The Wild Hunt (Part One)

Silence

My breathing was heavy, strained. I found it hard to suck in air from the leather restraint around my neck. The thick leather was moist from my perspiration and rubbed the skin on my neck raw. It stung every time I moved.

The restraints at my wrist did the same and I felt the blistering pain there grow with every tug and twist. I was in a cell somewhere on the palace grounds. They had me strung between the two walls opposite of each other and a chain attached from the back wall to the anchor on my collar. My feet were not bound and it took all my strength not to drop to my knees. If I fell to my knees the leather at my wrist would slice into my skin and the collar around my neck would do the same. I've fallen twice now. I'd knew I would pass out from the pain if I fell a third time.

It was dimly lit in this cell. There were no windows and the air was stale. A single lantern sat in the corner of the room near a bucket of water. I eyed the liquid, swallowing the dryness in my throat. I was so thirsty.

Serri. I closed my eyes. What were you thinking? Why? After finding out you were to be betrothed to General Yakmen, a small part of me was thankful that our goodbye would be short. I would have continued seeing you. I would have come to you in the darkest of hours, the quietest of evenings. I would have saved you through the hard times. Met you after, would have taken you into my arms and held you until there were no more tears. We could have had each other. Together.

I couldn't help myself and hung my head down. The collar bit into the rounded muscle in my throat, but I didn't care. I felt the tears stream down my face.

Why did you leave me? Why didn't you find me? Why didn't you take me with you?

I sniffled, wishing I could wipe the pathetic tears that fell. She didn't love me. She only kissed me because she knew it was goodbye. She pitied me and yet... and yet, I'm so proud of her. I'm so proud of her for doing the unthinkable, for finally saying enough is enough. She was a slave to this palace. A servant to her father. A puppet in this world. She deserved freedom.

The tears stopped and I found the strength again to lift my head up, just in time for the door in front of me to open.

Two guards clad in gold and emerald walked in first, followed after by the king himself. Serri's father. He didn't deserve that title.

He wore a long black cape over a deep green tunic and a gold sash across his chest. The eye of Bayor was a glimmer of yellow between the shadows of his narrowed brows. He raised his nose and sniffed the air.

"Is this what resistance smells like? Piss and blood."

I gritted my teeth, clamping my mouth closed tight. I would continue to find the strength to endure his agony, until I couldn't any longer. For Serri, I would die. Part of me hoped she would not want to see my face again and not return for me. Even if the weakest part of me prayed that she would. That small, weak part of me who loved her more than I loved myself.

I watched the two guards come to stand on either side of me. Their mask resembled the face of a monkey and a ring of flames crowned the top of it. The eye of Bayor was stamped into their Brest plates with emerald gemstones. Their mouths were thin lines. Never in my seventeen years of life had I ever seen them move. I was born into servanthood. Serving was all I had ever known. These palace walls was were my home dwelled, but once my mother was executed and brother hung, Serri became my home. I lived to serve her. That day she found me I knew I would find happiness again.

"Did they cut out your tongue already?" The king mused. He stroked his long beard, pacing slowly in front of me.

I'd cut that length of hair off and use it to choke him with it if I had the opportunity.

"Or are you still refusing to speak?"

I glanced between the two guards. They faced each other. Their darkened eye holes stared at one another. I always wondered if they had a voice. If it was even a human behind that mask.

"Speak." The king ordered.

I glared at him. No! He stopped his pacing to look me in the eyes. "Now."

Both guards lashed out at me. The one to my left rammed his gold knuckles into my side while the other slammed his elbow against my face. I felt the pain in my side immediately and winced, restraining the cry that rose in my throat. The assault on my face, that- that was something I had grown use to from being beaten by the kitchen hand for stealing food, time after time. I was always hungry. There was a permanent bruise upon that cheek. A ruddy mark where the flesh became leather like from healing over and over again. The thick skin muted the pain.

The guards returned to their positions. The king smirked and stepped forward. I steadied my breathing as he approached. I had never been this close to the king before. From afar he looked regal in his old age but up close his face was wrinkled, aged with freckles and sagging cheeks. His grey eyes were lifeless, dull and sunken. Nothing like Serri's grey eyes. Her eyes were light, stormy and swelled into a blue-gray when she was excited. The resemblance was not there.

He reached out his hand and dragged his thumb across my cheek. He pulled it back and there was a smear of blood on it. His eyes lit up as he marked my forehead with it. A gleam of something feral flashed across his eyes before he stepped back.

What was he going to do? What had he drawn on my forehead? I balled my hands into fist, anticipating another assault.

The guard to my right came around to stand in front of me. I briefly saw my reflection in the face of his mask before he grabbed both sides of my head and brought it down hard against his shielded knee.

A sickening crunch sounded in the small room and I gasped as pain bursted out across my face. I felt it radiate through my skull before my vision went blurry. I couldn't find the voice to cry out before everything went black.