It's Hopeless

Disclaimer: All those who think I own Eragon, please, say, "Aye." All those who just said, "Aye," please, go get a psychiatric evaluation.

Surda, Night of the Rebellion from Chapter 12

Angela sat by her notebook, calmly writing all the data she had collected about the non-existence of toads. Solembum was curled up, asleep. The herbalist suddenly felt a weak touch on the edge of her mind.

They knew about the rebellion, Angela. One hundred dead. Thirty king's men dead. Warehouses burned. Nothing in them. Palace still intact. Dying. Sending brother to you. The…information…important. Green rider…responsible for death. Has potential. Tell Nasuada and Orr…the voice rasped, fading at the end.

Angela recognized the voice. It had been Bonstan, a young man from Urû'baen whom Galbatorix had forced to serve him as a magician. Bonstan had secretly turned spy to the Varden. He was a valuable agent. Angela knew it was bad that he was dead. She put down her quill and strode towards the door. Solembum seemed to sense what had happened and followed her.

Outside of Urû'baen

Derek ran as fast as he could. He didn't know if anybody had spotted him or not. He didn't want to find out. He had to make it to the next town soon. He needed a horse.

Derek felt arms grab him from behind. He tried to fight, but he was only ten and couldn't fight off a fully grown adult.

"What are you doing out here alone, boy?" a female voice asked sharply.

Derek turned. A petite woman who appeared to be in her late thirties was holding him. She had strawberry-blond hair.

"I-I have to give the Var-someone a message from my brother," Derek stuttered.

"Oh, Lord, boy," the woman said. "You do seem to be in a lot of trouble, don't you? Well, I'll tell you what. I'm fleeing from the empire too. I was a healer at Urû'baen and then at Gil'ead. I didn't like it, so I left. Now, we can go to Surda together. How's that sound?"

Derek nodded his approval.

The woman cursed suddenly. Derek turned around and saw a group of soldiers riding towards them.

"Hey, you there!" one of them yelled to the woman. "Stop!"

Another soldier reached them quickly and pulled the woman onto his horse.

"Deandra, did you really think you could get away?" he asked.

"Well, maybe if you all stopped being so horny I'd have stayed. Lord, I'm too old for this stuff. What are you gonna do?" the woman, now identified as Deandra, replied.

"We're taking you back," a third soldier explained, "and that boy looks like he could do some work. Let's take him with us."

"Do you really need to?" Deandra inquired.

"Will you just shut-up and pray that we don't tell the king about this?" the lead soldier yelled.

Deandra raised her eyes to the heavens. All three men sighed.

"You both come with us. I don't wanna hear any complaints out of either one of you," the third guard warned.

"Especially you," the second man warned Deandra.

"Honestly, you have no respect for old women these days," she complained.

"You're not old," the first one yelled. "You're thirty-seven!"

The woman shrugged. Derek didn't think he had any choice. He mounted another man's horse. Perhaps he'd be able to escape with Deandra later.

Bonstan had always said he was overly optimistic.

Urû'baen

Arlena sat in the dragon-hold. Galbatorix had decided that she would be taking care of the dragons and cleaning the hold.

She was currently polishing Shruikan's scales. The other two dragon-riders took better care of their dragons. She didn't have to do much work on Thorn and Iormungr. Galbatorix pretty much ignored Shruikan. Arlena had to use a ladder to complete her task. It took her two hours perform her grooming duties.

You really don't need to do this, the black dragon told her.

"Nonsense," Arlena told him. "His majesty wishes you to look your best so that he can show you off."

Shruikan sighed. She was too childish for the fate Shruikan knew awaited her. He remembered the conversation he had had with Galbatorix that morning.

We have been doing quite well, dragon, Galbatorix told Shruikan.

So all we need is Adoro Kymen's blood before we can proceed? the dragon asked.

I have his. I will be able to take it soon enough. He just needs to do something for me, the mad king explained.

Shruikan didn't like the sound of that. He hated to think that his "rider" had sunk so low that he was now ready to use his own allies in such a way.

"What it the matter, Lord Shruikan?" Arlena asked concernedly.

Nothing, child, he answered. Maybe Galbatorix would find another of Ligan's blood. The dragon knew that was unlikely as Ligan had had no siblings, only on by-blow daughter: Arlena. It never hurt to hope. It only hurt when that hope proved false.

Ellesméra

Ardis heard her alarm clock go off. She groaned. That thing was more obnoxious than Deandra about early rising. The female rider finally managed to roll out of her bed. She would have liked training better if she didn't have to get up so early. She was truly eager to learn more magic. She was just nervous about sparring. Especially sparring with Vanir as Oromis had said it would be.

Kazul was, unsurprisingly, already awake.

Ardis, we must go with Eragon, the dragon yelled eagerly.

I know, Ardis projected back. She felt more awake as she ran out of her room. Eragon was already there.

She mounted Saphira behind Eragon because Kazul was not yet big enough to fly. Both dragons and riders flew to the sparring field.

Eragon leapt off of Saphira, and Ardis did something that was more of a roll.

Vanir strode over to them.

"You will spar with Narí," the elf explained gravely to Eragon. He turned to Ardis, "You will be sparring with me," he told her.

Ardis gulped.

He can't fault you for something you've barely been trained in, Kazul explained comfortingly.

Ardis hoped she was right.

She wasn't.

Vanir didn't even try to go easy on her as Eragon had. He disarmed trice in the span of a minute. He looked condescendingly at her.

"I can see you have not been well trained in these areas," the elf remarked.

"Observant, aren't we?" she snapped back, surprising herself. That was a comment worthy of Luce or Deandra.

Vanir raised his eyebrows. They continued for several minutes. Ardis didn't think she was making any progress.

"This is not even worth my time," Vanir snapped.

"I'm not an elf, and I haven't been trained in this all my life as you have been!" she shrieked.

All the other elves stopped sparring and turned to look at her. Narí whispered something to Eragon, who nodded. The silver-haired elf dashed over to Ardis and Vanir.

"You go spar with the Shadeslayer, and I'll spar with the new Argetlam," he explained hurriedly.

"If that is your wish," Vanir replied. Ardis caught something like anger in his eyes as he looked at Narí.

Ardis did not fair much better with this new elf, but she felt as though she actually learned something.

Somewhere in Du Weldenvarden

Roran trudged through the trees. He couldn't make heads or tails of his current location. He had been looking for Eragon, but he had gotten lost despite the fact that he had gotten directions from an elf before heading towards the sparring field. To make matter worse, he couldn't figure out where his mistake had been made.

He tried calling out, "Hello?"

He heard a female voice call back.

"Where are you?" he asked it.

"Where are you?" the person asked.

"Right here," he told it.

"Where's…Oh," the woman said as she dropped down in front of Roran. It was Shaheen.

"You lost too?" she asked.

Roran nodded.

"I asked an elf for directions," she continued, "but I messed them up."

"Do you have any brilliant ideas?" Roran asked her.

"None, unless you'd call searching around until we find an elf who recognizes one of us," the former slave replied.

"Somehow, I don't think that's going to work," Roran retorted.

"At least it's an idea," Shaheen snapped back.

"Well, since I don't have anything better, we might as well use your plan until one of us comes up with something better," Roran told her. He thought for a minute, then said, "You can do magic, right?"

Shaheen nodded.

"Could you use that to find our way?" he asked.

"I barely know any, to be honest. I can just light fires and such," she explained.

"It was worth a shot. I suppose we could try lighting a fire to see if they see us," he suggested.

"They won't be rescuing us if we burn any trees," Shaheen replied.

"True," he concurred.

"I guess we're stuck with my dumb plan," Shaheen sighed.

"Wait, I could contact Eragon," Roran yelled. He cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner.

"That's better than my plan," Shaheen conceded.

Roran nodded and reached out for Eragon's mind.

Sparring Field in Ellesméra

Eragon parried Vanir's blow just in time before he felt something touch his mind.

Eragon, I'm lost, Roran's voice rang out in his head.

Eragon had to flip backwards to block Vanir's thrust this time. He exerted himself as much as he could on his next blow. Vanir barely caught it.

I'll come get you. Just show an image of where you are, Eragon told his cousin.

Roran sent him a picture of a group of trees. Eragon was glad it was near the Crags. He knew where it was.

I'll come get you, he told Roran.

Vanir thrust harder and disarmed Eragon. This was the first out of three battles between them today the dark elf had won.

Somewhere in Du Weldenvarden

"What did he say?" Shaheen asked.

"He said he's coming," Roran replied.

Shaheen sat down in the center.

"Oh Lord, I can't imagine what Tahira would to say about this," she muttered.

"Who's Tahira?" Roran inquired curiously.

"She was my middle sister," Shaheen whispered sadly.

"Was?" Roran asked.

"She died during the raid," Shaheen replied shortly. "She tried to defend herself and was shot."

"What happened to your other siblings?" Roran pressed. He wanted to know more about her.

"They all died except my brother. He was sold to somebody else," Shaheen muttered. "Why do ask these things?" she suddenly yelled. "Are you trying to upset me?"

"I just wanted to know," Roran explained quietly. He understood her anger.

"I'm sorry. What happened to you? I've heard lots of stories, but I wasn't sure if they were true," Shaheen inquired. If he was going to be nosy, so was she.

Roran looked up at her. He quietly told her of all that had happened to Carvahall.

"So, you've come here so that you can learn what you must to rescue you fiancée?" Shaheen inquired.

Roran nodded.

"Funny," she stated blandly.

"What's funny?" he asked.

"I didn't think you'd be the kind of man to do so much for a woman," she explained.

"Shaheen, I don't know what I did to make you think I was that cold-blooded," he laughed.

"I don't know," she replied shortly. "I guess I misunderstood you."

Roran stared at her. He shook his head. There was simply no understanding that girl.

So how did you like that chapter? I hope you guys all did. Please review if you read this. My readers are getting better about it though. Thanks. If you have any ideas, give them to me. P.S. Murtagh and Luce are going to escape, just not yet.