Change Birds

Chapter 18

   I awoke later on to loud conversations and the smell of foul burning meat. I looked around and wiggled in the clamps painful embrace. My tiny legs kicked pitifully and I thrashed my head around, trying to find a way out. I have to save Sarah. I have to save my family.

   "Oh, looky here. The werebird's awake."

   I stopped moving and looked up at where the leader was standing. He smiled and grabbed me up in his hand, carrying me along with him through the crowd of warriors. "I think me and you should have a little chat. Huh, Magpie?"

   Most people would ask him how he knew their name, but if he knew anything about werebirds, he already knew my name from the moment he saw me. We walked through the men who were sitting down at campfires and talking about the upcoming battle, yet some were staring down at drawings in their hands, obviously done by children, but displaying happy families. So not all of them are so eager for Scottlind's fall.
  The leader walked into a tent near the edge of camp and before I could comprehend what was happening, he grabbed one of my legs and dangled me above a pot of water. "Alright. Let's play the one chirp, two chirp game. Are Scottlind's defenses as good as mine?"

   I gave a chirp. He snarled and lowered me into the pot. My head went under and water rushed into my beak and nostrils. I thrashed about and tried to chirp, but it was useless. He pulled me back up and I shook my head, trying to clear out the water. He pulled  me back up to his face level. "Alright. That was an answer I didn't like. Now, is it true the king of Scottlind has five daughters?"

   I gave one chirp and closed my eyes, but he didn't dunk me this time. He smiled. "Good. That's an answer I like. Is one of those daughters eighteen? Goes by the name of Rebecca?"

   I stayed silent as I comprehended how to answer that. There was an eighteen year old daughter named Rebecca, but she was in someone else's possession. I shrugged my shoulders as best as I could, but it wasn't good enough for him. I was dunked into the water again, a little faster, but it still took me a few minutes to clear out the water. "You don't know?! If you've been conspiring with Scottlind then you must know. Now yes or no."

   I chirped twice and he snarled, dunking me for only a second, but yanked me up too quick. I nearly passed out under the movement. "No?! If he doesn't have a daughter named Rebecca, then who is his oldest daughter?"

   I didn't have the strength to shake the water from my feathers, much less try and answer that question. He growled in frustration and dropped me, letting me splash into the water. The band around my waist drug me down until I hit the metal floor of the pail with a dull clank. I thrashed and fought at the band, but I had no hope. No pun intended, I was a sitting duck.

   Right as I stopped struggling and relaxed to let death come over me, I was grabbed up again and wrenched out of the pot. My clamp was undone and and I was dropped to the floor, where I simply laid there until I was rolled onto my belly and prodded until I shifted back. I coughed up mouthfuls of water and shook my head to try and get the water off, but eventually I gave up.

   I rested on my hands and knees as I tried to recover, but the boot that stomped down on my back put me right back onto the floor. I groaned and laid still, waiting for a knife or a sword that would end my life for real this time, but it never came. "Who is the kings eldest daughter?"

   I trembled and sobbed for air as the pressure on my back complicated my breathing. "Rebecca is, but she's married to the king of Swedyn."

   After a moment, the boot was removed and then a hand grabbed my neck. The leader hoisted me up and held me above the floor. "What?! But my brother promised me that he'd let my son marry Rebecca."

   I slumped in his grip, too e exhausted and beaten to fight any more. Suddenly, his grip loosened and he set me down on a couch to the side. I slumped back into it and relaxed with my eyes closed. If these were my last moments, I would make them relatively nice ones. Then, a smell hit my nostrils. I opened my eyes out of curiosity and saw a bowl of some sort of soup in front of me. The leader stood there, gesturing to it. "Eat."

   I glanced warily at it, expecting it to be filled with enough poison to take down a horse, but the leader reached forward and tasted some on his finger. "See. It's fine. Now eat."

   I didn't waste time. I'd probably end up dead anyway, so I grabbed up the bowl and drank it to the bottom. It didn't taste weird and I didn't feel queasy and so I didn't argue when he poured me another bowl. He sat down in a chair right across from me and sighed. "Alright. If my brother told me one lie, he's bound to have told me others. Now, is it true that you and your family turned against him and escaped to Scottlind?"

   I took a deep breath and shook my head. "No, sir. He always treated us cruelly and he'd steal my mother and baby siblings away whenever me and my father would mess up. So we struck a deal with the king of Scottlind, asking him if we could serve him instead. Before we could escape, the king of Swedyn had already kidnapped our family and captured dad. I got away and asked the king of Scottlind to help me. Rebecca had been stolen from them before and so he agreed so he could get her back."

   The leader snarled and sighed. "It seems as though I've been tricked. I never wanted to do this, but my greed won out. I've torn these men from their families for a lie."

   I gulped, remembering that I'd just killed over half of those men. I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off. "I know you're sorry for what you did, but those men you killed were the few that truly wanted to fight or had no families. I put them in front so no one would miss them when they died. Trust me. No one has died yet that had a family or even a girlfriend. You're fine. Those who died wanted to die for their own gain, not for the kingdom. I'll make you a deal you can't refuse. To get back at my brother, I'll join your side and help you get your family safe, along with Rebecca."