The Gates of Gurazan{ONC 2024}

Chapter 2

Published: 11/02/2024

Word Count- 1,936

Elva spent a long, cold night locked in the carriage. She got too tired and hungry to cry, so she just lay against the door, her head thumping as they thundered along. She had no idea where she was being taken, why, or what had just happened.

Demons was her first thought. A demon had crept up into her room and possessed her. But demons weren't real.

Well, I'm not a monster! she argued with herself. The carriage stopped, and she quickly wiped at her face, pulling her sleeve up to remove all the snot she could.

But no one came to the door to get her out. She heard movement outside the carriage. People were talking but she couldn't decipher any words through the thumping in her skull, so she laid her head against the door again and tried to go to sleep. I'll wake up, and this will all have been a nightmare.

Elva woke up hours later, but not in her bedroom, or in some new building. No, she was still in the carriage. They were moving now, though the door was still locked. She pulled aside the curtains to look out the window. The shutters blocking the glass were locked shut from the outside, but she could see light spilling in through the cracks in the corners.

Morning. Why was she still out here? "Can anyone hear me?" Elva called, her voice croaky. No answer. "Please," she said, to no one in particular. She wanted to go home. She wanted last night to be reversed.

Where would they take her? To be burned? Killed? To-

It clicked so fast that Elva felt the breath knocked out of her. They were taking her to Gurazan.

Elva pulled herself to standing, even though she was suddenly shaking so badly she felt ill. Gurazan was somewhere she could not go. She wouldn't survive. It was chockful of criminals, horrible people. Xarhal. The kind of creatures that would eat her alive.

She banged hard on the shutters that separated her from the driver. They were locked too, but she clawed at them. "Let me out! Out! Please!" Hours she spent thumping, begging, screaming till she was hoarse. Everything on her was on fire. Every time she paused her pleas images of Gurazan filled her mind. Her brother had brought her a bead from Gurazan. He said it was filthy and dangerous, that a man had tried to attack one of the men. The guards had shot him and he hadn't even flinched. Her father went to Gurazan sometimes, when he had business there. He took all the security he could.

Father. she thought. He wouldn't let her go there. Whatever was happening... he wouldn't let them take her away. Father would never she whispered to herself in the silence of the carriage. They had stopped again, but still, no one had answered her. She wasn't even completely sure they could hear her.

As the hours wore on, Elva lost the energy. She lay down, waiting for the door to crack open and for them to pass her food. Maybe then she could beg, persuade them that she was normal, that she didn't belong in Gurazan. But the door never opened. The light streaming in through the cracks in the shutters grew darker and darker, until there was none at all. They had been travelling all day.

She did everything she could think of. Prayed to all the deities she knew. Begged the demons to leave. She even repeated the Pledge of Fealty to the King and Queen as her hunger drove her mad. Nothing. The door never opened, and no one ever spoke to her. Not a grain of rice or a drop of water.

Another day came and went. Elva gave up on ever seeing the outside world again. They were going to drive until she was dead from starvation. She'd never been so hungry. Every breath she took in felt like her last. Even lifting her head sent her into dizzying spirals.