I only own Jewel
Shadowface: Thank you for the review, here's the next up date.
HottStuffMelv: Thanks for the advice, I won't do that anymore, here's the next update. And as for my screen name, when I was in primary school I had to dress up as a devil for one of the plays we did, and I was Queen of the underworld or something like that and one of the lines was 'reigning devil' and it kind of stuck. Strange I know but there you go, hope it satisfies your curiosity, please enjoy this chapter.
A few hours after they had met the old man, whom they later found out was called Conan, the cart and its riders arrived at Raven's Peak. Lucy's eyes started watering at the pungent aroma of the town, it didn't look as though it had been cleaned in years. Raw sewage ran down the gulleys at the sides of the road, all of the walls were blackened with smoke and a thick layer of smog was settled over the rooftops. The streets were filled with bodies, all bashing into each other, coarse voices floated over the cart and Edmund had to forcibly shove a drunk off of the cart when he collapsed on the back and started to go to sleep. Peter and Edmund's faces mirrored her disgust, what kind of people could live in a place like this.
"Awful, ain't it?"
Conan's face was twisted in a wry expression.
"I wouldn't come here at all except the money I get for the blankets here is much better than I do anywhere else, especially at this time of year.
Besides, I know it's just an old man's fancy, but I like to think that the poor girl knows that someone out here isn't trying to destroy her."
Conan was blushing; desperately trying to hide it behind his large hat; impulsively Lucy reached out and hugged him. The old man reminded her of Galen, he was one of their court advisors at Cair Paravel, the sweetest man you could imagine, Conan was a bit rougher around the edges but they had the same heart.
"I'm sure she does."
There was something a different about Edmund's voice, it was emotional, there was no other word for it. Anger, love, pain, hatred disgust, a whole myriad of feelings that were created and strengthened by these surroundings, and to make it worse he could feel Jewel, and she was scared, terrified.
It had grown more overwhelming in the last day, something was very wrong with his wife, very wrong.
With Jewel
Oh God Oh God Oh God. GET AWAY FROM ME. The words reverberated throughout her skull. They had never been this bad, never, it was like they were infected with something.
It was the second day of the festival and they hadn't stopped, things usually quietened after the sun had set, but this year they just kept going. The screams, the hands. Everyone was jumping reaching for her, she was covered in bruises and scratches, blood dribbled down her arms and legs from where fingernails had scratched her. Her scalp was aching from where her hair had been pulled by relentless fingers.
Desperately she tried to gather her thoughts and reached out with her empathy to find the one kind mind that was always here during the festival. After a few minutes search where she was continually pulled from her search by screams of grabs at her limbs. Ah, there he was, what on earth! Edmund, Lucy, Peter. They were there, she could feel them, she wasn't dreaming this time, it was real, she started to send a message to them when someone jumped on the litter and started slashing at her with a knife.
"Help me."
With Edmund, Lucy, Peter, and Conan
"Help me."
The soft cry rippled through their minds. Edmund and Peter reflexively reached for the hilts of their daggers, Lucy craned her head in every direction, futilely trying to guess what direction Jewel was in. None of them expected to Conan to speak up.
"Wha…What was that?"
The old man's face was ashen, his eyes were wide and there was a fair amount of fear in them, he wasn't really used to having people talking in his mind. Lucy reached out to him and tried to explain in simple terms that wouldn't scare him, but after a few minutes Edmund was tired with that tack.
"That was Jewel, she needs help and…"
"Who's Jewel?"
"Jewel is the girl that you said is being paraded around here like a prize cow. Do you have any idea where she'll be now, please!"
Edmund's voice was harsh and desperate, Peter didn't look any different, Lucy was the only calm one of the trio, apparently sensing the urgency he jumped off his cart with surprising agility, and apparently trusting his horse to stay in one place he weaved his way down a side alley, deftly dodging a stream of dirty water thrown out of a high window. After a quick look between the siblings the three dashed off after him, except Peter and Edmund just shoved the celebrants out of their way instead of wriggling through them.
When they caught up with Conan they found themselves at the front of a crowd that lined a filthy cobble street. All around them were loud, coarse voices, and each person seemed to be wearing a uniform of grime and brown cotton.
"They take her around in a spiral, they start her off at the outer limits of the town and travel around the edge for a day, then they move in a bit for the next day, and so on till they reach the centre of two with all the nobles. She should be coming past here any minute."
Lucy nodded gratefully, her brothers were too busy at that moment, Peter was getting dangerously close to drawing a knife on a pair of louts who seemed to think that because he was an easy target because he wore decent clothes, and Edmund craning his neck trying to see if Jewel was coming. A few minutes later the screaming broke out. The noise was almost a living entity, the very air seemed to vibrate, and then Jewel appeared.
She was being carried on a decrepit wooden litter; they could see bruises decorating her body and shallow rivers of blood. But what distressed him the most was the man on the litter beside her. He didn't appear to be distracted by the horde of hands reaching towards Jewel, instead he was carefully making incisions in her flesh, then holding a container to the injury and collecting her blood. Each time he moved onto a new spot he held up his collection of blood and the crowd cheered. Jewel was oblivious, she was unconscious on the litter.
"I'm afraid this is where we part ways Conan, thank you for everything."
Peter shook their friends hand and drew his dagger alongside Edmund, they were about to charge the litter when each of them had an arm grabbed by a different hands. Turning the looked into the angry faces of Conan and Lucy.
"What, you're just going to barge in there without a plan."
"No offence kids, but that's a remarkably bad idea."
"Well what would you two suggest?"
"We get her out of here on my cart."
"You're helping!"
"Of course, I told you, I've always felt for the chit but there was never anything I could do about it, now I can and I'm going to. If Lucy here can find a blanket or something and I go and get my cart a bit closer to here, then you two can still be heroically stupid and charge the litter and have a chance of getting out of here alive.
You rap her in the blanket as soon as you reach a dark corner, you might want to get some cloaks for yourselves and take those headbands off, you do stand out a bit in this place, then you can come find me, we'll get her in the back and be out of here licketty split."
With that he disappeared off into the crowd. Not needing words the three headed off to find a blanket and three large cloaks. As soon as they found them Peter and Edmund swathed themselves in the rough material and pulled the hoods up to conceal their faces, as soon as they saw Lucy similarly disguised and retreating to the back of the crowd they faced the street again and saw that Jewel's litter was a lot closer than before. With a swift look at each other they charged.
They sprinted into the street and leapt onto the litter. With a savage blow to the head the vampire collecting her blood was thrown away from her and while Peter slashed viciously at the onlookers Edmund gathered his unconscious wife into his arms and they leapt off again, the whole thing had taken less than a minute. Fighting their way through the crowds Peter defended them with his knives while Edmund stayed behind his brother, trying to keep his wife away from the clawing hands.
After a somewhat drawn out passage through the crowds they reached the corner where Lucy was standing enveloped in the shadows. Swiftly they wrapped Jewel in the blanket and slipped away into the crowds.
After a nerve-wracking ten minutes they reached Conan and his cart. Bundling into the back they flattened themselves against the base and hid themselves under various wares. They remained still as they waited to leave their town, when they finally did Edmund sat up and started ripping things to pieces to make bandages for Jewel, Peter and Lucy joined him, until they were all distracted by a chortle coming from underneath Conan's hat.
"Well, I didn't actually think that would work. Well done."
And then he collapsed into gales of laughter while the other three just shook their heads and continued to make bandages.
Please review this chapter :D
