"..I.. d..on't kno..w…" he whimpered between shaky breaths.
"LIAR!" the king thundered and another angry hiss of red metal on flesh had screams erupt from the prisoner. Then the iron was taken away but the pain remained and it was overwhelming, screaming on its own, eating and rippling through his nerves and flesh and all his senses. And he cried. It was all that he could do.
Merlin sagged against the chains that held him up by his wrists, his legs unable to support him anymore; his skin burning and aching and pulling at the many wounds. Warm blood flowing silently from the many gashes he'd received the previous days and now reopened, and the ones that had been inflicted on him in the past hour. He was shaking. He was in pain. He was scared. Gods know, he was scared..
The king was furious. Uther sent the guards away, he sent the men away, he was doing this himself. After Merlin's been dragged and pushed down here and got secured to the cuffs dangling from the low ceiling of the stuffy dark chamber, Uther took things into his own hand. He started questioning, he started demanding, and when he didn't get what he wanted, he started hitting. More questions; more orders; more pain. Eventually he took the iron rod from the fire and brought it close for the boys face for him to see.
For a moment Merlin stared at the red hot tip of it, finding it hard to take his eyes off of it as tears were running down his face, then he looked up at the king that was standing in front of him. Uther's eyes were burning just as much as the iron; but they had hatred, disgust and fury in them like nothing the warlock has ever seen. And Merlin had to fight hard not to use his magic. He couldn't.. not in front of Uther.
"Where. Is. Balinor?" the king asked with a firm tone, obviously putting much effort into keeping himself from yelling and just killing the manservant in his anger, but the boy just shook his head biting his lips. He didn't know. He didn't even know who Balinor was. Or what a 'dragonlord' was. Or why he was being questioned about it all.
"No.. Noooo… nh… oough…I DON'T KNOOOOWW… PLEAAASEEEE!..."
The metal hissed; and he screamed.