Power's Pride {Watty Awards 2013 Entry}

Chapter 1

Chapter One

A faint sound interrupted Reba’s eighth round of cataloguing every minute detail she could perceive in the rotting darkness of her confinement. Seven floor-to-ceiling bars still separated her from the rest of the corridor. Thick, algae-covered stone that squished just slightly when she pressed her hand against it kept her from the sea. She still couldn’t see anything beyond her bars except the silhouette of another wall...which she supposed was just as unpleasant to the touch as all three of her own. Water dropped sporadically from the ceiling onto some wooden item somewhere down the hall that she was beginning to suspect had been placed beneath the drip specifically to annoy prisoners with the irregular sound that seemed to never quite allow her to attain the necessary state of mind for meditation. In fact, in the eight times she had identified and categorized the details of her dungeon, only two things had changed: The smell from the corner she had designated as her lavatory had grown more pungent, and, suddenly, there were…footsteps coming towards her cell.

Because she refused to consider the possible reasons her captors might choose to approach her, Reba decided to distract herself by making a game out of trying to guess which of the four wretches who dared to call themselves “Hunters” were now walking down her hall. Her ears were certain they could hear only one set of footsteps, so that ruled out the small, greasy, black-haired Hunter. He could never have the courage to face a witch alone - even a subdued, drugged, and imprisoned witch like her. As the sound grew louder, it was evident that the footsteps were the result of a strong, purposeful gait - a manly gait. That ruled out the one woman Hunter, “Good,” Reba thought. “I didn’t want to listen to that nasty, conceited bitch regale me with descriptive threats of violation and torture, again, anyway.” That thought brought Reba dangerously close to contemplating the intent of her visitor, but she viciously shut down that mental path before her mind could begin to explore it.

With the exclusion of the coward and the tramp, the only two possibilities that remained were the Hunter who liked to eat too much and the one who constantly leered at her. Oddly, though, she couldn’t imagine such powerful and assured steps belonging to either of those two fools. Maybe it was the woman, after all... Reba had to admit that, in many ways, the female Hunter was the most “manly” of the four charged with escorting her to her “public trial” with King Rufus. At least...that was where they claimed they were taking her, but Reba knew of no route from the Hunters’ Guild to the Capital Court which required over three weeks of travel by sea past Devil’s Bane Island.

“Witch. Eat.” Reba’s head spun around at the barked command, and her heart froze in terror as her emerald eyes met the icy cold blue of The Hound’s – the single-most feared Hunter in the Guild. True to his name, he bared his teeth in a hideous snarl as he thrust a bowl of...something at her through a small grate at the bottom of her cell entrance.

Reba stared at him, unable to fathom his presence. The Hound had not been among her guards previously and they had never stopped to pick up any passengers. How was he here? Why was he here?

She sucked in a sharp breath as the obvious answer hit her. "The Hound almost always executed the “most dangerous” witch criminals. He is here to kill me. Powers be! I am truly going to die." No witch had ever eluded The Hound on a hunt, and none had ever escaped him. Tears would have flown freely from her eyes at this realization if the fear was not so paralyzing.

“If you refuse to eat of your own volition, I will pin you against the floor and force the gruel down your throat with nothing but your own waste to pillow your pretty red hair.” The calm detachment in his voice sent shivers down her spine, and she was certain he would fulfill his threat word-for-word if she refused to cooperate. Reba knew the food contained parthenion - a drug that suppressed her magical abilities and left her, essentially, defenseless. But if she was going to be forced to consume the nasty stuff regardless, she chose to do so with as much of her dignity intact as possible.