Dear Readers,

The beginning of this story is under reconstruction. When you read a chapter that has nothing at all to do with what you have just read, please keep in mind that is the previous version of the story and I am redoing it as quickly as I can. I apologize for the inconveniance. I am not trying to confuse you! Later on, after chapter 28, things mostly fit together with the revised chapters of the story.

This is Chapter 18, revised.

Thank you and enjoy!

DragonRider2000

"Blown Away"-Carrie Underwood

Taya turned to face Murtagh, and by his expression she knew she had surprised him. All the better. They stared at one another for a long minute, and Taya noticed the exceptionally dark circles under his eyes.

"It's been a while, Murtagh. You don't look so good." She said to him matter-of-factly.

His eyes scanned her face, and then he replied in a low tone,

"Neither do you, Taya. Dras'leona doesn't appear to be agreeing with you."

Taya cocked an eyebrow. "That seems to be so. Actually, I wasn't planning on staying any longer. You seem to have found me just in time. Delaying my departure was a mistake… I really could have lived without seeing you on this trip, Murtagh."

Murtagh narrowed his eyes, and did not answer. Taya thought she could see conflict behind his eyes, and she wondered what was going on in his mind and how he had taken her comment.

"Now what?" She asked innocently. "You are here, I am at you mercy, or so it looks. What are you doing here, Murtagh?"

"Murtagh… is here by my order, of course, daughter. You should have known that you would not escape me so easily."

Taya froze, fear catching her breath in her throat. With an effort she forced herself to breath, but there was no containing her fear. Galbatorix stared at her through Murtagh's eyes, which had slowly changed to a solid black, and the malicious grin distorted the Red Riders face, telling her that Murtagh had once again been taken control of by Galbatorix.

"Murtagh…." She whispered desperately, and she clutched at the pendant around her neck as she stared at the man who was neither Murtagh nor really Galbatorix, but both of them together.

"He can't hear you, at least not right now. And what makes you think he would care, Taya dear? Murtagh is mine, and always will be."

"And I always knew that you were a sadistic, murdering coward!" Taya snarled. "Hiding in your dark halls, everything surrounded by twisted blackness, with magic controlling every one of your servants. You destroy everything that is good and use it for your dirty tricks! Like my mother."

Galbatorix raised an eyebrow at her tirade, and his grin did not waver. "Ahh, temper temper. You try so hard to hide it, but you really are beautiful when you are mad… I will say that you look exactly like she did when my captain brought her first to me. She had strength, Lenya did. But not enough."

"You know nothing about my mother." Taya spat, taking a step forward, clenching her fists and staring at him with fiery green eyes. "You think you are so all-knowing, but you aren't. One day you are going to find that you have been deceived, and by then it will have been too late. I know that you cannot win."

"Perhaps…"

There was a pause, in which time Taya began to feel incredibly exhausted. Galbatorix was searching, trying to find something, and she suddenly felt his evil, very powerful presence brush against her mind. With all her willpower, she threw a vivid image of her mother when she was alive towards him, and he instantly recoiled, having felt the ferocious mental strength behind the image, and the emotion of the memory.

On the outside, Murtagh's person remained cool and aloof, and then he reached his ungloved hand into his tunic and extracted a small glass vial, filled halfway with a hazy bluish/yellow liquid. Taya stared at it in confusion, and Galbatorix asked very softly, as if savoring the moment,

"Do you know what this is, Taya dear?"

"I do not. And stop calling me that." She growled, flinching as she heard Murtagh's distorted voice say her name. Galbatorix chuckled darkly, and glanced at the liquid, and then back at her.

"You really should never have betrayed me, Taya, by running away. And the egg… if you tell me what you did with it I might spare you a little bit of the pain you will experience… but a betrayer must be dealt with, especially one so close to me. I can assure you that what you will suffer will be far worse than a slow death… and I will relish every moment that you are in pain. We are linked by blood, Taya. I will gain strength through your pain. This is your punishment for leaving me. What did you do with the egg?"

Taya's heart leapt, because that meant he would not kill her… yet. But pain worse than a slow death?So that was what he had in store for her… an excruciatingly slow death.

"There is no egg." She spat, and she did not lie.

Pain…

"Murtagh? Murtagh!"

A groan escaped the young man's lips as he slowly came back to consciousness, and Taya stared worriedly at him through the bars of the cell he had been tossed into.

"Taya… you shouldn't be here!" Murtagh exclaimed, and then he grunted in pain. His hand shot to his side and he hissed as touched what she guessed to be a broken rib.

"You think I wouldn't be?" She scoffed. "This is the fourth time we've had this exact conversation. I know what kind of pain you are going through, Murtagh, and-"

"No, Taya…" Murtagh lifted his head to look into her eyes, and she cringed at the emotion she saw there, "that's where you're wrong. You don't know what pain I am going through… and I hope…" he winced again, "I hope that you never do."

Tears welled up in her eyes. He would never understand that her pain was a different sort from his. She was able to help him, to heal him, but she could not. She could reveal the secret of her strength to him by healing something so important inside of him, but she could not reveal her greatest strength. Her pain was to watch him go through everything that Galbatorix put him through.

Taya reached through the bars of the cell and grasped his hand, and they sat there in that fashion for a long time, two friends trying desperately to console the other.

Pain…

"Murtagh, please. You're strong enough to fight him! Don't let him just be able to take control of you! Don't let him do this to you, please Murtagh! Not by your hand… You can stop him, but you have to try! Murtagh!"

"Pleading for your life?" He whispered, and Taya froze. He stepped up to her until he was mere inches from her, and with his gloved hand he caressed her face. If she could have, she would have jumped away from him, but she was unable to move. She was frozen where she stood, and her green eyes were wide with horror as she realized what was happening. On the inside she was shaking with fear, on the outside she was as still as a stone, her eyes riveted on the eyes of the man before her.

As he traced a line down the side of her face with one finger, Galbatorix whispered,

"It is a pity, really. You would have been so useful to me. But now you are only a liability to me and to my servant. Just like your mother. Nothing can save you now, Taya Corsallen. Your life is in my hand." As he finished speaking, his hand reached her neck, and ever so gently his fingers clasped her throat and began to tighten.

She had never even heard him say anything but what he had just said to her, but nonetheless he held her unmoving with magic. Any sound she tried to make never escaped her, never made it past her throat. Her ability to scream was gone, and she could not even grasp at his hand to try futilely to stop him. After much effort, she gasped, somehow catching one breath, but his grip was strong and unflinching. And on top of not being able to breath, Taya felt sick as her skin began to burn where he had touched her.

The liquid…

A grin spread across his face once again, and Taya's vision began to dim as she could not breathe, and as everything became a haze she felt his magic release her body and her hands flew up to grasp at Murtagh's hand, which was still gripped tightly around her throat. His eyes were slowly returning to normal as Galbatorix released his hold on Murtagh, and confusion swept across his face, and he stared at her in surprise and growing horror, but he was unable to move.

"Murtagh." Taya managed to gasp, and then her body went suddenly limp in his grasp. In shock and terror Murtagh released her as if his hand had been burned, but he caught her before she hit the floor, and he gently laid her on her back and knelt beside her. In horror he stared at his gloved hand, and realized the danger of the wet shininess on the glove. He tore it off to where it was inside out, and looked down at Taya, and he realized that he was shaking. Slowly he reached out his hand to check for a pulse, but his hand paused before he touched her, as he realized that he had done this.

Fear, anger, horror, frustration, pain… his emotions were in such a fray that he could not justify touching her until he had come to terms with himself, and that is when he remembered something…

"I saw that look, Murtagh. What are you thinking?" Taya asked him, leaning against the railing of her balcony. Murtagh stood beside her, resting his elbows on the railing. He looked sideways at her.

"Thinking? Everything. I feel as if something is going to go very wrong. Galbatorix… he is just so powerful! How in the world am I supposed to escape? And what will happen to you when I am gone?"

Taya for some reason laughed. "I will have the Hljodhr Evarinya, and Galbatorix will never know that I helped you. He just won't. I have faith in you that you will be strong enough to get out of Uru'baen and stay hidden. I trust you to stay strong."

"I don't know what I would do if I ever lost you, Taya." He said softly, looking out over the balcony. "I hope this works, and I never have to stand beside Galbatorix again. Every time I do, I feel as though I am suddenly sucked into a black abyss, unable to control myself, and there is overwhelming fear there. I don't know who I would be if I ever did go to his side… or what I would do; what he would make me do."

Taya looked over at him sharply, and he looked back, saying, "What if he made me hurt you and I had no way of stopping him?"

"I would have to hope that you would be strong enough to fight him. And I hope even more that it never comes to that. Murtagh, you are meant for something far greater than being a slave to a madman. And don't say anything about heritage. That has nothing to do with this, unless it is to make up for your father. In that case I would have to save the world, as my father has instigated its destruction. Just tell me that you will be strong in the face of power?"

"In the face of power? Would I have a choice?"

"You always have a choice, Murtagh."

Murtagh smiled slightly. "Your ever present third choice, your shade of grey."

Taya smiled back. "Exactly. Strength, Murtagh."

"Murtagh, please. You're strong enough to fight him! Don't let him just be able to take control of you! Don't let him do this to you, please Murtagh! Not by your hand… You can stop him, but you have to try! Murtagh!"

His fingers pressed against her neck, searching for a sign of life, and he held his breath. Something…

He second later he breathed a small sigh of relief. She was still alive. She had a pulse, but it was a weak pulse, but she was still alive.

"Oh, Taya. I'm so sorry." He put his hand on her forehead, and noticed the faint line down the side of her face, and he suddenly cursed. Where his hand had practically crushed her throat a bruise was appearing, marking where the poison had dissolved into her skin.

Guilt overrunning him, Murtagh picked her up and very gently laid her on her bed. For a moment he held onto her hand, her words from the past echoing in his mind, and then his eye caught on something bright green near her throat, and he hesitantly touched the emerald around her neck, thinking of his own pendant.

It was then that the good side of Murtagh suddenly realized what she'd meant earlier.

'Don't let him do this to you, Murtagh!'

"What if he made me hurt you and I had no way of stopping him?"

Murtagh bowed his head and closed his eyes. She knew, and she remembered what he'd said to her. And exactly that had happened… Galbatorix had taken control of him and made him harm Taya, and Murtagh had no way of stopping him.

Come, Murtagh. Thorn's sad voice reverberated through his mind. It is time for us to leave. We can do nothing for her now.

Why, Thorn? Why?

Thorn had no answer for him, and Murtagh lifted his head and opened his eyes. He leaned over slightly and kissed her forehead. He stood, looking around the room with a dull expression. With one last look at Taya, who looked as if she was only asleep, Murtagh walked to the door and exited the room, closing the door silently and disappearing like a shadow into the night. Behind him he left tragedy and a faintly beating heart, and with him he took a deep rooted pain that seemed to try to choke him as he walked away from Taya Corsallen.

When Murtagh's presence had disappeared, and Kabarak could no longer subconsciously feel Thorn, he slowly came out of his coma-like state, and he crawled out from his hiding place and stopped. Every part of him was in pain, as if he had flown a hundred miles without stopping, and his head pounded heavily. Slowly and painfully Kabarak left the darkness under the bed and laboriously jumped up next to Taya. Murtagh's smell was potent on her, as was a sickly sweet scent around her head.

He whimpered as he saw the bruise on her neck, and the line on her face. He knew that she had been poisoned, and pushed to the brink of death. He tried to reach out and feel her consciousness, but there was nothing. Her mind was still shielded, but it was far stronger than normal. Taya had retreated into her mind, blocking any entrance from anyone, but there had to be more to it. She was completely unresponsive to his attempts to awaken her and she never even stirred.

Desperately Kabarak shoved against her mental barrier, and was suddenly faced by an image of a beautiful, fiery red haired woman who looked almost exactly like Taya. They had the same green eyes, the same body structure, except that her face was different from Taya's. Lenya Corsan's strong image guarded her daughter's mind, and her fierce expression made Kabarak retreat. He knew she was only an image, but there was so much feeling in her memory. Kabarak could not know that that image of Lenya Corsan had driven away Galbatorix as well.

Kabarak curled up beside Taya's head, and carefully reached out to find Sasha. It was dark outside, and the rain was pounding heavily against the window pane, but it was time for them to be back.

Kabarak gently brushed his mind against Sasha's, and said quickly,

Come back, Sasha. You and Raya are needed here… now more than ever.

Kabarak? What is it? Sasha questioned worriedly, sensing his conflicting emotions. Kabarak took a moment to reply, in which time fear blossomed inside Sasha Tatanya. Then Kabarak replied very softly,

He found her.

Kabarak felt Sasha's reaction, and saw in her mind Raya's startled look at her. Kabarak continued just as softly, with a hint of bitterness in his tone,

She made her decision. She still lives, but I am afraid that we have little time before her decision is set in stone.

We are coming, Kabarak. Sasha replied. We will be there soon.

Good. Be careful, though. The storm outside is raging violently.

Sasha's tone was dark when she replied.

No worse than the storm that is raging inside now.

Kabarak then severed his connection to Sasha, and looked at Taya's still face, whispering,

Be strong, Taya.

Outside in the darkness, the storm raged relentlessly, the wind moaning and rain pelting the ground. The strength of the storm was magnificent, and it seemed to define the events of the evening for the young dragon. Little did Kabarak know that the storm would continue raging until they were far away, and even then it would follow them until the end of their journey. Their strengths would define them along the way. So would their weaknesses.