"Look master, an intruder!" Lana exclaimed a grin spreading across her face as if she was exceedingly proud of herself.
"Uhh…" I stuttered but my words seemed to stick in my throat and I took a step back from Lana. I knew she was under an enchantment but I still couldn't help feeling betrayed. "Lana!" I cried "No don't do this, snap out of it!" And I desperately snapped my fingers repetitively in front of her face. Suddenly my hand was yanked back by Murtagh who was stood behind me and he pulled me back towards the door.
"Lana!" I yelled "Get off of me" and I strained against Murtagh's strength but I was no match for him and he tightened his grip until it was uncomfortably tight on my wrists then yanked me back harder. I moaned and tried to keep my ground but he pulled me to the extent where he was dragging me so I got back up to my feet and regretfully followed.
"What did you do to Becker? How did you get past him?" I demanded and I thrashed against his hands. As if to answer my question with one authoritative tug he pulled me through the door frame out into the hall way and I saw Becker straining helplessly against invisible restraints. He looked as if he was shouting at the top of his lungs but no sound was uttered from his lips I could read them though. 'Evie!' He screamed 'No! Get off of her you bastard!' My head was snapped away as I was violently pushed forward once more. For the first time I looked up at Murtagh's face which I saw was set in a resolute snarl as if he was trying to retrain himself from beating me every time I protested against his steel grip.
"BECKER!" I screamed and I tried to throw myself at him as he strained to get to me but Murtagh was stronger than both of us combined. He got fed up and picked me up as if I were no heavier than a sack of feathers and placed me over his shoulder and set off down the long bleak corridor; my screams echoing off of the cold grey limestone. I thumped against his back, if he had been normal his spine would have shattered along with his ribs but he wasn't and he was un-phased by my pounding fists.
"Where are you taking me?" I screamed at him, my throat going raw. "How did you know I was here?! ANSWER ME!" He remained speechless and in the faint light of the burning torches that were placed along the corridor at regular intervals in brackets I saw that his face was set in a resolute grimace. It was an expression I didn't recognize, one I had never seen him wearing before it was then I worked out Lana wasn't the only one who had been placed under an enchantment. No emotions emitted from him but hatred and determination to complete his mission, to stop him succumbing to the good piece of humanity that was in him trying to fight the darkness. I did everything I could but by the we were outside the throne room I was no closer to escape than I had been ten minutes ago but it didn't seem right to let him take me to my death without a fight even if it had been pointless right from the beginning. Sweat covered my forehead at the exertion and my limbs ached. The huge black doors which I had hoped I would only see again in my nightmares swung open in front of us and Murtagh passed through them. His inhumanly fast gait carried us to the foot of the king in a matter of seconds across the vast throne room then he brutishly shoved me to the cold floor at Galbatorix's feet. I didn't dare look up, I could feel his dark eyes boring into my skull as it was and I wasn't sure if I looked up I would be able to free myself from his transfixing glare.
"Wait outside!" He growled to Murtagh. The words were full of venom and the power that radiated from every one and sent a shiver down my spine. I shook as out of the corner I watched Murtagh bow deeply as if he truly respected him then turned and left. I felt horribly vulnerable hunched on the floor with nothing to stop the king's malevolent incensed wrath upon me.
"Stand" He commanded coldly. The single word sent a chill down my spine and I struggled to my feet still not bringing myself to look into his eyes. I heard him rise from his black throne and descend several steps until he was stood in front of me and I inspected his highly polished black boots with my eyes.
"You disappoint me" He said. At the words I flinched as if he had hit me because it felt like he did. The tension was almost unbearable as I waited for his verdict.
"Look at me when I am talking to you!" He growled. I braced myself and gradually gazed upwards, lifting my chin but then all he did was deliver a swift slap to my face. My cheek flared in a white hot pain for several seconds and I froze in the position with my head to the side, gaze averted and hair falling across my face as the pain subsided to a steady burning throb. I wanted to reach up and caress the pained side of my face but I was scared any such movement would anger him further so I remained immobile.
"I take you into my castle…" He began. I could tell he was desperately trying to refrain himself from killing me then and there. "I put a roof over your head, food on your table and provide for your needs and how do you repay me? I suppose some of it was ignorance on my own behalf. I never thought the final egg would hatch to a self pitying whining girl like you, but I guess I was wrong. Maybe your dragon became deluded after all the time I kept him in that egg of his."
At that I felt my hands slowly ball into tight fists and I struggled to contain my own rage at the way he spoke of Elzar. "You will never be as powerful as Murtagh or I, even those lame friends of yours but I suppose even the most trivial rider and dragon have their uses"
I looked up at him then. I could never serve him. I had already sworn my allegiance to the Varden and he knew it. I heard him lean closer to me then all of a sudden I could feel his warm breath by my left ear, tickling the pointed tip. Then he began to whisper.
"Oh, don't think you're safe from me with your weak little pact with the Varden. As soon as your true name changes I will have complete control over both you and your dragon and believe me that won't take long. By my hand, through the pain I will inflict your spirit will break in a couple of short days and with that your name. Your dragon will succumb to me just as you do and then you will do my biding as and when I please! Don't think you will receive any fatherly love either, you will become yet another of my slaves, aiding my needs and I will treat you like one and punish you like one and you shall be bound to me in chains, never to taste freedom just like Murtagh" At the end he was growling then when he finished he shoved me back to the hard floor like a piece of dirt he longed to be rid of. My head smacked against the stone as I fell backwards and pain erupted in my skull, blurring my vision and making everything distorted. I tried to stand but my legs wouldn't allow it and I swayed and fell back down to the floor. Then I couldn't breathe. There was a restraining crush around my windpipe, stopping all passage of oxygen. I instinctively reached up and groped for what was crushing my throat but there was nothing. My fumbling hands were met with nothing but air. Then I was being lifted by my neck and through my blurry vision I managed to see him standing in front of me. He had descended completely from his throne and was poised in an all powerful manner; his hand outstretched on it his dark a mutilated Gedwey ignasia flared with a sinister and evil light. I let out a strangled choke and he smiled at my pain. I watched in horror as his outstretched hand slowly contracted in mid air and as it did so did the force on my throat. Just as I thought my neck was about to snap and spots were dancing in front of my eyes the constricting stopped and he surveyed me for a second through his black eyes.
"THRYSTA!" He yelled and I went flying across the room and I slammed to the hard floor once more half way across the throne room. The blow knocked what air there was in my lungs from my chest and as I gasped for air my chest was gripped in a searing ache. I lay on the floor panting, a sweat forming on my brow then I flew back again and my back slammed into the jagged rock hard surface of the steps. It felt as if I had just broken every bone in my body but then he was leaning over me again.
"You shouldn't have crossed me!" He growled. His voice was deep and threatening and I tried to suppress the shudder which ran the length of my body. I opened my bleary eyes and gazed back up at him. He made no move, none what so ever and I wondered what he was going to do to me next and then I felt it, the burrowing drill at the edge of my consciousness trying to worm its way into my mind and thoughts. I hastily threw up what defences I could muster in a couple of short milliseconds. As normal I pictured the leaf spinning idyllically on the crystal lake surface. I could feel him angering and in his impatience he made an attempt to crush my defences in one swift movement like he would Murtagh but it bounced of and deflected back to him but I wasn't aware of that, all I saw was that leaf spinning on the water on a frosty autumn morning. Galbatorix roared. The noise was so deafening it snapped me out of it and when I opened my eyes I had only time to register how truly mad I had just made him by proving I could withstand his efforts before he threw himself on me. A searing pain shocked through the entire length of my body, more intense and blistering then anything I had ever experienced. All that seemed to exist was its fiery rage which burned its way through my arteries and veins, flowing through my body to every part of my body. With no defences he attacked my mind then, worming through all memories and burning them, turning my own emotions against me and numbing my senses. It was like having a nail brutally hammered through the side of my skull, shattering the fragments of bone and imbedding them in my brain. A piercing scream tore from my lips and I tasted blood in my mouth. I screamed again and cried out, screaming and screaming when all of a sudden all the pain ceased and my senses flared back into life. I gasped and my eyes flickered open. I could feel tears of agony trickling their way down my cheeks and there was blood in my mouth. I lolled my head on the steps about to see the huge black doors swinging shut on a struggling figure and I swear I heard my name being shouted, being yelled over and over but my mind wasn't working, I couldn't be sure of anything then the doors boomed shut and there was only their vast dark expanse filling my blurred vision. Then it started again and I started screaming. It was too much for words, like I was burning alive, swimming in acid falling off a cliff onto pinnacle rocks all at the same time but never dying, deaths comforting dark embrace never came. I don't know how I endured, how my body didn't pack up but I was still breathing when it all finally stopped. For some bizarre reason I thought it was all over and a smile of relief graced my lips but delirious people think odd things. Of course he hadn't finished with me. He bent down and did something which yanked me back to my senses with a sudden jerk and I gasped. I blinked hard and panted, looking up at him again. His eyes hadn't calmed, they were still dark and thunderous so I wondered why had he stopped, why didn't he just keep on going? His eyes suddenly dropped from mine then down to the object he was extracting from his tunic pocket. It was a file, containing black liquid. Even though it was full it mustn't have contained more than a couple of drops but I guessed it was enough. I watched as he carefully removed the tiny cork lid from the glass tube.
"Something Durza gave to me" He smiled forebodingly and he knelt on the steps down by my side. I was too weak still to retaliate as he tore open the top few buttons of my shirt, exposing the top of my bare chest and I was too weak to stop him as he descended a long pointed fingernail above my heart, hanging from it was a single droplet of the black poison. But not any old poison I realised it was the Skilna Bragh. I remembered it had nearly claimed Arya's life and she was an elf, I was almost sure it would claim mine. I gazed helplessly as the droplet quivered on the tip of his nail the watched in dismay as it fell towards my skin. As soon as it came into contact I felt burning and I gasped and let out a pained whimper. It only took a couple of seconds for it to seep into my bloodstream and then only two more for it to pass into every fibre of my being. The pain was indescribable and was so much so that I finally drifted away into a deep, deep sleep; one from which I wasn't sure if I would wake up.
***
As soon as her screams echoed from the throne room he was snapped out of his trance. He gasped and found himself sagging against the wall several meters from the open doors. He didn't even think, he had to stop him from hurting her. He ran full pelt towards the huge black doors, torches flickering in their brackets, illuminating the cold black marble corridor. As soon as he saw her squirming on the floor his heart stopped, screaming in pain at the torture that was being inflicted upon her. Murtagh tried to move forward, move towards her but he couldn't get past the doors. He looked up to see Galbatorix staring at him with black eyes a hint of sick twisted amusement on his face. Galbatorix waved one skeletal hand then the doors slowly started to close, shutting him away from her.
"NO!" He yelled, the word tearing from his hoarse throat. "Leave her alone! Evie! Evie! EVIE!" Her name tore from his lips over and over again as he strained with all his might against the invisible barrier. Suddenly she turned her head from where she lay on the steps but the dim light and her golden hair prevented him from seeing her face. Had she seen him? He yelled her name one last time as the doors finally shut on him and he was left staring at the ancient black knotted wood. Incomprehensible rage and desperation consumed him and he shouted again and hurled himself at the door, fists meeting wood and splinters imbedded themselves deep in his knuckles as his fists left imprints in the dark timber, eventually though it sank in and his yelling and punching came to a halt. It was his fault. It was his entire fault this was happening to her. He had been the one to retrieve her from the elf's room and take her straight into the clutches of this monster. There was an unbearable pain in his chest as he realised the sudden truth. How? How had he managed to do that to her? She started screaming again and Murtagh's breath stopped in his throat. Each scream pierced his heart like a dagger, leaving it to bleed and it was all his fault…
Murtagh…Thorn gently probed the edge of his mind seeing if he was welcome. He treaded with care at his riders anguish. Murtagh ignored him and just let each of Evie's screams run him through his heart. He deserved the pain they were causing him.
It wasn't your fault… Thorn said.
Don't say that! Murtagh growled in reply. Don't you dare say that! Was it not I who delivered her straight into his hands?!
You were under an enchantment, a powerful one. You had no control over you actions! Thorn exclaimed.
I still did it though, it doesn't matter if I was under an enchantment or not! He pushed Thorn from his mind and sat there shaking in his own fury and desolation. The minutes ticked by and the pain in his chest did nothing but get worse.
"Murtagh" His own name sent a chill down his spine because of whose lips it was spoken from and the huge doors swung back open and this time he was free to enter. He stood frozen for a couple of seconds, scared at what he would see on the other side before the force of his oaths dragged him in. He tried to walk up to the throne but as soon as he saw her lying there unconscious on the steps he broke into a run. His boots thudded on the highly polished floor as he sprinted the length of the massive room then he threw himself down by her side. One slender hand lay towards him, dangling from the step and from one pale fingertip hung a droplet of sparkling ruby red blood. She lay splayed across the black marble step, her slender, delicate form blemished by bruises and cuts wherever skin was visible. Her face was mostly hidden by hair but from what he could see of her flushed cheeks, dark eyelashes and red lips she was somehow even more beautiful than he remembered her but then his eyes fell on the mark on her chest and his heart hammered in his ears. A large dark blotch obscured her soft skin right above her heart with dark tendrils splaying across her chest. Galbatorix had poisoned her. Seeing her lying there defenceless at the foot of the king made something inside of him snap then he realised quite what that snap had been. His true name had changed. He was intelligent and quick thinking enough to not bear any sign of surprise or shock on his face and managed to keep Galbatorix unsuspecting.
"Take her to the solitary confinement in the dungeons" He ordered "I'll deal with you later" By that he supposed he meant place him back under his enchantment.
"Yes my lord" Murtagh said, playing along with a swift bow of his head. He then slipped her arms under Evie's knee's and shoulders and lifted up her light unconscious body. He turned and paced from Galbatorix's presence with her in his arms then as soon as he walked a couple of corridors he was running, clutching her tight to his chest.
Thorn! He cried out with his mind Make a break for it when the time is right! This is it! We're escaping!
Im sure evie would like to tell you if she could that a new book for Eragon is coming out soon.
It is called 'eragon's guide to aligasia' so go look it up if your as obsessed as her
Review please!!!