Oh my, did let this down a little bit... Hopefully I will be able to catch up, this chapter was not as long as I wanted, but hopefully the next ones will be :) Nearly am at the halfway point!

10.

Take Matters Into Your Own Hands

In the late afternoon, the soldiers brought, or rather half carried, Rolanda back to her cell down in the dungeons.

Upon seeing her coming towards the cell, Alannah jumped to her feet, her eyes watering.

Alannah was sobbing out of relief, shock and careful happiness as the guards literally threw Rolanda onto the haystack and left the cell, locking the two sisters in again.

The younger girl slung her arms around her older sister, embracing her, overwhelmed by her feelings, so tightly that Rolanda released a hiss of pain.

"Are you okay?" Alannah asked in a concerned tone, wiping the salty teardrops off her cheeks with the sleeve of her nightgown after releasing her sister. Rolanda forced a smile onto her lips and nodded, ruffling through her sister's blonde hair, answering:"Yes, little bird, everything is fine. They just wanted to talk to me and asked some questions... I am alright."

Of course, she was not okay – pain was throbbing through her whole body, spreading especially from her head and her ribcage. She did not know how seriously they had injured her during beating her up, but at least she could tell relatively sure that they had not broken any bones – at the age of five, she had been climbing up an apple tree in the meadow, one of the branches she had been holding on to had snapped and small Rolanda had learnt that things that go up are bound to go done again.

The big height she had already reached before the branch had given in and the hard ground had taught her how much a broken arm and several broken rips could hurt.

Therefore, she was pretty positive that her bones were unharmed right now, but nonetheless it did hurt like hell to move.

Alannah scowled, looking sceptically and a little bit hurt as she remarked:"Don't lie to me, Ro. You are bleeding. What happened up there, what did they do to you?"

She reached up and carefully wiped over Rolanda's split lip, once again tears were showing in her beautiful, innocent blue eyes.

In this moment, Rolanda realised that Alannah was probably understanding more of what was going on in this place than she showed, or at least she was thinking about everything more closely – her sweet, kind Alannah was slowly growing up, no matter how much Rolanda wished that she would stay so young that she would always be oblivious about all the bad things that were happening in the world.

Still, she found that it would be better not to tell her anything about the things the men had said about their father during the interrogation. She was not even sure if they had said the truth, or how much they were exaggerating, and she did not wanted to give Alannah even more to worry about.

But at least she should be honest to Alannah about what was happening during the interrogation, as there was no way she could be able to hide things as bruises from her sister.

"They were a bit rough towards me," she admitted with a sigh, taking their water jug from Alannah's hands with a thankful nod as she offered it to her. "Because they were not fully believing me that I was telling the truth when I said that mother and father did not tell us where they were going."

After a few gulps of water, her throat, feeling a little bit dry and raspy from screaming, functioned a bit better and she embraced Alannah gently, being more than glad to have her in her arms right now.

The men had been forced to stop as they had registered that she was very close to passing out – but they had assured her that they would see each other again soon, causing her to feel sick about the mere thought and also because of their breaths smelling of stale beer. The threat really had scared her a lot and she was not exactly looking forward to meet them again and serve as the grain bag they could punch, but at least she knew that they would not come and take Alannah. At least not for now, at least not as long as they believed Rolanda knew something.

As she had time to calm down and think about everything without being pressured to make a confession of some sorts, she tried to dig deep into her memory to find anything that could help Alannah and her in this miserable situation.

If she had a choice, she would never betray their parents by revealing their location – but right now, with their lives on the verge, there was no other option.

Surely their parents would forgive them due to the given circumstances and therefore, she desperately tried to remember something, anything that could be useful for them. She was feeling positive that even the tiniest bit of information would be able to buy the two of them a little bit more time.

"But they have to believe you... they can not ask you the same questions about mother and father again and again," Alannah whispered, snuggling against Rolanda who smiled sadly.

"I fear they can – I have no proof that I am telling the truth," Rolanda sighed, holding her little sister as tight as she could without making her rips ache.

Suddenly, there was an uproar in the corridor between the cells – the soldiers that were on guard duty stormed past their cell, answering to the loud and shocked call of one of their comrades.

The two sisters could hear them curse as their footsteps stopped, not far away from their own cell, then all conversation between the men died down. A ripping sound, like the one of fabric being cut apart roughly, reached their ears, and then they heard a body hitting the floor.

"Strangled herself... You, report this to the captain and you two will bring her upstairs to have her burried," one of the men ordered, and Rolanda's heart was beating faster, asking herself who they were talking about. She had been too busy with Alannah and herself to inform herself who was locked into the cells next to them.

But just moments later, two guards walked past their cell, carrying a limb body in their midst. Rolanda stretched her neck to catch a glimpse of the person's identity, only to turn her head away in shock.

Pale skin, dark red messy locks...

It was Aurora.

A wave of sorrow hit Rolanda as she realised that she had not dreamt what she had seen only a few seconds ago. Her childhood friend was dead, had committed suicide in her cell, probably because she had not been able to handle the pain and the grief about her husband's death.

Gulping hard, she held Alannah even tighter, now ignoring the pain in her chest, sobbing silently against her sister's temple. She hoped that the two lovers would be reunited wherever the human soul might be going after death. In any case, it surely was a better place than these dungeons.

oOo

In the early evening, Ronan did lead the men who were responsible for everseeing the interrogations into the throne hall. King Severus had demanded that they would give him a recent report about their work, and of course nobody dared to stay away, no matter how unsuccessful they had been so far.

The king looked impatient as he watched the men enter, his fingertips drumming onto the wood of the armrest of the throne. It was clear to everyone that he awaited only satisfying news, and more than one man was nervous, fearing that their reports would be the opposite of what he expected.

"Were you able to get any informations out of Hooch's daughter? Did she tell you where her father is?!" he asked, waving dismissively as the men bowed in front of him, some of them staring at the floor, not daring to look up at their master.

"My king, she claims that her parents left their cottage without exactly telling her where they were going. Therefore, I have to admit that we were not able to get any useful informations so far," the man who had questioned Rolanda earlier confessed, his head too being held low in regret and devotion. His hand was trembing slightly.

"And you dare to come to your king and tell him that you failed?!"

His face contorted in fury, the king rose from his throne, glaring at the man, causing him to shake even more, especially as he suddenly started to scream accusingly:"Do you want to sabotage me?! I gave you a simple task, and you failed! As you seem to be able to meet my wishes, I will take matters into my own hands so everything will be done properly!"

"Your... your highness, don't... uhm, don't you think that you may be a little bit too impatient? I mean, we only... only worked with her for a few hours, and... well...," the man stuttered, stepping forward carefully, obviously hoping that King Severus would understand him if he only gave a reasonable explanation.

Severus was dumbfounded for a second, then his anger returned with full force as he hissed dangerously:"Are you seriously questioning the orders your king is giving you?!"

"N-no!" the man tried to defend himself, a terrified expression on his face as Ronan grabbed him by the arm. "I just meant to..."

"Enough! Get him out of my sight, and punish him properly for his presumptuous behaviour!" Severus ordered, and the man's eyes widened in shock as Ronan shoved him towards two soldiers, knowing fully well that the lash would await him. He tried to beg his king for mercy, but Severus hard face suffocated every possible attempt in the bud. The soldiers guided the man through the rows of servants that were carrying plates into the throne hall, about to serve the king his dinner.

"And Ronan, I want Hooch's daughter up here! Immediately!"