The Wizard's Misery The Chronicles of the Midlands Book One

Chapter Forty Three

Celine woke up as the carriage stopped moving and she saw that it was morning as there was light streaming around the edges of the curtains. She scooted over to the window and using her head, she pushed the curtains out of the way and peered out the window. Just as she had feared, they were on the Central Plains which meant that her captors were definitely taking her to the Tower. "I'm either going to die or be imprisoned once they figure everything out and there's no way I can escape," she thought as she moved away from the window.

"My only hope is that Brandon finds out that the Wizard's Misery he has is a fake and realizes that I absorbed the anti-magic when I swallowed it," she concluded. "Then he can use one of those devices to find me. But, he's got to find out of all that pretty quick because once I get to the Tower, it'll be over because it took them six months to get the stone out of the Tower the first time and I may not have that much time," she told herself worriedly.

It was cold and she was glad that she was wearing her robe and had the blanket wrapped around her to help keep her warm. But, she was far from comfortable since her hands and feet felt like they were going numb from the ropes that were binding them and she wondered if they had been tied too tightly. Also, her mouth was so dry being stuffed with the cloth and she was very thirsty and desperately needed some water.

Outside she could hear two men talking even though she couldn't make out what they were saying until she heard them approaching the door. "Do you think we should check on the girl, Boss?" a man was saying as he stood outside the door.

"You can if you want," another man said and she recognized the voice of the man who had been in charge last night when she had been captured.

The man standing outside the door, opened it and peered inside and seeing her, he smiled. "She looks okay, Boss!" the scrawny light haired man said as he looked at her. "Should we take the gag off and give her some water? It don't matter if she yells any more," he asked over his shoulder and Celine enthusiastically nodded her head. "Boss! She really wants some water!" the man called out.

A few moments later, she could hear someone coming through the tall reeds and they pushed the smaller man out of the way to stand in front of the door and Celine saw that it was the heavy set, brown haired man who had pinned her to the floor and told everyone what to do the night before.

"So, you want some water?" he asked and she nodded her head as he came inside the carriage and stood in front of her. "I'm going to take the gag off and as you can see, we're in the middle of nowhere so if you yell it ain't going to matter and I won't give you any water," he told her as he roughly pushed her head down and began untying the cloth around her head.

As soon as it was off, she spit out the cloth that had been inside her mouth. "May I have some water please?" she asked meekly and the man stared at her.

"I didn't realize last night how pretty you are," he said as he grabbed her chin and tilted her face up and turned her face from side to side. "You have a little bit of a bruise on your jaw but it's almost gone. Other than that, you're awful pretty," he said and gave her a jeering smile.

The scrawny man appeared at the carriage door with a water skin and he stood there for a moment watching his boss as he he held Celine's chin and peered into her face. "I got the water, Boss," he finally said as he held out the water skin.

The man released Celine's chin and grabbed the water and took off the cap and held it up to her mouth so she could drink and some of it dribbled down her chin. "Don't waste the damn water!" the man said as he pulled back the water skin and glared at her as he put the cap back on.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to and thank you," Celine said gratefully in spite of the fact that it hadn't been her fault that the water had spilled and she was still thirsty.