The Rogue Rider (An Inheritance Fanfiction)

Chapter 13: Interrogation

Ragin sat, staring into the fire burning a few feet away. The orange flames danced, creating unique and entrancing patterns, drawing the thief deep into an almost trancelike state of mind. Thoughts continued to swirl through his head, keeping him completely blind to his surroundings. What had happened only a couple of hours ago continued the nag him. His capture at the hands of the riders, his inability to hide from them, but most of all it was what had happened to Akaysha that bothered him.

He was sitting against his dragon's flank. The riders hadn't tied either of them up, but had instead made them swear numerous oaths in the ancient language to make sure they stayed with them until they reached New Doru Araeba, as well as preventing the two of them from doing any harm should they want to.

Akaysha seemed to be asleep, but Ragin knew that his dragon was well awake. After being told what had happened after she was released from Arya's spell, the dragoness had seemed quite withdrawn. She had always had a sense of wonder about her magic, but now Ragin sensed a deep fear. It didn't help that all she remembered of the episode was being overwhelmed in power. Anything else that had happened was a complete blank to her.

Ragin looked up as footsteps approached. It was Arya. The dark haired elf had a stoic expression on her face, and the thief found it hard to read what she was thinking. The other riders had barely spoken a word to him since his capture, but he knew it was only a matter of time before they started asking questions. Questions he didn't want to answer.

To his surprise however, instead of lording over him while the questions were asked, Arya sat cross-legged in front of him, making it so that he was forced to look right across at her. He felt Akaysha's eye on the elf, accompanied by a small amount of unease and nervousness.

"What is your name, rider?" asked Arya simply.

For a moment Ragin debated whether or not to answer truthfully. But he also knew that even if he answered falsely now, they would eventually find out the truth. He was infamous enough that a number of people would know his face.

"Ragin," he replied.

There was a grunt of surprise from somewhere over the fire.

"Ragin?" it was the human, a man named Eon, "Are you that thief that has been at large for the past four or five years?"

"The one and only," Ragin smirked slightly.

"Good fighter for a thief," muttered the Kull, whose name was Zayphoz.

After the battle everyone who had been badly injured by either Akaysha or Ragin had been healed back up by either Arya or the dwarf, Brokk. It seemed Freya had yet to learn even the basics behind magic, and had only just started with lifting pebbles. Why they had brought her along on this mission was beyond him. Maybe they had misjudged the power both Akaysha and him had wielded.

"And well versed in magic for a dragon rider of less than six months with no training," Arya stated.

"If you think I'm going to tell you where I learnt all that I have you're mistaken," Ragin grunted.

"I believe where you learnt everything is already quite obvious," said Eon, "You were taught by The Black Hand."

The thief managed to hide his surprised at the correct statement, keeping his face passively blank so that he gave nothing away, "What makes you think that?"

"I recognised one of the words you use in our duel. Fe'esh? Was it not? One of the one hundred enchanted words from a long forgotten language that, until the Black Hand appeared, hadn't been used in millennia. I'm assuming you used one of those words against Zayphoz as well."