Escape from Whitestone Hold

Desperate- Chapter 10

Over the next few hours, the army of the Magistrate escorted Maltheus, Sapphira, and all the other citizens back through the forest, towards the ruined city. The journey was agonizing for Sapphira's exhausted body, and the terrain was rough, even despite the trail the Magistrate had blazed through the underbrush while on their way. But what made the walk even worse was that Sapphira was escorted with extra guards as a result of Storm's comments on the danger she presented. The guards would not let her walk with her family, or even see Maltheus, whom they were carrying elsewhere on a stretcher. She had done her best to intimidate the guards sent to separate them, but unfortunately at the moment she lacked the strength to back up her threats and snarls. The only solace during the journey was that the rain finally stopped and the clouds began to disperse. Everything and everyone was still soaked and freezing, but at least that included the Magistrate.

At last, the tall walls of the city faded into view as the sky was beginning to brighten, hinting that daylight would soon peek out from around the shattered moon. Sapphira nearly sighed in relief, expecting their journey to end once they reached the Magistrate refugee camp outside the north side of the city. Instead, the Magistrate led the procession back into the city, and continued along one of the main streets towards the center of town, where the Magistrate tower still loomed menacingly, keeping watch over the smoldering debris and corpses of a once-thriving city. Where were the Magistrate taking these people? Would the Magistrate camps not be enough suffering?

Sapphira dragged her tired feet onwards, one step after another as one of the Magistrate calvary suddenly split off from the group and stopped in front of a stone wall in a small alley. Sapphira stopped and turned curiously to watch him, only to have one of her guards rudely shove her forward once again. But that did not stop Sapphira from hearing the unmistakable sound of a large stone sliding across a stone floor. She craned her neck for a view of the alley, but it was too late. The group had walked too far. Sapphira growled in tired frustration as she continued looking back, catching a glimpse of two soldiers carrying Maltheus' stretcher into the alley as well, accompanied by several other soldiers and horsemen. But the main group continued on, drawing nearer and nearer to the large central tower.

At last, they reached the tower courtyard, which was surrounded by a twenty-foot stone wall and a set of large, bronze doors. The doors opened to accommodate the sea of tired prisoners and soldiers, most of which just wanted to rest. The courtyard held a few stone braziers with different-colored flames, and the entire clearing was paved with stone, leaving no shred of greenery visible within the oppressive, prison-like walls. Still, the Magistrate led on towards the tower in the center of the courtyard. Sapphira and the other unfortunate prisoners were escorted through a giant set of doors for the tower, this time thirty feet high and made of what seemed to be solid iron. As they crossed the threshold, the air became stale and cold, and all scents of the smokey battlefield were replaced with clean, almost alchemical smells. And the promise of daylight was swallowed by darkness and torchlight as the great doors shut behind them. The room they had entered was a huge cylinder, with a hollow spire ascending through the middle of the tower, flanked by stone rooms supported by a long, spiraling corkscrew of stone that circled along the outer wall of the tower. Walkways crisscrossed the central shaft, connecting different floors of the spiraling platforms. A strange purple glow emanated from a room far above, and metal pipes lined the walls of the tower with rigid precision, transporting unknown materials elsewhere in the impressive complex. But, most terrifying of all, the spiraling platform and rooms did not stop at ground level, where Sapphira and the other citizens stood in some kind of hangar. The hollow hole in the center extended downwards into the earth as well. Sapphira took a hesitant step towards the gaping abyss, looking down into the dark chambers below, where scaffolding and pipes haphazardly connected still more spiraling rooms in the deep below the city. Foul noises of grinding metal and unknown creatures echoed up from the depths. Magistrate workers with black, skull-like beaker insignias on their uniforms march back and forth across the hive-like facility, carrying potions, crystals, books, and machine parts. Somehow, some way, this had gotten worse than the refugee camps.