Redeemed

Ch. 19

The sounds of the Keep filled my head. Feet walking to the training grounds, voices talking and laughing about plans and stories, the smell of porridge and bacon cooking over a fire... except I shouldn't have been able to sense any of this from my room. Groaning, I sat up, rubbing my temples against a headache. Opening my eyes, a line of pale orange and yellow shone over the flat horizon, giving the hazy gray light of dawn a goldish hue. Horses stood tied to posts, stamping their feet or grazing the grass, but those weren't our horses... and why did the mountains look so far away?

"Where am I?" I croaked, my throat dry. It felt like I had cotton stuffed in my mouth.

"Here, drink this," a low, calming voice said, handing me a cup. Looking up, I saw a man with a brown goatee and warm eyes. I had seen him before. Suddenly, it all rushed back. Sitting in the living room weeping. Nourse angry. Marduk trying to calm the situation. Cocoa. Waking up to people taking me from my bed. This was one of my captors!

I made to stand up, pushing the cup away, but the man placed a hand on my arm and shoulder, steadying me.

"It's okay, Thea. We're not here to hurt you," he said, pressing the cup back into my hand. "You were drugged. Water will help clear your head."

I looked into the cup. It certainly looked like water, but... The leathery feel of my tongue pushed against the roof of my mouth, crying for moisture. Taking a tentative sip, I swished the water in my mouth and swallowed. It tasted of snowmelt from mountain streams. I waited a second, and when I noticed nothing bad happening, I drained the cup, gasping.

"Here's some food," the man said, pushing a bowl of porridge with a strip of bacon toward me. I wolfed it down, wishing he had added more bacon.

"Slow down, you don't want to get sick," he said, returning with another glass of water. Taking his advice, I swallowed, preparing to ask a few questions. Who these people were and where I was seemed a good start. Also, had the man said I was drugged? When would that have happened? It all seemed like a strange, exotic dream.

"So you are finally awake. Thank goodness!" a clear feminine voice said. Turning, I saw none other than Elise walking over. Relief flooded through me at the familiar face. She would know what was happening.

"Elise? What's going on? Where am I? Did someone attack the Keep?" I stumbled over my words trying to get them out. Elise made eye contact with the man who had given me food, something being passed between them. Groaning, the man stood up, making some excuse about needing to check on the horses. Elise turned her gaze upon me, her caramel colored eyes striking. How had I never noticed those eyes before? Indeed, Elise stood and looked like a completely different person than the shy and polite servant I had gotten to know.

"Do you remember back to our conversation when you asked me to send those letters to your mother and friend?" she started.

What did that have to do with anything? "Of course. That was when I learned about your family for the first time. You had asked me if I was happy at the camp."

"What if I told you that those letters were never actually delivered? That I had orders to burn them when you were not looking?"

"Who would have ordered that? Surely not Marduk or Nourse. They encouraged me to write those letters."

Elise remained silent, her eyes drilling into mine. My stomach plummeted at what her silence implied. This couldn't be true. Marduk would not have lied or betrayed me.

"You're saying that those letters never reached my mom, that they never even left the Keep."

Elise nodded.