[COMPLETED] The Vixen and The Thief

Chapter 7

Meabh towed her through passages that ran up and down, heedless of her stumbles, or the sharp pebbles that stabbed her feet. The she stopped so abruptly that Beibhinn stumbled backwards instead of forwards.  

On the right an arch of shadow peered from the wall. Meabh reached her hand into it and it creaked, a door swinging back, from shadow into deepest dark.

"Your den Vixen," she sneered, and with a quick twist pushed Beibhinn, by now almost too weary to stand, into the cell beyond. The door howled closed, then open again, and a sputtering brand was thrown in with her. Then the great door thudded tight against its stone jamb.

The brand burned harmlessly on the floor, its jagged gold the only point of light. There were no windows, the floor was bare of rushes, but in a corner was a low mattress with brown wooden covers.

Horrible thoughts sweeping through her mind, Beibhinn pressed her back aginst the door, her hand moving to her belt, wishing to find there a knife, and finding none.Slowly she sank down to the floor, still  close against the wood. 

She had no tears left to shed, no thoughts to think, nothing to feel. Her head fell forward slowly onto her knees.

Cabhair liom. 

The brand spat, the light grew dimmer.  

 Help....

Her eyes closed against the shadows.

Banríon an tSolais....help me.......

****

Beibhinn woke from a sleep she had not known she was in, to find herself slumped against the great door. At least no soul had entered she noted, once the bleary terror subsided. But she would have to pay greater heed..

Struggling up she rubbed the dreadful stiffness in her neck and limbs, peering about the shadows. It was long since her torch had burned out, and the cave room was filled with night blackness. The stone lay chill beneath her feet.

There was no way for her to guess at the hour, in this chamber without windows.

Without, the passage lay still. No steps to be heard echoing along the cavern walls. With the wild thing's stealth, she eased the door open. A brand flickered on a bracket by the door. Taking her own down from the wall, Beibhinn slipped out and rekindled its flame, studying  the passage in its glow.

There was little to remark upon and nothing to distinguish it should she become lost in the wandering ways. Without windows to admit Heaven's light, the passage faded into midnight gloom but a few paces outside the circle of the torch's light.

Should she try to find her way to the main tracks? Could it be that she was left unguarded so easily?

And then from some distance came the faint sound of steps. Beibhinn hesitated a moment.

No. The mountain fortress was full of men. Men burdened neither by character nor morals. She hastened into her cell once more, and closed the door fast with her weight against it.

********

There was no time within the mountain's heart, no means to judge how long she had skulked within her fragile prison before knocks sounded on the door.

Beinhinn threw her weight against it again, heart hammering. But the voice which followed the knocks was at least the voice of a woman. 

Maebh.

"Come Vixen," she said, in a tone of matchless hostility, "Come, if you wish to be fed."

Beibhinn bent her face in a disdainful scowl and answered not.