Chapter Ten-
Murtagh heard the door slam behind them, its crash ringing throughout the chamber bouncing off the walls. Murtagh stood next to Jazira in front of Galbatorix at the base of the huge chair.
"It is time to start your lessons in the art of magic." Galbatorix stood in a flourish of his black garments. "It is also time for you to meet someone." He roughly pushed aside Jazira, and strode over to a large cage set deep into the wall at the far end of the chamber, far back in the shadows. Jazira's hand brushed Murtaghs as she drew closer to him, and he could feel her trembling slightly. Galbatorix whispered words over the massive lock that bound the iron door to the stone wall. Thorn stood before Murtagh protectively, like Brisingr did in front of Jazira as the door slowly swung open, reveling a prodigious black hole in the wall. Murtagh heard Jazira draw her breath as the ground started to shake making loose rocks falling from the ceiling, and bats flew out of the empty cells to the open sky through a cleft in the rocks.
Thorn drew back toward Murtagh as a mighty black scaled foot appeared in the doorway of the cage. After the foot came a massive muscled chest, followed by the gigantic scared head of a Dragon. Its vast back brushed the high crumbling stone ceiling, and as he arched his head proudly, gray steam billowed from his flared nostrils. His enormous yellow eyes surveyed Murtagh and the others. On either side of his scaly monumental head white horns protruded and running down his strong neck were razor-edged spikes that extended out of his flesh. His tail reached nearly twenty feet in length and looked to be made for ultimate destruction. On his teeth remained the dry gore of once living men.
Murtagh stepped back in awe of the mighty terrifying brute and felt a stab of fear in his heart. Through the connection Murtagh could feel that Thorn was also astounded by the Dragon.
"This is my Dragon, Shruikan. He was mightier then all the other Riders Dragons put together, even though he was my second and he was forced to hatch." As Galbatorix laughed ruthlessly, Murtagh clenched his teeth in anger. Thorns anger mingled with his own at the thought of forcing a Dragon to hatch, it was a horrendous crime. Galbatorix continued on. "He will help to train your Dragons to be as mighty as he in mind and power both. While I train you to be the mightiest Riders who ever lived, save for me." Galbatorix ran a hand over the pitch black scales of his Dragon, a smile of victory resting on his face. Murtagh remained silent along with Jazira as they stood in wonder of the Dragon before them. The strength and size of this Dragon was beyond what Murtagh ever thought Galbatorix would hold.
'Thorn, did you know of this?'
'No.'
'Neither did I. I had heard stories of a Dragon, but even while living in the place I had never heard of such an overwhelmingly powerful animal. Though . . . just imagine being as strong as him, Thorn! You would strike fear into every heart.'
'Yes, but Galbatorix will never allow us to be as powerful as he or Shruikan, we would be to big a threat even with us being bound in the ancient language.'
Murtagh looked at Shruikan again then at Thorn and imagined riding a beast so mighty. Thorn was an impressive Dragon on his own but compared to one so monstrous he was no more then an ant is to a giant. He barely reached the middle of Murtaghs thigh, though he grew daily and was already five times bigger then he had been a couple days ago. He had intelligence of his own but he lacked any experience that Shruikan held. Murtagh longed for the day when he might ride Thorn and show that Thorn was every bit the Dragon Shruikan was.
"Now that we have all been acquainted . . . We start." At Galbatorix's words, the Twins appeared silently from a door set back into the wall at the far end of the room leading a small group of eight men behind them. The men all had the tanned muscles of farmers, they were dressed shabbily in home spun cloths, and wore looks of pure terror on their unshaven faces. Jazira dropped her arms that had been folded over her chest and gaped at the men. Murtagh got the reason for the men fairly quickly; target practice.
"These were men who opposed me, sought to strike against me, or so they thought. I captured them, and now they will serve an important purpose." Galbatorix circled the men like a bird of prey. They stood back to back trying to be defiant though it difficult for them when they saw Shruikan staring down at them.
"It is time for you to learn the magic that will help me rule." Jazira, her eyes wide with horror, backed up against the wall, shaking her head furiously.
"No . . . no. . . I . . . refuse!" She stammered. Murtagh listened to Jazira's pleading quietly. He didn't want to kill these men either, he didn't like cold blooded murder, but even as that thought went through his head, he felt the magic of the ancient language start to work in him. Looking at Jazira he saw that the magic was taking effect on her as well. Ignoring Jazira Galbatorix continued, "To start I will show you a spell that was very useful to me when I sought to rule the riders. The words are: Malthinae Tyrysta Vindr Brisingr Zar'roc. Murtagh would you oblige us?" Murtagh felt the magic forcing him as he walked slowly toward Galbatorix. When he reached him, Galbatorix raised his palm in the direction of a young man about Murtagh's own age and uttered words in the ancient language forcing the boy to step forward. Murtagh gazed into his petrified face, and felt pity as he looked into the lads eyes that begged for mercy. Looking away from the eyes he raised his palm, and he murmured the words. The boy screamed a blood curdling shriek as he fell to his knees, hands clutched around his own neck slowly squeezing the air from his lungs. Murtagh stood petrified in terror of what he had done. Quickly her dropped his hand feeling a terror feeling the horror of Thorn as well as his own as he watched as the boy lay gasping on the hard floor. Galbatorix watched the boy, a malicious grin stretched over his face as he praised,
"Your did well Murtagh, you certainly do have power. I used this spell when I wanted something. It is a spell that causes the lungs to burn and contract, squeezing all air from the air ducts. It is not a pleasant experience, but it is one that is useful for when you want information. Jazira, your next."
Jazira tried to fight the magic, but doing so made her weak and she had to fight for breath. After several moments the magic won over and she walked jerky steps to the boy. He was cowering on the floor, his face red, and he looked to her snatches of words coming from him. Jazira looked away as she raised her hand and said the words that caused the same sensation in the boy again. She released magic sooner then Murtagh had, then stepped closer to the boy reaching her hand out to him. He recoiled from her as if she would burn him. He shakily rose to his feet on his own accord, stumbling weakly to the other prisoners. Jazira walked slowly back to Murtagh looking sick. Murtagh placed an arm around her slim waist as she stumbled on a rock and fell into him.
"Hmm, it would seem that I have two very skilled magicians in my grasp. Excellent. It will be quite helpful later to have such power under my care. Now we move to something slightly more . . . Deadly." The prisoners instinctively drew back at his words, the boy who had been perviously used sunk weakly to the floor. "This time the words you shall say will be: Brisingr Ganga Aptr Fricai Andlat. Jazira you shall perform first." Murtagh saw Jaziras face turn the color of chalk as she seemed to recognize what the words meant. Murtagh recognized Brisingr as fire, but the other words were lost to him. Jazira was forced to walk to another man who had been brought forward. She raised her hand very slowly and Murtagh saw her hand tremble as she fought the magic, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the power of the ancient language and she uttered the words.
The man started to scream as if a fire was raging inside of him, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he fell onto the floor, blood spurting from a gash were he hit his knees. He started to foam at the mouth. The foam had a poisonous green tinge to it, that blended with the sweat that poured down his face. The man thrashed on the floor, before giving one last guttering scream, and went limp. Jazira turned without looking at him and strode quickly to Murtagh, tears streaming down her face. She kneeled on the stone floor and hugged Brisingr letting the tears flow unashamedly. Murtagh looked at Jazira, feeling pity toward her. Then a strange sensation shot through him, it was an urge to protect. Shaking himself of this strange emotion he turned to Galbatorix who was saying,
"Good, good," Galbatorix waved a hand at the corpse and the Twins lifted it off the ground taking it to the hole in the wall, then hurled it into the air where it hung limply for a moment before falling to be dashed to pieces by the sharp rocks in the depths below.
"One more. Murtagh, go." He pointed at the boy who had been used before and drew him away from the group with magic, despite his frantic pleadings. Murtagh glanced at Jazira before going to stand before the boy making the same motions as Jazira had before him, only the boy died the instant Murtagh said the words, unlike how Jazira's man had been brought to death through torture. Murtagh backed away from the boy and the Twins disposed of him the same as they had the other man. Murtagh's knees shook as he walked back to Thorn, and he felt extremely weak. He wished that Galbatorix hadn't taxed them so hard the first day. But despite his feelings he stood bravely. He was not about to let Galbatorix see how much the killing had bothered him.
'Murtagh, are you okay?' Thorn asked, his concern flooding Murtagh.
'I've killed before. Once Eragon became mad at me for killing a man who had tried to kill us. He wanted to let him go, but he was going to die anyway from a wound, and he might have had the chance to tell about us, so I killed him. It was necessary. But this, this was wrong. I feel so helpless. A feeling I swore to myself I would never feel again.' Remember that memory Murtagh felt anger shoot through him at the thought of his friend. Letting the emotion take him he thought, 'This is all Eragon's fault! Had he come with us to capture the Urgals this might not have happened.'
Thorns voice took on a sharp note.
'Murtagh, you know that you can't blame Eragon for this. You wanted to go on the mission to show that you were with the Varden, and at the time you acknowledged that Eragon had other duties to preform. Human emotions are odd things. They have the tendencies to make you stop thinking logically. Suppose that this had not happened, you would never have met Jazira, found your magic, or me.'
'I know my friend, I'm sorry for feeling this way, though I'm still unhappy.'
'Aye, but it will be okay. Jazira had to do the same thing. Your not alone.'
'Thank-you.' Murtagh sighed heavily, 'Why is everything so complicated?'
'It's because your. . .' Thorns thoughts were interrupted by Galbatorix's hard voice.
"That was good," His voice purred liked a big tom cat who had just killed a large rat, and was about to devour it. "As happy I am at the power I wield over you two, I can't just rely on that. I control you, true, but I want you to know the magic, feel it on your own without me. When you face battle I will teach you which spells to cast, however, doing them you will completely up to you. So I want to teach you the tricks of how to save your power, when to hold back, and how to confuse." Murtagh sat up straighter despite himself. This is where it got interesting, this is what he wanted to learn. Jazira kept her head bent as she hugged her knees to her chest, though Murtagh could see her eyes were dry and alert. Thorn's connection was buzzing near his, but Murtagh blocked it. They could talk later.
"Therefore," Galbatorix went on, "you will be taught by the Twins tomorrow and they will teach you these things." Galbatorix turned to his Dragon and gave a sly, deadly smile. "You shall go now, Shruikan, and I have . . . Business to tend to." Behind him the imprisoned men shrank back, fear plain on their faces. Murtagh got to his feet holding out his hand to Jazira, which she took and he helped her to her feet. But as Jazira started to walk away, she stumbled and fell to the ground emitting a cry of pain. Murtagh went to her side.
"What's wrong Jazira?" His voice was urgent and low.
"My ankle." She gasped as she spoke through her teeth that were clamped from the pain. Murtagh laid his hand on her ankle, and got kicked in the chin for his efforts as she drew back.
"I'm going to see what's wrong with it." He snapped, rubbing a hand over his unshaven face. He looked at Jazira as she was propped up on her elbows, glaring.
"I can tell you what wrong, it hurts!" Jazira snapped back gingerly feeling her ankle.
Suddenly a purple clad foot step in front of Murtagh. He followed the foot up to the face of a Twin. The man was bending near to Murtagh, with his hands clasped behind his back a nasty smirk on his pale face. Near him was his double. "Problems?" he asked in an oily voice.
"No." then without a word to her, Murtagh bent down and scooped Jazira in his arms. Even though she protested he kept a strong grip on her slight frame and marched to the door making the Twins hurry to catch up.
"Murtagh! Put me down NOW!" Jazira hissed as she thrashed in his arms.
"No." Was all Murtagh replied to her request. Jazira fell silent when she heard the command in his voice. She remained still for the rest of the way to the bed chamber.