Bound and Broken: An Isekai Adventure Dark Fantasy (Melas Book 1)

by V. A. Lewis

  I sent my magical third arm into each of the rooms, trying to find the man from earlier. Unarmored man, is that you? Nope, just another guard. How about you? Nope—

  Eventually, after leaving a room full of guards playing a card game, I found an emptier room. Tables and chairs cluttered the room, but only a single one of them looked like a proper desk for work. It was like a meeting room. And there, sat the supervisor from earlier.

  He was awake, and he was working. I found the keys hanging around his waist, and slowly pried them off. I did it as carefully as possible, and fortunately for me, it worked. I kept the keys low and towards the ground, carrying it underneath the door and back to the main room.

  It was easy. Almost too easy. It was only another minute before I held the key ring in my hand, smiling. I brought the key down, about to try each and every one of them to free myself—

  "Hey, what was that?"

  I immediately hugged the keys and turned over, pretending to be asleep. A guard stepped into the wagon, frowning.

  "I could’ve sworn I heard something…" he trailed off, but after looking about for a moment, he shrugged and left.

  I waited a minute before I breathed a sigh of relief. I felt perspiration forming at the palm of my hands, but ignored it. I brought the key ring up. There were only three keys, but one of them had to have worked, right?

  I brought the first key down into my manacles. I turned it, and it didn't work. It’s fine, there’s still two more.

  The second one was a dud too; I felt my heart racing now. What were the chances I tried the two keys that did not work? Regardless, the last one had to have worked.

  I turned the final key inside of the keyhole. There was no distinct clink. I did not feel the heavy chains leave my hand. It was not working. Why was it not working? It had to work! I twisted the key harder in frustration—

  And my hand slipped. I watched as the key ring flew out of the cage, landing with a jangle. I heard running footsteps, and I rushed forward for the keys, bringing my hands out between the bars. The wagon flap was thrown open, as I clutched the metallic ring with one hand.

  A guard stared down at me, and I just stayed there, frozen. Like a deer in the headlights. The man just stood there for a moment, his mind processing the scene. Then he finally broke out of his stupor.

  "You— where’d you get that?!"

  He dashed forward at me, as I tried to back up. Unfortunately, he moved faster. He snatched the key out of my hands, pulling back away from the cage as quickly as he could. I managed to grab his shirt, and struggled to keep him from leaving.

  "Let me go," he bellowed, holding the keys up above from my reach. He struck me across the face. "Guards, I need—"

  The words left his mouth as he reeled in for another hit at me. I flinched, letting go, and immediately heard a scream.

  A pair of legs swept the man of his feet, and pulled him into the iron bars. His face smashed into the metal, and teeth came flying out. The chained legs gripped the guard tightly as he struggled to pry himself loose; but the person holding onto him was too strong. The person who came to help me— to save me— was…

  Rin.

  The catgirl held the man against our cell, wrapping her legs hands around the man’s throat; the other guards ran in to help the man, but one look from Rin quickly changed their mind, and they began to shout for help instead.

  Meanwhile, the first man was choking and gasping for air, but he could not escape Rin’s death grip no matter how hard he tried. Eventually more guards for the Mancis Company arrived at the scene, some were carrying long wooden sticks with two metal prongs poking out of one end. They began poking their sticks into the cages to keep the other Beastkin back, and one of them jabbed his pole at Rin’s chest.

  Lightning crackled between the metal prongs as it came in contact with the Rin, causing millions of volts of electricity to flow into him; the Cat Beastkin jolted but did not immediately go of the guard. She was recoiling in pain from being zapped by the non-lethal weapon, and yet she held on.

  Eventually, Rin released her legs, backing up from the constant shocks of electricity coming from the mana tools. The guards kept zapping her for a moment longer as they dragged the man’s body away from the cages. But it did not matter.

  He was dead.

  The aftermath from this incident was a chaotic one; there was shouting and screaming by both Julian Mancis and Marcus. They wanted to know how exactly I managed to steal the keys, but no one could answer the question.

  As I eavesdropped on their argument, I picked out one thing which made my heart sink: I stole the correct keys. Just not the keys for the manacles. The keys I got were the keys for the cages. If I had not been so foolish, we could have escaped.

  My excitement at being free from the chains, coupled with my fear of getting caught led to such a mistake. I sat dejected, for a while, until Rin approached me.

  "Hey," she said, "you ok?"

  I looked up at the Cat Beastkin— at the woman who protected me, despite my doubts in her— and nodded. "I’m… fine. I should be the one asking you that. Does it hurt?" I asked, gesturing at where they tazed her.

  "Nn." Rin sat down next to me. "It doesn’t hurt anymore."

  Neither of us spoke for a moment. I averted my gaze from the catgirl, ashamed at myself for getting her hurt. "I’m sorry," I said, finally.

  "For what?" Rin replied, almost nonchalantly. "You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s stupid Shang’s fault for rushing you when you still weren’t prepared."

  "No," I protested, feebly. "I just… don’t want to be a slave anymore, Ms Rin. It’s so terrible. Why did this have to happen to us?" I looked over at the normally carefree girl, tears forming in my eyes. I was crying. But why was I crying?

  Rin did not ask. Instead, she wrapped her arms around me, and brought me into a hug. I froze, almost in shock by the sudden contact. I almost felt like my personal space was being violated for a moment— and yet, my worries suddenly washed away. Not completely. Just for a moment, I could relax.

  We stayed like that for a few minutes. Neither of us said anything. I was pretty sure Rin did not know what to say, but it was better this way. Finally, when I had stopped crying, I broke the silence.

  "I’m not going to give up." Rin let go of me slightly, and cocked her head. I glanced up, and met the girl’s luminescent eyes. "It is as you guys said: we can’t let them break us. I can’t let them break me. I’ll try again, the next time I get the chance. Not tomorrow, they’ll be on alert then. Give me four days. And this time, we’ll escape."

  "Nn, of course," Rin said, trying to throw me a thumbs up but failing because of the manacles covering her entire hand. "Whenever you’re ready, Melas."

  I took a deep breath, nodding my head. Four days, I thought. It was an arbitrary number, but that still gave us an extra week before we got to the Free City of Slaves if all went according to plan for the Mancis Company. So if this attempt failed again, we had time to try at least once more.

  I eyed the smiling Rin, who seemed uncaring of the fact that she had just been hurt. I hesitated, biting my tongue. But I forced myself to speak. "Ms Rin—"

  "Just call me Rin," she cut me off. "Nn, I liked being called a ‘Miss’ at first, but now it’s boring!"

  "Right," I said, "Rin."

  "What is it?" the Cat Beastkin asked, peering at me.

  "Thank you." I bowed my head. "For helping me." In more ways than one, I left that part unsaid.

  Rin grinned. "Nn, no problem!"

  Chapter 17: A Brief Reprieve

  "Oh, it was my birthday last week."

  The words casually left my mouth, as the sounds of wheels running over gravel and horses trotting on the road filled the background like white noise from a television. The rattling of the cages and the shaking of the crates were aggravating at first, but I quickly got used to it.

  I shifted in my lying position, and felt a bump, as the thought crossed my mind. I feel… bad. I took a qui
ck peek at the young woman sitting to the left of my knees, and saw as she perked up.

  "Nn, really?" Rin excitedly leaned forwards to face me. "Happy belated birthday!" she said.

  The man sitting across her shook his head, and tried to lift his hand up to pinch his nose. He failed.

  Instead, metal clanged with each as his manacled hands hit his muzzled face, followed by a loud sigh. Shang turned to face the Cat Beastkin, and spoke resignedly.

  "Rin, do you really think she had a happy birthday?" The Dog Beastkin just barely stopped himself from throwing his hands up in the air, before continuing, "And remind me again, why exactly do you even know what day it is?"

  The white haired woman scoffed, then stuck her tongue out at Shang.

  "Because I pay attention! Nn, see? Stupid Shang!"

  I looked on at this trivial argument, and smiled.

  It was not the happiest smile in the world; it was not a wide grin accompanied by boisterous laughter and a witty remark. Perhaps I was not even happy or relaxed: I was just not completely on edge. And the small curling of my lips was indicative of that.

  I felt so much better around these two, and I felt bad for how I initially thought of Rin! I know I never said anything bad per se, but just the fact that I thought it made me feel guilty; however I did not let that feeling affect me, and the smile— or curling of the lips, or whatever— stayed on for the moment.

  Regardless of what it was, I interrupted their minor quarrel by turning to Rin and bowing my head slightly in her direction.

  "Thank you, Rin, for the birthday wish," I said, looking back up and meeting her eyes. "And thanks for reminding me about my birthday," I added, "if you did not bring up the date, I might have become an old woman and never realized it."

  The wagon hit a bump, and my joke fell flat.

  Both Shang and Rin did not even register the attempt at humor, but the catgirl turned red at my praise, and looked triumphantly at her partner.

  "Hehe! Of course!"

  Remind me never to make a joke again. I lay back down, and stared up at the canvas ceiling. First Adrian, now them. Where has my sense of humor gone?! At least, I found myself funny! That was all that mattered, right? Speaking of which…

  My mind focused for a moment, as a connection was formed between two inane trains of thoughts: Adrian.

  His birthday was a week before mine, and I just turned 11 years old. But he was a year older than me, so he was 12 now.

  I remembered Walden telling me about how some really talented children in Villamcreek were sent to Rem’s Capital— Remheart— to study, at around the age of twelve. Adrian was quite smart. Well, not as smart as any kid his age in my world.

  But who knew? Perhaps he was given the chance to do that this year. Although I was not sure whether he liked that— as far as I knew, he was pretty content just living in Villamcreek. And yet, without me, there was no other kid in the village as smart as he was. It was likely he would have been sent out of the village to further his education... unless he got in trouble with the Inquisitors for being associated with me.

  The dark thought crossed my mind, and I quickly shook it away. Nah. I’m sure he’s fine! There’s no way he would get involved with the Church! I reassured myself. That would never happen. I was sure of it.

  Right?

  The wagon shook as it ran over another bump.

  "What’s going on?"

  I turned to Shang as he held his hands up to his ear, trying to listen as best he could. I looked up at the Dog Beastkin, and he shook his head.

  "I’m not sure. I think... I think something happened to the town we were supposed to pass through."

  "Nn, we’ve been stopped for over an hour! They would usually be giving us food by now!" Rin threw her legs up in the air, and slumped to the ground. "I’m so hungry!"

  "Be quiet, Rin. I think I hear something," the Dog Beastkin snapped at the young woman. He leaned closer against the metal bars, pressing his droopy ears against the cloth wall of our wagon. "Sh. Someone’s coming."

  I held my breath, and tried to listen in as well; footsteps came closer and closer, right until it stopped next to our wagon, and a man’s voice can be heard through the thin fabric separating us from them.

  "So, the boss wants us to just continue then?" an unfamiliar voice spoke with uncertainty. It was immediately followed by a more familiar voice that clearly shouted ‘I’m a jerk!’ to anyone listening.

  "Yes. Julian wants us to get a good ways away from here before we set up camp. And he wants us to move as fast as we can. Double—- no, triple time," the head guard of the Mancis Company said authoritatively.

  "But the horses are tired! We can’t overwork them now, when we just stopped to rest!"

  There was a sound of movement that I recognized as a shaking of the head, followed by more words that screamed ‘Hey, look at me! It’s me! A jerk!’.

  "That’s too bad. If you’ve got a problem with it, take it up with Julian. His orders, not mine."

  With that, Marcus walked away, and left the wagon driver alone; the man sighed to himself and cursed under his breath, before going to do his job.

  After a minute, we were moving again, and I stared at Shang.

  "What was that about?"

  The Dog Beastkin just shrugged.

  "I think I’ve got an idea. But we’ll find out soon enough."

  Rin and I exchanged looks, and she just sat laid back down.

  "Don’t look at me, I barely even know what he’s talking about most of the time."

  Shang just sighed, and ignored her. But he was right, we did find out soon enough; less than five minutes after we started moving again, wind blew against the flap at the back of our wagon, and I looked outside.

  It was evening, the sun was setting into the horizon, barely illuminating the barren landscape behind us, with dark clouds mostly obscuring it. No, not clouds. Smoke.

  I blinked as I realized what I was looking at: it was the remains of what was once a village.

  Wooden beams were collapsed on top of each other, and ash piled the ground where buildings once were; some smoke was still rising up from the blackened wood of destroyed houses, while dark red spots were scattered throughout the ground of the town in the distance.

  Just one glimpse at this grim portrait, and I knew one thing was for sure:

  No one survived.

  Whatever it was that attacked the town, spared not a single person in it— to the point that there were no bodies; I remembered the conversations I heard in Boleria, and only a single conclusion came to my head.

  "Monster attack," I whispered the words.

  It only made sense to me at the moment. But when I turned back to Shang, I saw him shaking his head; he turned away from the devastation and faced me.

  "No," he said the words certainly, as if he knew it for a fact. "It was not a Monster attack."

  I tilted my head to the side and he answered the unspoken question.

  "If it was a Monster attack, the Monsters would have at least stayed to make this town their temporary nest. If not— if it were just a hit and run— there should be survivors. But there are none. Not even any remains."

  He brought his hands up, and raised one index finger towards the direction of the town.

  "Look. There are no corpses. Monsters are not clean eaters, and if they really came for food, there should be at least some remains— bones, bodies, anything— but there are none," Shang said, shaking his head. "This was not a random attack. It was an extermination."

  The last word hung in the air for almost a full minute after he said it. I turned back to look at the town, as the flap flew open one more time; I stared at the desolation, and felt glad that we were not stopping there. Because—

  "If whatever attacked the town, attacked us, do you think it will spare us since we’re captives?"

  I looked back at the two Beastkin, and neither one met my eyes. I sighed.

  "Thought so."

  There were still
many stops between where we were and Bys. A week and a half worth of travel, at the very least. Enough time to plan and stage an escape— or be killed by whatever it was that destroyed that town.

  More days passed and the Mancis Company made their way further into Besha. As the caravan rolled down the gravel and dirt roads that connected cities and towns, they never stopped for long, only setting up small camps to rest the night before continuing at dawn.

  Once, we arrived at a small city with stone walls twice as tall as any human man. The walls lacked any form of crenellations, with very few defenses, and guards too ill equipped to fend off more than a handful of Monsters at a time. In fact, it looked like the city had been attacked quite recently, as some parts of the walls were caved in, and replaced with hastily built wooden barricades.

  The city itself was mostly untouched; there were only three or four fully collapsed wooden houses, and smoke was not billowing out of the ruined homes, giving off the impression that the attack happened over a week ago.

  I only saw this because of the quick routine inspection the city guards did of the caravan, as we entered through the gates. In fact, they seemed to avoid the Beastkin as well, only peeping in through the flap of the wagon, and looking around for anything suspicious or illegal.

  Because we were going to stay in the city for more than a night, the Mancis Company had our cages unloaded and placed into a storage room of sorts, alongside the crates full of equipment and food.

  During that whole process, I finally managed to see Theodore again for the first time since Boleria. He was one of the slaves assigned to help unload the cargo into a wooden warehouse near the city square, and although I was relieved to see him at first, my face instantly fell when I caught a proper glimpse at him.

  The middle aged man did not look well: purple marks and bruises littered his body, with a scar streaking across his face. As slaves, we never were well-fed because of the nature of our position, but Theodore’s pale complexion and thin frame made it evident that he was purposefully starved for days as a form of punishment. And despite all that, they were still forcing him to work.