… A thanks to my Maths Professor for boring me so much that I used the entire lecture to write down like 90 percent of this chapter ^^ But, it was torture to type down two and a half pages of handwritten text, because it was written so tiny O.o Doing this for you, guys ;)

Also, thanks to Alice for doing some beta-ing!

Looking forward to your reviews! :)

4.

Taken and Imprisoned

A bit down the hill, one of the carriages swayed sickeningly as the stallions pulled it slowly up the narrow street towards the castle, levering against the slope of the fortress hill. Occasionally, the carriage would make an alarming leap whenever the wooden wheels were hitting a larger stone, making it a rough ride.

The constant bumping and shaking of the carriage was keeping its passengers awake, along with their own fear, and travelling through the whole night like this had left its traces on the fearful faces of the prisoners. They all were extremely exhausted, and maybe, the four soldiers who were holding them at bay with their sharp lances would not have been necessary – nobody would have come very far in this state of tiredness.

When one took a closer look at the soldiers, they four of them were looking awake and alert, somehow proving to the cleverly thinking mind that the actions of the previous evening must have been planned long beforehand, allowing the men to be prepared and properly rested for the task assigned to them.

Due to this obvious fact, they were wrapped into thick cloaks they wore over their shirts and armours that protected them from the already biting cold which was ruling the autumn nights.

Therewhile, everybody else onboard the carriage was shivering and shaking heavily, and they had moved closer together, trying to store and share at least a little bit of body heat.

Rolanda had wrapped her arms tightly around her little sister Alannah, holding her in a close embrace while her teeth clattered together with so much force that it was being painful. Unfortunately for them, their nightgowns were barely more protection from the freezing air as bare skin was.

Trying to concentrate herself on something else than the numb feeling that was spreading in her fingers and toes alike, Rolanda observed the situation and what the other people were doing, how they were acting.

A tense silence was hanging in the air, the same one that had dominated their whole night after the crying and the hysterical screams and pleas had died down.

Nobody dared to say a word, seemingly afraid of a possible punishment from their guards and they even acted a bit as if their neighbours, friends and acquaintances were strangers to them that they had just met the previous evening when they had climbed the carriage. If it was pure self-defence or had the goal of keeping others out of trouble, Rolanda could not tell.

She knew some of these people pretty well, they were her close neighbours, childhood friends or once had been a brief dance partner during one of the many celebrations they had had in Waterhal – Spring Blooms, May Dances, Summer and Winter Solstices...

There was Aurora Sinistra, a girl that had been watching over Rolanda when she had still been a toddler, despite herself being only a few years older. Her black hair disheveled, she was staring blankly at the wooden planks that formed the floor of the carriage. A even colder shiver ran down Rolanda's back as she recalled the brief look she had had on a scene from the last evening, in which Aurora's husband had been stabbed by a soldier as he had attempted to rescue his wife. The two of them had only been married for a month, looking forward to having a family of their own, still floating on this wave of euphoria couples had after their wedding. What a beautiful small ceremony it had been, in which Rolanda had served as a bridesmaid...

Opposite to her sat the old couple living across the street from the Hooch family, Pomona and Filius Flitwick, their fingers tightly entwined, looking oddly at freedom with themselves, the situation and the world. Filius had been a loyal knight to the deceased king when he had been a young man himself, a skilled sword duellist who had won many friendship tournaments with the neighbouring kingdoms, and who still was a role model to the young boys in the village, despite his high age.

There was Marlene, the daughter of the shepherd McKinnon, whose herd was grazing on the meadows around Waterhal in the summer months. Rolanda gulped as she recognised the small baby that the shepherd's daughter was holding in her arms as the newborn sun of the baker. This could only mean that the kind man and his beautiful wife were dead, because they would never have abandoned their son, not even if they had been forced to climb a carriage too.

A painful memory of him giving a big slice of his heavenly delicious apple pie to her as a gift whenever she had visited his bakery after being sent out by her mother. She could almost smell the scent of freshly baked dough, almost taste the sweetness of the apple filling, almost hear his knowing laughter.

Immediately, there was another picture emerging from the back of her mind, one of Aurora, her husband and herself, sitting in the meadow outside the north end of the village on a warm summer day. Picking colourful flowers to braid them together to flower crowns and singing songs about fierce knights and brave princesses together, that was how they had spent so many joyful hours.
But now, as her gaze wandered around, she felt like these images were memories from another life, as they were so far away from their current reality that it seemed unlikely that the happiness and the freedom about them had once been real.

A heavy sadness filled her heart and seemed to weigh down her shoulders by this thought and she had to bite her lower lip and lift her head a little bit to prevent the tears from falling from her eyes. She held her breath for a second as she registered that the fortress had come considerably closer, a seemingly endless, dark silhouette of thick stone against the morning sky.

Never before had she been this close to the fortress, and it felt a bit odd to see it from this perspective, as it normally was a markant, but still distant place to her, its form sometimes melting into the mountains that were behind it. Everybody in the villages in the valley saw the castle every day, but it had never been of much importance to their daily life, or their life in general. As if it was a whole different universe, a mysterious place that most of the would never visit, no matter how much they dreamed about it.

When Rolanda had been a child, she had spent hours outside, sitting in the grass and looking up at the distant castle that was towering above the valley, her eyes bright with the kind of curiosity only children possessed.

Some of the other girls had been dreaming of being a princess, spending their days wandering around the huge, elegantly furnished halls, wearing the most finest dresses, socialising with the most sophisticated people while servants read every wish from their very lips.

Though this kind of a careless life in luxury seemed like a tempting thought, Rolanda would always answer that being a knight at the castle, fighting for the king and riding with the most bravest heroes would be much more adventurous. What did she want with a tiara when a sword was way more exciting, promising fights for glory and honour.

Of course her friends had shot odd looks at her back then, but Rolanda had ignored them, too absorbed by her imagination of how it was to be living in the fortress.

And even though she was afraid of what would happen to Alannah and her up there, she could not deny that she was also curious.

oOo

The glowing red sun had barely released its connection to the horizon and started to very slowly bring a bit of warmth back as the carriage drove into the huge and already busy courtyard of the castle, the horses coming to a stop in front of a heavily guarded archway that led to an open staircase.

Alannah shuffled nervously next to Rolanda, who gave her a reassuring squeeze of a hand as their guards jumped off the carriage and ordered them all to climb down slowly.

Maybe it was because the shock of being forced out of the house and to climb a carriage while the village was being burned down was wearing off. Or perhaps Rolanda felt a little bit too optimistic about the willingness of the soldiers to explain the situation to her.

Regardless where this courage came from – or maybe it was simply recklessness – Rolanda found it was a good idea to stop moving as soon as her bare feet had met the cobblestones of the courtyard.

Blocking her fellow prisoners from climbing down behind her, she instantly drew the attention of a superior soldier towards her.

"Hey, you over there, move!," the man screamed, his face contorted in anger as he approached her. Rolanda could feel her knees starting to tremble ever so slightly, but nevertheless she held her head high, determined not to show any signs of weakness to these people.

"I demand to be told what this is all about! Who gave you the right to force us to leave our homes, to be taken here while being treated like criminals?!," Rolanda answered, her voice surprisingly stronger than she had thought at first, supporting her intention of trying to show these men that they could not do everything with them as they pleased.

The man grinned at her, showing rows of yellow, crooked teeth as he grunted oily:"The noble King Severus of Ulidia gave us the right, your king, girl, and now move!"

Rolanda stopped short, wondering about the answer he had given her. King Severus? As far as she remembered, and well, there was no doubt to it, King Quinn had ruled the kingdom and he, kind as he was, would never have ordered such a violent act.

"This was not a proper explanation!," she responded, even daring to glare at her opposite. Answers was what she wanted, and this man had to know that he should not ridicule her.

"You are a little bit too outspoken and annoying for my taste with that loose tongue of yours, wench! Now. MOVE!"

And before Rolanda could duck or even react at all, the man had taken a swing and his palm hit her face with so much force that she felt as if he had shattered her cheekbones and sent her to the ground. Tears shot into her eyes immediately and she held her burning cheek, staring up at the man, her temper boiling inside of her, ready to break free every second.

"So, sweetheart, will you obey now or will I have to teach you the hard way how you behave?"

Rolanda surpressed the urge to jump to her feet and strangle the man as she saw Alannah sobbing in shock, causing her to remember that she still had her sister to take care of, and surely it would not help her if her sister landed herself in punishment. There was no way she would let them seperate her from Alannah.

Breathing hard as she forced herself to calm down, Rolanda stood up extra slowly, supporting herself on the side of the carriage while she brushed some straw and dirt off her white nightgown.

During that split moment, she looked up, her gaze wandering and stopping as she saw a dark-clothed man standing by the balustrade of one of the balconies above the courtyard, a crown resembling the one on the crest of Ulidia resting on his shoulder-length black hair.

A odd feeling started to build up in her stomach to spread around in her whole body and suddenly their eyes met. The intense stare of the black depths did send shivers down her back, making a deep uncomfortableness linger about her being.

There was something mysterious about the dark orbs, about him overall, something that she could neither place nor describe at all, though it felt strangely familiar to her. Something that seemed to pulse in the air between them, like a steady heartbeat.

Their eye contact broke abruptly as a soldier shoved Rolanda forwards towards the archway and the staircase and she hurried to grab Alannah's hand as the whole group of prisoners moved forwards to be led down into the dungeons.

Minutes later, Alannah and Rolanda had been locked away into a cold, dark cell, but at least, they had found a moth-eaten blanket lying on the small haystack that was obviously supposed to be their bed.

Thousands of questions seemed to be swirling in Rolanda's mind and there was no way she was going to be able to find answers right now. She doubted that it was a good idea to ask one of the guards that were walking by their cell occasionally, after what had happened in the courtyard.

Who was this King Severus? What had happened to King Quinn?!

There was no denying that something horrible must have happened to their beloved monarch, because she was absolutely convinced that King Quinn would have never allowed anything like this to be planned and executed.

"Ro, I am afraid," Alannah whispered, her voice weak and shaky and Rolanda pulled her into her arms, gently stroking over her sister's hair.

"I won't let anything happen to you, Alannah. I promise... I am here...," she mumbled into Alannah's hair, hiding her own anxiety, trying to be strong for her sister.