Captive

Chapter Four

It was a long silent ride to Trittan. It was almost unbearable. I kept huffing and letting out irritated sighs the whole way, but the man dragging me on say one thing? No. Of course not. He didn’t even look up at me once! What a jerk.

Besides my head feeling better I’ve only now started to get cramps and pains in my stomach. I still didn’t know how long I had been out and the last time I had eaten was early in the morning the day I ran away. Ha. Look where that gets me, stuck on a horse being held captive by a fairly handsome man that I knew nothing about. Not even his name. He refuses to tell me.

I shifted, staring up at a large extensive brick wall that towered up. I’m not even sure where it ended. And as we moved to the side of it, it just rounded and continued on as we moved. I just kept staring at it until we came across a huge metal door and I quickly turned my head down. There was no way I would ever try to enter this place. It looked like something I’d imagine from hell.

“What is this place?” I breathed out and the man finally looked back at me.

“Trittan.” He growled out and I this time I flicked my head so my face was shielded by my hair, now feeling extremely scared of entering. I’d heard many things about Trittan but I’d never been there, let alone imagined it to look like this, even from the outside. I was holding my breath as the man pulled the horse up to the large gate and it swung open before we even got there. I swallowed, keeping my eyes down. There was no sound except for the steps of the horse. I let my eyes slide up, only to see a large line of men waiting for us. As I let my eyes lift to look anywhere else, there was absolutely no one else on the streets. They were empty and just dirt, unlike our cobblestone ones. The houses looked old, unlike ours too. And sitting in the back of the village was the castle, looking large and dark. Absolutely nothing was what I thought it was. I mean, I figured it to be different from our always bustling town, but not this.

“Zaleck. You’re back.” A voice said, but I didn’t dare look. “It’s sooner than we figured.” The voice sounded wary, but the horse had stopped walking.

“Who is that?” A different voice said, much darker than the first one that had spoken.

“Did you kill him?” The first voice asked and I swallowed.

“No. I got something better.” This was the man who had captured me and I listened carefully, keeping my head down. “This is Princess Sage Eris.”

“Yeah, right. Did she tell you that? She’s probably some peasant who wanted attention. They’re ridiculous over in Dane.” I wanted to spit, but I knew I shouldn’t so of course, I didn’t.

“It’s her.” The man’s voice snarled.

“Prove it.” The second voice said and I winced. Hands were on my thighs, pulling off the tight straps that kept me into the saddle before yanking my off, my legs never touching the ground as I was pressed to his chest tightly. One arm was wrapped under my armpit and crossed to the other shoulder where the other one was resting across my stomach tightly. I kept my head turned down so no one could see me, panic rising within me.

Hands moved into my hair and yanked my head back and I let out a whimper, looking up at two men that were standing in front of us. Both were larger than my capturer and had a menacing look to them. One had pitch black hair and olive toned skin where the other had fair light blonde hair and golden auburn eyes.

“That proves nothing. She does look a little similar to the princess, but it could be anyone.” Hands tangled further into my head, yanking it to the right side so my left side was pushed up. Fingers moved to my ear and I growled, trying to pull my head back, but he kept my head in place as he brushed away my hair.