The Gem Lords

The Abduction - Part 5

     The steeds stopped for the night beside a river near the western fringes of the Kingdom of Sophorania. Lirenna's gag was removed long enough for her to eat a meal, with a warning that she would be punished if she made any sound at all, but she'd never felt less hungry in her life and could only sit and stare at the food they'd given her. She made up her mind to make another bid for freedom, try to enchant the Gem Lord or one of his men. Anything was better than this sense of total helplessness, and even if she failed, her death would be less of a blow to Derrin than learning that his mother had been abducted by a madman.

     Something must have shown in the set of her body, though, because before she had a chance to move or speak a single word Lan suddenly leapt on her and replaced the gag. He then retied her hands behind her back and tied her by the neck to the saddle, which remained on the creature's back. "It's a timid creature," he told her, "and likely to take to the air in response to the slightest disturbance. I advise you to lie very still."

     Lirenna, terrified by the mental image of hanging by the neck hundreds of feet above the ground, did so. She could tell from the feel of her bonds that there'd be no wriggling free from them, and there was no point wearing herself out uselessly, but she was still hopeful that the chance to escape would come. She had to conserve her strength for when her chance came. Perhaps when they rose, the next morning.

     When the yellow sun rose, though, they were just as careful in their handling of her as they'd been before. Her hands were retied in front of her and a moment later she found herself back in the saddle, in front of Lord Opal who kept a protective hand around her waist. She knew, from the lack of provisions for a long journey, that they would probably arrive at their destination today, and she wept in despair that she'd been so unable to regain her freedom. She was supposed to be a wizard, one of the most powerful and dangerous people on the face of the planet, but to these people she was no more trouble to handle than any simple peasant girl, and it had all been accomplished with a simple gag and a length of rope.

     She stared down at the thin leather cord binding her wrists, hating it. She hated that simple length of dried animal skin for how helpless it was making her. Hated it for the pain it caused her as it bit deep into her flesh, complementing the pain in her soul. She routinely used ingredients in her spells that would astonish and terrify most people, if they even knew what they were, but she was now being controlled and held powerless by a simple length of leather cord no different from that which any common peasant would have lying around his cottage. What would Thomas think if he could see her now?

     They crossed Lake Brocol midway through the morning and stopped at midday for another meal, and then she could feel her captor growing expectant and excited as the day wore on and the yellow sun dropped towards the horizon on their left. Almost there now. There would be another structure ahead of them like the Emerald Portal, she knew, shaped like a great arch. They would fly through it, and her last chance for freedom would vanish for ever as she found herself in the hands of an undead being with godlike powers...

     Then she felt the Gem Lord's astonishment and surprise in the stiffening of his body and a tightening of the arm around her waist. She looked ahead, trying to see what had so upset him. There was a building ahead of them. A great palace that seemed to have every surface covered with sheets of mother of pearl. That had to be it, the Pearl Palace, but what were all those things scattered around it...? They were bodies! she realised with a shock of recognition. Thousands of bodies! An entire army equipped with high quality steel armour and weapons! What had happened here? Those were Lan’s people down there, they had to be. He'd left an army to cover his retreat, and something or someone had massacred them. Mown them down like a field of wheat. What could have done this? And could whatever it was still be down there, waiting for them?