"What are you writing?" I asked Paug. He continued to scrawl without looking up at me.
"Paug? What are you writing?" I demanded. He stopped his hand and looked up at me. I gasped in horror, his eyes had been removed and only bloody black holes remained.
"What she tells me to write,” he said enthusiastically. The combination of his eyeless gaze and boyish smile scared me more than the attacking army.
"Did you do this to Paug?" I yelled at the woman. He had gone back to writing and she ignored my question. I noticed that her ears were long and pointed. They pierced the lustrous fall of her bloody copper hair like the mountain peaks rose out of the clouds.
"Ancient. Answer me!" I demanded as I slammed the flat of my hand down on the desk. She stopped whispering and glared up to my face.
"Did you wake Kaiyer?" Her voice was beautiful and husky, a purring mountain cat. Her skin shone flawless like bleached linen and her eyes glowed silver and blue as they reflected the heat from the fireplace. They burned as they looked into my eyes and I felt them spin me as a riptide would.
"Yes," I whispered. There was something I needed to tell her, but I couldn't remember. The frustration chiseled at my brain like a woodpecker. Paug's quill scratch on the parchment and the wood crackling in the fire were the only sounds for a few seconds.
"Then I have no more use for you, girl." Her full red lips twisted into a cruel smile.
"What do I do now?" I begged her. She seemed to consider my question again before answering.
"Find your father. Ask him where to take Kaiyer," she said coldly before she bent down to whisper in Paug's ear again. It was her voice that I had been following through my dream.
I walked to my father and cried out in dismay when I touched him and felt the brittle naked spines of shoulder blades instead of warm skin and muscle. A skull faced the fire, dark sockets staring into the blaze, oddly reflecting the twisting flames as if the empty holes held large black eyes. The bones were old, bleached white as the Ancient woman's skin. My father’s joining and insignia rings encircled the long bones of the skeleton’s fingers.
"Wait!" I called back to the woman. "My father is dead!" I heard sounds outside the study. The army had broken through the door at the base of the tower. Their screams raised in a horrific crescendo as they ascended the stairs. I looked around the room for an escape route, but there was no other way out save the door I had entered.
"Find your father!" the Ancient said angrily as she stood up from Paug's side and glared at me.
"He is dead! They are all dead!" I felt tears flowing down my eyes.
"Then you should die as well!" the Ancient screamed as the door to the study smashed opened. Warriors ran into the room with swords drawn. Their armor was etched with images of death and predatory animals. Their helmets were in the shapes of horrific dragons, rams, snakes, bears, and wolves. The first one through the entrance swung his sword and cleaved Paug's head from his shoulders. Blood sprayed over the books, desk, and the beautiful woman. The color stained her face and chest the same hue as her hair. She shrieked as another ran his blade through her breast in a savage movement.
I tried to run but hands grasped my arms and forced me to my knees. The room quickly filled with dozens of the warriors and I realized I wasn't in my father's study anymore. I lay in my cell deep beneath the Castle Nia.
"Are you okay Nadea?" a concerned whisper asked next to me in the darkness. Gentle hands kept me from falling out of my pallet. I recognized the voice as Gerald, the mousey medic who had been caring for me for the last two weeks.
"Water," I croaked out. Before I finished the thought, a leather skin pressed to my lips and I drank until nausea replaced thirst.
"Nightmare?" a girl asked. It was his daughter Inada's voice.
"Yes," I lay down again. The sheets that covered me were soaked in nightmare sweat and I wanted to kick them off my body. Then I remembered I was naked underneath, and although I knew they had seen me unclothed before, I didn't want to expose myself.
Boot steps echoed down the hall and I heard someone clear their throat at the entrance of my jail.
"Food," a guard said as he set down a tray on the table at the other side of the cell. They didn't bother to lock the small jail; the only way they thought we might escape was through the door up top. I recalled speaking to Runir in the darkness but guessed that was only a dream. I had experienced plenty of those as my body struggled to overcome the infection-induced fever.
Inada brought me a small plate of cheese, carrots, bread, and broth. I nibbled on the cheese and slowly sipped the soup. It was hard to drink and eat when I had to use my other hand to wrap the sheet around me, but I managed the effort.
"Looks like your appetite has increased!" Gerald said enthusiastically. He walked over and put his hand on my forehead. "Still slightly feverish though."
"I feel much better. Thank you." I took another careful bite of the meat and my stomach grumbled in surprise. "Also, thank you for not taking my leg."
"Don't thank me, Duchess. It was a risk that might have cost your life. The air by the Teeth must be exceptionally healthy. Most people wouldn't have recovered from such a wound." He frowned and turned back to his soup. The three of us ate in silence and it provided me a chance to piece together my dream.
The memories of it had already faded, but I remembered looking for Kaiyer and then my father. I recalled Paug's mutilated face and the beautiful Ancient woman. It wasn't the first time I had heard her voice and I doubted that it would be my last. She seemed insistent that I find my father. They were just dreams at any rate, not important to my life right now.
Even though a dream had led me to Kaiyer.
"What is wrong?" the girl asked me. I looked at her in surprise. "You look really mad. Father and I are happy that you are alive!" She smiled shyly. Inada was a cute girl, maybe eight or ten years younger than Jessmei. She had curly chestnut-colored hair and big brown eyes.
"Sorry, child. Thinking about something else that frustrated me." I smiled down at her and tried to forget about Kaiyer. I had spent most of my life engrossed in the search for him and now that the man was gone I didn't want to agonize about what could have been.
Gerald brought the tray up the hallway and around the corner once I finished the meal. I assumed the guards had a table and chairs there because I often heard dice, cards, and laughing. I needed to relieve myself, so I asked Inada to help me limp over to the wood toilet that Gerald asked the guards to bring down for me to use. It fit over the hole in the corner of the cell that led down to somewhere deep and dark in the bowels of the sewers under the city. Every other room in the castle had working plumbing, and even though the intricate pipes were only a few hundred yards away, no one had ever bothered to update the dungeon.
I returned to my bed by the time Gerald had made it back to the cell. The medic had become an amazing ally and spent a large portion of his time trying to negotiate more food, better linens, and whatever necessities we needed. He was a shy man, so I assumed that confronting the armed warriors made him nervous, but he did it anyway.
"Drink more water," he handed me another skin, and although I thought I wasn't thirsty I drained it all in two large swallows.
The door above us opened suddenly and I heard many boot steps. We had been left undisturbed by Nanos for the last few weeks, and now that I was conscious I hoped that it wouldn't be him. I doubted I would be able to keep from trying to kill him. I pulled the sheet around my body and wondered if I should have asked Gerald to get me some clothes. I did not think that I could wear pants over the cut on my leg, but at least a tunic and skirt or dress would have kept me from feeling powerless.
The steps grew closer and I held back a gasp. It was the Ancient general who had observed me hanging like a piece of meat. He was escorted by another of his kin, two Losher soldiers, and two Nia guards. They walked toward my cell and the two Ancients stepped into the tight space. Gerald and Inada moved into the farthest corner from the Ancients. Gerald'
s arm carefully tried to shield his daughter. Both of their eyes were open in awe.
The general sniffed the cell and looked around without much interest, licking his lips with a slim reptilian tongue. The other Ancient with him was a woman; her hair coiled down her shoulders in a braid of gold. She wore a bored expression until she noticed I looked at her, and then she glared at me with fierce intent.
"The king is correct. You seem to be on the path to recovery." His eyes settled on me. They reminded me of the emotionless orbs of a lizard. I didn't know if he expected a response. Gerald had set up many oil lamps here so there was more light in the dungeon than there had been the first time we had met. The lights shined off of their hair and eyes as if they were made of metal.
"The medic says I still have a fever," I replied carefully. The Ancient stepped forward and reached down toward my leg, I tried to squirm away but forced myself to stop. If he wanted to see the cut on my leg he would, putting up a fight would probably just anger him. The cut was expertly bandaged and wrapped. He leaned down a foot or so from my leg and sniffed like an animal would have, then grunted in satisfaction and stood up straight.
"My empress will be pleased." He nodded down to me and smiled. I felt a chill run down my body and clutched the sheet closer to my chest. "As will the king. I believe that he is worried about the length of his ruling term." He laughed and the woman at his side snickered with him. Both of their voices formed a song as their mocking harmonized.
"Continue her treatment. The empress intends to be here within two weeks," he said to Gerald. The medic turned a sickly state of green and then nodded in fear. Without another word, the Ancients and their entourage left my cell and then continued out the corridor to the exit of the jail. The door slammed once they had left the dungeon and a deep silence filled the inky darkness.
"I have to get out of here," I whispered to Gerald after ten minutes had passed and I was sure that no guards stood within earshot.
"How? The only way out is out the door. Your wound is still precarious. Any aggravation will open it again and create another infection," Gerald pleaded.
"We have to think of a way. I can't be here when the empress arrives." I didn't want to speak to her; she would ask me questions that I would be afraid to answer. Also, if I was gone she might kill Nanos, which would be the kind of ironic revenge that would suit the traitor.
"I know of a way," a voice whispered from the darkness of the dungeon opposite the door. The three of us gasped in surprise as shadows sunk out of the inky blackness the torch light had been unable to push back.
"Runir?" I asked to the dark forms.
"Aye, Nadea. Sorry we took so long to return. We had to move our forces. A scout from the Losher army found our campground. I am so relieved someone has already fixed your leg. I was afraid . . ." I could see the mixture of concern and relief on his coal-smeared face. He had two men and another woman with him. They all wore dark stained leathers and had their faces blackened. "Once we have gotten you out safely we can come back for Nanos and his mother." I wanted to tell him about Nanos's betrayal but I didn't want to say anything in front of Gerald and Inada. They didn't need to know about the real reason Nia had fallen. I would have plenty of time to explain things to Runir and his father when we escaped.
"There is a way out through the sewer?"
"There are hundreds. The sewer is almost as big as the castle itself and there are even legends of catacombs beneath this dungeon." I nodded and felt my face split into a smile. Nia was three hundred years old, but had conquered this vast land from the country of Angron, which had wrestled it from the Kingdom of Awough. The castle had been updated and built upon hundreds of times, and no one quite knew what secrets lurked in its depths.
"I do not advise moving the duchess. Her leg cannot take the strain of walking," Gerald said.
"I need clothes," I said, ignoring Gerald. Even if my wound re-opened and became infected again it would be better than waiting for the empress here.
"We thought of that," Runir said as one of the soldiers with him produced a pack of dark fabric. I opened it to find black boots, silk socks, loose black pants, and a dark gray tunic. It looked like it would all fit me and there was a leather belt just in case it was too big.
"Help me put this on, Inada," I asked while I scooted to the edge of my makeshift bed. The men turned their backs while the girl and the woman assisted me into my new attire. The pants were the most difficult to don, but they had ties on the sides of the legs that allowed me to wrap them around my cut instead of sliding them over the injury.
"I am ready," I tried to get up and felt Runir's arms circled my waist. I let out a gasp of pain as my leg reminded me that Gerald was definitely correct in his diagnosis. Another one of the men got on the other side of me and I wrapped my arms over both of their shoulders and pulled myself up on my legs. It had been more than a month since I had exercised, but I still had strength in my upper body.
"What about us?" Gerald squeaked.
"You must come with us," I said through gritted teeth. I knew that Gerald's wife, Inada's mother, had died just a few years after the girl had been born. There was nothing left tying them to the city, and if Runir really did have an army, it would need another medic.
"Very well," he sighed and packed up his medical tools with amazing efficiency.
"We must leave as soon as possible. Before the guards return," Runir said, he pulled slightly on my waist and I limped a careful step toward the exit of the cell. Then I took another.
"Wait. I forgot something." I tried to pull against Runir's arms but I lacked the strength.
"What?" Runir whispered in annoyance.
"Walk me back to my cot." He did and I reached into the pillow. My fingertips brushed across an iron key that the Losher guards hadn't found secreted in a pant pocket. Gerald had taken it out of my pants when he had operated on my leg. The man asked what it was for but I declined to answer and he never spoke of it again.
"Let's go," I said as I slipped the key into a pocket of my new pants. Runir saw the movement but didn't question me about it in front of the others.
The darkness of the sewer waited hand in hand with my freedom.
Chapter 7-The O’Baarni
"This is unexpected." Shlara couldn't hide the grin that appeared on her face after her guard announced me. I had never been inside of her tent. The interior was exactly as I would have guessed: impeccably maintained, with a simple bed, planning desk, collapsible shelf system that held clothes, half a dozen sitting pillows, and a rack for her war gear. Other than the pillows, it looked identical to mine. She liked to have her commanders meet nightly to review training and battle strategies. I preferred everyone to stand so that we didn't waste too much time debating.
“I wanted to speak with you. Do you have a moment?” I felt the surge of nervous energy rise through my chest and I focused on calming my heartbeat and breathing so Shlara would not detect the change. I had gone over this in my head already dozens of times, anticipating what she would say, how she would react. I had planned for every possible outcome that I could imagine, but I wasn’t naïve enough to believe I had thought of every possible reaction she could have. This task felt more impossible than any of the recent battles. I was good at killing Elvens, but terrible with women.
"Yes! Of course!" It appeared that she had been stretching. It was summer and her skin glowed from the exertion and the four candles that burned in corners of her tent. The light played off of each angle of her taut muscles. The nipples of her breasts were a darker chocolate color than the rest of her tan body. "Let me put on some clothes. Are you hungry? I will have food prepared."
"No, I am fine thank you." I had seen her naked many times before when we bathed, but I was briefly mesmerized when she slipped a thin white night shirt over her shoulders. It came down to cover her hips and the tops of her thighs. The material immediately stuck to her slick skin and I understood why she hadn't been wearing it while she stretched.
"Water? Wine?" She turned to look at me as she knotted her loose hair into a ponytail behind her head.
"Either would be fine." She nodded and called out for refreshment to be brought.
"Join me on the pillows?" she walked over to the pile and placed three on top of each other so that she could sit high enough to cross her legs. The motion didn't seem exaggerated, but I still noticed the entrance between her thighs. I really didn't want to sit close to her, but I expected this outcome so I nodded and knelt down on one a few feet away.
Within a few seconds an attendant came in with a basket filled with two large flagons of wine, cheese, and various wild berries. She passed me a flagon and popped the cork off of hers with a slight movement of her thumb.
"We should toast to your amazing victory yesterday. It was quite a genius idea to flood them with the dam." She raised her jug.
"The idea was everyone's. I was just the facilitator." I raised my flagon anyway.
The wine tasted good. As did the cheese and berries. I could engage my generals in conversation for hours if I just asked them about their team. I asked them about who was struggling, who was showing potential, who would be promoted next. It kept them talking and gave me valuable insight into how they were feeling and what they might need my help with by revealing what they valued and worried about in their teams. Shlara particularly enjoyed talking to me about her troops, she spoke quickly, as if she knew she had more to say than I had time to listen. Her hands flitted around as she spoke. Her long, capable fingers became her warriors as she gestured to indicate a particular maneuver that was hard for someone, or a new training technique she was particularly proud of.
By now they didn't really need my thoughts or advice on their people. Especially not Shlara. If I died tomorrow, she would pick up the pieces of the O'Baarni and put them back together in something better than I created.
"So. You have never visited my tent. Does this mean we will be lovers tonight?" She stared at me with hungry eyes. I had lost track of the time during our conversation. We each finished our first flagon of wine and almost completed a second.
The Destroyer Book 2 Page 8