From Ashes and Snow

No Promises.

Chapter 27:  No Promises

I was glad when the men dragged me from the cells, an arm gripped in their hands. I couldn't walk so both feet were dragged along the ground, each jolt sending a spasm up my mutilated legs. They pulled me past barred cells and the occupants within stirred at the sight of me, scrambling forward to grip the iron bars fervently.

"She's alive!"

A hand reached through the bars to try and grip my tattered clothes. I glanced at them, barely managing a grimace before the guards wheeled around the corner and they were gone from my sight. Still, the babble of their voices followed me.

Relief lit a flame behind my breastbone. They were alive. The despondency that had clutched at me with bony, unforgiving fingers began to break outwards as I realised that our people had survived. Soldiers who had joined the Legion to help Cadelith – perhaps they had only joined first to help the villages, their neighbours, along the Evermere forest but that didn't make them any less worthy of being called soldiers.

'We can survive this,' I thought giddily, even as I was dragged like a criminal through the twisting stone halls. The Elf, Taelan, sent by Kohen would give word as to our location and I knew, despite the differences between the Captain and I, he would not abandon his people to the Saviours and he would not let the Half-Blood who bore marks from the Abyss to be taken by a creature who had already slaughtered hundreds.

The one who visited me in the cells awaited me in a low, cold Hall, draped in furs and jewels. No fires lit the fireplaces, and the cold air seeped through my greying skin viciously. Biting down a shiver, I managed a glare that I hope withered his soul.

Behind him, painted across the wall on thick cloth, was the emblem of the Saviours. Hands clasped in prayer, surrounded by fire – the creature with amethyst eyes was not a god. I didn't believe like the humans did, in a Divine, but if I did, I would never follow a creature who brutalised so mercilessly, so cruelly, the people of his domain.

"I see you still keep a seed of defiance in your soul, mutt." He smiled in cold amusement. "You will need it when he comes."

The soldiers propped me up, harshly dragging wrists that wept from the bite of cold metal. I knew there was an infection stirring in my blood – my thoughts were turning more feverish with every passing day.

"You call it defiance, but I wouldn't. He is not my better. He is a murderer and nothing more."

The guard at my side twisted my arm behind me and I yelped, helpless to stop him. "Don't speak of him like that you Half-Breed bitch."

"Am I just here to be talked at and not allowed to respond?" My breathing was ragged.

The man, in his jewels and finery, just continued to smile smugly. "I am Cladon, third in command to the Most Sacred, the Finder and we are the Found. The ones who will Save Cadelith from itself and beckon in the Most Sacred as ruler of this Empire."

"You're crazy." I couldn't comprehend this madness – I had thought that they merely followed him because he was stronger and they could pillage small villages around the Evermere forest. His plan would have always been to conquer Cadelith – that I know. Why would he search for the tablets of Asha'da only to conquer the Elven lands? But for there to already be a movement...and army of Saviours gathering to fulfil his purpose was ...

I needed to get back to Haaling.

An elbow struck my ribs but the soldiers kept me upright as Cladon's face hardened. "Manners, mutt. Shouldn't a creature of your social standing have learned to lick the boots of her betters by now?"