A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken so long to update. Been having some issues. Personal and school life have been hectic lately and couldn't fins any motivation to write. Hope this makes up for the long wait. Thanks for the continued support!-KASMN
53
We had each move into a strategic position. Just as we had thought, there were 3 guards stationed in front of a seemingly random piece of stone.
"Seems like it would defeat the purpose of a secret door to have guards in front of it." I muttered. Evalia nodded in assent.
"I don't sense any magic coming from them." Teyran whispered.
"Well, we can't go from behind them, from the side, and obviously the front."
"Stop thinking like a ranger," Evalia said to me, "Not every approach has to be a stealthy one." I shrugged.
"What do you suggest then?" I asked. No one offered any answers.
I looked over to Elaéyadar to see what she had to say. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the guards. I felt a faint trickle of magic come from her, and I turned my eyes back to the guards. The three of them stiffened as if shocked for a brief second before moving as if nothing happened. I looked back to Elaéyadar who had a small smile on her face.
"You have an idea?" I asked.
"They're Alayvan." She whispered, almost in shock. But in her tone, I also heard a bit of relief. "Southern more than likely. Probably from Riata."
"Mom, is there anything you can do?" Teyran asked. She got a thoughtful look on her face.
"Possibly…But if I do you four must stay here." Teyran opened his mouth to argue it, but one look from Elaéyadar shut him up. In that look, they seemed to have a silent conversation, agreeing upon something that I didn't know. Teyran sighed.
"Gilan, have your bow ready just in case this doesn't quite go as planned." Elaéyadar said to me. I nodded, still unsure about this plan…Whatever it actually was.
"What exactly are you planning?" I asked. She smiled
"I'm simply going to talk to them." She replied. "Now," she said addressing all of us, "You all stay here, I shall return shortly. Unless this goes downhill in which case Gilan, you have all rights to shoot them." With that, she turned and began making her way down to the guards.
It only took her a few minutes to be in sight of the guards who bared their spears at her and yelled their demands. I couldn't hear them from here, due to the keening of the wind, but their stance indicated that they weren't looking to talk.
Elaéyadar held up her hands in a placating gesture and I saw her lips move. She said something, and the guards looked like they had been shot. Shock covered their features and their weapons dropped to the ground. Vaguely, I could see a warm golden glow in her palms, still up and to her sides. Even from here I could feel her magic. It made me feel…safe. Like I was sitting in a warm cabin, without a care in the world. It made it seem as if there was nothing wrong in the world. I closed my eyes, letting the feeling wash over me for a couple more seconds. Then, I opened my eyes again and pushed the feeling away.
We had a mission. Save Ally. And every moment that was wasted was another that she was at the mercy (or lack thereof) of Morgarath. I watched Elaéyadar once more, and after she said a few more words to the guards, she turned towards us and motioned for us to join her.
As we approached, I warily eyed the guards. For the moment, they seemed to be on our side, but I wasn't sure if they truly were, and how quickly they would switch back to the side of their employer. Suspiciously, I approached the guards and the not-so-secret door they guarded. I kept my hand wrapped around the hilt of my sword, just in case any of them tried to pull something funny.
Maybe it was just where we were, but my nerves felt like they were on edge. Like around every corner or shelf of rock someone would jump out and attack me. I focused my attention back to the guards. Evalia and Penthariel did that strange Alayvan salute I had seen Ally do a couple times to the guards, which they returned.
"So what is the plan to rescue Ally exactly?" Evalia asked.
"Well, naturally, Morgarath has her locked up in the deepest part of the castle. We tried to help her as much as we could, but Morgarath knew about it. He kept us as far away from her as we could be…Out here. With the situation as it is, there's only one real way to get inside," he motioned beside him, "through this door. But once we go on there, we're in Morgarath's domain. Nothing that happens in there escapes his knowledge. Everyone in that place will notify him if anything even close to out of the ordinary happens."
"So it's close to impossible is what you're saying." I noted.
"Not impossible. One of the other guards chimed in. Just very difficult. However, there is another way that we can get in luckily. Before this place was fully built, the native creatures burrowed holes and tunnels all through these mountains. Morgarath used that to his advantage when he built all this, so now those tunnels run all through the castle. They lead through to most of the major rooms… And dungeons…" He let out a small grin and all at once the plan seemed to seep into our collective minds.
For the first time in a while I felt something bloom in my chest. Something I hadn't felt in some time. Hope.
"Hold on Ally," I whispered into the pendant, "We're on our way."
/
When my mind deemed it appropriate to wake me up, I was met with darkness. Panic began to rise in my chest before I took the time to observe. I wasn't blinded, for I could now feel the harsh fabric of something over my eyes, a dark cloth that blocked all light from my sight. I had no idea where I was, and I couldn't sense anyone around me. Experimentally, I tried to move my fingers, only to find I was unable to. A quick test told me the same for the rest of my limbs and extremities. Deep in my muscles, I could feel the remnants of whatever drug they had given me, and could only wonder how long the effects would last. Without being able to move or see, I tried to rely on my other senses I tried to strain my ears, seeing if they could catch any snippet of sounds. All I could catch was the faint keening of wind from outside and the distant shuffle of guards as they shifted from one spot to the next. The same damp smell permeated the air the same way it did in the rest of the castle, dreary and cold. Since there was nothing else I could do, I let my mind wander, and simply waited.
I wasn't sure how long I did wait, but ever so slowly, the passage of time was marked by how I regained feeling in my limbs. It started with some faint pricks in fingers and toes, which I was soon able to twitch up and down. Soon after, the rest of my arms and legs followed suit. It was then that I was finally able to grasp a bit more of my surroundings.
I was kneeling on the cold stone ground, with my arms pulled behind me. I felt the metal shackles around my wrists, and I could only guess that they were pulled by a chain that was attached to the wall. I wasn't sure how long I had been in that position, but based on the soreness and stiffness of my muscles, it had been at least an hour or so. In my boredom, I went throughout my body and tried to categorize my many injuries. At minimum, bruised, if not fractured, ribs. Open cuts along my cheek, arm, and leg. Not too deep, but long. Thankfully they had stopped bleeding by now, and each was coated in a film of dried blood. 30 lashes across my back, now beginning to scab over, also covered in dried blood that made my whole back flare in pain each time I moved. The wound in my shoulder was a bit more of a problem due to the simple fact that it was a through and through, and with the position I was currently in, it was being pulled in an uncomfortable manner. Along with that were more bruises than I could count. However, the most worrisome was not the amount of blood that covered my body, but the lack of blood that was in it. It had been some time since Morgarath had taken my blood, but my many injuries didn't contribute to me trying to keep it in my body. I could feel it. The distinct lack of the magic that was supposed to flow in my veins. I could feel it, but just barely, hidden deep in my evnarima, hiding and in wait. I tried to tap into it, but it felt blocked, like I was trying to open a locked door without the key. To say it was frustrating would be an understatement. I could feel it in my fingers as I dipped into it, but whenever I tried to grab it, it slipped through my fingers like water.
After a few vain attempts, I let it slip back into the depths of my body, not having the energy to maintain the effort it took. I rolled my shoulders back; wincing at the pain it caused the reopened arrow wound and my cramped muscles. I tried to shift my legs under me, to relieve some of the pressure on my knees, but due to the way the chain was situated, I could do no more than shift my weight from side to side for a few moments at a time.
I was beginning to wonder if this was he torture in and of itself, boredom, when the door that I assumed was in front of me screeched open. I couldn't see him, but I could hear it in his footfalls and could feel it in the malevolent cold that permeated the air. The feeling seemed to prick at my skin like icicles as he circled around me. I could feel his eyes, those black pits that seemed to absorb all light, watching me. But if he was trying to wait me out, he could keep doing it. I had trained my whole life to wait, to be patient. I could play his game all day.
Apparently, he couldn't. I heard his foot draw back, and I had just enough time to prepare myself before the resounding pain hit me. All at once, the air rushed out of my lungs. I coughed in reflex, trying to draw air back into my body. I could practically hear his smirk. He continued to circle around me, like a vulture waiting for a meal.
Then, he stopped. Not being able to see him made my skin crawl and set each and every one of my nerves on edge. I felt his fingers touch my neck, almost tenderly, on the points where his fangs had stabbed into my body. When I felt his fingers, I felt a jolt speed through me, and my body lurched away from him in response.
His fingers trailed up my neck and around to the back of my head. I had just enough to time to shut my eyes before the blindfold was ripped from my face. I blinked my eyes a couple of times to adjust them to the light, dim as it was. My surroundings, once they came into focus, were not surprising. I was back in a small room; the only light a couple torches that were mounted on the wall. The only thing that was concerning was the tub of water positioned in front of me.
That old panic set in, pulling me down to the depths of pain. It seemed to drown out everything except the rapid beating of my racing heart. I tried to quell it, to push it to the back of my mind, but the overall stress and blood loss my body was facing had caused it to withdraw deep into itself and any rational thought seemed to disappear. I could feel my mind, normally so controlled and composed, breaking at the seams. Whether or not I wanted to admit it to myself, Morgarath was beginning to break me. Ever so slowly, he had worn down my defenses, leaving me with nothing but my deepest fears. Desperately, I tried to repair the cracks in my mind, but it seemed as I fixed one, another one appeared. I could feel myself standing on the edge of a precipice. One more step, and I knew I would fall over the edge and not be able to get back up.
I was broken from my reverie by my head snapping to the side, followed by the feeling of blood dripping from my nose and the sound of it splattering on to the floor. The metallic scent filled my nose and blocked out everything else I could possibly smell. Pain spiked through my skull, marking at least a slightly broken nose. I felt the rough feeling of fingers curl into my hair and my head was pulled back, letting me look right into Morgorath's eyes. I desperately tried to keep my eyes from betraying how I felt, but I knew that through them, Morgorath could see how cracked my soul was becoming.
A sadistic grin spread over his features and he began to laugh. A cold, harsh sound that fell from his lips like ice. He leaned in close, his lips right next to my ear.
"What a wonder it is to see this…the mighty Ally Mayta, the Shadow, brought to her knees, broken…and alone. You've been abandoned my dear…Left alone by the ones you called family. They didn't care for you then, and they don't care for you now. But you don't have to be alone, Ally. Join me. Leave behind your foolish inhibitions. Join us and you will never again want for company, for I will always be there by your side. Let go…"
In my mind, a vicious war was raging. Each one of his words sent a spike of pain through my heart. Had they abandoned me? Wasn't I truly alone? His words hurt more than any cut of a knife, each one digging deeper and deeper. I struggled to talk through the blood coating my nose and mouth, but I managed to choke out a single, solitary
"Never…"
Anger flashed across his features, before being replaced by a cool and calm demeanor once more.
"You think that you are better than I, that because you refuse to succumb to darkness you are, in some way, more superior. You think you know what happened to your brother, your home…well then…let me show you the truth."
Once again, I felt the spike of pain deep within my skull, and the world faded to black.
When I opened my eyes again, I was in a different place, a different time. But one that I was all-too familiar with.
I didn't have be told where I was, when I was…
The flames and dying screams of my people told me enough.
I was in back…back in my nightmares.
