Chapter 17: Mourning and Torture
Drogo and the others helped to rebuild the rubble that was left behind of the wall. Not many of the elves that were on the blood soaked ground were actually dead and many were saved by the actions of others bringing them in after the initial battle. Many were seriously hurt, but have high hopes of recovering with not much more then a lot of recovery and a large scar. The young boy elf that Aubrey had helped after he was shot in the arm told his story and more people had respect for Aubrey then ever before. Even the ones who had no faith in her ability to lead had their minds changed once the story touched them.
The group of hobbits tried their hardest to both remember Aubrey and to get her memory off their minds. They wanted to let go, but keep hold tight to the hope that their friend was going to come back. She was going to climb over the hill just south of Rivendell and run up to them with a great smile on her face. She would tell them how she narrowly escaped the clutches of Carond and the orcs and ran all the way back to Rivendell on just her will alone. But no one saw her bright face coming over the hill. No one heard of her great escape, and nearly no one believed that she was even alive.
Drogo took the hardest hit. He kept telling the others in his own doubt that she would be back. He kept telling them that if she wasn't going to come back that the power would have already been taken over and the world that they knew now, would have been destroyed long ago. He believed at least that much. He had to lean on that hope that she still lived; that she was still was out there hanging on.
The third hour of work Drogo and the others were cleaning up the last of the rubble of the long ago destroyed wall. After the clean up was done Drogo walked away from the group and sat on the bridge over looking the small creek and let his legs dangle over the surface of the water. His arms folded in front of him and his head was leaning on them using them as a slight cushion for his chin. He stared down into the water and could only think back to the days when she was still there.
"Hey Drogo, they're making a second breakfast just for us. Are you coming?" Faramir asked leaning on the bridge railing and looking down at his friend, "If you don't come I can't stop Thomas from eating your share."
"Let him have it, Faramir. I'm not very hungry these days," Drogo didn't remove his eyes from the water's faint glow of the morning sun's reflection.
Faramir gave a deep sigh and looked up at the trees' branches above them, "I miss her too, you know?" Drogo only gave a slight nod of his head and continued to get sucked into the hypnotic pool of ripples. "I'll try to leave you something if you change your mind on second breakfast, but I'm not promising anything."
Faramir left Drogo to himself and joined Kate as she waited for him by the side of the bridge. Kate must have asked how he was doing or something because Faramir lifted his hand and shook his head. Kate let it drop and the two tried desperately to catch up to Thomas and Kat who were already half way to the dinning hall.
After Drogo knew that they were gone he pushed his hand into one of his pockets and pulled out a small ring and turned it over and over in his hands. He watched it as the gold band of the ring shone with some of the greatest brilliance he could ever think of. He turned the ring to let the small stone turn toward him and looked deep into the brilliance of the small crystal almost too small to be seen in the gold band.
He gave the ring a frustrating look and closed his hand around it tightly. He was about to throw it into the water, but caught himself before he released the ring from his grip. Again he opened his hand and looked at it again, letting the light shone off of it reflect on his face, "I can't do it. If I throw this away, then I would truly be giving up on her."
"It was to be her ring, wasn't it Drogo?" Drogo struggled to get up when he saw Arwen standing over him.
"M' lady," he bowed.
"Drogo, there is no need for such formalities between us," Arwen said, "Please sit."
They both sat down on the bridge, "Why aren't you at the second breakfast?"
"I don't want to eat," he said softly placing the ring back in his pocket.
"Can I see it?" Arwen said mentioning the ring, "Before you put it away?"
He nodded his head and handed her the ring. She studied it and held it up to the light, "It is quite beautiful. How long did you have to wait until you got to buy it?"
"Two months, nearly three," he said when Arwen handed the ring back to him, "I knew that we were both really young, but I would have still asked her to . . . well, you know. Just to know that it was in our future, no matter what. Maybe if we were to get separated like this, she would have something to hold on to by looking at it. Knowing that I'm still there for her and still hoping for her return to me."
"I think that she already knows that, Drogo," Arwen tried to reassure him and give him a hope.
"I'm sure she does, but I'm not so sure about me anymore," he looked up at her with tears in his eyes, "I don't know if I'll ever see her again unless it is in my dreams. I would single-handedly march up to the place they're keeping her and save her if I'll have to. But we don't even know where that is."
"We will find out, Drogo," Arwen patted his back, "Don't worry love will find a way. Especially a love as strong as yours and Aubrey's."
Arwen got off the bridge and looked down at him, "And I expect you to be at lunch. You need your nutrition, especially if you hope to beat all those orcs single-handedly when we do find out where they are keeping Aubrey."
He gave a weak smile and nodded to Arwen. She left toward her room and Drogo looked back into the ripples of the small trickle of a creek. He let a small tear slid down his cheek and fall into the water. 'I will find you Aubrey,' he thought to himself and he could almost hear Aubrey talking back to him.
'I promise that we will be together no matter what,' and a slight stream of wind passed by him as he could almost feel her kiss on his cheek.
***
Aubrey strained for her eyes to open. The darkness in the cell helped her to open them faster and she didn't have to struggle to adjust to the light. Her eyes couldn't focus immediately, but she could see the form of another body in her cell across from her. She opened and closed her eyes quickly to get the glossy finish all wiped away. After the scene started to clear up she still couldn't see the person's face as they were on their side and facing away from her.
She turned her head upward and toward the window barred and Aubrey knew incapable of being broken through. The cell seemed just like the one she shared with Mandy and the other girls when she first arrived in Middle Earth. Although this time the cell was darker and set away from others. The only light that was visible excluding the rare moonlight was the light of some burning torches right outside the doorway. Aubrey pushed herself off the ground and tried to stand up, but was pulled back down by gravity and the weight of her chains that were strapped only to her wrists.
The flow of light from the torches right outside the door was interrupted by the passing orc guard that ran into the other room, shouting to the next guard down the hall and resumed his post by the door. As he retook his position he gave Aubrey an amused smirk and turned his head to the forward position. She gave him a grimace and wanted to stick out her tongue at him, but thought it too childish for such a situation. She could hear the pounding of feet in the side cambers and above her as the orcs carried the message to where ever it was going.
She looked down at her hands, which still felt raw from the battle and saw the stinging scratches that nearly covered them. Her clothes were still in one piece ignoring the fact of the battle tears and all. She felt a slight twinge of pain on her left cheek and held it with her hand. She had forgotten about the small scratch given to her by a flying arrow. Her feet were sore and she saw the scrapes on her heels that might have been inflicted by the orcs dragging her into the cell.
After a few moments she started to hear mumbling and saw movement from her cellmate across from her. Aubrey crawled across the rough cement blocks and tugged the chains behind her to sit semi-comfortably next to the person. The orc didn't seem to notice or care, Aubrey wasn't sure which it was. She felt the person's wrists and ankles and felt the heavy and scratchy metal that was connected to her own wrists. She helped the other person turn over and looked at her face.
"Princess Aubrey?" the girl looked up at her and gave a small smile.
"Adrielle . . . What have they done to you?" Aubrey tried to wipe off the dirt that surrounded her eyes and face, but stopped when Adrielle winced in pain. She seemed so weak and tired that Aubrey had wondered where her once cheery friend had gone. They had broken her, broken her spirit almost down to nothing.
She touched Aubrey's hand and shook her head, "That isn't dirt; they are bruises."
"God . . . Adrielle how did you get here?"
"Now, now. You really don't want to go through that story again do you, Adrielle? Wouldn't you rather have me tell it to the Princess?" Aubrey's spine shivered at the sound of his voice. She turned around with her face already contorted with anger. She placed Adrielle down on the ground softly and picked herself up for the first time off the cell floor. She was bound and determined not to show her weakness in front of him.
He looked her over, "Still as radiant as ever, Princess."
"And you're still the coward asshole that knocked me out in Rivendell," she snarled at him. Adrielle looked up from the floor and watched the two talk to one another. Aside from Aubrey's apparent show of anger, she could have sworn they were talking over some trivial matter while drinking some tea from both of their demeanor.
"A princess should learn to choose better and nicer words when talking to a nobleman," he shook his head and looked down at the ground.
Aubrey rushed forward and was nearly thrown back by the reflex of the chains that held her wrists. She breathed hard and stared at him straight in the eye, "You are no nobleman . . . I'm not even to go so far as to call you a man." His eyes shot up and he slapped her across the face.
She spit out some spit that was starting to mix with blood in her mouth, "And so help me, if these chains weren't holding me back I would break you in half."
"Like you tried when I had you pinned down?" he laughed lightly at her, "You can be so amusing." He stoked the side of her face and she tried to actually bite his hand, "And dangerous."
He motioned for one of the guards to come into the cell. They moved around Aubrey and released her chains, but securely held her hands behind her back. She struggled for a minute and looked at Adrielle still watching from inside the cell.
"Take her to the conference room," Carond ordered the one that held her. She began to struggle once again as he slammed the cell door shut and left Adrielle lying weak on the cold floor, her eyes open with terror and worry for Aubrey.
Once reaching the room the orc pushed Aubrey down in a chair that was set next to a large table setting in the middle of the room. She rubbed the spots on her arms and wrists where the orc had held her and looked around the room. It was almost as dark as the cell, but that could only be from the dark colors that covered the room's walls. There was only one other chair in the room that was nearly connected to her own. In the corner of the room she could see a huge canopy bed and was starting to feel unsure on what kind of conference room it really was.
She heard Carond order the orc to guard outside and the door closing shut behind her. She was all alone in the room with Carond.
"Once you get used to the smell, the orcs aren't that bad to agree with," he smirked and touched the side of her face pulling back some of her hair away from her eyes. She pulled her face away from his touch and kept her eyes forward.
"What do you want from me?"
"The jewel of course," he sat on the table in front of her, "That's what got this whole 'adventure' started, isn't it?"
She looked up at him, "You might as well forget about it. I've already noticed that you can't get it off my neck. An orc tried that earlier and boy did he get a shock."
"Yes, a minor drawback," he sneered at her, his confidence slightly fading away for a second.
"Minor? I would think that would put a huge wench into your works wouldn't you?" He looked at her strange and she remembered that they probably never heard of a wench before, "Now what are you going to do?"
"Whatever it takes to get you to surrender the jewel to us," he almost pushed his face toward her own. He started to lean in, but Aubrey spit in his face before he could make his move. He backed up and used a handkerchief from his pocket to clean his face with.
"You can forget it," Aubrey repeated.
"Well what about manual labor, huh? Will that change your mind?"
"I actually find it quite refreshing to do work with my own hands."
"And torture? What do you say to that?"
"Everybody needs to have some pain in their life. Both emotional and physical," Aubrey smiled to herself as she saw the frustration building on Carond's face.
"You don't understand the situation Princess. We need that power to-"
"I am already aware that you want to bring back Suaron. And I will tell you now . . . you will have better luck going down to hell and bringing him back up then from trying to take the amulet from me."
Carond let a huge sigh release from his lips and went back behind her where Aubrey was certain he would bring in his orc goon to take her to the torture chamber. Instead she felt his hand on her shoulder, pushing some of the smooth fabric of her shirt down the edge of her arm. He took his other hand and pushed some of her hair out of the way of her neck.
"You know this would go a lot easier if you just cooperated with me," he bent down quickly and tried to kiss her neck. She hit him in the nose and jumped from her chair. He still held a piece of her shirt and tore it as she pulled away. She was only sorry that she couldn't hit him harder because he wasn't bleeding from the blow that she had just given him.
"You sick pervert!" she looked at him, making sure that he didn't walk toward her any more, "How much older are you than I? Three thousand years? Maybe four?!"
"It shouldn't matter with you being the princess. You could have anyone you want," he put down his hand from his face, "And you chose a hobbit from the Shire."
"I love him . . . and you can never break me of that," she stood strong and held the torn piece of material on her shoulder.
He gave her a glare and called the orc back into the room, "Show our princess here what happens when she doesn't obey the right commands." The orc nodded and grabbed Aubrey's hands behind her back once again and led her out of the room and down the hall, "She will soon learn that I will always get what I want."
***
Aubrey spent what seemed like a full night in the torture room. She was somehow relieved to see no one else in the room, being tortured with her. All around her laid numerous pieces of torture devices ready for use. Some of the branding irons or pokers still held some of the blackened flesh of the ones it was used on before. The heat that she had felt when she first arrived at Middle Earth was felt even more intensely in the torture room, where there was only one window and even that would only bring hot air inside the room. She knew exactly where she was in Mordor, and she tried to concentrate on that fact all through the torture sequence.
At first they only beat her with their bare hands, mostly along the face and middle of the gut. Soon enough they started to use what looked like pieces of leather for belts and slapped it across her skin. She didn't cry out and she didn't cry. She let them do whatever they wanted as long as she kept the two very important facts stuck in her brain. She needed to remember were on a map in Mordor this would be located to try and send word to Drogo somehow and she needed to keep reminding herself that Drogo loved her and was probably waiting for her return. She had to survive and return to him.
The orcs beat harder on her untouched skin, making marks that wouldn't soon heal and would give them a starting point for the next torture session. Aubrey's soft skin started to turn harsh and scraped. The leather stung each time it contacted her skin and hurt twice as much each time it hit her. Soon the soft skin gave way and parts of her stomach, arms and legs split on contact. Her hands and legs were useless to protect her as the whips of leather continued to warp her once ivory skin now dyed with a new crimson shade of her blood.
They stopped for a few minutes and Aubrey hung almost lifelessly from the chains that held her up. The extent of the beatings was too much for her and even though she tried not to show it, a few tears went down her cheek.
"Still unwilling to scream, aren't you?"
Aubrey lifted her eyes to see the same hideous face of the orc who ordered her and Mandy to jump after being changed. She tried to give him a nasty greeting, but couldn't control the contortions of her face any longer. The orc lifted her head by the chin and looked her in the eyes. Her head rocked back and forth as he looked at the damage already taken on her.
"Good work," he said to the ones behind him, "You should have given in, girl."
"I will never give in," Aubrey harshly whispered through her bloody lips.
"And what about your great revenge you talked of? It was you who said you would be back to stop our rein of terror, was it not?" he chuckled a little and the others took the hint to start laughing.
Aubrey then noticed that this specific orc was smarter then the others. He held the knowledge that Aubrey would think that Carond held in his head. He stopped his chuckling and grabbed her by the neck, and pushed her back against the wall.
"Well, you're here . . . were is your great power?"
It took all of her strength to lift her arms up and grab the orcs massive arm holding her up, "Let . . . let me . . ."
"What? I didn't hear you scream yet?" he held her neck tighter in his grasp.
Aubrey struggled for breath and her world was growing smaller and smaller. She didn't know what to do. She was powerless. It would be so ironic that she would die powerless to stop her killer, yet she had the most powerful jewel in existence hanging around her neck.
'I'm sorry dad,' she felt another tear slid down the side of her face and fall on the orc's hand. She looked past the orc pushing the air out of her windpipe at the other orcs behind him and noticed them backing up and away from her.
"Scream girl! I want to see you break!"
"Let . . . me . . . GO!" Aubrey yelled at the orc. The amulet glowed brightly and threw all three orcs in the room back against the other wall. The one that had grasped Aubrey's neck opened his eyes and looked around. Some how he was the only one that survived the blast of light, the other two were nowhere to be found.
Aubrey had no strength left and had let herself swing lightly in the chains. He got up and walked toward Aubrey wanting to choke her, but found that his right hand that was used to push Aubrey against the wall was burned off. The flesh was burned almost black and smelt of rotting meat. Aubrey opened her eyes to see the orc scream franticly at his lost appendage. She wasn't sure on what happened with her amulet, but the reassuring warmth that it gave her told her all she needed to know. Aubrey smiled at the fact that she wasn't the one that was screaming. She wasn't the one asking for mercy. She is the one who will resist until she dies.