Path to Destiny

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

I never saw the person who bought me, but I knew it was a man by the broad set of his shoulders. He led me out of the auction with two guards thicker than stone statues. Between the shackles on my wrists and their stony gazes, I knew I didn't stand a chance.

I followed them through the arena, up stairs, and outside into the silent, foggy Ridivan streets. My buyer muttered something to the guards and disappeared into a building bordering the auction. The guards shoved me into a covered wagon. Inside, two men and a girl sat in deathly silence.

Low and behold, it was the raven-haired girl who sat in the back, her shackled wrists crossed against her stomach. The guard pushed me to sit beside her.

I looked at her. Raven. "So I tried your tactic of acting wildly," I said, "but apparently that's what they wanted."

The girl stared stonily at me. "You are a moron."

The wagon started to move. "It's not my fault you were unclear," I said to her. "What does 'knee' mean, anyway? I couldn't knee anyone in the...anything."

She ran a hand over her face and didn't say another word.

Obviously I'd done something to annoy her, but it didn't matter now.

I focused on the movement of the wagon. We rolled over a bumpy road. It must have been the same pavement throughout the main streets of Ridiva. Horses led the wagon, but it was clear the envoy was trying to be silent even with the noisy road. But then, the bumping silenced as if we switched to dirt. I had the distinct sensation that we were somewhere underground, because no light filtered through the bolted wagon doors.

It didn't take long for us to stop. We must have been within the city.

The doors of the wagon opened, and the guards led us out one by one. My slippers met dirt, and I noted they didn't bother blindfolding us because our surroundings were near darkness. They led us through a door, then we entered a main chamber with several doors.

Above, I could hear cheering and hollering like some grand party was happening. From the stone walls and dirt floors, this must have been the backest of the back entrances to something very sinister. It was as cave-like as the Underground, but with torches instead of crystals.

It's just the same, I told myself. Everything's going to be fine.

Inside my head, I heard Eden's derisive snort. You always have the most interesting situations. I distinctly remember that sylph princess questioning your survival.

Ah, I said. You mean when Mayra asked me how I was still living? I muttered to her. What a nice sentiment that was. How I missed the Sylph Queen's sister. Mayra would know what to do in this situation. Me, on the other hand...

This shall be entertaining, Eden said. Glee marked her words, and if she had a corporeal form, I'd smack off that smug smirk I knew crossed her mouth.

Our guards split up, one leading the men to the left and the other leading me and Raven down a dirt-carved hallway with large holes on either side. He stopped and yanked opened a wooden ramshackle of a door guarding one of the holes. The room inside resembled the aftermath of a failed clay house: a cocoon of decay and cracked dirt walls.

"Get in," he said with a voice of gravel and sand. "Fight starts in the morning. Be ready."

He unshackled the irons that bound Raven's wrists, but he didn't bother removing mine.

"You forgot me." I held out my hands.

"What? So you can kill everyone in the prison with your magic?" He slapped my hands away. "Demon," he muttered under his fishy breath as he pushed us none too gently into the room.