Chapter 6: Murtagh
Bluestone awoke to the sound of water dripping on stone. She sniffled and rolled onto her side. Something held her wrists together. A little tick inside her head told Bluestone that she had to wake up, but the hard bed and scratchy sheets seemed as soft as clouds and warm as silk.
But the fealing insisted and, eventually, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She lloked down and saw a pair of connected metal manacles chained to a ring on the cot she sat upon Thick stone walls surrounded her, the one directly across from her cot had a large door with a small, barred window set into it. She rose and looked around. The cell was tall, circular, and large. A rectangular window set with bars on the wall above her bead created the only illumination, a faint blue-ish light, besides her own eyes within the shadowy cell.
Her ear began to itch, so she scratched at it. A horrible realization washed over her as she felt the long, narrow cartilage. Bluestone let out a startled gasp. "I'm not in my human form!" she thought and looked down at her long, fair hands and body. "Thrice dammit all! They know what I am!... Or maybe they don't. I hardly resemble the elves of this relm so hopefully they question me before taking any drastic measures." She glanced at her shackles. "These shouldn't be too hard to break." She said alloud and, willing the magick within her, blew upon the metal.
Nothing happened. She tried again without even the smallest snowflake appearing. "Have they silenced me?" she wondered and sat back on the cot. "Oh Brom. Why didn't I listen to you?"
~ ~ ~
She had been sitting on the cot for some time before the door opened and a man walked in, his face concealed in shadows. "What is your name?" he asked. His voice rang plesantly within Bluestone's ears.
A smile touched her red lips. "Is this Galbatorix's game?" she asked. "Send in a young man, nay a boy, to come and talk nice to me and coax my secrets? He sat down with his back against the wall, only his legs where more than a dark outline. "Actually I don't think Galbatorix knows I'm here. Very few are allowed access into your cell." Bluestone cocked her head to the right. "Then who are you to come and visit me within my winter palace?" She asked, sarcasm clothing her words.
He fidgeted. "That's sort of a touchy subject." Silence cloaked the cell, then he sighed and said, "My name is Murtagh." Bluestone got up and walked to Murtagh, but the chains only allowed her mobility of three-fourths the cell, and so she sat whare her chains where most taught. "Sinu a'manore Murtagh. I am Bluestone."
Murtagh inched to her untill he sat about two feet away. The light finally shone upon his face. His hair and eyes were dark, his skin slightly tanned. He wore clothes fit for a prince, but looked uncomfortable in them. "Well Bluestone, I'd like to tell you that you are very beautiful." he said akwardly. She smiled at him. "And you, my dear, are very handsome." His face turned a shade of bright red and Bluestone let out a rich, full throated laugh.
"I'm sorry to ruin the momment," she began, "but why do they shackle me so?" She held up her bound hands to him. Murtagh scootched closer to her and held her wrists in his, rubbing a thumb against her left shackle. "They fear you are much more dangerous than you look." He said quietly and then lifted his eyes to hers. "You did kill thirteen of the King's best men with that little spell you used." She grinned. "Only thirteen?"
"Why did you do it?" Murtagh asked, his voice sounded so incredibly sad. Bluestone raised her heavy head and in a dry voice said, "I had to." "But he's going to torture you and turn you into one of his pets!" It surprised Bluestone at how concermned he sounded. Her grin turned into a scowell. "I'd like to see him try! Men stronger and far more feirce than this King have tried and failed to break me. Besides, why do you care what happens to me?" Murtagh let out a long sigh. "I don't really know." He said, "I just deal like I need to protect you however way I can."
~ ~ ~
The next day Bluestone awoke to the sound of her cell door slamming shut. "And who might I have the pleasure of seeing on this fine morning?" She asked, eyes still closed.
"You should take better care to what words you say to what people." A man's voice, smooth as silk and venemous as a viper's, said from the door. "There may be," he paused, "consequences." Bluestone sat up, but couldn't see the man's face. "I only mind my tongue around those who deserve it." The man laughed, sending an all too framiliar tingle up her spine.
"Now," he said, "I would like to know exactly how you put a crater in one of my most prestigious squares and killed thirteen of my finest men." Bluestone stood up and walked to him. "So, you are the infamous King Galbatorix, eh?" She asked. The shadow of his head moved. "Why yes, yes I am. But you still haven't answered my question: What magick did you use in the squar?"
Bluestone laughed. "Those magicks are for my mind and mine alone." Then she smirked."If you knew even a morsel of what I do, it would destroy you." The figure thudded heavily towards the cell door and it banged shut with even more force than before. Bluestone smiled to herself and sat back on the cot, singing Thalassain lullibies that her mother and older sister would sing so many years ago
