Heart Song (19 page)

“The girl is going to come with us. Don't be brash, Marren,” a deep voice spoke from within the crowd. Marren growled at the threat of taking me.

“You'll have to come through me to get her,” Marren snapped.

A sharp point was placed into the small of my back, forcing me to suck in a breath of surprise.
Marren—

“Act like you're going to do anything but walk down those stairs, I'll run you through.” It was a woman's voice, thickly accented and rough, with hard consonants and rounded vowels.

Marren's body stiffened like the trunk of a tree at the appearance of the woman's voice. My heart pounded in my chest as if it was trying to escape its cage. I started to turn around to see who it was behind me when something slammed into my head, making everything go black.

It smelled awful. The
dank sweet smell of something rotting mixed with that of piss, feces, and death. Every movement caused my stomach to clench. I opened my eyes to constant black. I had no way of telling how much time had passed since being knocked out. Something felt out of balance, like the floor I was on was slanted, yet what I was lying on felt solid.

It took some time for the pain to ebb, allowing me to sit and try to adjust to my surroundings. A dull ache filled my shoulder on the right. It felt like I had applied too much pressure to it for far too long and now the joints, muscles, and nerves
ached
their complaints.  A weight pulled on my ankle. I blindly felt for what it was.
An iron shackle with thick, heavy chains.

It told me two things. One, whoever it was that captured me did so fully aware of my strength. And two, there had to be a way in and out of where ever I was, even though I couldn't see it. There was nothing visible.
Just black emptiness that seemed to swirl with an inky resilience, despite the lack of light.
It surrounded me like liquid with the floor being a mix of stone and moist dirt.

It occurred to me that I wasn't in my wolf form. Normally everything held an aura. Not even looking at my own self, did I see
one.
I found myself touching my face and for the first time since changing into a werewolf. I was shocked to feel the difference, partially because I was still in wolf form and partially because I've never felt my own face after the change. It never really crossed my mind.

I pulled myself into a sitting position with my knees against my chest and my arms hugging them tightly. I rested my head in my legs, wondering what it was that prevented me from seeing the aura. I thought that I could use my thoughts to call out to Marren, since our private way of communication seemed to have an unlimited distance, but not seeing auras didn't bode well. But then, what could be the harm in trying?

Marren?
Marren, where are you? What's happened to me?

Nothing.

I crawled as far as I could to find a wall. My hand found something slimy and the consistency of a moist
moss
,
soaked and wet. When my hand squished it, a pouf of odor emitted from the substance, filling my nose with the sickening sweet smell of decaying rot. My other hand sunk down into something that felt hard but gave in under my weight. Forcing back the bit of bile that came with a gag, I let my hands drift further along the seeping substance until they found a bulge that was deformed. There were several holes that my fingers could fit into and something smooth and jagged.
Teeth.

My heart leapt into my throat as I edged back quickly. This was a tomb. That explained that decaying odor.  My breaths were coming so rapidly
,
I was getting nauseous inhaling the fumes of death.

“Hello!” I called out to see how far my voice would go. I needed an idea of what I was dealing with.  My voice echoed around me loudly and came back to me so quickly I was sure there was a mistake. “Hello!” I called again. My voice fell around me repeatedly. There was no way the room was so small. It had to be much larger.

My head started feeling like it was lightly floating on the surface of water. Consciousness was threatening to slip away.

Marren...

My body felt like it was drifting downward. My heart beats, swishing in my ears, faded away into the silence and I felt an overwhelming peace come over me.  I couldn't help but think this was death coming to claim me.

***

A sound floated to me from somewhere. It sounded like scraping slowly moving around me. It started in the distance and became louder, as if it were going to come towards me, but then faded back into the distance only to start back up a few moments later.  I didn't start at the sound. It just sort of moved around me, creating a ripple in the liquid black that surrounded me then faded away.

I tried to move, but my body felt thick and heavy. It ignored my
every
will. I had become like the corpse, shriveled and decaying, chained by some great weight that kept me submerged under the black waters.

Marren...

A bang filled my ears and, for the first time in what seemed like ages, I felt my heart jolt. I wanted to open my eyes, but they felt sealed in permanent sleep. Not that I could tell, the air around me had
a darkness
so thick that nothing could penetrate it. I waited for the sound to come again, nothing but the echo of silence surrounded me.

A loud grinding noise sounded louder than anything I've heard before. It was so loud that for the first time, my body moved, instinctively moving my hands to my ears and curling
myself
into a ball to ward off whatever came for me. A wave of fresh air encircled me and my eyes searched beyond the blinding orange light that seemed to dance from side to side.
A fire?

“My Lady Relena,” a woman's voice whispered.

I wanted to tell her I’m here and wrongly entombed, but the only thing that I could force out was a groan of pain.

“Don't speak. Don't make a sound. There are people here who would rather see you rot in this cell than get out.” I saw her form shift. My mind couldn't process fully what she was, except for a black blur that looked far too massive at the waist to be considered human. “My name is Neyr. I'm a friend of Marren's. I brought you some food and water. It's all I can spare without notice.”

I reached weakly for the salted pork stuffed dumpling and the flask of water. “Thank you,” I forced out. My throat felt raw, like I had swallowed sand.

I saw her head lower towards me and then she slowly closed the stone wall, leaving me alone in the dark and decaying air. I forced down the dumpling, carefully eating around the cloth Neyr gave me, trying not to breathe in while eating. I washed it down with the flask of water.

I laid my head down and waited for the next time she would show up, which was frequently. She told me that it had taken her nearly the remainder of the night and through the next day to find the right cell that belonged to me. She was running messages to Marren, who was waiting till sometime during the night when the guards would be asleep to break me free from the prison.

I relished in the fresh air that would blow around my body. It made the moments when I didn't have it slightly easier to bear. The water helped to wash away the bitter decaying taste from my mouth. A few times I had crawled to a corner to throw up what little contents I had in my stomach. I silently wished for night to hurry up and come.

***

The sound came again. This time I knew who it would be, though it seemed like she had stayed away for far too long. Bright light filtered into my eyes, stabbing them painfully, making them water while I bathed in the swirling, cool, fresh air, chilling my skin that formed beads of sweat.  The stagnant air had become too thick with the stench of decay and death. I was struggling to breathe. Harsh voices filtered to me from out of sight, in a language that I didn't understand. They were like Marren's in beauty, but the tones were rushed and cold.

My hands, raw and moistened from the damp earth, supported me weakly, with just enough strength to sit up. I tried to move my leg though it was stuck in place with the same iron and shackle that I felt from before, only now it dug through the first few layers of skin. Every time it rubbed against the opened wound, shooting pain stabbed at my legs.  Someone poked their head into the light that wasn't Neyr's shape. Panic threw my heart into a race as I watched the person use a key to unlock my bondage and hold a rough hand out to me.

I tried to glimpse some features of his face, but none came to me. His face was far too shadowed from the torchlight behind him to make any features discernible.

“It is alright, I will not harm you.” His voice was gruff and thickly accented. I could hardly understand what it was that he was saying. It was only after running it over a few times in my head that I realized what he meant. I gently slid my raw hand into his. He slid his past my palm, wrapped his fingers around my wrist and then turned while hauling me up onto his back. It happened too fast for me to scream and I felt very glad that it
did
. This seemed like the rescue mission that Neyr was talking to me about previously. But I couldn’t be sure or afford the hope.

“Who are you?” I forced out in a whisper, my throat was too dry from gasping for what seemed like years inside the hidden tomb. All around me was sandstone, carved into different sized rectangles and laid with mortar. Every so often, there were plaques carved from some metal and engraved with a strange symbol and a number. If I looked closely as we passed, I could see the cracks in some of the mortar that formed the shape of a door.

“I would love to introduce myself once we get you to safety, my lady.” 

After focusing on his words and processing them enough, I decided that perhaps it was best, until I caught a glimpse of his face. “You're a cat.” It was meant as a question, but my surprise and my body's energies weren't exactly communicating efficiently so it came out as a poorly stated comment.

“Would you prefer if I was someone or something else?”

“N-n-no,” I stammered.

“Marren has told me this world is new to you. I'm sorry but I must insist on your silence now. I have to get us out of here safely and in order to do that, I must have complete silence.”

I nodded and then resumed watching as the stone changed to dirt and rock that crumbled away, leaving only remnants and faded memories of what had been there. A cool breeze started to blow around us, moistening the air with the smell of water mixed with stone and iron. There was a slight whisper of rushing waters around us. I lifted my head to see that the tunnel we were running down opened up into an underground room with large bowls of lit oil resting on monoliths of stone. It looked as if they grew from the side of the rocky wall behind it.

In front of us was a thin stone bridge balanced on precariously stacked stone blocks that had been etched away over time. The rushing sound below us was hidden within a black chasm. On opposite sides of us were large dragon heads, carved from the stone. Their mouths were permanently open with streams of water pouring out and into the river below us.  Above, the roof of the cave was opened on one side, showing a thin line of torches and the stars in the clear
sky above. They twinkled like tiny beads of light. It was then that I realized I was getting my sight back. Everything started to have a dim glow of bluish-green aura surrounding it. Despite the torch light behind us, in front of us was a blackness that caused my heart to thump so hard in my chest I thought my rescuer could feel it. 

He slid me off of his back gently. “We have company. Do as I say.” I nodded quickly and watched as he slipped off a coiled rope that draped over his shoulder and head. He tied one end around my torso tightly. “When I say, jump off the edge and swing yourself over to the other side.  Quickly untie yourself and do not turn around. Run until you reach a fork in the road, then turn left. Follow the stairs out of this place. On the outside, someone will be waiting to take you to Marren.”

His green eyes, with a slit pupil, stared at me in a cold and impatient manner. I cleared my throat and nodded, while looking over the edge of the small bridge. I let out a heavy sigh. This time I was able to hang onto many of the words he spoke through his accent, as if
him
facing me made the difference in my understanding him.

He nodded once and then turned to face our upcoming foes. He started to run with one end of the rope in his hands. I ran, easily able to keep up with him. A large group of cloaked and armored creatures charged onto the bridge. They stopped as my rescuer kept charging. He turned his head and spoke over his shoulder, “Now!”

I took a few more steps and jumped off the edge, swinging down into the abyss, my heart felt like it jumped into my throat. The rope went taut, ripping the skin from my raw hands as I started to swing upward. At the top of my swing, I hung, suspended for a brief second, and then dropped down to the bridge. I quickly untied myself, my fingers slipping from the ooze and blood—stinging like they were set ablaze—then turned around and ran, trying to remember the directions I was given.

I found the stairs to my left and ran up them. I could hear the dancing leaves above me. The air started smelling fresher and cleaner. I almost made it up to the last stair when something froze me. It was a sound, one that echoed back to me, freezing me in place. It was the howl of a large cat being injured. The cry raised the hairs on the back of my neck. I took a deep breath and let a shudder escape before climbing the final stair to my freedom.