Chapter 12

Once again, thanks to Sebastiaan Asselbergs for reviewing my last chapter.

As of now, I have a headache, so if anything seems insanely crazy I apologise in advance. I have influenza and my asthma has been working up lately, but I didn't want to miss school so I still went, but it took its toll today.

The morning sun crept through the window, bathing the room in the warmth of its light. Although it was warm inside the room, winter had settled its sharp iciness into the blades of grass. Although the snow wasn't present, there was frost dying the green of the grass into white. On his right slept a goddess, while he thought about what his child would look like. Eragon thought about the consequences of losing this current war.

He would lose his family. He would lose the Riders whom he had fought so hard and sacrificed so much for. He would lose the land that he loved: Alagaësia. The country he had grown up in, and had many memories of. He didn't care the least about his own life, but rather the lives of others that he wasn't willing to martyr.

Arya slowly stirred, but didn't wake up. They needed to get moving. The pass between the spine and the distance from there to Ilirea would buy enough time for them to get to the first dwarven halls of the Beor Mountains.

He reached one of his hands out towards his mate and let his fingers explore her body for a while. He memorised every curve and savoured the feel of her impossibly soft skin.

She still wasn't waking up so Eragon decided to let her sleep for however long she wanted. He put on his clothes and donned his armour. The moment he slipped his chest-plate on he felt a new warmth radiate through him.

He covered Arya's naked body with the sheets properly and left the room. He made his way down he spiral steps and heard someone groaning in pain. Eragon quickened his pace so as to find out who it was.

He reached the bottom of the staircase and followed the noise which lead him to the courtyard of the city. He was quite shocked by what he saw, but moreover, he was scared.

In the centre of the clearing, Du Ebrithil was crouching on one knee with blood gushing out of his thigh. Opposite him stood Du Dröttningu, sword drawn and casting a spell. A sudden headache tore at his head while his vision became impaired. He closed his eyes and gnawed at his head in agony. His legs crumpled and the dream he had seen during the time he had spent fainted flashed before him. What was going on?

He hear the clashing of metal on metal and opened his eyes. His vision and mental stability had miraculously returned to normal.

What was that?

Du Ebrithil was clutching his head and wore an expression that spelt pain. Although he was undergoing such psychological torment, Du Ebrithil wasn't making a sound of protest. Du Dröttningu was staring straight at him, not showing any signs of aiding or torturing him. Eragon couldn't bear to watch this happen. His mistress was torturing his master through a mental probe. Eragon didn't want the two of them to fight, due to the dream he had seen of them killing each other.

'Dröttningu stop!' he yelled while running towards her. 'Stop!' he repeated. She showed no signs of acknowledging him and continued with whatever she was doing to him. Eragon went in to tackle her, but she simply spun around in one deft movement and kicked him with the outside of her foot which made contact with his cheek. He felt his new skin replace his old one as Oromis came into his view. Eragon spat on the ground and went again to tackle her. Once again she manhandled him to the ground. Eragon tried several times more but each time was met with the same retaliation.

Damn it! Why must a female be in possession of so much power?

After the seventh time Eragon drew Brisingr. He ran towards her with his sword held above his head. This time Du Ebrithil seemed to be released from his trance and was panting on the ground and crawling away from Du Dröttningu and himself.

She was still facing the other way, but by the time Eragon decided to stop, she had turned around and kicked him in the stomach. The wind was knocked out of him and he leaned forward in pain. He thought that was the end of it, but was totally wrong and wished he had been right. She gave him a volley on the chin from her knee, making him cry out in pain. Arya and Rya had both come out of their rooms and were watching from the top of the cracked stairs which led into the palace. Half of Alagaësia was watching him, and he was getting abused like a naughty cow.

He tasted blood inside his mouth and felt vulnerable. He hadn't bled in a long time and this wasn't the end of his bleeding he supposed.

'If you're going to be my student, you need to learn to respect. I was carrying out my business with him and you came here to interrupt me? Our first lesson is endurance. Allowing me to understand how long it takes to break you,' she said darkly.

'What do you mean?' he asked, but he soon found out. Du Dröttningu executed a hook kick to his left ribs which he heard crack and then replace.

Carrying out a long volley of physical attacks, Du Dröttningu had torn apart his body, and he now stood in front of her as Oromis.

'Fool!' he heard Oromis say. 'She is trying to discipline you for what you have done! Quickly! Defend yourself!'

Eragon raised Brisingr and waited for her to strike at him again. Du Dröttningu lashed at his left, but pulled back almost immediately before striking him with her right leg. The feint worked and Eragon received another punishing blow to the ribs. His vision blurred from pain, but he wouldn't give up so easily. He dropped Brisingr: it was giving him too much extra weight.

Du Dröttningu stepped forward and executed a long series of complicated kicks and punches in his direction. Eragon blocked, parried and dodged most but still wasn't fast enough to totally hold her off.

The final blow of that chain of attack was a roundhouse kick in the air to his left cheek.

Eragon! Where are you! Saphira called in his mind.

Not wanting her to panic he replied explaining that he was training with Du Dröttningu.

It feels painful.

It is Saphira. Now please let me concentrate!

His dragon left his mind and he once again put his full focus on the fist fight. One of his eyes were purple and he had it closed. His left arm was bruised, along with the lining of the ribs under his arms.

Arya watched him fight without moving from her spot. He kept getting relentlessly abused, but eventually managed to understand his teacher's fighting style.

He blocked parried dodged and ducked hundreds of times, but no matter how hard he tried she would eventually manage to land a hit.

After what seemed like an age, Du Dröttningu jumped backwards, and just when he thought it was over, she started casting a spell. Once she finished, she ran at him faster than anything he had ever seen and landed a long chain of attacks on his face and chest. When she was finished, a large flame protruded from her fist which she punched him with, scorching him.

She swiped her leg under his weight, causing him to fall on his back. The air left his body from the impact of the ground. He opened his eyes to see her raise a fist which would make him unconscious, but a hand intervened and struck Du Dröttningu on the side of her head. Du Ebrithil gave him offered him a hand and he took it. While he was being pulled back onto his legs, he noticed something: a smile spread across her face.

'So! A two on one challenge? Bring it,' she exclaimed to the crowd competitively. Du Ebrithil took a fighting stance while Eragon did his best to remain upright. His legs ached from having to keep him standing and there was blood stained all over his armour and skin. All of his skin and most of Oromis's was mutilated with blood.

Oromis suddenly started speaking. 'Eragon, as much as it will hurt to do this, I will strike her in the temple. I just need the energy from you. I have no idea as to what might have happened to her, but this isn't normal. First she was torturing someone who she was flirting with the day before and now she is beating you black and blue. Whatever has got into her needs to stop. Even if it means for me to have to attack my own daughter.'

Eragon simply nodded, too tired to speak with his mind or mouth. He felt an abrupt loss in energy within him, while Du Dröttningu fell unconscious before everyone.

Eragon didn't have enough vitality left inside him to carry on standing so he allowed his legs to give beneath him. Arya came running down the steps and fell into a squat by his side. She started healing his wounds. Eragon fell back from exhaustion, his mate supporting his back.

He touched the borders of her mind which gave him the permission he sought.

How is she so powerful? And why? He asked her.

She is from the royal family of the forest elves. If she is Oromis's daughter then she should be. Oromis is the cousin of my grandmother Dellanir Dröttning. Every female in the royal is enchanted with a spell which lets them accumulate power faster than a male elf can. Du Dröttningu and I are the same age, but I think Oromis may have amplified the spell which is making it work faster meaning that she is stronger than I am: whether mentally, physically or in magic, she explained.

Do you have the spell? Eragon asked hopefully.

Yes, but I don't know it yet, and I obviously do not have the same abilities as she does. Whatever Oromis did to her, it wasn't good. She seems to be driven by sadness and isn't as disciplined as a normal elf is in using magic, Arya replied.

Arya… what happened to Fírnen?

He died protecting me from a blast of magic. It would have surely killed me if it managed to do so to him. A tear fell on his shoulder, but he was too tired to wipe them off her face.

A wave of anguish and sadness overwhelmed him through their mental link. This reminded him of the time he had spent during the war when Oromis had died and he had been in possession of his Eldunarí.

Eragon… she broke off while crying. Eragon could feel the eyes of Saphira watching them. He suddenly felt the loneliness the both of them were feeling through the two of them. Saphira because of the natural link he had with her, and Arya because their minds were attached. Through the torrents of emotions he was receiving, he saw Du Ebrithil standing on the other side of the courtyard, seemingly waiting for him.

By now he had gathered enough energy to move around freely. Around them humans from the cities and villages were watching this episode of sadness. After a while more, four elves came and moved Du Dröttningu's body back into the palace. Eventually Arya stopped crying and she allowed him to stand up. The humans started to disperse and discuss the events among themselves. Eragon stood up and told Arya to go back to their room before going to Du Ebrithil.

'Thank you Eragon. You saved me from a lot of pain although you had to suffer so much more. I'm sorry about it, but there's nothing I can do from being sorry so instead I appreciate what you did then,' he gratified.

'Thank you ebrithil,' he replied.

'I think you deserve to know what and why this was happening the first thing in the morning. Let us walk. Last night, while we were discussing the tactics for evacuation, I saw that you had noticed how she was flirting with me. I was a bit taken aback myself, and my curiosity got the better of me. In the morning she was organising the human population of Alagaësia and I decided she had a lot on her mind and that it would be a perfect moment for me to sneak a probe into her and find out what was going on. Unfortunately she found me when I touched it and immediately put up her barriers. The only problem was that these barriers were to keep me in, not out. She trapped me in her mind and started tormenting me. She even sent her own probe to find all the secrets I have kept over the last five centuries. Had you not come she would have found everything I know about these lands, and even her.'

'I see. Ebrithil, we need to start moving. If we just sit in Ilirea repeating that we will get to Farthen Dur but do not leave, how will we do so? I understand how hard it is to sort out everybody here, but if we send out one of the elven armies, we should be able to make the humans follow and have them escorted by another army at the rear.'

'Let's go now,' he said surprisingly.

Sorry for the abrupt ending. I don't feel right and I know that if I stop now I will not be able to carry on so I ended it here.

I also need a beta reader, so if any of you know anyone that does it specifically for Inheritance Cycle, please leave their username in a review.