Her Ice

Chapter Twenty-One

Elisheva sat in a damp, dark cell alone. Metcalf was taken somewhere else she didn't know. She sat there with hugging her knees with the cold wall against her back. Her dress was torn and dirty and her face was tear stained. There was no way out and she knew it. She was going to die from her sisters hand and there was nothing she could do about it. Her ice magic wouldn't help her against her sisters black magic. Black magic was too powerful and deadly. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall. She tried to clear her mind, but it kept running back to where Metcalf was. Elisheva hoped he was just in another cell and not being beaten or tortured by Greta's henchmen.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps came towards her cell. She opened her eyes to see Aden standing behind the bars, looking at her.

"What do you want?" She tried to sound brave, but her trembling voice gave away her fear. She took a deep breath as she straightened her back.

Aden knelt down and cocked his head to one side. "Do you really think that I'm the enemy?"

Elisheva narrowed her eyes at him. "You did lead us to our death."

Aden smiled and shook his head. "Actually, Princess, General Anguo lead you to your death, not me. Remember? You and my brother had my hands and feet tied when I tried to bring you here." His smiled faded a bit. "To be honest with you, I wasn't going to bring you here." He paused. "At least until you were ready to come back."

"What do you mean?"

Aden looked down the hallway before answering her, "Last year, a riot broke out in a small village named Noctis. My wife, Manami, was visiting her family there when the riot broke out. The Kings guards came and put the whole village under arrest, including my wife. They then separated the people into two groups. One was to stay under house arrest and the second," he looked down. "The second was to be exiled and never return." He became silent as he stared at the floor. "The reason they were exiled, according to the guards, was because of a food shortage."

Elisheva watched him carefully and finally understood. "Your wife was part of the second group, wasn't she?" she asked him carefully.

Aden nodded. "She was." He looked up at her. "Greta promised me my wife's return if I brought you to her, but I knew of Greta's unkept promises. I knew that she wouldn't bring my wife back, but I took the job anyway." He shrugged. "I'm desperate to bring her back to me. I thought that if I went into Exilium alone I would find my brother and he would help me find Manami. But instead I found you and him. The plan would have worked if Anguo hadn't found us and brought us here."

"So what are you going to do?" Elisheva asked him.

Aden reached into his pocket and brought out a pair of keys. He jingled them and smiled. "I'm going to get you out of here."

Elisheva quickly stood up and walked over to where Aden was unlocking the door. She didn't know why she trusted him so fast. It was true that he wasn't the one who brought them here, it was Anguo, but he still took the job to bring her here. For some reason, the story he told about his wife sounded convincing to Elisheva. She hoped deep down that what he was saying were true.

Aden opened the door and ushered her out. He motioned for her to follow him and he led her down the long hallway and out a back door. Once through the door they entered into the courtyard. There were no windows in the prison, so she didn't know that night had already came. The courtyard was dark besides the few tall candle lit staffs that sat in even rows leading down to the main round.

Aden turned towards her. "We have to stay in the shadows," he whispered.

Elisheva nodded. She followed him along the wall staying out of the light. They were halfway through the courtyard when she remembered something. She grabbed Aden's arm. He turned to look at her.

"Metcalf," was all she said to him.

Aden looked at her. "Where is he?"

"I don't know," she whispered back.

Suddenly they heard the sound of a whip meeting flesh and painful scream. Aden and Elisheva quickly looked at each other and quickly walked towards the scream. As they got closer the sound of the whip meeting flesh grew louder. Finally, they came upon a small ring.

Short iced walls surrounded the snowy ring. In the middle a tall pole stuck out of the ground. A slumped figure was tied to the pole while two burly guards snapped their whips against the figures back. Two more whips ripped across the figures back again. Aden slapped a hand over Elisheva's mouth before she could scream.

"That's enough!" A sharp voice ordered from the shadows. Greta walked out of the shadows and towards the guards. "You may go." She waited until the guards were gone before she turned towards the figure. She walked closer to the figure and knelt down beside it. "Did you really think that you can get away with what you did?"

"I didn't kill him," the deep, shaky voice sounded very familiar to Elisheva.

Greta grabbed the figures chin and made it look at her. "You did," she growled. "My father exiled you, but I wanted you dead. You killed the only boy that looked at me differently. He never looked at me like I was a Princess, like I had to be treated differently. He looked at me like I was his equal and you killed him!"

"I never knew him!" The voice grew stronger. "I never killed him!"

Greta slapped him and stood up. "You did! I have witnesses! People saw you! I will make sure the your precious girl sees what you really are and I will make sure that she sees you die a slow and painful death!" She turned around on her heel and stormed out of the ring.

Aden and Elisheva waited until they were sure no one else was near the ring. Aden turned towards Elisheva, "Stay here. I'll be right back."

Elisheva grabbed his arm. "No. I'm coming with you." Aden open his mouth to protest, but Elisheva interrupted him, "I'm not staying here risking the fact that I might get caught and put back in that cold cell while you are out there being a big hero and rescuing him! I'm coming too!"

Aden looked into her eyes and reluctantly nodded. "Fine. Let's go." He made sure no one was in sight before helping her jump the low wall. He then jumped over after her and walked towards the slumped figure.

As they got closer they could see clearly the jagged red lines running down his back. Elisheva gasped when she saw who the figure was.

"Metcalf!" She ran the rest of the way towards him and fell down at his side.

He slowly looked up at her and strained a smile. "Hi, Eva."

"Why did she do this to you?" She looked at the cuts on his back.

"You heard what she said," Aden came up behind him and got to work on releasing Metcalf from the pole. Once the bonds were loose, Aden grabbed Metcalf's arms and placed one around his shoulders. He was careful to not hurt Metcalf too much as he half carried him out of the ring.

Elisheva followed behind them for what seemed like a long time in the shadows. Finally, they stopped in front of a small house. Aden checked around them before knocking lightly on the door. A couple of minutes later a small female figure opened the door.

"Imelda, we need your help."