Finding Home - The Light

Chapter Twenty Three - Torture

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

Torture

　

Sara awoke to find herself chained to the wall once again. Fresh bandages were wrapped tightly around her ribs, but she felt no pain when she moved. She tried to pull herself to a sitting position and almost passed out when a wave of dizziness hit her.

She struggled to understand what had happened, seeing the flash of light engulf the Dark Prince over and over in her mind. The flash had drained her energy so completely that she could barely move.

The door creaked open slowly and Bazel trudged in, balancing a tray on one hand. Seeing her awake, he approached the bed on tip toes.

“You’re awake. It probably would have been better for you if you weren’t.”

Sara tried to reply, but all that came out was a thin groan.

“Hmph. You shouldn’t have attacked him, you know. This is your own doing.”

He slowly lifted a spoonful of the watery soup to her lips and poured it into her mouth. She swallowed thickly as he readied another spoonful. After a few bites he stopped to help her sip some water.

“He’s angry with you now.”

“He deserved it,” she managed to choke out.

Bazel surprised her by chuckling. “That may be true, but I think you may soon regret being the one to do it.”

He fed her slowly until the soup was entirely gone and left her alone again. She closed her eyes as she heard the clicks of the many locks slide into place, thinking of the Prince’s velvety voice in her head. She had grown used to his subtle whispers encouraging her, all the while trying to lure her south. Somewhere deep inside she had hoped that he was right, that she would find the way home when she finally listened to that voice.

Sara didn’t have long to try to organize her thoughts before the door to opened again. It bounced off of the wall as the very Prince she had been thinking of stormed into the room. His tall intimidating form stood over her thin mattress, shooting daggers at her with his eyes. Sara gave him the brightest smile she could manage, trying her hardest not to look as weak as she felt.

“Miss me, honey?” she asked.

A guard stepped forward to unlock her wrists and shoved her to her feet roughly, quickly cuffing her hands tightly behind her back. The Prince leaned close enough for her to feel his breath on her face as he whispered softly to her.

“More than you know.”

The last thing Sara saw was his bright blue eyes before the guard pulled a rough hood over her head. She felt someone grab her arm to steady her as she was shoved forward. The hand left her arm and was replaced by firm grip on her waist before she was lifted over someone’s shoulder. Everything Bazel had fed her threatened to come back up as the strongest wave of dizziness yet overcame her. She was surprised at how weak she felt as she tried to struggle against her captor.

“Behave yourself,” the Prince barked.

Sara started calling them every name she could possibly think of as they carried her from the cell. She didn’t even stop when someone struck her sharply in the face.

“Such a pretty mouth,” the Prince said chuckling. “I could think of far better uses for it.”

She heard a door close before she was thrown onto the hard ground. The cuffs were removed from her wrists and she was blindly lifted to her feet. Sara blinked at the bright light when the hood was pulled from her head.

She was sitting on the hard stone floor of a large room, empty except for three dark wooden poles stretching from floor to ceiling. Ropes were hanging from the poles at various heights. Her head spun as she tried to take in the brown stone walls and floor.

Sara slowly raised her eyes to the Prince, trying to ignore the tilting world to glare at him. She barely suppressed the shudder that trailed down her back as a wide grin slowly spread across his face. Distantly she felt two sets of hands grab her wrists, but everything turned to gray as she was quickly pulled to her feet.

She heard a crack as her nose was slammed into one of the poles followed by the coppery taste of her blood trickled into her mouth. Her arms were stretched high above her on the other side of the pole, so that her toes barely reached the ground, then tied a rough rope around her neck and one around her knees. Sara struggled, but couldn’t move at all.

Her vision was suddenly filled with the Prince as he stepped in front of her. Sara tried to jerk away as he reached for her face, but the rope against her neck wouldn’t let her escape his touch. His blue eyes softened as he gently stroked her cheek.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry it has to be this way.”

“It’s not worth shit,” she said and spat in his face.

His eyes darkened as he wiped it away. “I would like for you to meet Drake. He has a very special job in my castle. He teaches people respect, and what happens when you have none.”

A tall elf took the prince’s place in front of her, his skin so dark it was almost as black as a starless sky. Sara couldn’t repress her shudder when Drake’s dark purple eyes met hers. She heard the door slam shut as he smiled, showing her his sharpened white teeth.

“This is going to be fun,” he said in a low raspy voice. “I’ve broken many of Caraviel’s heroes. They always last longer and fall harder than the average soldier.” He leaned close and whispered in her ear before disappearing from sight, “I can’t wait to see you grovel at my feet.”

Sara tried to prepare herself for whatever was coming, but couldn’t suppress another shudder as she heard a familiar loud snap in her ear that she instantly recognized. A whip.

The next sound brought a pain across her back unlike anything she had ever experienced before. She was reminded briefly her encounter with the erymanthian before the whip cracked again and her back exploded in pain again. Sara refused to let a sound pass her lips as the whip struck again and again. She squeezed her eyes and thought of Aela’s little haven when she felt her skin peeling from her back, still refusing to cry out. A low vibration began thrumming through her toes that were stretching to touch the ground. She felt herself slowly detach from the pain as the vibration traveled up her legs. When it reached her stomach, she could no longer feel the whip at all.

She felt a large solid force rushing through her as the vibration reached the top of her head. She closed her eyes, surprised to smell the familiar fragrant flowers that grew in the field surrounding the temple. Through the fogginess that seemed to pervade her mind, she realized she was feeling the energy of the earth.

Sara distantly heard a roar from behind her and was surprised when she fell to her knees on the dirty ground. Drake had discarded his whip and cut her from the pole with a very sharp looking dagger. She looked up at him from her prone position on the floor.

Her head was spinning as he shoved her roughly to the ground and climbed on top of her. His hot breath sent cold shivers down her spine as he rubbed his nose up her neck.

“I think I know exactly what you need.”

She tried to swim through the fog as she felt his hand climbing higher on her thigh. Her heart was pounding and she tried in vain to push him off of her. His hands reached the top of her pants, trying desperately to pull them off of her as she fought.

Laying on the ground, the vibrations of the earth shook her body from head to toe. She let her anger and fear pour into the earth as his hands wandered closer to her chest. She looked around in shock when his weight suddenly disappeared.

Confused, she watched as he slowly rose from the corner and stalked toward her. When he was close enough, he kicked her, hard, in the back. She felt the comforting warm earth pillow her fall. She watched in fascination as the earth underneath him seemed to become liquid. Drake slowly sank into the floor, clawing for freedom until his head sank under the cold stone.

Sara pushed herself to her knees, holding her head down as a wave of dizziness struck her. Black swirls spotted her vision, slowly growing bigger. She tried to blink the fuzziness from her eyes, but everything grew darker until she knew no more.