Chapter 7: Traitors Discovered!
Guys, I know that the other chapter are not so good, thought I got many reviews that they were saying that the were good, anyway, I did not like them that much. If you liked those chapters then you re going to love this. I have really high hopes fir this chappy! Reviews please, at least 30!
One more thing I want to mention is that many of you did not read chapter 7, I got only 48 hits on that chapter, before you read this chapter read and review chapter 7, if you hadn't read it before, then R&R this.
(Guys before you read this chapter please just read the ending paragraph of Chapter 5: The Black Hand)
"Well who is it?" Nasuda said to the laughing Eragon who was still on the floor. Eragon stopped laughing at the look on Nasuda's face and stood up.
"Not here, let us talk in someplace private. I don't want anyone overhearing our conversation" Eragon said cautiously. Nasuda nodded,
"Let us go to my office," She said and walked off, not waiting or even glancing at Eragon.
000
"So, who is it?" Nasuda said again as she sat on her chair in her office. Eragon took the seat in front of her and suddenly realized that this was the exact place she had kissed him-
This made a light color of red come over his face, and Nasuda, who apparently had been thinking the same thing cleared her throat, making the red color on her black skin disappear.
"Eragon, answer my question!" She commanded and Eragon had to comply…
"It's the council of elders…well most of them anyway, Jormundur is innocent." Eragon said with a huge grin waiting for Nasuda's reaction. A reaction came but not the one he had expected…
She looked at him a stony glare and suddenly roared
"DO YOU THINK I AM A FOOL!" she shouted angrily
Eragon was too shocked to respond. He just gaped at the new found venom in Nasuda's voice.
"I- wha-no?" Eragon sputtered unable to find an answer to Nasuda's sudden outrage.
"Eragon you go gallivanting off to someplace to fight Galbatorix's soldiers with 40 men and come back telling me the council of elders are the leaders of a group of assassins trying to destroy the Varden. Have you even considered thinking of how much they have contributed to the Varden, they were in the Varden before I was even born. My father appointed them to those positions, personally. Do you really think I am stupid?ideromeplace to fight galbatorix't gaped at nasuda;"
Eragon hung his head and then said "Please let me explain, Nasuda" waiting for Nasuda to respond
"Ok go on, what are you waiting for?" Nasuda said with the same angry tone.
"First of all I do not think you are stupid! Secondly I have proof of the council's involvement in the Black Hand…" Eragon started saying "I scanned the mind of the leader of Galbatorix's unit before I killed him, and I saw that they were commanded to provide assistance the Black Hand, they were supposed to meet the council of elders at a selected location on a weekly basis and there is one more thing that you need to know. Can you tell me when the attack by the Black Hand began?"
"I thought you knew" Nasuda replied "They began soon after we arrived in the Surda, but that does not have anything to do with the council."
Eragon smiled "Exactly, or so it would seem to the ordinary person. You see that this was very well planned, it even fooled you. Maybe this will clarify your thoughts, try to look at the bigger picture, not when we arrived in Surda but when I swore fealty to you. The council was already employed by Galbatorix when they appointed you as the new leader of the Varden, remember that the Varden was causing trouble for empire and when we managed to protect ourselves from the urgals Galbatorix immediately formulated a new plan. Nasuda you have to admit that he is wise, he may not be good but he is wise. Look at it from his point of view, an army he sent to destroy the troublesome rebellion failed, and what did he have then, he had no riders and the pesky rebellion was still alive and, what were his objectives, since the twins told him about Murtagh and my relationship" Eragon put emphasis on the word 'relationship' "he needed to have the only female dragon, Saphira, he brilliantly used this situation to his advantage."
Eragon looked at Nasuda; some of the old anger seemed to have vanished and was replaced by pure childish curiosity.
"Here it goes, he commanded the twins to accompany Murthagh and Ajihad with the hunting of the surviving urgals under the excuse that Ajihad needed protection, they did as they were told and murdered Ajihad, captured Murtagh. With the leader of the Varden dead Galbatorix could easily destroy the rebellion, but that does not give him the female dragon, does it. No, so he makes a plan to weaken the Varden and get me on his side. So he makes a woman the head of the Varden who in his eyes are incompetent. Remember that the council tried to get my fealty, if I had given it to them I would now be in Galbatorix's control with my dear older brother, the Varden would be destroyed and Galbatorix would have revived the dragon riders by forcing Saphira to mate with Thorn. Now that we managed to foil Galbatorix's plans again he decides to have the key members of the Varden killed, so he could have the chance to destroy it again. Let us assume that the Varden was destroyed, then that bastard of a king could easily capture me and force me to join him, Surda, the Elves and the Dwarves get killed, and so-on.xcuse that ajihad esky rebellion was still alive. torix "
Nasuda did not look convinced at all, and the following event did not help to get her into a good mood.
An elf burst into the office of Nasuda and said to Eragon
"I did as you said and it turns out that your hunch was correct, the council of elders has no family in the Varden."
"Excellent," Eragon said happily
"This is another piece of information that will prove the council's guilt; they are truly traitors because they have no cause to fight Galbatorix yet they still choose to join us."
"Eragon this is enough, I completely trust the council and tell them all the affairs of the varden!" Nasuda said angrily
Eragon replied just as angrily "Maybe that is why all our supply ships are sinking and our merchants are being arrested"
"Eragon! I am your Leigh lord, how dare you talk to me in this manner?" Nasuda almost shouted as she said this.
The elf quietly excused himself and made his way out of the tent to avoid the fighting.
"Please if you don't believe me at least allow me to try and prove the council guilt" Eragon said pleadingly
"You are forbidden to do anything that involves the council of elders. Do not talk of this matter with anyone else. You are dismissed!" and Eragon had no choice but to obey.
After Eragon had left the tent Nasuda could not help but think,
I should not have treated Eragon that way; he was just trying to help. Maybe I should apologize later…
- In Eragon's tent-
Eragon, sitting on his bed, started explaining what happened between him and Nasuda and told them about the information he had learned from Galbatorix's unit. The elves listened intently and, after he had finished, the leader asked putting everything Eragon had so carefully said into one sentence.
"Let me get this straight, Shadeslayer, you want us to help you to trap the Council which you think is behind a group of assassins loyal to Galbatorix."
"I am certain that they are guilty!" Eragon said confidently
"I do not doubt your judgment but what if we fail to trap them and, if you haven't forgotten, you swore fealty to Nasuda" The elf said, hiding his emotions in such a way that it scared Eragon.
"It shall not fail, we shall tell no one of what we discovered as far as I am concerned, you elves, Nasuda and Saphira are the only people who know about this aside from myself, they will never see it coming they will not suspect that anyone knows their secret and-" he said when suddenly…
"Yes!" an elf that had been silent during their entire conversation just shouted "I have got a plan with which we can trap the council!"
"What is it" Eragon asked immediately
"Listen, this is what we shall do…" she said with an exited smile.
-THE NEXT DAY-
A cloaked and hooded man walked into the tent of the head of the council of elders, he walked to the bed, woke the person up and bowed.
"Master reinforcements from the Great King have arrived, they wish to meet all of you in a clearing a few miles from here. You know the place?" he said, the cloak covering his eyes.
The leader nodded "Yes I have gone there several times. How could you forget?"
The man flinched but managed to keep a straight voice even though he was trembling inside.
"I was just making sure, sir." The man said making sure that his hood was covering his face.
"Very well, you are dismissed" The leader said and got up from bed to change
"I will see you at the meeting, sir." The cloaked man said and walked out of the tent; as soon as he was out he started running. After about twenty minutes of running he did a sharp right turn but skidded to a sudden stop when he saw twelve elves looking at him.
"You were not supposed to meet me here" the man said throwing back his hood to reveal Eragon's face.
"Did he notice?" an elf asked in anticipation
"No, the plan goes on, he is going to meet us at the destination!" Eragon said excitedly.
"Is he really the one?" the elven leader asked emotionlessly
Eragon nodded, "His room is very well furnished; there is no way that he could afford that furniture on the pay Nasuda gives him."
'If we succeed we shall have rid the Varden of a powerful enemy and the council's days will be short. And Nasuada will learn to trust me more…'
Eragon thought and smiled as the last thought came to him.
"Shall we go and arrange for the trap?" a young elf woman said with an exited smile.
"Yes you go fetch Nasuda and the rest of us get the other soilders" Eragon said barely able to control himself. He hooded himself again and set off towards a small clearing in the forest where the council always meets the Black Hand, he had this information curtsey of the Galbatorix's soilders…
-ONE HOUR LATER-
'Saphira, I need you around; they might try to do something violent when they try to escape' Eragon told Saphira as he glided in the forest with the speed and agility on an elf. 11 elves were following him while one went to get Nasuda, the two women were supposed to fly on Saphira so they can get here on time.
Eragon had not yet seen the meeting place used by the Black Hand yesterday the had sent an elf to explore the place and when he returned there was something about him that reassured everyone. He said that the place will do perfectly but refused to describe it.
Eragon passed a tree and came to abrupt stop the elves skid to a stop behind him with the same awestruck look on their faces. In front of them stood what looked like an extremely well furnished hall except that it did not have a roof. It had furniture and of the best quality and it did not look like a temporary meeting place but more like Galbatorix's personal bedroom.
"Well let us get this place ready!" An exited elf woman said cheerfully.
"Yes, lets do so quickly; Nasuda and the council are about to arrive!" Eragon said and started to walk towards the clearing which was a few meters ahead of him. But he could not go any further; there was something blocking his path but he could not see anything. An elf tried to walk through it and he achieved the same result as Eragon.
'Saphira, could you please try to take a longer way to get here we have encountered a problem and we need time. Do not tell Nasuda just the elf.'
'Sure how much time do you need?'
'About half an hour, can you manage that?'
'I'll try but be quick…'
Eragon thanked her and returned to the task at hand, trying to get through this barrier. Suddenly an idea occurred to Eragon,
"Stand back everyone!" he commanded and they obeyed, then Eragon quickly lifted a lot of sand and hurled it at the barrier, and suddenly the barrier became visible but only lasted while the sand was sliding down it.
They saw that it was a dome shaped cover that covered the entire clearing.
"It looks as if they built a wall around the clearing and made it invisible." Eragon said after some careful consideration. They were about to try and break the wall when the wind blew and threw many dry leaves through the supposed wall.
"Aha," said an elf "this is like the protection put upon the elven cities: nothing can pass the wall through magical means and anyone who means us harm will be blocked by a barrier similar to this."
"Well, can we remove it?" Eragon inquired
"Of course" he said as he rolled up his sleeves to destroy the 'barrier' and before Eragon could offer his help he had already broken it.
"The barrier is pretty strong" the man said to Eragon "even for elven standards"
Eragon was awestruck he head never seen such power including all the elven magicians.
'Is Arya capable of doing this? Every time I think that I understand her she continues to change my conception of her' Eragon was thinking with a dumbfounded feeling.
After about 5 minutes the clearing was ready, they had reference from the soldier's memory and copied it.
'Saphira come on, why are you so late' Eragon said to Saphira sarcastically, and Saphira almost crashed from his remark.
'Ha! Funny! Wait 'til I get near you, you will not be able to feel your legs!'
A huge grin found its way to Eragon's face and the elven woman who was standing beside him asked what was so funny, her cheeks were as red as cherries.
"Nothing, just something Saphira said…" Eragon replied watching the color on her cheeks fade.
"Shadeslayer! The council, they come" an elf who was acting as lookout said suddenly.
Eragon quickly put his cloak and hooded himself while contacting Saphira
'Saphira, faster the council are almost here!'
'Eragon stop joking, what is wrong with you?'
'I'm not joking, I am dead serious the are about to come and Nasuda need to witness this; she has to believe that the council is guilty!'
Saphira's tone completely changed; the humor in her voice was replaced by seriousness with a hint of excitement 'I come and be careful we are still unsure if the council knows magic.'
Eragon had not thought about that and sincerely hoped that they did not. He shouted a command to everyone that they should put wards around themselves he also explained the reason. Then an idea occurred to him, a way to trick the council in revealing if they had learnt magic.
He explained this to the elves and they agreed heartily.
Suddenly the ground started shaking signaling Saphira arrival and Eragon saw Nasuda rushing towards him.
"Eragon, what is going on here?" She said with a stern look while casting a glance at the elves, who were all hooded like Eragon.
"I have no time to explain please make no sudden movement when the meeting is going on, I will have the elves put wards around you!" Eragon said not even looking at her then he signaled for an elf to take her to the benches that were sitting at the edge of the clearing.
Eragon took his place at the Black Hand 'meeting' and waited for the council to come and they arrived in five minutes. They were all wearing dark red cloaks with their heads covered. The meeting started with the feast they had prepared; they had to follow all the procedures so that the council did not suspect them. Soon the feast was finished and followed by the toast to Galbatorix then it was time to discuss destroying the members of the Varden.
"I heard the reinforcements have arrived. We can finally kill the leaders of the evil rebellion." A man from the council said
"Aye," Eragon said in a deep voice: hiding his identity, "How about trying to kill Nasuda now? Last time we failed but I think that now we could succeed; the reinforcements look very promising."
"Yes, but there are many other targets that we need to take care of, Jormundur being one." Another person said
Eragon suddenly changed the subject, according to plan, and brought it to the councils' security.
"I have been informed that the Varden are being suspicious of your actions; perhaps they are noticing your weekly disappearances. That is why we have arranged for all of you to learn magic, to protect yourself."
The council's leader nodded gravely and said no more.
Eragon face broke into an unseen smile, 'so they do not know magic' he told Saphira then he added, 'tell the elves to get ready; we are going to begin the arrest soon.dded, " unseen smile '
"I unfortunately have to deliver more grave news," Eragon said while thinking 'if I can get this last part right then we can say good bye to the council of "Traitors"', "the great King Galbatorix fears about treachery from you; you will have to swear fealty to him in the ancient language. You do understand the terms and conditions of talking in the sacred language of our king? You cannot lie." Eragon finished
"Yes, let us do it now" the man said gravely "What do we have to say?"
Eragon wrote it several times on a piece of parchment and gave it to each of them
The unsuspecting people started chanting the words together. The words actually meant I have betrayed the Varden and am loyal to the empire.The thing that really proved their guilt was that they said thiswithout stopping or hesitating: which are the usual effects of trying to lie in the ancient language.
As soon as this was said the elves jumped from their places and magically bound the council. Then Nasuda burst from her place and walked towards Eragon with an angry look on her face.
"What is the meaning of this Eragon? I told you not to continue with this crap of the Black Hand!" Nasuda said trying not to shout but she failed miserably and Eragon shrunk in front of her.
"I tried to tell you, my lady, but you would not believe me; the council is the leader of the Black Hand" Eragon sputtered "They even said it in the ancient language; nobody can lie in the ancient language"
As soon as he had said this the expression on Nasuda's face suddenly changed and she asked him to come into her office in such a kind and confused voice that made Eragon long to comfort her.
"I shall be there in a few minutes" Eragon said and accompanied the elves in taking the council to the Varden's prison. They resisted all the way kicking and screaming once they even decided to stop walking at all; so the elves were forced to magically carry them and the council did not appreciate this at all. After a few minutes they finally managed to put the council in prison much to the surprise of the guards. They decided that at least one elf would watch them at all times so they did not escape; they wielded enormous power in the Varden and the guards might be obliged to free them.
000
Eragon walked into Nasuda's office and saw her sitting on top of her table drinking an amber drink. She saw him immediately and inclined her head to the other glass that was sitting next to her. Eragon picked it up and took a sip and almost spit it out; the drink was very strong.
"Why did you call me Nasuda?" Eragon asked fearing that she was going to reprimand him some more.
Nasuda sighed and walked to the hole in her tent that served as her window. She sighed again walked to Eragon.
"Why do you insist on disobeying me?" she asked managing to change Eragon's question into her own.
"I had to, my lady, we had traitors in our midst and I need you to believe me." Eragon said "and I managed to get the traitors, like I said before, they swore in the ancient language."
She was directly in front of Eragon now. She looked down at her feet then said
"Would it surprise you if I said that I knew the council were traitors?" she said in a sorrowful tone.
Eragon was shocked and he shouted "What? Why did you not tell us? We could have killed them a long time ago!"
Nasuda said sorrowfully "I knew that since I became the head of the Varden, Eragon. I did not tell anyone and the reason behind this is that I have been feeding them false information since the twins died. That is also the reason I was afraid to tell you."
"Well we can not do anything about this now; Galbatorix is bound to find that his soldiers and spies have been captured and soon will be killed." Eragon said forgetting his anger with Nasuda's then he added curiously "by the way, how did you discover that they were traitors?"
"Arya told me that she had discovered this and it was my wish that she tell no, no one except Izlandia and Oromis knows, not even King Orrin"
The name of Eragon's love sent a sudden pang into his heart, but stopped immediately when he received the rest of the information.
"So what are we going to do now?" Eragon asked in a subdued voice, he was not expecting this; he had thought of himself in a cheery voice when he told Nasuda of his accomplishment.
"A public execution; it is strange that we are fighting to stop all the suffering but how the pain and suffering of Galbatorix's minions makes our morale boost. Sometimes I wonder if we are doing the right" Nasuda said in voice that made Eragon look up. He was about to say a something to comfort her when king Orrin burst in to the room with a joyous look on his face that it made Nasuda and Eragon smile and laugh as well.
"So, it is true then; the Black Hand has been chopped off!" He joked to Eragon and Nasuda.
"Yes!" she replied for Eragon making him close his open mouth.
Orrin's smile grew bigger "Then I shall get the guillotines ready" he said and went out of the tent.
"There is one more thing I need to tell you, Nasuda…" Eragon said uncertainly waiting for her to reply, when she did not Eragon continued "It is about King Orrin. Do you remember when we had the meeting about the lack of magicians and other problems?"
"Yes, and when it was said that we lack magicians, you saw Orrin smile?" Nasuda said with a childish smile.
Eragon was shocked again by the leader of the Varden "Yes, how did you know and more importantly do you think he is a spy?"
Nasuda laughed "I will answer the second question first. No he is not a spy. As for the first answer after the meeting he came to me and said that you might have noticed him smiling and that he wanted me to know that he was smiling because he thought that the lace guild of surda would be back on track. He also said that he is completely loyal to the Varden."
"I see" Eragon replied convinced and made his way out of the tent.
000
"You have betrayed the Varden the only punishment for this is death, you are to die at sunset which is a hour away. Do you have any last requests, traitors?" Eragon said, his face covered with the executioners' hood. A man from the council nodded gravely and said. "We wish that you kill the evil king and destroy the empire that has destroyed so many lives!"
A person from the crowd spit at him, it landed on his face, then the person said "like the way you destroyed many of good men's lives? Huh, why are you so quiet now, bastard?"
The crowd laughed and a bottle flew out of the crowd and smashed, spilling the contents near the head of a council member's head. That appeared to be a signal for something and more bottles flew out of the crowd but before they could hit them Eragon raised his hand and said "Letta" the bottles stooped in mid air and Eragon made them fly off to the far side of the field. Eragon shouted to the crowd,"We kill them in a few minutes but what shall we do with their heads?" he said pointing towards the guillotines.
Roran shouted from the crowd "We put it on silver platters and send it to their beloved king to chew on!"
The entire crowd laughed and jeered at the council because of Roran's comment. Fear was impossible to miss on the councils' faces. One of them suddenly said "But we told you that our last wish was for you to kill him, we hate him." He said.
"Liar!" Eragon said, rage taking the best of him "If you want us to believe you then say it in the ancient language! You scum bag!"
The look on the councils' was worth having to kill Galbatorix twice. Once they knew that they were going to die they did something utterly repulsive. They started cursing the Varden saying things like 'may the great King rip your hearts out and feed them to pigs!'
Then their moods changed completely, the previous hatred replaced by awe and admiration.
"If you do not mind us asking, how did you figure us out?" The councils' leader asked.
Eragon was surprised by this sudden change of emotion. He did not trust them one bit but since they were going to die he decided to tell them. He opened his mouth to talk but stopped suddenly when an elf talked to him mentally.
'Stop!' he said 'try to access their minds, Galbatorix might be hearing our words'
Eragon was confused 'so what? We should tell him what he up against!' he replied
'No Shadeslayer, we need him to underestimate us that way we can get an advantage over him in battles.' The elf replied desperately. Eragon stopped immediately, there was no denying the sense in his words; one again the elves had outsmarted him.
"Well, Shadeslayer tell us before we die" a member from the council said
'Very eager to learn, is he not. That bastard!' Eragon thought savagely then a delightful idea came to him…
"I have decided that since you are going to die and have no way of telling Galbatorix, I shall tell you the extremely difficult tale of finding the leaders of the Black Hand."
Then, much to the surprise of the council, Eragon wove a fantastic tale about how he was chasing a beautiful butterfly into the forest and suddenly had a gas problem, so he added, with delight, what he had eaten for lunch in elaborate detail. Then he said that he saw the clearing and decided to get rid of his gas there. At this part he glanced at the elves, just to see their reaction. He saw that they were trying to control their laughter, he could see it in their eyes, but on their faces…, on their faces, were proud smiles that told the council that they were very proud of Eragon's brilliant method in discovering the council.
So he continued and told them that he found the strange shield and how he tried to pass it.
"When I first felt that I could not pass it" Eragon said with a stupid smile "I tried and tried again. I ran towards it and bumped it again and again."
Then he told him that a sudden and brilliant idea came to him, he decided that he would dig under the barrier. That is why he ran back here and got a spade and spent three hours digging and digging, when he was finally on the other side he was rewarded by being able to clean himself. The council wore stupefied looks on their faces. "But why did you not clean your self when you ran to the Varden to get a spade."
Eragon acted as if he had not thought of that before "I do not know, such a wise decision never occurred to my mind! You are smart I just wish you were not on Galbatorix's side.
"That is how I found out about the Black Hand!" Eragon said with a proud smile "I know that I am a genius, you do not have to complement me."
The council started laughing and said "Ha! We have told Galbatorix everything you said now you are doomed!"
Eragon became very angry, it was acting of course, but he looked very fierce. "Kill them now!" he said and they were led towards the guillotines. The heads locked their place, and the blades fell simultaneously, their heads fell into the buckets with resounding clangs.
When the heads fell the elves and Eragon started laughing, then they told tall the Varden that Eragon had been acting and that was all just a hoax. Then Roran suddenly shouted "Eragon, you were acting so well that I did not think it was acting, are you sure that you were not pretending."
When he said this everyone in the Varden laughed, but when Nasuda came up on the platform, everyone hushed.
"This is a time for celebration!" She said "The Black Hand is no more."
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I must remind you that Jormundur is innocent, just in case you are wondering. Anyway thank you for all the reviews; I am sorry that I could not reply to all of them. I want to share a piece of information with you, this was said by another author of fan fiction, though I can't remember who, he said that he got more reviews when he was late in posting his story than after every chapter. Unfortunately I am afraid that I have to agree, I got twice the normal amount of reviews this time.
Next chapter:
Eragon leaves the Varden with the Carvahall to train them to be magicians and to attend Horthgar's funeral. On the first day of the one month expedition he meets an army headed towards the Varden, an army of two thousand strong. With the ratio of two thousand against three hundred, Eragon is hoping that they are not enemies, though that seems unlikely. What will happen to Eragon after this encounter, will his life be changed forever by the untimely death of Roran?
Thank you all, at least 30 reviews please!
-Yours sincerely
Devilhunter909