Mythigore | A Fablehaven and Dragonwatch Adventure |

Chapter Ten - "Binding"

Seth was held tightly in place by two stone guards. He was pinned down on a obsidian alter, legs being pushed painfully into the end of it, while his arms were held above his head. His breathing hitched as something cold wrapped around it and squeezed. Seth couldn't tell if it was a hand or not. The bag over his head was thick and impossible to look through, let alone breath through.

He gagged as a terrible smell seeped underneath the fabric covering his face. Feeling disorientated and weak, Seth jerked around trying to loosen the grip of the stone hands holding him down, but to no avail.

Forming words felt unattainable. All he could do was keep his questions in his mind. One moment we was talking to the witches, the next he was being tackled from behind. How did he go from agreeing to the invitation, to being dragged onto an alter and then having a bag shoved over his head. Was the invitation just a gateway for them to kill him? He couldn't wrap his head around what was going on.

"Calm down," A voice soothed. Seth could tell it was one of the witches, but he didn't know which one. "This should only take a moment."

"W-what?" Seth stammered in confusion, yanking his left hand from the grip of a stone guard. He felt and heard the stone wrist break as he freed his arm. Seth immediately reached for whatever was holding his neck.

A rope. It was a rope to hold the bag around his head.

Seth pulled at both the rope and the bag, but was unable to successfully take them off as something grabbed his wrist and slammed it back above his head. He sucked in a hiss as something sharped jabbed into it and into the alter, keeping his wrist in place. Pain shot through his hand and fingers until they went numb, his lower arm being left to feel most of the burning wound. "What the heck is going on!" He shouted.

"We're so sorry," Said one of the witches. "We don't want to hurt you, my dear boy. We just can't have you fighting back."

"What am I not supposed to fight back, exactly?" Seth demanded with heat in his tone. "Because right now, my instincts are telling me to attack the best I can." He pulled at his right wrist, hoping he can tear it free. He tensed as he felt a soft hand wrapped around his right hand, and he stopped.

"If you don't fight, we promise there will be no pain," A witch whispered in reassurance. "You won't even know that anything is happening."

It was a bit late to promise that. With something limiting his breathing, and another thing stabbed through his left wrist, their so called "promise" felt dry. They were dodging his question, too. It didn't spring up much comfort being told to "calm down" in his current situation. Though he didn't want to, Seth held still.

Silence followed. He couldn't even hear movement. The eerie, hushed atmosphere made Seth think about how quiet fablehaven had been before he was taken. He wondered if Kendra found out what was keeping the preserve silent. He also wondered if she was looking for him. There was no doubt that she would be trying to locate him. But would grandpa let her take action if she found anything useful? Would she even take action?

His older sister had changed into a pretty different person by the time the dragon war ended. Sometimes, Seth could see that Kendra was more confidents in herself. More aware of herself. Personally, Seth felt like his sister turned out to be more protective than grandpa and grandma Sorenson at times, but he couldn't blame her. At lot happened during the war.

"There," A voice sang, ripping Seth from his thought. "All done."

The rope around Seth's neck was taken off. The bag came off shortly after. Once it was, Seth took in a deep breath through his nose, and blinked away tears from his irritated eyes. He looked up to see, who he thought was Avalon, smiling down at him. Her perfect teeth and ruby eyes showing much appreciation. If Seth's mom was giving him that look, he would have smiled back, but sense it was coming from a witch, it made him shiver. "What did you do to me?" He asked in a nervous whisper.

Avalon's smile changed to a smirk. She wrapped her hand around the knife keeping Seth's left arm in place and yanked it out, replacing it with her other hand to keep him from moving too much.

Seth yelled and bucked his hips into the air. They were quickly shoved back down onto the alter by one of Avalon's sisters. Seth could feel the blood from his wrist start to ooze out with a heavier flow due to the loss of something blocking it. He gritted his teeth as the pain shot from his wrist to his neck, causing him to reflexively jerk his head to the side. Taking in shuddered breaths, he heard Avalon snicker.

"Goodness," She said, slowly releasing her grip on him. "I didn't expect retracting the knife to hurt so much."

Hands left his waist, and his right arm was freed from the stone guard holding it. As if released from a slingshot, Seth positioned his hands just above his head and kicked his legs into the air, jerking his body upright, and shooting him into a standing position. He spotted a sword hanging on the wall for decoration and dove for it, dodging one of the witches as she went of his legs. Seth took the sword from the hall and whirled around to face his captors, standing his ground.

All three of the witches looked at him with wonder, delight, and irritation swimming in their eyes. At least... two of them were. The witch in the middle smiled at Seth greedily, as he stood ready to attack the next person who got too close.

"My," She said in a low voice. "Such smooth flexibility. Interesting to see your reflexes still sharp after so long."

Seth Ignored the comment. "Alright you witch," He spat, looking at the one in the middle. "What's really going on here?"

"Whatever do you mean?" She asked innocently.

"None of what has been going on lately has been adding up," Seth said. "First, Fablehaven is deathly quiet. Then some whispers come and invade my home, offering to turn me back into a shadow charmer. Then a ruler of the shadow realm brings me to you three,"

"You've already gone over this," The middle witch said, which Seth was certain of it being Avalon.

"I'm not finished," He said sternly. "Then you tie me up and throw me into a cell. Bring me out and treat me like a royal guest- in a way-, invite me and my family to some fancy dinner when we have never met before, and there are zero connections between you and me. I'm not going to count the singing sisters,"

"Listen, boy," Alavon seethed, her sweet and adoring side melting away.

"The moment I accept your invitation, you bind me to your weird alter," Seth continued. He payed no mind to the growing anger showing on Avalon's face, and the concern showing on her sisters'. "So what I'm getting at here, is you need me for something. Your actions don't add up with how you supposedly feel. If you were civil and really meant no harm to anyone, I'm sure you three would have been clever enough to find a better way of contacting me." 

Avalon's face was dark. She glared daggers into Seth's eyes as he looked back at her with a stone expression.

"Me accepting the invitation was an opening," Seth concluded.

"So it is," Said the witch on Avalon's right. Most likely Sedona. "But there isn't anything to be done about it now,"

"What do you mean?"

"The invitation was an opening to bind you to us," Avalon's dangerous tone made the air feel thick.

Seth lowered his sword by a centimeter. All the color drained from his face and his heart jumped into his throat. "What...?"