Bloodfire (The Sojourns of Rebirth) (19 page)

“I’ll remove my hands, but I need you to promise me that
you won’t scream. You have to reason to fear me. Do you agree?
Nod if you do.” Catelyn said, as calmly as she could.
The children struggled briefly, then she felt first one, then
the other, nod their assent. Catelyn squeezed their mouths one last
time, with both warmth and a warning. She felt her heart go out to
them, and she tried not to think too hard about the ordeals these
innocents had been forced to endure, and then she released her
hands.
She almost immediately regretted it.
“Help us, please!”
“Let us go, we’ve been here for days.”
Both children breathlessly, frantically pleaded to Catelyn,
desperately reaching out to her with hands and voices, trying to
claw at her to get her to release them. They were making more
noise in their “cooperation” than they had when they had been
fighting her.
Catelyn put her finger to her lips, about to chastise them
for breaking their word, but then she thought about all that they
had endured and decided to try something else first. She turned
her head to look at both children in turn, and tugged her scarf
down so that they could both see her smile.
“What are your names?” she whispered. This unexpected
gesture from her had the desired effect she had been hoping for,
and the children responded.
“My name is Elexia. This is my sister, Sera,” one of the
girls said.
When the girl said the name, Catelyn felt a chill start at the
base of her neck and work its way down her entire body.
Sera.
Her mother’s name.
It probably shouldn’t have had such a profound effect on
her, she realized. Sera wasn’t exactly an uncommon name in
Exeter. But nonetheless, it hit Catelyn deeply, and she felt herself
falter slightly, as the word dredged up her own painful memories.
Catelyn had no time to wallow in her own melancholy
though. Dane Callum was on the verge of either fighting his way
out from beneath her, or of forcing her to end his life there and
then. His gasping breaths were coming shallower and shallower,
and his struggling was getting weaker.
She pushed her feelings aside, and said “Elexia, Sera, I’m
very happy to know you. My name is Catelyn. I wish that we had
the time to make friends, but right now I need to speak to
this...bastard”.
As she said the word she slapped the top of Dane Callum’s
head with her open palm, which captured the two girls’ attention,
and further assured keeping him from fading into
unconsciousness.
“Can I count on the both of you to be quiet while I talk
with him?” Catelyn asked gently.
The girls both nodded vigorously, which Catelyn could tell
by the motion of the bed and the light tinkling of the chains.
“Good,” Catelyn said with another smile.
With that dealt with, Catelyn shifted some of her weight
from her right knee and Callum immediately sucked in air, rasping
and fighting to breathe again through his compressed windpipe.
She let him take two deep breaths, then stood up on the
bed, placing her left foot down between the Dane’s arm and chest
and pressing her right foot down across his neck, compressing it
once more but with more control and less intensity. This had the
added benefit of being able to feel his breath catch and his pulse
race, with the sole of her foot and she used exactly the right
amount of pressure to keep him conscious.
“Now, I hope that I have your attention,” Catelyn said.
She felt and heard nothing. Catelyn sighed audibly then
continued, trying to sound stronger than she felt.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, my patience isn’t very strong
this evening. I suggest you answer me.” As she spoke, she leaned
more of her weight into her foot. Catelyn was trying to sound as
intimidating as she could, though she feared that these words
coming from a slight girl like herself would only cause him to find
the situation humorous.
However, she felt him nod, his stubbly chin scratching the
top of her foot. Catelyn tried not to show how relieved she was at
this small compliance.
“Good. Now that we understand each other...” As she
trailed off, she also eased off some of the pressure and weight from
her leg, and she felt his breath slide shallowly in and out once
more. Catelyn pulsed her bubble once, focusing on the hallway and
the open door out of caution, but she heard no patrolling guards
nearby. She guessed that she might have another quarter of a
prayer before the roving guard looped back around this way.
When the man grew accustomed to this level of pressure,
she leaned over and put some more of her weight back on the leg
she used to hold him down by the throat and glared at him
menacingly, at least as much as it was possible to glare at someone
from behind a blindfold.
She pushed on. “Do you know who I am?” she asked
bluntly.
Another nod,
Yes.
“And you know what I did to Dane Eyrris?” And another
nod, this one more vigorous.
“Of course you do. You and the other Danes all look out for
each other now, don’t you?” She pressed slightly onto his neck, to
remind him of the position she had him in should his answer
displease her. His breath caught and he tried desperately to
swallow another gulp of air, through the resistance of the pressure
that she was applying.
“Yes” he croaked, finally finding his voice. The single
syllable dripped with contempt.
Catelyn felt herself start to sweat, beneath the kerchief
tucked around her head. Everything relied on what happened in
the next few moments. She had to lay out her case quickly, and be
gone.
“We have a problem, all of us. What had been a more
intimate matter between your little club and myself has something
more. Something fatal. And you, Dane Callum, are going to help
me stop it.”
“Go...fuck...self...bitch,” Callum spat out, managing to get
that all through the pressure she was putting on his throat.
She leaned forward and pushed harder upon his throat
until she heard him gasp and attempt, fruitlessly, to draw in a
deeper breath.
“Now, now,” Catelyn scolded. “Is that any way to be
helpful?”
Callum struggled, trying to fight her off, but now that she
was standing, the slightest shift in her weight put intense pressure
on his delicate throat and he couldn’t escape. Not without
completely cutting off his airway, or having his throat crushed
beneath her foot. She was in total control, and he knew it.
“O...K...stop,” he croaked once.
She eased herself back slightly again, and as she did so,
she quickly expanded her bubble to check on her surroundings
once more. It never hurt to exercise caution, she knew. Everything
was still quiet.
So far, so good,
she thought, then refocused all of her
attention on Dane Callum.
“So, as I was saying. We need to resolve our little Imperial
problem. I’ve asked around. I know that by the rules of your little
club, you’re all honor-bound to help your fellow Danes.” At these
words he grunted, and she could feel the thumping of blood to his
head, probably from anger.
“Loyalty. I can respect that. Really I can, but here’s the
issue. The three of you, like little boys who stubbornly pout when
you don’t get what you want, are about to bring the full wrath of
the Empire down upon ALL our heads.”
Catelyn assumed that Callum knew this, of course, but she
was gambling everything on the hope that the Danes did not want
to die in the most horrific ways imaginable. She was hoping that
perhaps this act of intimidation would open Dane Callum’s eyes; to
enable him to see his support for his fellow Dane as the prideful
act that it was. She hoped that hearing someone else say it would
perhaps change their perspective enough to see their actions in a
new light.
She felt Callum’s head shift under her sole, and she could
tell he was looking up at her, where her eyes should be. He
chuckled, then rasped out a single word.
“So?” This was quickly followed by a choking , maniacal fit
of laughter.
Catelyn was taken aback.
Are these three men so cold that they could ignore the
truth of what this means? Are they that foolish to...
Catelyn didn’t even bother to finish that thought, as Dane
Callum’s laugh would seem to indicate that she already knew the
answer to those questions. And with that realization came the
wash of guilt at what it meant.
He isn’t the fool. I am.
“You really are a group of uncaring sons of shits, aren’t
you?” she said.
Callum stopped laughing long enough to cough and
Catelyn realized he was in fact trying to spit on her lower leg and
foot. Catelyn’s hopes were dashed. This wasn’t going to work. He
was too cool. Too in control.
As she stood over this man, knowing he was fully prepared
to consign his own life, the lives of his men and everyone around
him to the fires of an Imperial Purge, something inside of her
snapped.
I’m not going to win this
, she realized.
The voice, the contrary one who plagued her always in her
worst moment, was in total agreement.
You were a fool to think you ever could have won,
it said
flatly.
Catelyn’s face burned white hot, and in a move that was
very much unlike her, Catelyn felt herself go numb inside and she
leaned half of her weight into her forward leg. She felt him struggle
as she choked the life out of him. She felt cold, and she wanted him
to suffer.
“So then, this doesn’t matter, right? You don’t mind dying,
right here and now. Because surely if you care nothing for what the
Empire might do to you when they find you, then you must not
care at all for your own life,” she said, all emotion buried deep
inside her.
He flopped beneath her like a fish, and as he flailed, she
discovered something that she hadn’t known before. She hadn’t
simply taken the Dane off guard from her attack. His inability to
fight her off was due, in part, to the fact that his arms and legs
were also restricted by metal chains; he had shackled his captives
to himself. Catelyn shook her head, not understanding these sex
games that the Danes played. She eased off the pressure, more out
of disgust than mercy, and Callum rasped in another three choking
breaths, laughing slightly with each inhale.
Catelyn, in exasperation and resignation, sighed, and
whispered “I really don’t have time for this.”
Callum croaked out a mostly unintelligible response, with
humor in his voice. “T...too bad...just...my cock”, were the only
words that Catelyn could make out.
At the last word, she sensed through her bubble that he
was indeed aroused. She shivered with revulsion at the thought
that this man had become aroused by his own near death. Catelyn
had no direct experience with sex, but she believed strongly that
this was not what it was supposed to be about.
Catelyn knew without doubt that she had lost this
negotiation. In truth, she realized that she had lost it even before it
had begun, and she tried to think of some other approach she
might take, when suddenly the outcome became inconsequential.
She heard the shouting from downstairs, coming from the
other side of the house, and her senses snapped into awareness.
She expanded her bubble beyond the room she was in, and took in
everything she could from all around her, and the words came
clearly to her ears.
Someone was shouting “Hurry! Wake the Dane!”.
Catelyn tried not to panic, but her plan was quickly going
to the Void. She didn’t assume that she had been found out, for the
voices and the commotion were coming from downstairs where
she hadn’t even set foot, but the truth was that the alternatives
were far worse. She couldn’t afford to stay any longer.
She removed her foot from Dane Callum’s throat and
dropped to her knees alongside the Dane, using her weight and
momentum to land her elbow into Callum’s head, rendering him
unconscious. She wanted to kill the man, but she’d made a
promise to herself and to the spirits of her parents never to
casually take a life, and since the Dane was not an immediate
threat to her life, she intended to honor it. She got up to leave, and
the chains rattled again, tiny hands clutching hers before she could
scramble away and out the door.
“Please. Don’t leave us here,” Elexia pleaded.
Catelyn had almost forgotten about the girls; she had been
so focused on the Dane, and they had been so quiet that they had
blended into the background of her consciousness. Catelyn
paused, thinking that she didn’t have time for rescuing two young
girls, but also hearing the panic in those voices.
Elexia and Sera.
Catelyn had been not much older than these girls when
her own parents had been taken from her. She hadn’t been able to
help them then. She couldn’t even begin to count the number of
nights she had awakened from that experience, replayed over and
over again in her nightmares and each time, she was completely
powerless to stop it. To do something.
But she was older now. She was, for better or worse,
directly in a position to help these girls now, and she knew from
the things that her parents had taught her that this gave her a
responsibility. She sighed and knelt down on the bed once more,
patting the backs of the girls hands to reassure them.
“Let’s get you out of here,” she said quietly.
She reached out and searched along Dane Callum’s limp
body, hoping to find that he kept the key to their restraints on him,
but found out that as she had guessed, beneath the sheets the Dane
was unclothed from head to toe.
Sera must have figured out what she was doing, for she
said in a timid, quiet voice “The key is in a panel of the
headboard.”
Catelyn thanked the girl and felt along the headboard, all
the while listening to the growing commotion downstairs. She was
surprised that no one had made it up to the Dane’s bedchamber
yet, or had even seemingly made the attempt, and this further
raised her hackles.
What is going on down there?
She located the swivel panel, pushed it in on its hinge and
easily found the small key to the restraints, preparing to unshackle
the two girls as quickly as she could. In the process she discovered
that the two girls had been bound with tight leather collars at wrist
and ankle, attached to the chains which ran to the floor. The girls
whispered their thanks and Catelyn released them from their
bonds.