A/N As stated at the end of the last chapter,
Trigger warning for this chapter, torture and lashing. If you don't want to read something like that you can totes skip to the next chapter without missing ay perinate parts of the story. It will pick up right after the torture is over.
Ropes were wound tightly around her wrists and tied to the railings on either side of the platform. They all laughed and jeered, a sound she tried desperately to ignore as she glared up at the Goblin King who just laughed at her anger.
"It's been too long since we've had this kind of sport!" The king roared. "We'll peel your lovely flesh from your bones. Oh yes, the pleasure will be ours. And perhaps your friends will see fit to talk before too long and we'll slice your throat as a final mercy."
From next to the king a goblin grinned, letting the metal tipped straps of a lash swing threateningly in front of her face. She shook where she kneeled, ropes quivering as she pulled against them.
Gandalf was coming.
Any second.
The goblin left the king's side and tossed the lash over her head to one behind her. She'd been so lucky, timing had been so good since she came to Middle-Earth. She knew Gandalf would be there, it was just the damn cinematic timing that still seemed to dog the story at such specific times. This was one of them, she was sure of it.
It had to be.
Because what the king promised wasn't going to happen.
She couldn't say what registered first, whether it was the sound of the crack, or her body catching up to the tearing of her tunic first and then her skin. She was so caught off guard by it she didn't make a sound. Her throat closed in shock and in fear as a sharp, deep sting sank in and a wet chill reached her back. The taste of copper flooded her mouth from where her teeth had cut into her tongue.
The laughs of the goblins filled the cavern and behind her the dwarves fell silent.
The moment she managed to process what had just happened it came again, this time the pain came with the crack and she gasped.
Where was Gandalf?
Why wasn't he there?
How could this be happening?
It cracked again and the back of her tunic tore open completely. She could feel her blood run warm and then cool, running down onto her pants and making her tunic stick to her skin.
The Goblin King laughed. "Would anyone like to speak now?" He scanned the dwarves and then caught her eye. "What about you, hm?"
Eyes wide, she spat at his feet. "Go fuck yourself." She hissed.
"Again!" He yelled and the lash came down a fourth time.
She could imagine her skin giving way to muscle, and then muscle to bone. They wouldn't stop until they could wrap their grimy hands around her spine and she'd die there.
CRACK.
Never leaving those caverns.
CRACK.
Rotting there, lucky if any of them escaped and could carry the tale of her fate beyond the mountains.
CRACK.
Silence was impossible to uphold anymore and each crack drew more, coming first with a whimper, then a sob, then a scream.
Aragorn would never know what happened.
CRACK.
Or worse.
He would learn how she died.
"ENOUGH!" Thorin cried.
Behind her, through the wind in her ears and the spots in her eyes, she heard the goblin holding the lash screech and skitter off to the side.
Her head hung between her shoulders but she saw Thorin's boots step forward, between her and the Goblin King.
"Ready to talk, Thorin, son of Thrain?" He laughed.
"If you wish to play at torture then you will torture me."