A Battle of Pride and Desire

Chapter Five

"Get your hands off me," Brigette shouted as he lugged her off the carriage.

Taran cocked his head, grinned, and let go of Brigette who fell to the ground without him holding her up any longer. Her entire body felt like it had been through the wars. She didn't say anything as she pushed herself up and took in her surroundings. Empty grassland, as usual. But then she turned to her left and she was met with a high wall that looked like it ran from one side of the world to the other. She couldn't see the end of it anywhere.

"Come on," she heard Taran say and she limped after him blindly.

She was aware of what a mess she looked like but it was the last item she had to worry about on her list. First and foremost she needed to find a way out of where ever she was and whatever situation she was in. But how? She had no weapon, no form of transportation she knew how to control, no allies, no friends. What did she have? A wall and a man who would probably be a little more than upset if she tried to escape him again. Although he treated her attempts at escape as nothing more than inconvenient. Perhaps that's all they were to him, she didn't have much experience in escaping captivity after all. Brigette tugged absently on her nightgown as she eyed Taran wearily from the back. Was it not stupid of him to have his back to her? Couldn't she just run away without him noticing? But she wasn't running away, she realised. She had nowhere to go. She tried not to cry as she walked the death march. Soon they reached a door in the wall that Brigette had failed to notice and she cursed herself for being so unobservant. Taran spoke to the guard at the door who didn't seem to need any ID from Taran and let him in. They chatted as though they knew each other, had known each other for years. Brigette looked up to the top of wall and saw watchtowers that she hadn't noticed before. If she tried to escape, they would see her. She made a mental note of where all the watchtowers she could see were as Taran and the guard bantered with each other. The security guard opened the door and gestured for Taran and Brigette to enter. Brigette did not move. It took Taran a moment to notice and he halted in the large doorway. Brigette tried to ignore the shakiness of her body. Taran turned to look at her, slowly.

"Brigette," his tone was laced with warning.

Brigette did not move, could not move, "I'm too young to die."

Taran scoffed and looked her up and down, "How old even are you?"

Brigette ignored his question, "I have a family, a mother to take care of."

Taran's eyes travelled up and down her body and then to the guard, "Should we tranquillise her? Her Majesty will be disappointed if I don't have her here by midnight."

Brigette froze. Her Majesty? How much trouble was she in? She tried to remember the countries she knew of that still had a monarchy but her mind went blank. She cursed herself for leaving school so early. But what did another country have to do with her? Brigette couldn't even really understand what she had done wrong. Sure, she had stolen from The Good Folk but they had let her. They did not try to stop her, even when she waited for them to do so. She racked her brain to try and place family she might have living in other lands, but nothing came up. She was Erinean, thoroughly so.

Brigette eyed the security guard who picked up an off-looking arrow from his arsenal. He removed the old arrow he had nocked in his bow and replaced it with this strange one. The tranquilliser, Brigette realised.

"That won't be necessary," Brigette said quickly.

She would need to be alert and awake once they went behind these walls. She didn't know what would be on the other side of this doorway and she needed to know her way out in case the opportunity for her escape arose. Brigette held her hands up in the air and took one step closer to the doorway.