Chapter 2: My Friend.
Crimson eyes flickered open, and blinked a few times in the harsh light. He then attempted to sit up, unfortunately he was restrained by his chains.
He looked from side to side, his gaze stopping on Murtagh, sword in hand "Hello" he said blankly.
"Is it him?" asked Murtagh, looking back slightly to the giant blue dragon sat behind him, but keeping his eyes focused on Eragon.
'Eragon' he felt the tentative touch of Saphira's mind against his own, he let her in, showed her most, but not all, not even she would be privy to that.
'It is you' she concluded happily, her relief tangible in her thoughts.
'Obviously, I promised' she blinked at that, and Eragon could honestly feel her joy, her pure utter elation.
"She says it's me" said Eragon, shifting his arms, the chains clanked as he did so. "Wanna get these chains off me now?"
Murtagh looked to Saphira, who nodded, he then approached warily, and started to untangle the chains using just one hand, he kept the other wrapped around the wine red blade, once done he stood and walked away.
"That sword suits you" said Eragon watching Murtagh leave.
Murtagh stopped, glanced at Eragon, then down at the sword, and froze.
Eragon rolled his shoulder until it clicked as Murtagh continued to stare at the blade.
"You dare..." he said quietly, glaring up at Eragon, he was met with an amused grin and just sighed "Guess it is you, huh?"
"Yeah, sorry to disappoint" said Eragon far too cheerfully.
Murtagh sighed "Sorry" he said stabbing Zar'roc into the ground in front of him "Didn't think."
"A dragon rider shade is in front of you and you barely know whether or not he's going to slaughter you... you don't need to think" Eragon's voice was quiet, dangerous even, but he just casually rubbed round the manacles still on his wrists.
Murtagh caught sight of Eragon's crimson eyes "I guess not" he agreed. There was a small pause, then "You really are a shade then?"
Another pause "Yeah" said Eragon a lump in his throat as he thought of his own weakness "Where are we?" he asked looking about the landscape, avoiding the subject.
Murtagh watched him a few moments before answering "Closer to Gilead than I would like, but quite a distance, I'm not sure of the exacts. I chained you up and put you in Saphira's saddle and she flew you most of the night, me and the elf rode the horses. We got here a little while before you woke to eat and rest, we were just about to head off as you woke."
Eragon nodded "Thanks Murtagh" Murtagh looked at him questioningly "For not doing as I asked" realisation appeared in his eyes.
"She wouldn't have let me" he gestured to Saphira "If I had tried."
"Maybe" said Eragon, he glanced down at the manacles "Wanna help me get these off?" asked Eragon rubbing at them.
"Sure" Murtagh headed over to him and took his wrists, examining the shackles.
"Well?"
"They're bolted on" he gripped one of the bolts and tried to turn it, only succeeding in hurting his fingers "Damn, well it's on their good and tight and we don't have to tools to open them" he said turning Eragon's wrists over "Could you do it, you know with magic, or break them?"
"I could try" Eragon looked down at the cold iron, thinking carefully of the words necessary, Murtagh took a step back, but watched intently "Jierda" the manacle shattered on his wrist and fell to the ground, the other soon followed as did the ones on his legs.
"No point trying to undo them?" asked Murtagh grinning.
"What can I say, I'm feeling violent" was Eragon reply "You said you and the elf rode the horses?" he asked, rubbing at his wrist were small cuts laced the skin where he had torn through his skin pulling on the chains.
"Yeah, she rode Snowfire, had to tie her on, decided not the waste the effort and untie her. She's over there, hasn't stirred since we left Gilead" Murtagh pointed to the horses who where tethered a bit away.
"So she's still asleep?" a nod from Murtagh and Eragon headed over to the horses, the elf was strapped to Snowfire's saddle.
"We should move her to Saphira" he said after a moment of examining her face "The saddle will hold her in place, and she'll be safer from soldiers and the like" he paused "Weird" Murtagh looked at him "We're moving her from a horse to a flying dragon... for safety."
Murtagh chuckled.
They quickly undid the makeshift ropes that bound her to Snowfire, and Eragon carefully lifted her from the saddle, her body was light, too light.
He was about to shift her to Saphira when he felt something warn and sticky, dripping down his arm.
It was blood.
Checking over the elf he made certain she hadn't been cut while he'd moved her, and she hadn't so...
He pushed up her sleeve, snarling at what he found. Carefully and gently he unlaced the back of her shirt. As the leather slipped off he cursed, violently, a sentiment shared by Murtagh as he joined Eragon.
Her back was covered in scabs; she had been whipped mercilessly and branded with hot irons in the shape of claws. Where her skin was still intact it was purple and black from numerous beatings. On her left shoulder was a symbol, tattooed in indigo ink, it was the same symbol that marked the ring Brom had had.
"Can you heal all of this?" asked Murtagh hatred for whoever had done this burning in his eyes and Eragon knew the same fire of hate burned in his own eyes.
Eragon glanced to the elf, and then back at Murtagh "I can try.
Murtagh nodded "We should be far enough away from any patrols, so I'll make a fire so we can boil some rags for bandages for the injuries you can't heal."
A nod and Murtagh was running to find firewood.
Rider and Dragon watched the elf for several moments, Eragon's own eyes were examining the symbol on her shoulder, before he asked 'Saphira... can I do this?'
'You can little one, I'm certain of it. You are stronger than you know. And you have me.'
Eragon smiled slightly then his expression hardened and he reached for the magic "Waise heill!"
Unmarred skin flowed from beneath his palm, he expected the drain to be great, but it wasn't, it was like lifting a pebble, easy.
He moved his hand across her back, his palm ghosting over her skin barely touching her. He watched mesmerized as the cuts and bruises that marred her back vanished, as he came to a deep, fresh scar he watched in amazement as it healed, his strength unaffected.
Though he hadn't bothered with trying to preserve her modesty whilst he healed her, he had barely noticed her great physical beauty, barely. Anger overrode his hormones and he barely cared and was instead dreaming up way of killing the people who had inflicted the injuries, but he still noticed it.
Each injury faded under his palm and long after the sun had passed overhead, when midday had come and gone, he laced up the elf's top and stumbled away, not because of exhaustion but because of a splitting headache.
He sat next to Murtagh, who had long since stopped with bandages seeing that they were not necessary, and chewed on some bread he had taken from the Snowfire's saddlebags, staring at the fire, the cooking pot had long since been stored away.
Murtagh glanced at Eragon curiously.
"I don't know" Eragon muttered after the third glance, his anger building.
"What?" asked Murtagh, wondering what he was talking about.
"I don't know how I am still me, I don't know. All I know is than I am" perhaps his tone was harsher than necessary, but for some reason he didn't care.
"Eragon... what happened... did you have a choice... was it forced on you... what... what happened?"
"I TOLD YOU" he shouted standing and glaring at Murtagh "I LOST HOPE."
A few moment passed, Eragon breathed heavily from his shouting.
"Sorry" said Murtagh quietly.
Eragon slumped to the ground "No, I'm the one who should apologize" Eragon rubbed at his head as the headache only got worse.
Murtagh watched, saying nothing, not agreeing nor disagreeing.
"I am sorry Murtagh. But I don't... I can't talk about it" Eragon looked right into Murtagh's eyes, and Murtagh saw the self-loathing and disgust in his eyes, along with the wetness that was a prelude to crying "Not now."
"That's fine" Murtagh chuckled solemnly "Everyone has their secrets."
Eragon snorted "Ain't that the truth."
They sat in comfortable silence for a few moments, listening to the crackle of the fire as it burned away "We should get going" said Murtagh suddenly "We can't stay here. Soldiers from Gilead our probably already on our tail and we though we've put a good bit of distance between us and them, it might not be enough."
Eragon nodded but remained seated on the ground as Murtagh stood.
"Murtagh."
He looked down at Eragon "Yeah."
"You've been a really good friend, thanks" Eragon smiled, a faraway looked clouding over his eyes.
Murtagh looked at him, quite shocked, a bond had been formed between them, yes. That was why he had rushed into Gilead to save him, but to hear it placed in front of him so bluntly was... new.
"I turned sixteen a while back, never told you did I?" Eragon chuckled.
"You've lost it" commented Murtagh.
"Maybe I never hadit."
Murtagh grinned, and reached down, grabbing Eragon's forearms and lifting him up to his feet.
"Where we heading?" asked Eragon heading back over to the elf, who was still lying on the ground.
"Well we can go anywhere, with varying difficulty. If the Ra'zac are our pursuers then we need to move quickly. With their flying steeds they could reach Gilead soon, if they haven't already" Murtagh followed Eragon, and watched as he picked up the elf, his arms going round her shoulders and under her knees.
"Varying difficulty?" asked Eragon, heading over to Saphira, hefting the elf with ease.
"Well Du Weldenvarden is to the north, but we'd have to go back past Gilead, the great plains and the spine and then the sea to the west, and the rest of the empire to the south. Finally there's the Hadarac Desert."
"And the problems with that route?" Eragon asked 'Saphira' he said to her, she nodded and bent down to let him place the elf in her saddle.
"Its vast expanse, lack of water, blistering sun and sand everywhere, and before all of that there's the Ramr River to cross."
"Saphira... you're injured" Eragon stared at the holes in her wings, anger in his eyes, their previous conversation forgotten, a curse on those who dared injure her flowed through his mind.
"I took out the arrows, but couldn't do anything to heal them" said Murtagh looking at the injuries alongside Eragon.
'You should have told me' he admonished her placing the elf gently on the ground.
'When exactly, when you were barely alive, when you were unconscious or when I was just glad that you were alive?' she said grumpily.
Huffing he stepped over the elf, and examined the wounds, she hissed as he touched ones of the still bloody holes "Waise heill" as before there was a small strain on his strength but nothing like what he should have felt 'What's happening to me?' he thought to himself, hiding these thoughts from Saphira, lest she worry 'What's going on?'
He pushed aside the thoughts and focused on healing her injuries, only once he was completely finished and had performed a quick inspection of her entire body to ensure she wasn't hiding anymore injuries did he believe her cries of 'I'm fine'.
Having finished with that Eragon walked back to where he had placed the elf, Murtagh stood next to her, having watched the magic, he bent down and picked the elf up, noticing again her lightness.
Eragon strapped her into the saddle, securing her legs using the harnesses.
"Sounds like all routes are going to be difficult" he said returning to their previous conversation, still holding the elf gently to prevent her from falling "Which sounds best, is the question."
Eragon seemed to realise he was still holding her and quickly let go, but not before ensuring she wouldn't just flop over.
"I honestly don't know, they all sound bad to me."
Eragon thought about it a few moment, leaning against Saphira's belly "Well we can't go north, going past Gilead will lead to disaster, not only is there Durza" he spoke the name with such hate and spite that Murtagh and Saphira both flinched "But the Ra'zac and hordes of empire troops as well, so that is definitely out."
Murtagh nodded, it was good reasoning, but "I did shoot Durza in the forehead."
"Did you?" Murtagh nodded again "Good, but that just means he's out of commission, for all we know he could be back by now."
"Why do you say that, an arrow in the head kills most people?"
"Did he leave a corpse, Murtagh?" Murtagh frowned "Also he wasn't people, he was a Shade."
"Oh."
"My thoughts exactly" Eragon concluded, not entirely sure why he knew Durza wasn't dead "Anyway the others..." here Eragon paused and headed over to Snowfire, pulling a map from the saddle bags, the same one Jeod had given him and Brom, it seemed such a long time ago now, he wondered briefly what Brom would have thought of him, but quickly pushed aside such thoughts as they could only lead to depression.
"Well I don't fancy trekking through the entire empire, and getting closer to Uru'baen is not on my list of thing to do" he said after consulting the map.
Another thing Murtagh agreed with, Uru'baen was not a good place to get closer to, for either of them "So that leaves west and east."
"If we go through the great plains and to the spine we could hide out in there I suppose, or we could take a boat down to Surda, but to be honest the best way, as far as I can see, with the least chance of being found by the Ra'zac or having an army on our tail, is going through the Hadarac Desert."
Murtagh scratched his chin as he considered it. It wasn't a route he had wanted to take but with the reasons given it did seem the best option. Besides he, like Eragon, had little desire to have an army on his tail "We'll need to find a place to ford the Ramr."
Eragon looked from him to Saphira "Saphira could carry us across" Saphira blinked in shock but soon afterwards nodded.
"What about the horses?"
'If they don't struggle too much I should... I will be able to carry them across too' Saphira said.
"She can carry them as well" he said, his confidence boosting Saphira's own.
Murtagh nodded "Well we better head straight to the Ramr now. If there's no place to ford safely within a mile... then I guess we use your idea."
Eragon rubbed his forehead, his head ache had slowly faded after he calmed down "Then we best get going, time is precious, as they say."
"Yeah" Murtagh had kicked mud over the fire.
"You think we can make it in a day?" said Eragon looking to the east. He couldn't see the river, or any signs of one.
"Well we rode quite far whilst you were unconscious, so we just might, we weren't heading in that direction but I think we angled towards it" Murtagh headed over to Tornac and checked the saddle, making sure the grey horse was ready for riding.
Eragon did the same for Snowfire and after pulling himself up, ran his hand through the horse's mane "You ready, Murtagh?" he glanced at his friend, who was still checking Tornac.
"Ready" he said, after he had finished and clambered up onto Tornac "I always did like races" he said grinning.
"And if we lose this one, it's ours lives, so definitely a fun race" Eragon grinned "Well, I don't intend to lose. Let's go."
They rode well into the night, till the moon was high above their heads, stopping only once to let the horses drink. But it paid off as when they camped down for what was left of the night, they were on the banks of the Ramr River.