Kendra's eyes snapped open and she leaned up, which her body, and the four elves surrounding her, protested to. It only took her about three seconds to recall why she had fainted, again. Swinging her legs around of the bed, she stood, held still for a moment to insure she wouldn't fall if she started to walk, before pushing passed the elves and walking out of the tent, all while being silent and ignoring the elves. It didn't take her long to find Islanzadi, who was with Ashlen at the moment and storm over to her.

"I'm finding him." her voice left no room to be argued with, but both still tried.

"Like hell you are." Ashlen stated roughly, glancing at the elf, Kendra was confused by the bloodshot eyes. Elves usually kept themselves looking well, no matter what the circumstance. "I missed an opportunity to stop him from leaving, and it's not happening again with you!" she growled.

If Kendra hadn't just woken up from fainting, she probably would have realized the meaning of what Ashlen just said sooner, but even though, she managed to get it eventually.

"You could have stopped him?" Kendra asked, and Ashlen was very surprised she didn't scream it, and didn't recognize the tone Kendra was using. This caused her to falter.

"Well...I did try, but I probably could have been more forceful though..." Ashlen said slowly. Kendra leaned forward, crouching slightly, but noticeable by her height.

"You...could...have...stopped...him...and...you...did...not." she stated slowly, dead, robotically.

"Anyone could have stopped him Kendra, but he didn't want to be stopped." Islanzadi rushed in, noticing Kendra losing control of her emotions. Kendra immediately went ram-rod straight.

"Correct. Yet, no one did. No one stopped the man who had just woken up from a coma from having his chest ripped open and lungs nearly torn apart." she stated, before turning on her heel and walking away.

"Kendra?" Ashlen's hidden question either went unnoticed or ignored, but it didn't take long to figure out what was had been listening to Kendra's thoughts and speech, and landed a millisecond later, crouching to let her rider onto her back.

"Kendra!" Ashlen now cried in alarm, but was ignored again, as Ice took off with Kendra's silent command.

"Murtagh, Murtagh, Murtagh." he tsked, "Are you aware of how betrayed your father would feel if he knew you were working with the Varden?" he gasped in fake astonishment.

Murtagh, under any other circumstance, would have struggled against the wood bar that ran from one hand to the next, hands tied to it as he was basically held in the air by it. He would have struggled, but had no energy left to do anything.

-

Murtagh panted, one arm wrapped around his chest as he leaned against Thorn.

"Guess you feel pretty stupid now, huh?" Thorn taunted him, feeling the immense pain Murtagh was in.

"Shut. Up." Murtagh deadpanned. Thorn rolled his eyes, putting his head on the ground, obviously tired.

"We're only a day or less away from Surda. Come on." Murtagh managed. Thorn's head snapped up, and Murtagh also jumped. They both sensed the minds coming their way, lead by a dragon, and it's rider.

"Shit." Murtagh managed. He stood, and winced, knowing this wouldn't be pretty. He knew Thorn was standing behind him.

"Letta Orya Thorna!" Murtagh shouted when a row of arrows came at him. The arrows dropped to the ground and he growled, already feeling his energy drain.

"Tag! So good to see you again!' came a voice Murtagh recognized quite easily.

"Alex." he snarled, and said little girl giggled, but then turned serious.

"Jeez, Tag! You don't look to good! Where's Kendra?" Alex asked in mock-concern. Murtagh glared at her, as Thorn growled. Thorn jumped towards her, done with her games, but he was quickly intercepted by Shruikan.

"Bad Thorn!" Alex scolded, "You don't try to hurt me!" she cooed, "But, I'll try to hurt you." she hissed, stalking towards Murtagh.

For the first few minutes, Murtagh managed to ward her off, both with magic and his sword, but he was nearly depleted of all his energy. He would kill himself before Alex could.

After deflecting one more attack from her, he held his hand up. "Stop." he shook his head, "I'll go with you to Galbatorix." he mumbled, lilting dangerously to one side. Alex smirked, and Thorn looked at him in shock and betrayal.

"Good choice Tag." was the last thing he heard before passing out.

The lack of energy was both physical and mental. Physical from the hell of a fight he had endured against Alex when she had intercepted he and Thorn with Shruikan and mental from the abuse his mind had been through as Galbatorix looked for a way in.

No way was that going to happen. His mind was the only thing he had left now, besides his pants, and the hope, not that he would be saved from Galbatorix mind you.

No, the hope that Kendra wouldn't be stubborn and would stay the hell away from here.

He grunted in response to the question that he wasn't about to answer. He didn't care about his father, even if the man was dead. Galbatorix simply chuckled as if he had given a wittingly charming answer, as was expected, for it was bound to be sarcastic if he had given an answer at all.

"Murtagh, where oh where did you get that horrible scar?" Galbatorix's hand slid across his chest, tracing the outline of Shruikin's barely healed claw marks, even though he knew the answer to that.

And, in true Murtagh fashion, with the last of his energy, he mustered an
answer.

"Fuck you, queer."

A/N:I mapped out the rest of this story, and figured out it should still be about 12 chapters, 13 if I have an epilogue. It may seem like a lot, but for me it really isn't, especially since this whole thing is over fifty chapters. This was my first story, and even if it went on hiatus for a while, it's really cool that I know where this story is going now. Wow, I really need to stop getting so nostalgic, when I haven't even finished it yet! I might jinx myself, urg. P.S. I think the layout of this chapter might be a little bit screwed up, I had to post it from my IPad, instead of my laptop, because my laptop is having problems, and the IPad doesn't have microsoft word, so the layout is different. Sorry ahead of time if something is funky with this chapter.