chapter|12
Erik’s eyes were pulled open but a crushing pain ran over his entire body. He saw the ceiling of the inn he’d slept in the night before and was desperately confused. The pain pushed up against his brain, and though he strained against it, he let out a scream. His body wouldn’t move and he could still feel weight on his chest and jagged rocks pushing into every inch of him.
He forced himself to look around the room, managing to see that it was indeed the same room he’d slept in the night before. Holding in the will to scream against the pain he heard a girl’s pained screams as well. And then words.
“Let me go! Ahhhh!”
It was Tove. The sound came by the room and a second later the door opened. It was the old man, sneering.
“Other’n’s back as well, jus’ like I thought.”
Erik battled back the pain long enough to ask, “How? There… there…” He couldn’t manage anymore and screamed again from the weight. He could feel the blood flush his face.
The old man looked at him, an eyebrow crooked up. He laughed, pushing the door open as a pair of men dressed in chain armor came into the room, pulling Erik from the bed. The innkeeper’s laugh was sharp and mocking. As the guards dragged him by, the old man leaned in close, hot, putrid breath pouring out into Erik’s face.
“Can’t die here, boy. Nowhere left to go.”
The guards dragged him, wailing, through the inn’s lobby and out to a small cart in the street. He saw them toss Tove into it as though she was a corpse. She jerked as she landed, screaming out, and she was clutching her chest when they brought Erik to the wagon. He was tossed in beside her in much the same way, landing hard on the boards. The landing sent fresh spirals of pain through his body, flashing at every point where a rock must have crushed some part of him. It felt as though every one of his bones were broken but he could see from looking that they were intact and there wasn’t so much as a bruise on him. The horses started pulling the wagon and every bump was agony. Tove flailed against the pain, slamming her hands into the floor of the wagon and gritting her teeth, tears streaming down her bright red face.
He wanted nothing more than to pull himself to her and hold her still, but his body responded to every command with only more pain. It was a jolt-filled ride past a small pair of open gates and into a yard with no buildings that Erik could see pointing up. They were pulled from the back of the cart and Erik saw that they were in a stone courtyard, a keep in the middle. They were not being taken to the keep, but to a side building that was far less ornate. Inside was a room with a guard, who covered his ears as the pair came past him. It seemed to be nearly second nature to the man, who had only barely looked up from a plate of sausage he was eating. Stairs descended to a widening hall with a fork at the mid-section. Tove was taken to the left and Erik could see they meant to take him to the right.
“Hey! Hnn— no! No! Bring her back god— agh… bring…”
“Ho hooo, spirited one, you.”
It was all the strength he had and all it had managed was a remark from one of the guards. They took him to a room with three doors and angled toward the one nearest the hallway exit. He heard a deep, rattling, nasal voice from behind the middle door.
“Who… is it? New? Someone… new? Smells! H-h-he smells!” The words came as though they were huffed out with great effort.
The guards took Erik to a plank bed in the corner and dropped him onto it. He curled up reflexively against the shock it sent through him and before he could open his eyes again, he heard the sound of the cell door shut.
Hours crawled by, the nerves in his body never once letting him have a moment’s peace, often causing involuntary spasms which only stood to worsen things. There were no windows and the shifting orange light outside of his cell told him only that they’d used torches or something similar. He couldn’t begin to fathom how many hours had passed when he was at least able to lie still and gather his thoughts. He remembered the valkyries vividly, and the forearm that pressed into his throat. The wall had fallen, he knew that. And he remembered the pain in his shoulder but nothing after. How long had it been before they awoke in the inn?
He was exhausted as the pain slowly faded and he fell asleep for some amount of time he wished he could estimate. It may have been night already, for all he knew. And even as hard as he tried, he couldn’t remember where the sun had been in the sky when he was thrown onto the wagon. The pain was mostly gone when he woke, but his muscles still tried to cramp with the slightest move.
Erik rubbed at this neck, feeling it to be sure everything was where he expected it to be. He took a few deep breaths before standing up and
