Chapter Three –
Ellywick began to wake, her mind fuzzy, as she felt something or someone come down on her back, pressing her into the cobbled stones of the street. She shook her head slowly to try and clear it, her cheek brushing against the cool stone beneath her. She was lying on her stomach with her hands by her sides. She tried to rise, but the weight on her back kept her in place. Turning her head and craning her neck, she saw that the initiate was sitting on her, and holding the tasseled rope that had been his belt.
"Ekru Dentalla Osctrictor" The initiate droned in that familiar magical tone, and then he dropped the belt onto her left hand before speaking in a normal tone. "Tie and knot."
The pinned girl gasped as she felt the belt spring to life, wrapping quickly and tightly around her wrist. While the first end continued to coil around its captured wrist, the other lashed out, whip-like, toward her free hand. Ellywick tried to pull away, too slowly, and felt it strike, enwrapping that wrist as well, and then beginning to slowly draw her two hands toward each other behind her back. She fought desperately against the inexorable pull of the ensorcelled rope, squirming and kicking beneath the weight of the initiate.
"No! Stop!" Elly cried out, feeling the sole of her boot connect with the man's lower back, and then hearing his grunt. "What are you doing?!"
"Ashium Akkora Darsh!" The initiate hissed angrily, and she felt him pinch her thigh wickedly as he incanted the new spell.
Elly took in a sharp gasp of breath at the pinch, and a tiny piece of wool, stolen from her leggings by his fingers and propelled by the magic of his spell, found its way in with the much-
needed air. She choked on it, dazed, as it seemed to expand in her airway for a moment. Taking advantage of the moment of confusion afforded him by this minor magic, the initiate grabbed her long ponytail and yanked back fiercely, lifting her face up off the ground. Before she could react or fully recover from his spell, he thrust a thick piece of rough wood between her teeth, forcing her jaws open wide and then tying it in place with leather straps behind her head.
Ellywick shook off the effects of the dazing magic, panic welling inside her, just in time for her world to plunge into darkness as a rough bag was thrust over her head. She screamed into the wooden gag in her mouth, barely recognizing the primal, animalistic sound of her own voice, muffled and distorted as it was by the wood and the bag. The magical rope on her hands finished its work as she struggled futilely, wrists crossed behind her now and wrapped in coil after coil of the former belt. She felt another rope go tight around her neck, holding the bag in place, and then the weight of her attacker leaving her back.
Moving quickly, she turned onto her back and then used her bound hands to thrust herself gracefully up onto her feet. She'd only taken her first step, however, when the rope around her throat suddenly tightened and brought her up short, choking. She nearly tripped as the initiate abruptly yanked on that rope leash, pulling her back to his side.
"We have an appointment with the Magistrate." He spoke firmly, drawing her up onto the toes of her boots with an upward pull of the leash. "You don't want to keep the authorities waiting, do you?"
Ellywick's mind raced. The Magistrate? Was this some sort of misunderstanding, then? She sensed him moving away from her, heard the soft whisper of his robes, and then felt the tug of the rope on her neck, quickly drawing her into step behind him. Walking blind was a
terrifying and disorienting experience, and she struggled to stay close to her captor, her shorter legs moving briskly to match the quick pace he set. While she walked, she alternated between trying to slip her wrists free of the rope that bound them, and straining to reach its knots with her slender fingers. Each proved equally as ineffective.
Without warning, the initiate-turned-captor stopped, and she grunted into the gag as she ran into his back. She heard the sound of a heavy door creaking open, and then felt herself drawn into the room beyond. Even behind the face-covering bag, she could see the world grow darker as the door closed ominously. Her belly fluttered nervously as his hand came to rest on it through her light linen blouse. He slipped a pair of his fingers through the openings between the buttons that ran down the front of it to press directly into her flesh beneath, and then pushed her backwards until she came up against a stone wall.
Ellywick heard the rustling of robes again, and then whined into the wooden gag as it was followed by the rattling of heavy chain. Something pressed against her booted right ankle, and then there was the ominous click of a lock.
"These are a little big for you, messenger girl." The initiate chuckled from where she now realized he squatted or kneeled before her. "I guess they don't get too many gnomish prisoners here. I bet your little foot could just slip right out of this manacle."
Recognizing where he was by the sound of his voice, she considered kicking him while he lifted her foot off the floor. Bound and hooded as she was, though, she resisted the temptation. She felt the heavy cuff fall away from her foot as it left the ground.
"They don't have any smaller ones." He spoke softly. "But they do have larger."
After placing her foot back on the floor, Elly felt him adjusting her stance so that her feet were together. There was another rattle of chain, and then she felt the press of a new cuff around both of her boots, just above her ankle bones. She heard him grunt with the effort of closing and locking the thing, and cried out into the gag in her mouth, sputtering inside the hot bag, as the metal pressed painfully into her flesh through the supple leather of the boots.
"There!" Her captor proclaimed as the lock finally clicked into place, and she was left to stand awkwardly with her feet pressed together. "A perfect fit."
She panted hard through her nose, biting down hard on the wooden rod in her mouth, as she felt his hands slowly begin to work their way up her legs. He explored her with his fingers through the soft wool that sheathed her, tracing the shape of her slender calves, around her knees and then along the line of her thighs. She hated the touch of him, and pressed herself back into the wall in a vain attempt to avoid his caress. She tensed suddenly as his hands made contact with the coin-purse hidden beneath her leggings.
"Well, what have we here?" He whispered, a smile evident in the sound of his voice.
She cursed at him violently, the gag rendering her angry words incomprehensible, as she felt his hand slip up under the hem of her tunic, and then down into her leggings. As much as she despised the touch of his hand to the bare flesh of her thigh beneath the hose, it paled in comparison to the violation she felt as she heard the jingling sound of her hard-earned coins being emptied into his hand.
"Isn't that just an added bonus?" He whispered cruelly as he withdrew his hand, smoothed her leggings and tunic back into place, and then gave the now-empty coin-purse a little pat. "Now, just wait right here while I let the Magistrate know you're here."
Ellywick struggled to control herself as she heard him walking away, and then his passage through another door. She tried, unsuccessfully once more, to find the knots of the rope that bound her wrists, though she had even less hope of escape with her feet bound so tightly together. She tried to remain calm as she waited; focusing on the hope that she would have some answers soon.