Chapter 4: Ruby
Zindan, Unseelie Court
Xander dangled in the darkness, shoulders aching, ancient manacles digging into his wrists as he tried to sleep. The chains prevented him from lying down. Whether it was truly day or night he could not say for the enemy had put him in eternal darkness.
In the distance he heard screaming- the unerving cries echoed from above, dampened by interceding barriers. After untold years in the Zindan dungeons, the prince could guess what the man might be feeling. Never had Xander experienced anguish so miscellaneous and exquisite as he had experienced here.
He stood up straight, taking some of the pressure off his wrists. If they kept him dangled here any longer his arms would detach. Then again he preferred his current commodations to the previous room, where the floor prickled with sharp rusty quills, and lying or sitting required bloodshed.
The unseen prisoner continued to scream. Xander sighed softly.Throughout his tortures, no matter what toxins the witch had shoved down his throat, no matter what questions she had asked, he had not yet uttered a single word. He knew that some of the potions devised by the Dark Witch had power to loosen his tongue and cloud his judgement, so after he was captured, he had firmly vowed not to make a sound. The life of the girl depended on it.
Vaguely, gradually, Xander felt his mind gradually clear. A headache persisted, and hunger gnawed, but he found himself capable of directing his thoughts voluntarily, an ability he had taken for granted before all his food came laced with mind-altering additives.
He still couldn't believe he had found her after all those years. The dragon's child. The girl who could breathe life into stone. The witch's henchmen were already chasing him when he saw her that night but he did what he could to direct them away from her.
Without warning, the door to his cell creaked open. He tensed, braced for anything. Keep silent, he warned himself.
"So that's where you found her." said a cool voice that he had heard before. The candle in his cell lit up but chills raced up the prince's shoulders. Dark Magic.
Xander said nothing and kept his copper eyes emotionlessly trailed on the wall.
The voice did not pause. "You seem especially docile, today." The prince shuddered faintly as cool hands scraped his cheek. "Could it be you have finally resolved to becoming a model prisoner?"
Biting retorts sprang to his mind but still his mouth remained shut. Some of his best men, closest friends and his father had died by the epidemic released by the witch, and despite their sacrifices he had failed. His only chance for redemption was to keep quiet about the girl and hope that Puck had kept her safe.
"Have you heard of the Ayakli Tava?," the witch whispered in his ear. Frostbite tingled by the side of the face she had whispered but still the prince did not utter a single word.
The Dark Witch paused. "The hunting potion reaches into the mind of its intended victim and forces them to think of a certain event. It then webs the tiny souls of the people I had taken with my curse and directs them to the area in the form of spiders."
"I wish you could have seen it. It certainly is my greatest accomplishment," the witch revered. "Just in time for her eighteenth birthday, right before her powers mature."
She cackled. "There really is something incredibly satisfying in nipping a flower in the bud. And you, my prince, were an indespensible tool to the demise of your kingdom's last hope."
Dismay and confusion left Xander off balance. He had led the witch right to the girl. After all the planning and mauevering, the narrow escapes, he had failed again!
"Others remain," Xander insisted. "Others will protect her."
"You speak as though I mean to kill you," the Dark Witch tittered. "No, fair prince, I have never meant to kill you. I only needed to prove that you cannot stand against something inevitable."
The prince raised his head. "I will never serve you. You have defeated me but you will never own me."
"Silly boy, I do not wish to take a snake in my bed. I will set you free so you can watch the court you hold dear crumble and everyone you care about suffer. And there would be nothing you can do about it."
Slender finger unlocked his manacles. Xander fell to the ground as he felt the wisp of the Dark Witch's departure.
Rough hands of ogres gripped his arms. The hands led him forward, closer to the light. But Xander did not feel elation as the warmth of the sun kissed his skin, instead he felt the finality of defeat.
Painted in black and red,
A nightmare crawls under your bed.
Wrapping its madness around your head,
It doesn't stop until its fully fed.
A murder of crows signals its start,
The start of the nightmare that would tear you apart.
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Stone Cold
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