A/N & Disclaimer: Yes! I managed to update this week! Hope you enjoy!
The caverns they found themselves in could hardly have differed more from the outside. This was more of what Katryn had been expecting: the wave of intense, muggy heat that made sweat immediately start pouring down the back; the smell of burnt flesh and molten lava and the burning orange and red walls. Martin and Katryn were both blinking, trying to adjust their eyes in this depressing darkness and so they missed the sight of a Dremora guard approaching them. Eldamil told them to stay quiet from the corner of his mouth and made a small bow to the guard. They were able to see clearly that this was not one of the usual Dremora. The Daedric armor had the same sharp spikes at the shoulders and across the helm that the Oblivion gates' creed had but there was a tougher, stronger look to this one and neither Katryn nor Martin wanted to find out just how difficult it was to break through it to kill him. The intelligent though dead looking black eyes in the reddish skinned face stared around at each of them and lingered briefly on Martin's armor and Katryn's lack thereof.
"What's this, Fireze?" The Dremora was asking lazily but his interest in them was palpable, "Are these live ones?"
The black eyes went over Katryn, this time slowly and with an appreciative gleam in his hard face. Martin stiffened beside her and, with Eldamil unwittingly shielding the gesture, she brushed her fingers against the priest's hand. Thankfully the Dremora's attention was being taken up by Eldamil and he missed Martin's sharp jerk. The priest glanced down at her and tried to smooth his face as his surprise deepened into pleasure.
"Yes," Eldamil's smooth voice broke through his and Katryn's moment and they turned their faces to the Dark Elf and Dremora, "And as you know, Orthe, I have been given leave by the master to bring all prisoners to him."
"One of your few allowances, isn't it?" The Dremora, Orthe, was looking over them again and Martin followed Katryn's lead as she lowered her eyes and tried to appear as downcast as possible, "Why don't you leave them to me and go back to your duties? We cannot have you making any more mistakes, can we?"
Eldamil's eyes burned brightly and a muscle jerked in his cheek as he clenched his jaw. It was very clear that neither of them cared for the other and Martin seemed to respond to the Dark Elf's stiff back. His own body had gone tense and he immediately began scoping out their surroundings now that he could see them clearly. It would be no use to start a fight in here, there were so many others that it would be incredibly foolish to believe, for even an instant, that they would get the upper hand.
"There will not be any mistakes made today," Eldamil replied coolly and he gave them the impression that he was doing some very quick thinking, "And I will not be turning them over to you for whatever price, Orthe. Your history works against you and the master may never have the chance to question them if I were to do so. Besides, Anaxes needs your help. There was some sort of misunderstanding in that grotto he calls home. I told him I would fetch you for him."
The Dark Elf spoke innocently enough but his eyes were still glittering and it seemed he was aiming to sting Orthe with his words. And the Dremora rose to the challenge. He drew himself up, becoming a few inches taller than Eldamil and stared menacingly down at him.
"Fetch me?" He repeated and never noticed Katryn and Martin exchanging worried looks, "Am I some sort of dog?"
"I would not begin to further a guess at what you consider yourself or what Anaxes thinks of you. He just made it clear that he needed someone with your skill and was adamant that I should not return without you. But as you can see, something else has come up and I cannot go back with or without you."
His words seemed to have a certain magic to them. Orthe forgot his anger in light of these flattering words and he capitulated with a little reluctance.
"If he thinks that only I could help him than perhaps I should see what I can do," His gaze flickered to Katryn again as he moved forward to go out the door, "Do me a favor, Fireze, if you can find it within your heart. Tell the master I want a moment with this one before he dispatches her."
Eldamil responded rather vaguely with an answer that suited the Dremora and somehow managed to shunt them both forward as Orthe went around them. Martin was fuming and he immediately turned his anger on the Dark Elf as they left the entrance and ventured further into the wide, low-ceilinged cavern; the heat so stifling it was hard to take a proper breath.
"What do you-" The priest started furiously.
"Let him think there is hope," Eldamil was a quiet voice of reason; he knew exactly what he was doing and wasn't in the least bit frazzled by how dangerous that situation could have been, "He will not give us much trouble if he believes that a reward will be coming at the end of the day."
Katryn drew strength from Eldamil's calm quiet and was more amused than angry at the Dremora's words. It had been several years since she had met someone who had been so open about wanting her and Martin's discomfort and protective attitude added a whole new facet of entertainment to the scene. Martin wasn't convinced but he fell silent as they followed Eldamil toward a long narrow fissure in the ground before them. There was another bridge spanning this as well and a keening sound filled the air as they got closer.
Eldamil suddenly faced them, his features strained. His red eyes flicked between the two of them and he became very serious.
"This is one of the many reasons that you must succeed," He told them firmly, "And also another test of your trust in me. The master believes in torture, even for those of us who are immortal. And especially for the 'live ones' as Orthe so elegantly put it, that venture into his realm. This hardly ever happens and he is more curious about those who manage it than anything else."
"What are you saying?" Katryn asked, voicing the question that both she and Martin were thinking.
He hesitated, glancing over his shoulder with that expression that spoke solely of unease and nervousness. There were silhouettes of people across the fissure and the keening sound rose and fell horrifically.
"Those sounds..." He trailed off with a shudder and then continued in an even quieter voice, "We are immortal but we can feel pain. The master does not want us forgetting our place and so, when the mood suits, we are... reminded."
There was no need for him to finish. Another Dremora guard was approaching one of the five cranks on the opposite side of the fissure. He began to coil it up with a sort of manic excitement; leaving Martin and Katryn to watch in trepidation. It took them a moment to discover what the objective of this was and then it became clear. Katryn took an involuntary step back and Martin made an angry, indignant noise in his throat. A long cage was dangling from the end of the chain that the Dremora was winding. It was no more than two or three feet in diameter and was at the most six feet high. The bars were glowing red hot but the guard seemed to think nothing of it as he reached out to guide the cage onto the blood red floor in front of him. It was that moment they realized it was not empty and the keening sound had been screams. Those had quieted to moans of pain as the figure huddled in the cage began pleading.
"Please... please, no... no more," The voice was hoarse, weak and a hand reached towards the door stopping just short of the bars.
"Thievery is not tolerated here," The Dremora answered coldly, not in the least bit concerned with the pain this person was in.
"I... never... I would not..." There was a heaving sob and another half-hearted reach, "It was... not..."
The guard was bored already and he shoved the cage back over the fissure where it swung violently, sending the one inside it back and forth between the super heated metal. The moans and sobs rose to screams again as the Dremora went back to the crank and began lowering it once more.
"NO! I swear, I swear! It wasn't me! I never took a thing!"
The cage was slowly dropping out of sight and the words were lost in a piercing shriek that echoed off the walls and then was abruptly deadened. The keening began as though someone had dropped a lid over the top of the fissure, trying to silence the sound of desperation and suffering. A wicked smile spread over the Dremora's face and he suddenly caught sight of the three of them.
"It is a pity they can't be heard more clearly, don't you think, Fireze?" He called and there was thick animosity in his voice.
"It is a pity indeed," Eldamil spoke softly but the response carried and the Dremora walked away, not thinking twice about the fact that the Dark Elf's eyes were on the fissure and the real pity he felt was for the prisoner suffering below them.
He turned to the others. Martin was red in the face and was completely speechless with horror. He shook his head and glanced sidelong at Katryn. Her cheeks were pale and her fiery eyes were on the spot where the guard had disappeared. She curled her hands into fists and felt herself shaking with rage.
"How... how..." Was all she could manage and her gaze snapped to Eldamil.
"We have no courts, no judges, not even the master gets involved in these petty accusations," He replied and they could see that his calm was shaken, "The guards decide who will be punished and who will walk free; but they are so fond of dunking people in there that they forego all processes and punish any involved."
"It's sick," Martin responded sharply but quietly. He was just as shocked as Katryn and didn't want to reveal just how rattled he himself was, "Lead the way, Eldamil. The sooner we destroy this bastard, the better."
Eldamil seemed to strengthen with this promise and he broke from his reverie. His eyes strayed quickly to the fissure and back again before he nodded his head.
"I am sorry, but we have to cross the bridge. When you feel uneasy, do your best to not look down."
They pressed on and Katryn breathed a huge sigh of relief. She had thought for one heart-stopping moment he was going to put them through some sort of trial with the horrid cages. But even the bridge was bad, it was very easy to see the cages below them and think of the suffering that was going on. The Dremora guard seemed to have vanished completely and they made their way quickly to the other side. Here there were several tunnels all leading in opposite directions. Eldamil didn't hesitate for a moment as he chose the right hand tunnel and pressed on in the sweltering heat. It seemed that everything was going smoothly until they ran into the Dremora. His eyes roved over them but unlike Orthe, he didn't linger on Katryn. Instead he was incredibly single-minded as he realized these two didn't have the look of recently being dunked into molten lava.
"Wait a moment, Fireze," He said and his voice was still cold and ruthless, "Are these the master's?"
Katryn felt goosebumps bubble up all over her body and the memory of the screams and pleading was foremost in her mind. Her body was entirely stiff and she didn't think that she had ever been so frightened in her life. If they ended up going back and enduring the lava, there was every chance in the world that Eldamil would not be controlling the depth that the cages were dropped which meant their odds of survival were next to nothing.
"Yes and I do not want to keep him waiting," He seemed to sense Katryn's fear and he took a minute step back as though his very presence would protect them.
"Why you?" The guard had no qualms about keeping both his master and comrade in suspense, "I believe Orthe was keeping watch at the door; why would he allow you to take credit for these?"
Neither Katryn nor Martin understood this obvious baiting, but they held their tongues. Eldamil had weaseled them out of two close calls already and they were more than willing to place absolute trust in him.
"This was no concern to Orthe," Eldamil's voice was sharper than usual and the guard picked up on it, "Anaxes needed his help with another matter and he gave me leave to take these two to the master."
"Like this?"
The black eyes went quickly around them again and it was obvious he knew that something was amiss. He knew that these were no ordinary prisoners. His gaze lingered on the weapons at Eldamil's belt and he even seemed to sense that Katryn was injured as he stared momentarily at her shoulder.
"You and I both know, Vexra, that the master wants prisoners untouched at first," The Dark Elf was even closer to them now and he was incredibly tense, "He would not be happy if something were to happen to them before he could question them. Are you going to let us through?"
Vexra blinked, clearly not expecting this. He was much more observant than Orthe and he knew that there was now a very big threat. The tunnel was deserted and Eldamil was armed fully for once; not to mention that it was going to be three against one. But he had never backed down from a fight before and if he could defeat the bothersome Dark Elf and manage to keep the prisoners alive, he could take all the credit for himself and perhaps a little more. He would merely have to beat Eldamil enough to make him give in which would be a credit to his reputation. Also the woman was quite attractive and he was sure he could find a very good use for her. Smiling wickedly, venomously, he drew his ebony longblade and took a stance.
"No, I don't think I will."