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“Split up!” I command. “Gavarn, take half of the men and press into the castle. Arvak, take the other half and clear the gardens! We must sweep through their entire estate and cleanse of the enemy disease.”
I grab Gavarn before he goes. “Do not attack Ihokha, he is an ally!”
“What?” he asks in confusion.
“No time to explain but he’s on our side!”
I run around the manor, taking a side entrance and taking out any stray enemy soldiers I run into. Bursting inside, I hear fighting coming from the main halls, leaving the rest of my path unguarded.
With haste, I find the stairwell and run up, my heart pounding with adrenaline as I reach the top. I kick down Ellie’s door. “Where the fuck is she?” I exclaim.
“Brilyk?” mutters a voice. I peer down at a fallen Ihokha, a gash of blood marking his forehead. I sheathe my sword and help him to his feet. “Ihokha, what happened? Where is Ellie?”
The elf grasps his head, veins becoming apparent as his breathing becomes aggressive. “He took her,” he hisses through clenched teeth. His eyes become aglow with rage I have never seen from him before. “Fohri took Ellie!”
26
ELLIE
Ican’t let this happen to me! Not again. Why is this happening to me? Why in the name of the Thirteen is this happening to me?
The guards – there are three of them – are stronger than I can ever hope to be, and in front of them is Fohri, who walks with an easy swagger. His long hair sways behind him. The long dark tresses are completely loose, and not pulled away from his face like most dark elf men usually keep their hair. Instead, it falls like a veil around him.
His confidence and vanity are glaring. But I can also smell his anger. He isfurious. And he’ll take it out on you,I think to myself.
I do not know where Ihohka or Brilyk are. I do not know if I’ll ever see them again. I doubt that Fohri will let me. I know what awaits me when we’re finally alone.
And this knowledge, that I am probably about to be tortured for my sins, is what makes me start struggling. I kick and scream and bite at the guards. They do not look at me, or even react to my movements. Instead, their grip on my body – both arms and my neck – tightens.
“Let me go!” I shriek the words. “Let go of me! Let me go!”
One of the guards actually does, but instead, curls his hand around my long hair and shakes my head from side to side. I scream as my body is yanked painfully. But then I go quiet, when the hand around my hair tightens again. I am quite sure that when the guard removes his hand, a lot of hair will fall out of his grip.
Fohri has not reacted to me either. Instead, he leads us throughout the manor, and down a dark hallway. I cannot see a door at the end of the hallway.
This can’t be a dead-end.And I am right. The hallway slopes downwards slightly, and we come to a stop in front of a tapestry. It is old and dusty, and pieces of it have come undone.
When Fohri moves, I know why. He yanks the tapestry aside with such force that more of it comes undone. Removing the tapestry reveals a doorway.
I start screaming again, because the guards shove me into a windowless room that feels as though it is several feet below the actual manor. It looks like a torture room, with strange looking implements strapped to the walls.
There is a solitary chair in the center of the room and I am put into it and strapped down. The guards do not leave, as I expected them to, but take positions at each corner of the room.
I know that Fohri is crazy when he looks at me. A mad light shines in his eyes. “What are you going to do to me?”
Maybe you shouldn’t have interrupted the madman, you really should not have done that.
But I continue. “Please tell me what you’re going to do to me. And tell me what any of this has to do with me!”
Fohri comes closer to me and ensures that the straps around my arms are tight. When he starts speaking his voice is sing-song and lilting and absolutely fucking crazy.
My heart sinks to my stomach.
“Ihohka, my dear brother,” he sighs and shakes his head as though he is speaking indulgently about a child. “He has been getting in the way for too long. And now, because of you, he is working with the rebels.”
Fohri walks away from me for a second, before returning with what looks like a small whip in his hand. He reaches out to me with it and trails it down my cheek. I cannot help but whimper as I try, impossibly, to pull away from him.
“I saw you first, you know.” Now his voice is petulant. “And I am the lord of this manor! You were mine before Ihohka ever saw you! And now that he has tried to ruin my fun, I am going to break you into tiny little pieces.”
