SWNOVELS Chapter 17 ~ The hostage
They reached the next town by dawn. They took the horses to the stable and went to an inn. It was bigger than the ones before. Áedh paid for the rooms and led Ivelle upstairs. Ivelle put down her weapons -except for her dagger- and went to sleep.
She wasn’t sure how long had she been sleeping but she woke up to clashing. She put on her cloak and weapons. At once Áedh rushed into her room.
“Good, you’re awake.” he quickly looked out the window.
“What’s going on?” she asked “Don’t tell me Dark Soldiers again.”
“Something like that.” he looked at her “Mercenaries. They want us.”
“Wh-why?”
“You can guess once. Look, we have to leave now. They search every house.” he pulled Ivelle after him.
They reached the stables and quickly harnessed the horses. They wanted to leave when two soldiers approached them.
“Where to?” asked the taller soldier.
“Just a family trip.” answered Áedh.
“At that time of the day?” they went closer.
“Yeah, you know, the stars are beautiful.” he gave them a grin.
“Not half!” answered the man and drew out his sword. Áedh turned to Ivelle and started whispering.
“Go and don’t stop until you reach Drauri. You’ll be safe there. I’ll go after you.”
“What? No! I can’t leave you here!”
“Yes, you can. Now go!” he turned around and attacked the two man. Ivelle sprang into the saddle and as fast as she could she left the town. She did as Áedh said and didn’t stop. And this time she didn’t look back. She just rode.
The next day she only stopped once. Zandro needed some rest. And in secret, she hoped, that Áedh would reach her. Although there was a possibility that he was already dead. After an hour she decided to resume her way. She knew where to go: Áedh showed her the way on the map many times.
About two hours later black armoured soldiers got in her way. “You gotta be kidding me!” she thought. She slowed down her horse but didn’t stop. She hoped that they’ll let her pass, but unfortunately she was wrong.
“Stop where you are!” yelled a scratchy voice. She stopped Zandro and waited. The leader came up to her. “Take your cloak off.” she took it off and looked into his eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Liridona” she answered courtly.
“She’s lying.” said a familiar voice. A dark-haired woman went up to her. “This is Ivelle, you fool.” she stared into her eyes. “The daughter of Gavril and Tanith.” Soon a black-haired man reached them too. He went closer to Ivelle and examined her.
“Where are your friends? There was four of you when you left Lorlea.” he asked.
“It’s just me now.” Delaney grinned in the background.
“Then I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us.” Ivelle stared at the man silently, then drew out her sword, which immediately flew out of her hand. “You’re funny. I like you.” he grinned.
“It was worth a try.” she hissed.
“Tie her up and take her weapons away. All of them.” he still examined Ivelle. She turned her gaze away. “Where are you taking me?”
“I thought it was obvious.” said Delaney “To Nendawin.” Ivelle’s eyes widened. That was bad. Really bad. Delaney grinned, so did the soldiers. Except for the man next to her.
As she found out the direct way to the Dark city is much faster. It only took them 3 days to get there. Ivelle counted. When they were attacked by the bandits there were only 2 days left of their journey. They spent a week with the Ghosts and there were nearly two days between their leaving and her capture. It took them three days to reach the city, so she and Áedh should have been in Drauri for nearly 2 weeks now. She was sure that the others had already found out that something went wrong. The only question was what were they going to do? And did Áedh survive? So basically there were two questions...
Nendawin was a terrible place. There were rocks and bareness everywhere, and they were surrounded by mountains. Since they had left Abonwan Ivelle hadn’t seen anything green. Just rocks, and dust. There were strange-looking creatures, black or grey the same colour as the rocks and mountains.
The dark soldiers took her to the dungeons. They tossed her into one of the cells and left her there for a day. The next day the black-haired man came to her. Now she examined him better. He was tall with pale skin and black hair. His eyes were emerald. He wore black clothes.
“You’re not afraid. Why?” he asked. His voice was surprisingly kind and tender.
“My friends will come for me.” Ivelle answered.
“Are you sure? I mean, yes probably they will try to find you, but they will have to search Abonwan first. And I don’t think that they will start another expedition to Nendawin.” Ivelle stayed silent and watched him.
“You’re a noble.” she said.
“Really?” he grinned “Why do you think that?”
“The way you walk, talk, and act. It’s just like Cirillo or Áedh.”
“Don’t compare me to them. I am nothing like them.” he became very angry.
“I know. You’re the bad guy, they are the good guys. But who are you?”
“It’s me who’s asking the questions.” she stayed silent. “Where are your friends?”
“I’ve already told you. I left them.”
“Yeah, sure. You told me, but I don’t believe you.”
“Too bad, since I’m telling the truth.”
“If you don’t talk to me, you will talk to my brother. But I warn you, his methods are way different than mines.” he turned around and left. A while later the guards took her to the throne room. There was only one throne in the middle. The whole room was very different from the elves’ room. It was dark, the walls and the floor were made from dark wood and black marble. The curtains and carpets were red. A tall red-haired man was sitting on the throne.
“I’m Merikh, the son of Erebos and the king of Nendawin.” he started in an arrogant tone. “You’re Ivelle the daughter of Gavril and Tanith. You will answer my questions. You will tell me everything.”
“I don’t think so.”
“We’ll see.” he grinned and motioned to the guards. They took her to a room, filled with different tools. They chained her to the ceiling and a minute later a man came in. The man from the bakery.
“I’m Phobos. You have two options: one, you’ll tell me what I want and I will kill you. Two: I torture you until you tell me what I want to know and then I will kill you. Which one should it be?” Ivelle just stared at him with her bravest look. It was tough since she was scared to death. She couldn’t bear pain well. The man grinned and took out a knife. He cut Ivelle’s arm and waited. That’s it? That’s all?” she thought. A few moments later her arm burnt. At least it felt like that, and it spread over her body.
“It’s a poison.” explained Phobos “Once it gets into your bloodstream it spreads very fast. Just in a few minutes, you’ll start to feel like your whole body was burning. And the pain will be much worse as time passes. I’ll come back. In an hour, or two...Have fun.” the man left. She was able to hold back her tears for like 5 minutes. Then she started crying. Then, as the pain grew she screamed. Then she became too exhausted, so she cried again.
Phobos came back after an hour, but she refused to tell him anything. He cut her other arm too and left. There was more pain. Sometimes she screamed, sometimes she cried. And she started thinking about talking.
At the end of the day, Phobos came back once more and gave her the antidote. This was how it went on for three days: early in the morning Phobos came and cut her arm. He would come back in every hour and cut her again, and again. And in the evenings he gave her the antidote.
The fourth day was different. Early in the morning Phobos came and cut her arm and left. At the end of the first hour, he came back and cut her again. Around the end of the second hour, the dark-haired man came in. Ivelle looked at him. None of them said a word. He forced Ivelle to open her mouth and poured a liquid into it. Then he left. Ivelle soon started to feel dizzy and couldn’t move. It was hard to breathe. She tried to ask for help, but she couldn’t speak. At once everything became black, and she couldn’t see anything. At the same time, there was no pain anymore. By that time she had already known: she was poisoned. She just didn’t know why. In a few minutes, she lost consciousness.