Mistlyn

Chapter 1b: Captured pt. 2

The next morning, we stopped for a short while. Farsooth came back to us, offering two bowls of mushy food.

"Your breakfast," he said with a grin.

"Thank you," I said, taking the bowl from him.

Sahria shook her head, "I'm not hungry."

"You should eat something," the skeleton said, still grinning, as he pushed the bowl closer to Sahria.

She shook her head again.

"Then I'll just leave it there," he said. "In case you change your mind. How was your night, by the way?"

Sahria and I said nothing.

"Not so good, huh?"

"Not really," I said, breaking the long pause after his question.

"The road's been a bit bumpy, I know." The skeleton stepped into the cart. "I think I'll sit here for a while, give my old knees a rest from all the walking and standing around. I'm not limber like twine anymore."

"You're just bones," Sahria said, stretching out her legs from underneath her, pushing the bowl from her with the heel of her foot as she did so.

"I am." Farsooth twisted his head, cracking his neck. "But even bones can hurt."

We sat in silence for some minutes. I took a few bites of my food before putting the bowl down.

"It's tasteless, I know," the skeleton said.

I shrugged. "I'm not that hungry either."

"You may want to keep your strength up," he said. "It's going to be another two days before we get to the Hardone Kingdom."

"What are they going to do to us?" I said.

Farsooth turned away from me. "It's hard to say. But they usually pick the prettiest girls," he grinned, looking back at us.

"What do they usually do to Human girls?" Sahria said, glaring at the skeleton.

"Well," Farsooth began, glancing away again.

I cringed in the blare of a horn, covering my hands over my ears.

Farsooth grinned and jumped out of the cart. "We'll be moving soon again."

He closed the cart door and locked it.

"He never even answered my question," Sahria said, grabbing her bowl of food and throwing it hard against one wall of the cart. The bowl shattered, food splattering.

"I wouldn't eat anything from them," she said.

"We should keep our strength up, if we're going to escape."

Sahria's face scrunched up, and her lower lip quivered. "I dreamt that we got to the Hardone Kingdom and they threw us into a pit filled with snakes. And the snakes strangled me. I couldn't get them off me, and then I heard you scream."

"It was just a dream," I said, crawling over to where Sahria had curled up into a ball.

"Is it any worse than what's happened to us already?"

The next day, with the sky darkening, we reached the Hardone kingdom. Two guards snatched us out of the cart, and pulled us down damp stone stairs.

A hinged door creaked open, and the guards threw us in.

"You're to stay here," one snarled, "Until the king has need for you."

He slammed the metal door shut and turned a set of keys in the lock.

"We're going to die," I said in a hoarse whisper. I turned to look back at Sahria, huddled in a corner under a mottled blanket.

I crawled over to her, grabbing a second blanket and huddling against her, our bodies shivering.

I thought I would go mad just listening to the drip drip drip of water somewhere nearby.

And the groans. The groans of things, of beings, I couldn't even see.

"I think they're Ghosts," Sahria said, her breath coming out in cold wisps. "They're real, you know."

"I know," I said, "And that scares me the most."

Days, perhaps weeks, I wasn't sure, passed, before the king called for us.

He had come down to the dungeons himself, glancing in between the bars of our prison cell.

"The one there," he pointed at me. "Take her. She's the new Incubator. And the other one. Take her back to the palace. She'll dance."

Guards came in and unlocked the doors, grabbing us to our feet. I felt weak, swaying, as one guard held on to my arm.

"Ever dance?" the Hardone king said to Sahria.

She shook her head slowly, eyes wide.

The king shrugged. "You're young, you'll learn quickly. And if you don't," he shrugged again.

"Her," he pointed at me with his chin, "Take her now to the Nest. The Eggs are starting to need Incubation."

The guard dragged me, another one coming up behind me, his spear pointed at my back. They took me to a cave, pulling me into a large Nest made of wool, and scales and feathers and hay.

"Sit on the Eggs," the Hardone king said. "Until they hatch."

"What are they?" I said, glancing at two large shimmery silver and gold Eggs, faint black lines drawn all over them, like runes.

"Never mind right now. Just do as I'm telling you to do. I don't have patience for disobedience." He glared at me, pointing at the Eggs. "Now, sit over them. Don't worry too much about crushing them. They're hardy enough. Still, be gentle. They can still break. But they need warmth, Human warmth. So keep them warm, and they'll hatch all right."

"What if I don't."

With deft movements, guards pointed their spears at my neck.

"That's what will happen, and more," the king said. He stood there, waiting until I sat on the Eggs. They were surprisingly soft, like sitting on jam.

"Good," he said, turning his back on me and walking out of the cave we were in. "They'll be ready in a few weeks."