Skyrim V: Shadow over Markarth

Chapter Seven: Surviving

Arodil was getting worse. 
  I kneeled down by my brother's side as his inflamed back radiated with heat. He had twenty deep lashes down his back, so raw they were down to his muscle. The Thalmor didn't hold back at all.  I felt his forehead, he was very hot to the touch. "Arodil." I say, and he murmurs in his sleep. I was about to say another thing when I heard the sound of a guard snapping. "Where is she?!" I jumped up and quickly rushed out of the cell, I didn't want Arodil to get punished more for me being inside.   A large Nord with silver hair and beard stared down at me as I exited the cell. "What were you doing in there? You are supposed to be working." He backed me into a wall. I stammered, "I was, I was just checking on-" I didn't finish that statement the man smacked his gauntlet into the side of my left ear. Pain roared in my ear drum as I fell down on my knees, my hand pulling away now slick with blood.
 "Do not back talk to me girl!" The guard roared. He lifted his boot to step on my hand when out of defense,  I let out one of my Shouts. "FUS-RO-DAH!" The guard flew back into the poles of the wooden scaffold in a daze.  One of the other guards stood at the edge of the room, monitoring the prisoners, with a smirk on his face. I get back up to my feet, dizzy from the pain in my ear and now afraid of what the guard was going to do to me. The main guard stood up, his eyes red in fury as he unsheathes his sword, "You will pay for that!" I fall back against the wall and shield my face, expecting a blow when the guard is stopped. I looked up as Sinding had his hand wrapped around the guard's wrist, holding his weapon hand back. "Taniiaae, go!" he urged and I scrambled to my feet. The guard looked at him in anger and bashed his lead foot into Sinding's shin. Sinding released his grip and stumbled leading the guard to kick him in the mouth. I gasp as I rush over to my husband, his blood pooling from his teeth as he looked up at the guard. 
 "Velin! Enough!" said another voice as to my relief, Madanach comes forward from one of the tunnels. Behind him was Borkul the Beast and a few other Forsworn men. 
The guard glared at the King in Rags. "Who are you to tell me what to do, prisoner?"   
  Madanach stared down Velin with a glint in his eye. "I know that your employers, the Silver-Bloods pay your wages. What if I was to tell them you have been stealing some of the Silver Ore we have been mining? About you sending it to your family in Karthspire."
 Velin paled and scoffed. "Ah! Fine, but don't think your threats will mean anything for very long, old man. Remember who is really in charge here." The guard stomped off towards the scaffold and let himself out of the jail. Madanach looked at Sinding and I and held out a hand to my husband. "You alright, son?" Sinding spat out a glob of blood and took his hand. Sinding nodded, "As much as I can be, can't say that's the most painful wound I've gotten, but it definitely rattled my teeth." 
 He looked over at me and his face blanched. "What did he do to you?" He gently tilted my chin to look at my ear. Blood rain from my inner ear as I could feel the pulsing throb in my skull. "He did this? I didn't see...." Sinding said as I speak up, "It wasn't your fault. I was already on the floor when you came in. He was angry because I was trying to look at Arodil, and used his armored hand to slap me in the ear. I made him more angry because I used my voice."  
"Ahhh so that was you doing that." Madanach said, the old man smiling a little. "It seems you didn't go down easily." 
  I look at Sinding and then back at the King in Rags. "I never back down easily."  I sucked in a breath as Sinding says, "You're hearing?" 
"I still feel like I can ear from both my ears," I say, "But my left ear sounds like there is a little ringing and just throbbing pain."
"Sounds like her ear drum didn't break."  said a new voice as another tall Breton walked beside Madanach. He looked at Sinding for a moment, his eyes wide. "He's a Nord?" 
I look back at Sinding, his hands still gently holding my face, his red blood trickling down his lip and neck as he looked at the other Forsworn in surprise. "Aye, I am."
"He's not our enemy, Braig." Madanach said, looking at the other man. The other Breton was taller than the King in Rags, with a receding hairline but with long, stringy hair on the sides of his head by his wars. He had dark blue warpaint above his eyes, and his mustache made his frown more prominent. "This man is the spouse to the Dragonborn, my granddaughter."  Madanach said. Braig looked at me and then back at Sinding, then finally at Madanach. "He's a Nord. His kind is why Aethra is dead.....why I am in here...."" Braig's voice broke and he glared at Sinding with hatred. 
 I swallow. "He may be a Nord, but he's my husband, and that is what matters most to me." I say gently reach a hand to touch Braig's forearm. He stiffened but didn't jerk away as I said, "I'm sorry for what the Nords did....what they did to you, and to your Aethra-"
"My daughter didn't want to see her papa taken away, so when she begged the Jarl for mercy, he made me watch as she was beheaded. She would of been twenty-three this year, around your age...."  He started to weep and out of the blue, I took his hand in mine and say, "I'm so sorry. I really am." 
     Braig looked up at me and squeezed my hand as he gently pulled it away. "I don't need your pity..... but I thank you for it, Princess of the Reach." He roughly wiped his tears away as he looked at Sinding. "If she trusts and loves you, then I won't kill you." 
 Sinding gave a nervous laugh. "Good to know." 
Braig turned back towards me and said, "You need someone to look at that wound in your ear." 
"But how, there are no healers in this prison." I say as Madanach shakes his head. "That's what they want you to think, but we do have someone who is knowledgeable in some things....he is the closest thing we have to a healer here."
  Braig nods, "I'll go find Odvan." he rushes off towards one of the other cell doors. "What about Arodil? Has this healer saw to him?" I ask.
Madanach nods, "The boy's lashes are deep. He was whipped not only to be shamed by the Thalmor, but to be severely punished. They poisoned the whip so he wouldn't heal well. Odvan did what he could, but it was over his head." Sinding whiped away the blood from his chin, but still left some of the smears still visible, "How can we help him?" 
Madanach gave him a sad smile. "We are still trying to figure that out." 
He turned as a skinny Breton with a shaved head other than the long strip of brown down the middle walked up following Braig. He seemed a little younger than the others, but less sober. He stopped and stared at me and then Sinding as Madanach said, "Odvan, this is Taniiaae, the Dragonborn and my granddaughter and her spouse. We were hoping you could provide a little healing."
  Odvan watched as the one guard from earlier, the one who did nothing to help, had left the room, locking the dungeon after himself. He nodded. "I can see what I can do, I learned some things from my aunt when I still free, but more of destruction and conjuration magika than restoration."  He looked over at Sinding first, but Sinding shooed him away. "My wound is nothing, take care of my wife first." He said as Odvan looked at my ear. I grit my tears as the ringing got louder when he tilted the side of my head. He raises his hand and I can hear the tingling of magicka as it touches my skin. It only heals some of the wounds from the outside, but internally, my ear still hurt. Odvan stopped, "I don't think there is much more I can do. I never took the time to learn restoration magicka." 
  The ringing in my ear lessened and I give him a weak smile. "Thank you for your help." 
Odvan looked at Sinding nervously and then back at Madanach. "Some of the others are getting restless, sire."
  "Who is it again? Grisvar?" Madanach said. "I told him that we have to wait to abide our time."
Sinding looked at the old man, "I don't think that we can just 'abide our time'." He swallowed. "We have two children outside of these bars. Two young children, one being only a few weeks old."  Madanach studied me and nodded. "Well, this changes things. This changes alot of things...." He turned to Borkul the Beast. "Tell the others that we will meet tomorrow night at midnight, once the guards are asleep. Before then, we  need to take care of a couple of things." 
He looked over at me and said. "Go into the tunnels and pretend to work or try to work. We have to make 'them'," his eyes raised towards the guards outside of the cell door on top of the scaffold, "think nothing is wrong."
I nodded, the ringing in ear a dull thud now in my aching head. "And do you suppose I work separate from Sinding?" I looked at my husband briefly and then said, "As to not cause any suspicion?" 
  Madanach nods. "That would be wise indeed." He looked at Sinding, "You will come with me into the east tunnels..... Taniiaae, got find Uraccen and tell him to tell you about Grisvar."
"Why though?" I asked, confused. 
Madanach smirked, "Let's just say there is a 'rat' in this prison who is willing to betray others for his own leniency. Go see what you can find out about him. I'm sure he will talk to a gentle woman as yourself."
 I smirked a little and Madanach said, "We will meet later tonight. When the guards change their shifts for the night."  
............................................................................

Serana.

    They left at nightfall.  Lucia was quiet as she held onto Vilkas's hand while Serana held the sleeping Aaiden to her chest. Ronthil followed closely carrying what little they could bring as they met Uaile out in the streets and she lead them out of a secret tunnel out of the city of Markarth. Serana had a bitter taste in her mouth. Between Taniiaae, Sinding and Arodil in prison and now the Jarl and Housecarl trapped inside Understone Keep, everything had fallen apart.  But if this was their only chance to help their friends, they would do it. Tanii had saved her life, Serana thought, it was only fair to help her. 
   Serana pushed the thought away of when Arodil was captured, hearing Ancano said that he would receive twenty lashes. Serana felt sick.  She wanted him to be ok. The last few months they spent together while Taniiaae was pregnant gave them more of a chance to connect. To get to know each other.  She was interested in his carvings, while he took the time to watch her talk about her mother's craft with potions.  He often would get sad when talking to her, about how he once hated her and his sister. But she would tell him he was healing from past horrors like they all were. The sound of something snapping behind her broke Serana from her trance and she looked up. The secret tunnel was dark, and surrounded by dead corpses. Serana's eyes grew accustomed to the darkness as she said, "Uaile, where are we?"
 Uaile looked back and grimaced. "It's the only way I could bring you all out without the Thalmor seeing, but this is the Hall of the Dead."
  Vilkas stopped in his tracks and he said, "The Hall of the Dead? People will be down here to worship."
Uaile shook her head. "That's the thing. No, they won't." 
 "How are you so sure?" Ronthil asks as he picks up Lucia. Uaile looks around the crypt and swallows. "Because the priest here, Brother Verulus is keeping people out." 
"Why?" Serana demands. 
"Because some of the corpses are being 'eaten'." Uaile says, a grim look on her face. 
   Lucia's eyes grew large and Serana felt a bad taste in her mouth. "Who would do something like that?"
  "It's not all so barbaric as you believe, not for the devotees of our mother, Our Lady of Decay." said a sweet seductive voice.  Uaile took in a deep breath as another Breton woman came from the shadows. She had short, dirty-blonde hair, and had stripes of warpaint down her face. She looked to be in her early thirties and was attractive other than left eyer. It was a milky white, blinded by some past injury, but it made the woman look more fierce some.  Uaile nodded her head, "Hello Eola." 
Eola leaned her back against one of the coffins, her arms crossed over her chest. She looked feral in her leather armor as she said, "What brings you here, my pretty? And with your friends?"
"Trying to get them out of the city, the Thalmor rats have several of their people in chains, and I told them I would get them out of Markarth before we plan a prison break." Uaile said. 
Eola smirked. "You know I'm no Forsworn, Uaile." Eola said, looking at her nails. Serana could of sworn see saw dried blood under her nail beds. "But, I hate this city. If the men of this city knew what my cult and I were doing, our worship to Lady Namira, we would be thrown into the Mines ourselves...or killed on the spot." 
  Vilkas looked at Eola and said, "How do you worship your Lady Namira? I know she is one of the Pantheon of Daedric Princes, but what is her type of worship?"
Eola gave him a toothy grin as she said, "I feel if I would tell you, you would be no different than the men of this city." 
 "Eola," Uaile said, "Can you help lead us out of the tunnels? I need to take them to Karthspire immediately."
Eola pushed herself off of the coffin she was leaning against and nodded.  "Only if you give me the names of three men, I can invite to my little gathering in Reachcliff Cave."
 Uaile paled and Serana looked at her as Aaiden started to squirm in her arms. 
Uaile cleared her throat and said, "Velin, guard of the Cidna Mines, Thonar Silver-Blood and Nepos the Nose." 
  Eola's eyes lit at the names but she gave a sneaky grin. "Nepos? Your employer? Interesting since he is a Forsworn sympathizer. "
Uaile gestured for the others to follow her as she started to follow Eola. "He is more than that, yet he has done nothing but grope and take advantage of me. Forsworn or not, you can have him."  
Eola smirked, "With pleasure. Come, follow me. I will lead you out of this place and out of the city, and then it is up to  you to head to Karthspire."
   Ronthil and Serana shared a look but said nothing as they followed Vilkas and the two women while they carried the children. The crypt was dark, but Eola lead the way as if no problem at all. As if this is where she belonged.  The small group followed the strange, Breton woman as she weaved them in and out of the tunnel. Opening the door to a secret passage way, fresh, chilly air hit the group in a relief from the smell of rot in the Hall of the Dead.  Serana sucked in the air in fresh gulps. Memories of being locked away were resurfacing just from her being down here.  She felt her chest tighten as they exited the Halls of the Dead. 
Eola stopped and pointed to the distance. "You will want to keep going that way to make it to Karthspire, that's the only path not swarming with people if you want to get towards the camp undetected. Alot of Thalmor have been seen on the road lately."
  Uaile dipped her head, "Thank you, Eola. I owe you one."
Eola smiled, "I think you have plenty paid your debt. Besides, I might find myself close to Cidna Mines, myself." She bowed her head towards the others and turned back into the tunnel, closing the door behind her. Uaile sighed in relief and says, "It won't take us too long to get to Karthspire, that was the worst part there."
  As the small group followed by the Breton woman, Vilkas asked. "Who was she? Why did she want those men?"
 Uaile didn't look back as she gestured for the part to follow her. She said, "Eola is a very devout worshiper of Namira,  Daedric Prince of Ancient Darkness. Their cult is more....extreme then some of our other brethren within the Daedric Pantheon." Uaile said as she halted, turning back to Vilkas. "They worship in the practice of cannibalism. The art of eating other human beings."