The Fanged Throne

Chapter 22

Red City. She could see why they had named the city that, for the entire city was covered in a red haze of goo. Some of it was dark, almost black while others a bright vivid red. The street they stood on was wide, almost twice the size of the main street in Wirenth. Lining the street were massive stone buildings, their walls that were once impressive, now crumbled. The ruins seemed to stretch on for miles, with no clear ending or start. It felt as if the place were built for giants.

It took a while for Elora to notice the absence of any greenery or trees. The entire city was devoid of any nature, the ground was muddy and bare. A hard shove from the man broke her trance and they had begun to move again. He led her farther up the street in a brisk confident walk, his armour swished loudly with each step. How she wished she still had her sword; a swift swing and she could have brought him down to his knees and made her escape. Yet, a small part of her was curious about the strange place, and even more curious about why she was brought here.

A large square building loomed over them, its body devoid of windows, just solid stone walls. The door to the building was enormous, its wood old and rotten. The man stopped before the doors, glanced at her once over his shoulder before he pushed the large doors open. The rich tangy metallic smell of blood welcomed them in, its presence powerful. Elora breathed deeply through her mouth, avoiding the putrid smell as she stepped inside. Together, they stood in a large empty hallway, the walls were lined with writing engraved in gold. The building was so large, it made the both of them look like tiny dwarves. Elora's heart had begun to beat in double time, a sense of dread bubbled up her throat, threatening to spill out of her with a blood-curling scream. There was something terribly wrong with this place and yet so strangely familiar at the same time.

"Come on." The man tugged at her arm. "This way." She let him lead her down the hallway, deeper and deeper into the darkness and further away from the door out. They travelled down a steep staircase, that sunk deeper into the ground and spun in large circles. A faint sheen of sweat had covered Elora's forehead by the time they had reached the bottom step. The air down here was even worse than above, the thick warm smell of blood was stronger here, still and unmoving. A strange humming sound had filled the silence, the sound unnerving. Tentatively, she took a step forward to get a closer look into the dim room and instantly reeled back in fright. The hard chest of the man prevented her from backing out of the room.

The room was filled with people, all of them lay on the floor, some on their backs, others on their sides. Their bare flesh was pale blue and she could see their bones poking through their skin as if wanting to escape. An old man lay closest to Elora's feet, his body looked like he was days away from drying up. Attached into his arm was a thin silver tube, a faint sucking noise was being emitted from the tube and she watched as a dark red liquid travelled through the tubes. With her eyes, Elora followed the path of the red line, watched as it weaved across the floors and buried itself into the stone wall. It didn't take her long to figure out where the blood was going, images of the wet streets flashed through her mind.

There were hundreds of people crammed in the room, each were attached to the tube by their arms. These people fed the city, the thought was sickening. Another thought entered her mind, where were they all from? Surely someone would have noticed all of them missing.

A hard tug from behind her brought her attention back to the man. He had begun to drag her across the room and Elora's blood grew cold in terror as she realized what he had planned to do.

"No!" She screamed, trying to dig the toes of her boots into the cracked stone floor. He barely seemed to notice her efforts as he threw her to the ground, keeping his heavy boot on her midsection. She kicked and clawed as she watched him pick up an empty tube from the ground. He brought the tube closer to her, holding it above her pale arm, its shiny needles were like teeth, glinting in the light. Her body pumped with adrenaline and she kicked out again, her body bucked under his boot, she could feel him loosen the pressure for a short second. The hope she had was crushed in an instant when his large boot collided with the side of her head.

Instantly her vision had clouded, and stars shone in her eyes as the pain ricocheted across her head, making her cry out loud. He used this moment to plunge the tube into her forearm, the pain of insertion had almost made her forget about her head, almost. Vaguely she could hear him move away, her head still swam, and then he left the room.

Her quiet cries broke the silence and no one else moved, their chests rising were the only indication that they were actually alive. A tingling sensation grew on her arm where the tube was attached, and she watched with dread as a small bead of blood made its way up the tube, growing till it became a steady stream.

It took a while, she wasn't sure how many hours had passed, but she had begun to feel lightheaded from the blood loss and a dreadful headache had formed. Every few hours she watched as someone new was brought in, kicking, and fighting like she did, and watched as an empty body was removed from the room. She tried as hard as she could to keep her eyes open, but eventually lost the battle and let sleep overcome her.

Rough hands shook her awake, rattling the pain in her head. Slowly she blinked her eyes at the figure standing over her, her eyes still hazy from sleep. The thin tube had been ripped out, leaving a small trail of blood to trickle down her arm. Her protests were muffled as they lifted her off the ground, their hands resting under her armpits. Another pair of hands latched onto her and together the two figures carried her barely conscious body out of the room and back up the twirling staircase.

The haze had begun to lift as she was carried up the stairs, her head hurt, and she still felt faint from having her blood sucked out from her. The two figures carrying her were men, their bodies clad in metal armour, helmets obscured their faces. She tried to speak, but her mouth felt as if she had swallowed sand.

They carried her through the same hallway she had entered in and then turned right, stopping in front of a large golden door. Vaguely she heard herself protesting as they pushed open the door and carried her into the room, her feet dangled above the ground. Their footsteps echoed loudly as they carried her to the centre of the room, where they stopped, still holding her upright.

Elora tilted her head to look around the room and felt her stomach turn as she realised where she was. The walls around them were drowning in thick blood, they moved and made an awful gurgling noise. The air in the room was so hot and the smell was something she recognised. The room from her dreams.

Khogassek

A couple of feet in front of her sat a giant throne, elevated by a couple of steps. It was large, as if for a giant, and was made of stone so silver it twinkled like a diamond. Her breathing became heavy as she fought growing nausea in her stomach. Standing up from the throne, a woman stepped into Elora's line of vision and it was like she was looking into a mirror.

"Hello, darling."

Then she couldn't hold it in anymore, bent over Elora threw up all over the marble floor.