The Four Realms - Book One - Truth

Episode 2 - The Colonel

"So this is the little problem?" The rider's voice was smooth and the question uttered more to the turbulent air, than any one in particular, the man's words drifting on the warm and cold fronts shifting around us.

Although I felt a gust of cool air against my damp skin, my shivers were a result of the dread I was feeling. The soft tones of the rider's voice; infused with power and obvious disgust at what he saw. Who was this man?

I shifted on the sand, struggling with the ropes around my wrists, blinking to try and clear the sand from my eyes.

"Well, she's older then I thought she would be, but I knew she'd be feisty. I thought being raised by humans may have tempered her a little." The rider was kneeling now, his hand was on my shoulder and he pushed me over onto my back roughly. I glared up at him, allowing all my anger to show, but I stayed silent. "Obviously not. But what do I care? I have no real use for you, except for your disappearance."

Just when I thought my heart could not tighten any further, a cold slither of fear wrapped itself around my insides and tightened. So this was it. Just two weeks from my sixteenth birthday and I would cease to exist.

I wanted my last thoughts to be of my family and friends. Serefin's face was suddenly in my mind, she was swinging on a tree limb in our large oak tree, her black hair drifting out behind her as she swung higher and higher. That day Tobius had returned from Larvan, the lands across the border to the south of our home in Latabin. 

He had been full of stories of his travels and the people he had met, but all the while, as he sat telling the tales, he had watched me. I didn't want to remember anything unhappy, but the fact I would never be able to ask him why he had been so different with me on his return from Larvan made me sad. I wished to be on good terms with people before I left this life. 

The Rider stood and I noticed he carried a sword around his waist, it's hilt looked to be carved from solid silver, it glinted in the blinding sunshine. With his movements, shards of light struck my eyes. I winced with the sharp pain it caused.

He was talking to my original captures now in hushed tones. I listened hard and heard snippets of information: pieces of gold, not what was agreed, other buyers. The conversation was concluded and a large bag of gold was pulled by the rider from a bag hitched to the saddle of his horse.

"Colonel, what are you going to do with her?" The shrill voiced man with few teeth asked the question, the familiar vile grin playing at his lips, the tip of his tongue ran the length of his top lip as he snarled in my direction. I could taste acid at the back of my throat as I swallowed hard, controlling my immediate response to empty what little food was left in my stomach out onto the sand beside me.

"I will do what ever I want to her." The Colonel as I now knew him to be gave me a very pointed look, casting his gaze up and down the full length of me. How much of it was truth and how much of it was to make me feel uneasy, I was unsure and didn't want to find out.

The Colonel waved over one of the other horseman. "She will ride with you Everen."

I had a few seconds to look at the man who I had been charged to. He must have been almost five years my senior. His hair was thick and black with golden flecks, strands blew against his forehead in the strong wind from the ocean. His skin was a deep olive, his jaw was brushed with slight stubble, emphasising the sharp angles of his features.

The rider Everen's gaze locked with mine and although the sun was bright, I could have sworn his eyes glistened with gold within the vibrant blue colour, a colour similar to the blue translucency of the ocean lapping at the shore behind him.

He wore black leather clothes with a long black cape over the top edged with red and gold. There was gold edging to the cuffs and collar of the black and deep red tunic he wore, he also carried a sword at his side with a carved hilt, no less ornate than the Colonel's sword, but different. He stood out to be of importance against the other riders. 

The rider, Everen, trotted his horse over to me. The Colonel ordered the larger of my initial captors to lift me onto the horse. I was lifted and placed, none too gently, onto my front over the horse in front of Everen.

Blood instantly rushed to my hanging head and my shoulders burned as my hands were still tied behind my back. The horse shifted slightly under the additional weight. Everen in a clinical fashion, pushed and pulled me into a better position for the horses balance and then turned us into the salt laden wind.

The Colonel mounted and with a slight flick of his wrist and almost regal swipe of his hand, the riders began to canter across the sands.

***

Our horse moved quickly over the sand, I tried to keep my eyes open, wanting to glean something passing on the ground below that might hint at where I was and what direction we were travelling.

We rode for hours: sand became rock, rock became grass, grass became cracked earth. It was as the sun was inching it's way towards the horizon that the sound and smell of the waves was gone and in it's place was the sound of building and releasing jets of water.

My head swam as I was hit by an overpowering smell of rotten eggs. I heaved as if to be sick, but my initial reaction was nothing in comparison to my reaction when I felt Everen's palm on my back. 

A gentle pressure. I could the warmth from his palm through the thin cotton of my night dress. I wasn't going to kid myself that this was a caring gesture, he was obviously trying to make me feel uneasy to take my mind off my need to wretch. Well it worked but not in a way I would like. I focused on the size of his hand and how it was smoothing the material over my back. I wanted it to stop, but then it was gone and stupidly I wanted it back. 

I tried holding my breath, but the smell still found it's way through. I concentrated on the cracks in the earth that we were riding over, watching the horses hooves kicking up the dirt as we went, small clouds drifting into the air as each hoof lifted. I had a horse at home!

Home! There was cold realisation that I no longer had a home, a mother and to the best of my knowledge I would never see my sister again or Tobius. There were small graces in the fact I had had ten happy years with my father before he had passed. At least I knew his fate as a surety.

Tobias had told me stories of the Larvan geysers and suddenly the sounds and smells made sense. I had been taken across the border into Larvan, King Finrick's lands. But why?

The little I knew about the other realms had come from Tobius. On his return from his travels to Larvan he was full of enthusiastic conversation. He recounted how he had seen statues of King Finrick in the towns he had travelled to. I remembered him telling my mother about the guards who rode on horse back from town to town. Their black horses and red and black uniforms.

Realisation hit me at speed. These must be King Finrick's men. But what did they want with me? It was a silent question and filled me with dread. King Finrick's reputation was one of dark power and domination.

The horse had slowed and I was being pulled from where I had been stowed. When my feet hit the ground, sharp needle pricks shot through my feet and into my legs, the lack of circulation stabbing at me. My ribs felt as if they were physically popping back out after the compression of being faced downwards on the hard leather saddle for the entire journey.

The blood ran back from the tip of my head down through my body to my feet. I could physically feel it gushing back through my veins. With the high squeal in my ears and the blackening edges to my vision I knew I was going to faint.

There was little I could do to stop myself falling with my hands still tied. I slumped forwards, smelling the dusty coat of the horse that had housed me for the journey and felt it's soft strength, before I slid to the ground and then there was nothing but a thick blackness.

***