The Oreans

Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Light versus Shadow

Erin had been hearing the disturbing sounds, and with her hands manacled she could not block them out at all. How she wished she could! The screams that rented the air, the muffled laughter only meant that someone was being tortured, and she could just imagine what was being done. Though it did not seem to be the princess, she had a presentiment that it was someone she knew. She did not want to think. Most of all, she hoped that she was wrong.

It all stopped, and Erin sighed. Still, her skin crawled. She pricked her ears. Suddenly, there was a great banging sound, the clicking of a lock followed by voices. They were coming to the direction of her cell — what seemed like a dozen or so men by their footfalls.

"Really difficult, don't you think?" she heard one say in a heavily accented voice.

Erin shifted to hear more.

"Yeah, with someone that age, you would think he'd give in at once," another answered hollowly.

Someone that age? Her heart beating violently, Erin thought of Alen but dismissed the idea. It could not be him. It must not be him.

"The older boy was difficult, too, sat there like he's seeing nothing, deaf to our questions. I wonder why the boss let him off," the first voice said.

"I heard he had done Lord Ville some favor," a third man replied in a squeaky voice.

"You didn't see where he is to be taken," a fourth said, sounding like he had had a drink. "I'm sure glad I didn't have to be his escort ...."

The voices were nearer her cell. Erin heard her guard rise to her feet so she lay down on the smelly blanket and feigned sleep. She sensed the group stopped before her door.

"The boss said some of us got to stay here, too," said a masterful voice which Erin knew belonged to the head guard.

There was a murmur of assent, and some of the men kept on moving. It sounded like five more stood as sentinels outside. Since Lord Melvil had arrived, she was never left without one, depriving her of her sympathetic visitor and of the least opportunity to escape and reunite with Princess Roseana. This time, the additional watch must mean only one thing: to prevent the intruders from getting to her. They must be someone she knew.

"How's the girl?" asked one of her new guards in a soft tone.

Erin tried hard to lie still.

"Sleeping, it seems," the drunken voice sounded like he spoke through the bars.

"Why such a wretched thing needs guarding?" someone muttered in a growling voice.

"Because they've learned their lesson," her original watch replied. "It's not right to underestimate the prisoners. They're not as delicate as they seem."

"I guess Ludo is right," the one with the squeaky voice agreed. "Look at those two boys. You'd think they'd surrender right away with that kind of torture."

"Jocos said they beat Treo's group," the one with the soft voice told. "The poor men were out cold when Lord Ville arrived on the scene."

"They're that strong?" Ludo exclaimed. "With faces like that!"

"They are Lord Ville's people just like the girls," the squeaky voice informed. "That's why he is those two apart."

"By the way, what do you think will happen from now on?" asked Ludo.

"I don't know. We're not privy to the duke's secrets, are we?" the growling voice rejoined.

"Let's better keep watch now in silence or we may give too much away," the one with the soft voice suggested. "Neither Duke Astilon nor Lord Ville will be happy."