Back to the castle

He threw Candy at Houlihan, who caught her as if she weighed nothing at all. Houlihan hurried after Lord Carrion, slinging Candy over his shoulder and jolting her with every step.

"Get her out of my sight!" Carrion shouted after he realised he was being followed.

Houlihan paused for a moment, unsure what to do, but he needed a clearer order than that if he was to lock the girl up somewhere. What if he locked up in the wrong place? What if she escaped again? He wasn't prepared to take the blame for any of that.

Before he could even query, Candy decided to offer her opinion.

"Well, that's charming that is," she said sarcastically, as she stared at the floor in her upside down position.

"What did you say?" Carrion asked. He looked at Houlihan, and for a frightening moment Houlihan thought maybe Carrion thought he had spoken. Houlihan deposited Candy on the floor in a heap.

Candy looked up at Carrion after giving Houlihan the nastiest look she could muster.

"I don't like you."

"Put her somewhere," Carrion ordered again. He felt like shouting, this girl was making him very angry.

"But where My Lord?" Houlihan questioned, there was a million and one places he could put the girl and the same odds that he would be in trouble for choosing that place.

"Put her in the dungeons, anywhere, just make sure she can't get out!"

Candy still looking up at him from the floor, scowled. There was no way she was getting bitten in the leg by rabid dogs, to be kept somewhere she didn't want to be, by someone she didn't like, and not even be important enough to be talked to. What was the point of her being here if he kept shutting her up places? He might as well let her escape.

"My leg is hurt! You can't treat me like this! Get off!" she screamed shrugging Houlihan's hand off of her arm.

Carrion looked as if he might hit her, but she didn't care. She tried the quiet sneaking about being afraid approach and all it had resulted in was some horrible images in her head and her leg filled with punctures.

When it looked like she might be ignored, Candy shot her foot out and tried to kick Carrion in the leg. She managed to hit him, although she wished she had tried to kick harder. Carrion moved fast and caught her face in his hand. He squeezed it tight, digging into the bones at the side of her jaw. Candy whimpered.

"Do not suppose you are something special to me girl, you are here because you have something that I want, but it is not your company. Understand that I will not let you go, you will be going to the dungeons, because I cannot trust you to stay here."

"What if I promise?" Candy asked. The idea of being in the dungeons wasn't one she wanted to entertain, and if sitting in that boring bedroom again was what she had to do to escape it, she happily take that option.

Carrion let go of her.

"Take her down, I don't want to hear about her until I ask."

Candy was silent again, slumped back into her depression. There was no way she was ever going to get out of here. Half carried, half dragged, she was taken down and down until she couldn't remember how many sets of stairs they had trodden.

Houlihan threw her in a cell, slammed the door behind her and stared in at her for a while. She could feel his eyes grinning into the back of her head.

"Thought you could escape me did you? No one can escape me! And don't think I have forgotten about your little freaky friend, I'll find him, and when I do you'll wish you never tried to run."

Candy pulled her bad leg up under her and nursed it, waiting until she was alone before she could let the pain show on her face.

"Well, I suppose you thought that was funny," Carrion said as soon as his grandmother looked at him.

She sneered and turned back to her sewing.

"Do not waste my time," she said refusing to look at him again.

"I'm surprised you were so generous, what's the matter, lost your touch? There would have been poison involved by now," Carrion said pacing the room.

He walked to the window, and looked out, they always seemed to be so much higher up than they should be, one of Motley's strange magicks.

"Shows how little you know of me, why would I kill someone I know nothing about?"

"Has your little spy network been failing you? What a shame."

"Don't get overconfident with me, there is nothing about you that I cannot find out should I wish to."

"And you wonder why I never tell you anything," Carrion muttered. He was sure the old woman heard, she was right, she never missed a thing, but she chose to ignore him.

"I have had trouble finding someone to bribe, that damn general of yours will not tell me what you've been up to. But it's only a matter of time before someone hears tell of it, and I shall be the first to know."

Carrion smiled, so she knew nothing, but the fact that she was telling him this was worrying. It meant that either she had already done something, or was about to do something soon, something that would not be to his advantage.

"Oh stop trying to second guess me, it's incredibly trying, and stop walking about you're giving me a headache."

Carrion was feeling nervous, she defiantly planning something, he just didn't know what it was.

"Yes, get out! Get out, I'm fed up of you!" she called refusing to look at him.

Retreating, he wandered back, closing the doors of his office and sitting in the dark inside. Reaching out, he found his collar, and fitted it over hi head. The nightmares did that rest, fitting the tubes into the back of his head, and filling it's self up with his thoughts.

Lost in his thoughts, Carrion remained silent and still not noticing that time was passing in the world outside.

Author's Note: Sorry this hasn't been updated in so long, but I'm on holiday now, so hopefully I should have time to jot down some more chapters.

Thank you for reviewing!