The Oreans

Chapter 63

Chapter 63

At the Heart of the Shadow

"Why don't you just tell all?" the woman said in a slightly hushed tone as she dabbed wet cloth on her bruised face. "I am sure they'll let you go away if you give 'em what they want."

Faint with hunger and aching all over, Erin could only stare up at the face before her. It was full of gouge marks, but far from revulsion she felt a measure of gratitude. Without its owner, she would be in a much worse fix in the hands of her captors. If only the woman would lose the chains around her arms — they were hurting her so. She wouldn't of course, out of fear for her master, more than anything else.

Erin glanced down at the manacled hands on her lap and felt like crying, but she wasn't going to — not again. It wouldn't help her at all — not in waking from this nightmare. Besides, she could not ask any more from this woman who was already risking a lot for her, slipping into her cell in the dead of night just to check on her condition.

"By the way, I've brought you some food. They nearly caught me sneaking from the kitchen, but here ..."

The woman took out from a pocket of her enormous black apron a flask of water and a packet containing a loaf of bread and a considerable slice of cheese. She laid them on her cot between them, brought out the bread, broke a bit and offered it to Erin.

Erin let the woman feed her, bit by bit. It was a little bliss amidst this hell of a place. The bread was freshly baked, and the cheese was as good as any; and the woman was really kind although she would not set her free.

"You know, I really keep on wonderin' at what they can want from someone so young. You must be somebody, aren't you?"

The man who had captured her thought she was a princess—that was for certain now—with the way he and his men kept on addressing her. She was not sure if they had mistaken her for Princess Roseana, but if they did, she would not be the one to correct them. If this was a way to prove her loyalty to her mistress, she would bear all for her sake.

Not that she knew anything. She couldn't even tell who her captor was. Like the woman though, she puzzled over his demands. It must have been over a week since she was held, but all the man ever asked her was where the gems were. The gems, whatever they were, must be of a value great enough to warrant such cruelty.

"I can't understand how you can hold up to such pressure, but I admire your guts. Why—you're even younger than that other girl!"

Other girl? It was the first time Erin heard about this.

The woman let Erin drink as she spoke on: "She was somethin', too, endured worse than you could imagine. She quite baffled Master—such will as we'd never found anywhere. I just wish you'd not end up like her and her friend—that boy."

Curious, Erin hastily gulped down water, and asked, "Why? What happened to them?"

The hollow dark eyes fixed themselves on hers. "I wish fate had been kinder. I tried to help 'em—I wish now that I hadn't. Perhaps, she would still be alive. The sea could be crueler than men."

Erin stared at her.

"She had fallen down the cliff while escaping," the woman went on. "The sea claimed her. She was never found again."

Chilled, Erin let out her breath noisily. Then, in a whisper, she asked, "That girl—did you happen to find out who she is?"

"How could I? I, a slave, ain't privy to my master's secrets. If that girl's anybody important, I wouldn't be able to say, either, because I couldn't go farther than these walls.... But I thought you do—as you look somethin' like her; I thought she must be your sister."