Wings of Hope

Chapter Two

Dark and cold and damp. That was all that surrounded me in the endless loop of time. I didn't know how long I had been locked up, how long the feeling of steel had bitten into my ankles and wrists with the chains I had been bound with, but it felt like it had been days. Thin slits of glass in the ground were my only source of light as I lay on top of them, no strength left in my body to move. When I peered through them, there was nothing but clouds beneath me.

My mouth was so dry that my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, making it difficult to swallow, and my stomach clawed away at my insides, demanding any sort of food since it had been deprived for days on end. I had tried to talk to some of the guards stationed outside my cell when I had first been thrown and sealed in the iron bars, but it was no use. Either they didn't speak the human tongue, or they were excellent at hiding it.

I was so weak that I couldn't even feel my power beneath my skin anymore, racing through my veins. The Goddess's presence, despite her body now being nothing more than a corpse of shadows, would have been comforting throughout my time spent in Nusal so far.

How could I have been so foolish to trust the enemy so blindly? I had seen Larc in pain and all it took was my power to surge through me to heal him and trust him with everything I had, all because I felt bad. Haera had been right all along.

My eyes stung, as if tears were trying to emerge but I knew my body didn't have the resources to create them.

Footsteps approached the bars and, from what I could tell, there were more sets of feet than there usually were. Normally only one guard unlocked my cell to prod me and make sure I was still breathing, but now there had to be at least three or four guards. What was going on?

I didn't bother to turn over to see them, nor did I try and ask what was going on. Even if they did understand me, my pleas to speak to Larc or even the Queen were left unheard. If I could just find out what they wanted with me, I could negotiate something and form a plan to get out of Nusual, to get back to the Kingdom of Aerla.

The iron bars behind me slid away, scraping along the ground, and the cuffs around my ankles and wrists were unlocked, causing me to finally look around at what was happening. Two red-winged Dragon-borns surrounded me, their wings acting as a barricade to stop me from fleeing whatever they had planned for me.

I almost chuckled at the fact that they thought I even had the energy to move.

One guard picked me up and threw me over her shoulder, her hands holding me tightly so I didn't wriggle. I watched the ground as I was carried and flown out of the dungeons where I had been kept. It changed from damp stone bricks with moss growing between the cracks, to a smooth wood that shined with polish, then to a soft cream carpet.

The guard holding me spoke in Kaeuni and a familiar voice replied in the same language — Larc's voice.

The arms holding me removed themselves from my body and I fell to the floor. As I hit the carpeted ground, Larc's voice increased in rage, the Kaeuni rushing from his lips like an uncontrollable waterfall. Whatever he said made the guards quickly leave the room, closing the door behind them.