A horrific odour increases in strength as we continue down the claustrophobic path. Becker pulls us forwards as the tunnel widens around us. Walls of iron bars and crumbling stone surround us on both sides as we are ushered onwards. I look at the prisoners as we pass, I find a few familiar faces but there are far too many of them for them all to belong to the tribe. Up ahead the last of the tribespeople are released from their shackles and forced out of sight.
The cells are spacious but much too small for the number of people crammed in there. Several bodies lay in various stages of decomposition, pushed away from the living. Movement is the only difference between some of the living and the dead in here, some distant corpses are collapsed broken in the corners whereas others stand and watch as we pass. A large pile of straw is crammed up against most edges and the place reeks of faeces and decay. The walls are falling away in places and the only light comes from the torches attached to the stone between the cells. The staircase led us far away from fresh air, I wonder how long it’s been since some of these prisoners last saw daylight or felt the wind on their faces.
We finally come to a halt as Becker opens the emptiest cell at the end, Tharrin and Astera cling to the adjacent room as we pass. Horas is already waiting and catches his king as he is roughly shoved forwards. I recognise the warning just before I am similarly thrown, falling onto my hands.
The clanging of metal and rustling of keys proceeds a soft click as the bars are locked behind us.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Horas lends me a steadying hand as I struggle to my feet. Orrian stands motionless next to him, facing the bars and away from his people who line the walls of their new home. They stare at the back of their captured king for several long seconds before huddling closer together. They shake uncontrollably as their sodden bodies drip onto the largely obscured pavestones, muddying the filth at their feet. I pull my arms tighter around my own bare chest.
“Dale?” says an instantly recognisable voice from a different lifetime. My head whips around and I shove Orrian to one side as I throw myself at the iron rods.
Mother. She clings to her own set of bars as I do now, only a few meters of walkway separate us. Her lower lip quivers as fresh tears etch their way down her previously beautiful face. Her features, once radiant, now hide distantly behind long-settled grime. Dark blood crusts the edges of her forehead and one eye is shadowed within a sea of black and purple.
A roaring inferno charges through my chest as all other thoughts and questions are obliterated by the unquenchable fury. My eyes burn and my tormented fists hammer down on the barrier before me. An arm locks around under my armpit from behind forcing me a step backwards as my throbbing hands lower to my side, bloody and twitching.
“Are you ok?” Orrian asks worried, letting go of my arms and stepping out from behind me.
“You talk?!” my mother exclaims, ignoring the question. Of course, she’s only ever known him during his vow of silence at Avlym. Considering everything that’s happened since we last saw her, I can’t believe that’s her first question.
“I do yes, my name is Orrian and these are my people. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you earlier, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for me,” says Orrian. The words come tumbling out as he seizes my mother’s shocked silence, it feels as if he’s been bearing the weight of these words for quite some time and is rushing to get them off his chest.
“Are you ok?” I press, finally coming to my senses. “Where’s Alice?”
“Yes, no I’m fine. She’s safe, she’s with Arthur,” she reveals.
“Where are they?” I ask, looking around the dungeon. I scan the shadows of the nearby cells for Avlym’s leader and my sister but if they’re in there I can’t spot them.
My mother quickly sweeps her eyes up and down the path between us, I can tell from her nervousness that she’s looking for any guards that may not have yet left. Thankfully, we’ve been left alone for now at least.
“Tarrin, hopefully. After you left to meet Gu-, Orrian, from the forest, Rhys and the boys came back. They were all cut up and Landen was holding his arm, they stumbled straight into the meeting in front of Becker and his men.
Arthur tried to intercept them, he wanted to get to them before Becker could, but Cecilia got there first. You know how she is, she got all flustered when she saw her son and straight away opened her fat mouth and starting raving about you and Orrian. She condemned all of us, just because her little monster finally got what he had coming, she betrayed the whole village.
Becker and his men were over the moon when they overheard her shouting, how could they not. A team of them went looking for the two of you. When they couldn’t find you, they had to come back, Becker was furious,” my mother says.
She stops, I can see the tears resuming as she chokes on her words trying to continue.
“They burnt everything,” she whispers, “Our home, farms, everything. Becker started marching straight towards me so I handed Alice to Arthur and told him to get out of here with the others. He had already started planning our escape, he said that he’d been talking to Thoren’s advisors a lot recently and that Tarrin was our
