I've been a rude host. I should've thanked you earlier for what you did. After all, you did deliver one of my best soldiers back to me without any trouble. Honestly, I expected more of a challenge!"
Eragon stared down numbly at the plate in front of him. His thoughts swirled through his mind like a whirlwind. Murtagh. Murtagh. Murtagh. Had Murtagh really not betrayed him? Had he in fact betrayed Murtagh? Confused, Eragon could only look blankly up at the King as he began to speak again.
"And then once Murtagh did swear loyalty to me, he tried everything in his power to disobey me. Take for instance what happened at the Burning Plains. I ordered him in the Ancient Language to try and capture you, and he comes back saying that he tried. Want to know what his loyalty to you gave him? Pain. Pain and suffering. I don't think that he could get out of bed for three days after I was through with him. He tried so hard to keep you out of my reach, especially after learning that you were his brother. But somehow, you still managed to get caught. And now here you are!" Galbatorix chuckled.
"Why are you doing this?" Eragon asked quietly.
"Because I'm trying to make a point," the King said, instantly became somber. "You will not leave this castle until you swear loyalty to me. Your friends will not be coming to rescue you, and even if they attempted to, it would not work. Now, swearing your loyalty can be quick and painless, or you can drag out the agony like Murtagh did. It is entirely your choice."
"I will never serve you!" Spat out Eragon.
"Very well…." Galbatorix said swiftly, staring coldly at Eragon.
That was all the warning that Eragon had of the impending pain. The next thing he knew was that his body felt like it was on fire. He screamed, out of fear as much as pain. And then everything started fading away. The corners of his vision became darker and darker, until all he had to see out of was a small pinpoint of light in the center of his pupil. Eragon just wanted the pain to stop, but it wouldn't. Finally, everything went black.