Oops. June doesn't have a 31st. I thought it did. My mistake. Anyways, since I thought today was going to be the 31st, I'm changing the title today. Review!
Chapter Twenty-Two:
Monster
Durza backed away so that he stood next to Adurna so he could look at Rana. Rana walked into the cell, the door closing on its own accord. Apparently the guard had been dismissed.
Rana stopped feet away and cocked her head to the side. Adurna immediately knew that the female Shade had heard the entire conversation.
"Insane, am I?" she asked, pacing forward like a predator. "I won't deny it, but I will not pretend like Durza here to be nice. It's just not in my nature." She smiled cruelly.
Taking hold of Adurna's shoulder like a mother would steer her child, she guided her forward a few feet. The hand tightened and then threw Adurna to the floor. She landed hard, her left shoulder taking most of the impact. She hissed softly as the fresh scrapes on her arm stung and a bruise began to form.
Rana laughed the sound echoing in Adurna's mind.
The Shade leaned down to look her in the eye. "I don't care who your mother or your father are. You are in my prison—don't tell me you don't know?!" Rana cackled long and loud as the situation played through her mind. Adurna glared, angry. It wasn't her fault that she didn't know who her father was. "You don't know, you don't know! Oh, this is just sweet! Now I have the glorious opportunity to tell you myself. I would have thought the Ra'zac would have said something, maybe even the king himself, seeing as he is so involved in this matter. Ha!" She continued laughing.
When she had stopped, Rana leaned in even closer to whisper into her ear. "You want to know, pathetic little Rider?" Her breath smelled worst than Durza's. "Then I'll tell you." She paused, sneering. "Oh, little Rider, how insignificant you are compared to him, I would have thought you would have some of his glory and magnificence. How wrong I was." The crimson iris's grinned, the pupils retracting a little from the excitement the Shade faced. "Oh, little Adurna, daughter of Faena, and Galbatorix." She sneered the last part, eyes dancing in malice.
"No! No, it can't be!" Adurna scurried away, pressing her back to the wall and standing, facing the Shades head on. "He is not my father! I refuse to believe it!"
Rana laughed yet again, Durza smiled as he watched the inner turmoil going on behind Adurna's eyes.
"Oh, believe it!" the female Shade chuckled. "You, a feeble little Rider, a pitiful girl, are the daughter of the most powerful Dragon Rider known to history!" She cackled again. "You see the irony? He contacted you all the time! He hinted at it, the Urgals hinted at it, even the Ra'zac started to tell you, but you didn't want to believe it."
"No. No!"
"Adurna, think of the similarities," Durza said coolly, stepping forward to stand with Rana. "Surely you must have noticed it? Your eyes, your hair, the way your body is built. Even the way you stand. You got it all from him."
She broke down into tearless sobs, collapsing onto the stone floor. She vaguely registered the cell door opening and then closing.
How could her father, the one who sired her, be such a monster?