Lady Death

SEVEN

Please help proof this story by commenting on spelling errors, grammar mistakes, or any other changes you think I should make.

Thank you!

Railynn knelt on the dirt ground of the pit. The dark soil was cracked and dry from the summer sun. Two long chains extended from the shackles on each of her hands. Stone-faced guards stood behind her, holding each of the chains. The heat from the afternoon sun beat down on her face and shoulders. Railynn counted the guards standing on the stairs that spiraled up the wall of the pit. There was no way out. No possible escape from this place.

There was one entrance to the pits from the ground level. From the blackness of that arched doorway, two guards emerged. Slung between them, like a limp doll, hung a body. The body of the prisoner was already bloody and bruised. Railynn knew that body, knew that curly mop of hair. Her chest tightened.

Railynn could not separate the memories of those killed in her nightmares from her true memories. Sometimes it would be one of her males, other times it was a random prisoner, and still other times it would be a member of her family or a servant whose face she knew from the Leona palace. She wondered, at times, if those were dreams or reality. Each time she had this dream it was as gruesome as the last. But not once in those dreams had it been him.

The guards laughed as they threw him in front of her. Benjin groaned in pain as he curled onto his side, just an arm's reach away. Benjin did not even fight back as they chained him between the two iron posts. Railynn's stomach dropped.

She knew what they were planning to do. Nothing she could do to stop this. He had to be the last of her companions still alive. Somehow, they knew what he meant to her. Her only true friend in the whole world. She could not save him. She could not even save herself.

"Hey there, Kiddo," Benjin's broken raspy voice broke through to her. His impossibly curly brown and golden hair had grown out into a fluffy tangled mess atop his head. His amber and green eyes looked up at her, still sparkling with mischief. Benjin had always been heavier set, but now, even he looked thin. His eyes were sunken in and she could see his ribs pressing out against his skin. Benjin struggled to get onto his knees. Refusing to break eye contact with Railynn as he did.

"Don't let them see you cry," he winked as he whispered the same words he had told her the first day they met as children in the palace gardens.

A brief memory of that day flashed through her mind. Her knee was skinned, her dress ripped and ruined with mud. She could still hear the other palace children laughing at her as they walked away. Benjin had appeared before her like an angel sent to rescue her. He had helped her up off the ground and whispered in her ear, "Don't let them see you cry," The memory brought a small smile to Railynn's dry lips.

"Shut up," The human guard kicked Benjin in the side with the toe of his boot. Benjin grunted in pain as he fell back to the ground. Railynn let out a low warning growl. It vibrated up her chest, the feeling reminding her of just who and what she was. Slowly, out of pure defiance, Benjin rose to his knees once more. Railynn knew his actions were also to calm her down. If they had any chance at all, she needed to think, needed to calm the beast threatening to burst out of her, regardless of the iron weakening her each day.

"Touch him again, and you are a dead man," Railynn snarled at the guard who was intent on keeping Benjin on the ground. He stopped mid stride and looked back at her.

"Who are you to order me around, little girl?" he snarled back.

"That would be Lady Railynn Ashelin Tal," The Duke answered as he looked down on them from above. Railynn watched as the Duke slowly descended the stairs step by step, "Better known, as Lady Death,"