Chapter 4

"So wait, you're telling me that you are able to track Rhapsody's heart beat, and that you just happened to be listening to hers when the men attacked? And not only that, but you have the ability to see over great distances and you actually watched her abduction take place. Then, when you stopped at the palace on your way to get me, you found that, not only did no one have any idea that she had been kidnapped, but there was absolutely no evidence that anything of her fight had taken place at all?"

"I think that's what I just spent the last hour explaining to you," growled Achmed in response to the duke.

"I'm sorry Achmed, but this is a lot for me to comprehend. Why have you never told me these things about you before?"

"Because there was no need to. The less people who know what I am capable of the better. If the men who took Rhapsody had known that I am able to track her heartbeat, then they would have waited till sometime when she was at the coast or at sea."

"Oh yeah, I forgot that part. You can track her anywhere except for in and around water. If that's true, then how are you ever able to know where she is when she's with Ashe?"

Achmed gave no reply but a scowl.

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After showing Rhapsody the sword, the F'dor gloated in laughter for a moment, then suddenly turned and left the wagon. She could hear a gruff command being given to someone outside. Then a man came in and replaced the scarf around her mouth.

Since then, Rhapsody had been bounced and jolted around, chained in the back of the wagon for what began to seem to her like an eternity. It had to have been at least three days, perhaps more. In that time she had been given no food, and very small amounts of water, just barely enough to keep her alive.

The man had come in to see her only once since the first stop. He didn't really say anything then, just made sure that she was still securely chained and the gag was still firmly in her mouth.

She had no idea where she was being taken, or for what purpose, just that it was definitely not going to be good with a F'dor as her captor. But her strength was beginning to wane and she knew she had to do something soon. The problem was, after all this time for thought in this stuffy wagon, she still had no clue as to how she might get herself out of this.

"Had Ashe been home when this happened, he would have known right away that something had happened to me," she thought. "Of course, that's probably why they had chosen that night to take me. And now the only people who would notice that I'm gone are either held up in some distant mountain kingdom, or across miles and miles of ocean.

"If Achmed had been nearby, he would have known something had happened. Didn't he once say that if I ever became separated from him or trapped under a cave in he would be able to find me by my heartbeat? He would have heard that I was in trouble just by hearing my heart. But of course he was too far away to have heard anything when it happened." Rhapsody's thoughts had been going around and around in this same circle for the last day or so as she had finally given up hope of getting herself out of this.

"Or was he?" she suddenly pondered. She had seen him track a heartbeat over much greater distances than from Ylorc to the palace. He might have been able to hear her. But that was a long shot at best. Even if he had, he would still have been at least a three days journey away from where she had been taken; he would have to be traveling awfully fast in order to catch up with her.
She was sure that she was completely on her own, but she could see no way out of her situation. This F'dor was very thorough; he even made sure that she was unable to use her naming lore by using the gag. She was unable to call help to her through her singing and was unable to use her song to affect any of her captors. She had everything of asset that she once possessed taken from her. If someone didn't come in to save her, she was probably never going to escape from this devil.

And then the question that had been bothering her from the start crept upon her once again - what did this F'dor want with her? There was no benefit that Rhapsody could see in this abduction to a F'dor, unless it was to take her as its host. And if that was the case, why didn't he just do so instead of carting her across the country. No, that may be on the F'dor's agenda, but he had something else in mind first. But what could it be?