The Destroyer (54 page)

Shadows danced in the hallway as a trio of dark figures moved quietly toward me.

"Nadea, can you hear me?" the figure in the front whispered. Coal darkened his face but I recognized his blue eyes in the dim light of the torch.

"Runir?" I coughed out blood.

"Shhh. Shit. Don't talk." He reached out to touch me and pulled back. He looked up at the chains anchored to the ceiling and manacled to my wrists. Then he examined the floor and my cell. He seemed indecisive. The dark figure to his right inspected the gash on my leg while my friend talked.

"We came to get you out of here. My father and I have a few hundred troops that managed to escape. We are camped out to the northeast in the High Forest."

"This wound is very infected and must be cleaned. We can't take her through the sewer like this," the man examining my leg interrupted and Runir grimaced.

"Okay Nadea, we are going to clean this and then take you." He reached out and touched my hair. It felt good to have affectionate human contact after what seemed like an eternity in the darkness. I saw the other warrior open up a small travel bag and search through the contents.

“Fuck. I don’t have the right medical equipment. We’ll need to come back. Curse the Spirits,” Runir’s friend growled.

"Wait," I croaked out. My throat seemed to be made of sandpaper and my tongue was so swollen that I had trouble pronouncing words.

"Shhh. Don't talk. We'll return soon. Just hold on, please." Runir whispered.

"Nanos," I whispered. Each word left my vocal cords in a searing roar of agony.

"I know. He's trapped here too. We will rescue him as well. You'll be easier to break out since they are keeping you in the dungeons by the sewer. We’ll return in a few hours."

"No." I tried to speak but my voice had reached the limit of what I could do today. I wanted to scream that Nanos had betrayed us all, killed his father and Paug.

The door above opened suddenly and the three would-be rescuers disappeared, sliding slippery and smooth into the darkness of the dungeon like frogs into a deep lake.

"Where are you taking me?" a voice filled with fear asked.

"Shut up and walk. I'm not here to answer your questions." It sounded like a dozen heavy sets of boots coming down the stairs. When the group passed the torch, the entire dungeon became engulfed in their flickering shadows. When they got into my cell they lit additional torches. I struggled to keep my eyes open but even when closed the firelight seemed to burn into my brain like a hundred suns.

"Duchess Nadea!" a mouse-like voice squealed in shock. I cracked my eyelids apart as much as I dared and saw a small man with glasses, a tiny mustache, and thinning hair. He wore the white attire of a medic and carried two leather bags overfilled with gauze, vials, and other medical supplies. "What is she doing here?" he turned to ask one of the guards.

"She is a traitor. But the Prin-King needs her alive for questioning so you are instructed to fix up her leg." I saw four other men with the original two guards and the medic. The new guards were Losherians and each carried two steaming buckets of water.

"How is the duchess a traitor?" the mousey man asked.

"If you don't shut up I will kill you here and find another medic,” the guard said easily.

"I need some more supplies. The water is good but also a stretcher, table, more light, and someone to bring me other tools from the infirmary." He set down his bags, causing a rat the size of a small dog to scurry around the cell and dash through the bars away from us. The small man let out a shriek and almost jumped into the arms of the guard that had just threatened to kill him. It would have been comical in any other situation, but the Losher soldiers didn't seem to possess a sense of humor, Nanos’s men worried about me dying, and it would have hurt too badly for me to laugh.

"Get to work asshole!" the prince's guard berated the small man, pushing him away from him. The medic stumbled and slammed into me. I let out a grunt and my vision swam. The guards yelled, I felt like I had to vomit, and then everything went dark.

I awoke slowly, my mouth tasted like bile and my body was on fire. I was burnt everywhere but I couldn't stop from shivering.

"It will be okay, Duchess," the mousey man's voice echoed. I realized I lay on a table. A thick sheet covered my naked body. I tried to raise my head, but my strength failed.

"I am stitching up your leg. It is infected, but I already cleaned it. I need to force water into you every half an hour. Sleep for now and I'll wake you soon." I knew it was the medic, but it sounded like he yelled at me from a quarter of a mile away.

"She is strong, but I might have to amputate if the infection doesn't clear. I probably should do it to be on the safe side, but I want to give her two more days to see if she can recover." The voice trailed away. It was foolish, but the thought of losing my leg was more horrifying than my life. I wanted to cry.

"Everything will be okay Naynay,” a voice consoled me from the darkness of my subconscious. It sounded like my father's voice, but I knew that was impossible. He was dead, along with everyone else I ever loved. I would have no one to cry to, no one to love, and no one to miss me.

I was alone in the darkness of my sleep.

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