I Who Should Not Be

Okay guys, you know that I don't own Eragon. If anybody thinks that I am Christopher Paolini… Hell, I'll buy them a drink for having made such a good joke!

Chapter 29

Murtagh didn't want to wake up. He had been having a very good dream. Onika was sitting with her arms hanging between her legs, leaning forward and chattering away and laughing at him when he would answer. He couldn't understand what she was trying to ask him, but whenever he said that, she would laugh and say that he was mean for picking on her. Then it had started to rain. She sat with him under an outcropping of rocks. Suddenly she opened her mouth and said, in a slow clear voice, 'Please don't be angry.'.

Murtagh opened his eyes to see the dark wall of his room. At first he was confused. He glanced around for his brother and Onika…

Onika…

The thought of the Wolfborn brought all the memories back in a flood. Memories of her death and the days that followed. After a certain point, the memories stopped being as clear, and started to run together. He knew he had not been sleeping, and decided that this was the cause of the fuzziness in his memory.

When he stood, his spine popped and snapped, making him wince and hold still for a brief moment. He was stiff. How long had he been asleep, for his muscles to be so unwilling to move? He scowled and shook himself, reaching for his clothes.

And what was going to be done for her funeral? Onika was a Dragon Rider. She would not want anything, more than likely, but there were no doubt going to be hundreds who would want to see her cold body laid out before it was interred…

He dressed slowly, feeling his anger building in his chest as it had the night that Angela had ordered him to leave Onika and rest. He didn't know who to angry with, really. Had it been Eragon who had allowed her to die as his older brother slept? Had it been Angela? Or maybe the elf. She had always been in the room with them, muttering to the fallen woman…

When he opened the door, Murtagh saw Angela's cat was seated in front of him. The large animal looked vaguely interested in Murtagh, but then it yawned and walked off, its tufted tail held high.

…Cats…

He half smiled. His dim amusement was broken off by a familiar voice shouting down the hall.

"What do you mean 'gone'?!"

………………………………….

Cain smiled and finished his chants, holding his hands over the shallow pool of dark liquid. Suspended in the liquid was a pale body, its long hair drifting around its head and obscuring its face. The room was very dark, lit by only a few candles that were only a short way from becoming useless puddles of tallow on the stone floor. The pool was a shallow depression in the floor, the dark stains and streaks around it testament to the dark rites that took place at its mouth.

The male Wolfborn held a squirming child by the scruff of his neck, pushing it closer to the pool. The child tried to scream around the cloth that covered his mouth, but the sound was so muffled that even Cain's sharp ears hardly heard it.

After three more words, he hoisted the child into the air and held him at the rim of the pool. With one motion, the gag was released and the little boy, an elf child, let out a shriek that reverberated off the stone walls. Cain snarled and brought his hand down on the boy's throat and sank his claws into the flesh. As the child's blood gushed from the wound, Cain threw his dying body into the pool with the first one.

Grinning, the Wolfborn crouched down and stared at the first body that began to twitch and move as the elf child's own movements slowed. Suddenly, there was a great splash and the first body hauled itself upright. It's knees rested on the slick bottom of the pool, it's chest, shoulders and head above the stinking surface.

Bloody hair hung in sheets over the face of the creature as it moved it's head. Cain reached out and gently pushed it aside, tucking it tenderly behind one long ear.

"Open your eyes."

When it opened it's eyes, the newly awakened creature seemed to be dimly aware of it's surroundings. Then it stared at Cain, who continued to smile before speaking again.

:Same awake?:

The bloody face became sad, it's yellow eyes full of anger and pity.

:Same… what have you done?:

:I brought you back. Alpha taught me-:

The creature leapt out of the pool, snarling and trying to grab the scarred male, it's hands sliding because of the blood on it's skin.

:You break our Law! You defile me! Your Same! You defile the dead!:

Cain said a word in the Ancient language and the bloody mess that was attacking him was thrown back into the pool, where it crouched in sudden fear.

"Galbatorix taught me many things, sister."

He sighed and went into the pool, carefully lifting her by one arm, a small smile on his scarred face.

"He'll teach you too. He can heal your arm. I had to do this part. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to slip into that vile city and steal you away. I'll tell you the story while you wash. Come."

As he led her down dark hall after dark hall, Onika felt her anger slowly overpowering her fear of her brother's power. He had interrupted her journey, had brought her back from the dead…

But how? How could he have brought her back without her…

Ah… He had said that he had 'stolen her away'. He had stolen her body from it's resting place, then proceeded to drag her soul back into it.

When it occurred to her that she had no idea how much this put her under her twin's power, fear ripped at her gut again.

Her brother's cruel smile told her. And she was afraid.