All Roads Lead To You (A Skyrim Romance Mod fanfic)

Chapter Twenty-One

A/N:  Hey, everybody! Longer chapter this week; two more chapters to wrap up the "Morthal arc", and then we'll be off to Solitude! Thank you so very much for reading and for voting and commenting. I'm glad you're here! <3

"Do you have a plan?" Benor asked in a hissed whisper.

"Kill them all and don't die," she said.

"Tell me you're joking," he sounded dismayed.

"They really hate fire," she offered dryly, "I suppose we can use that. Somehow."

He gave a low, bemused laugh, "how have you survived this long without any strategies?"

"I'm very, very good at making things dead," she said, her voice flat.

Benor grunted but said nothing more.

It was difficult to see in the tunnel that led them deeper into the cave, and they had to move slowly, using their other senses to navigate through the dark. Before too long, Aruna saw firelight flickering ahead. They approached it as silently as possible. The tunnel opened into a small grotto, where torches had been fixed to the stone walls. In the center was a wooden table, stained with something that looked like blood and surrounded by four rickety wooden chairs. On the far side of the chamber, another tunnel led to more small rooms that had been carved from the rock, and the tunnel continued down into what looked like a much larger chamber.

The antechamber was completely empty. Aruna frowned. She'd been expecting someone to be guarding the entrance to the cave. She turned to Benor.

"Something isn't right," she whispered.

Benor opened his mouth to respond when a flash of red collided with his chest and sent him flying backward. Aruna spun to see three vampires emerge from the tunnel ahead. One of them was Alva.

"First you leave me a gift," Alva said, smiling broadly, "then you present yourself to me. And what's this? You've brought an extra treat!" She looked down at Benor's prone body and laughed, "you are as benevolent as they say, Dragonborn."

"You heinous bitch," Aruna snarled, "I'm actually going to enjoy killing you."

Alva's red eyes glittered, "save it for the Master."

The vampiric spell hit Aruna before she could act and everything went dark.

Her head hurt. It was the only thing of which she was truly aware for several minutes. Her entire world seemed to consist of the dull ache in her skull and the pounding in her ears, all which made her feel like vomiting. She didn't think she'd ever had a headache quite like that. She tried to open her eyes, but they hurt, too. Even her hair hurt. She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. A little better. She continued to take deep breaths until the pain in her head became more tolerable. Then she slowly opened her eyes. Above her, were wooden bars, lashed together with strips of ancient hide. She frowned. That wasn't normal. Her fingers moved over the surface on which she lay. Wood, like the bars over her head. Carefully, she rolled over onto her side. Her vision darkened at the edges of her periphery and she closed her eyes again until the world stopped spinning and a wave of nausea passed. It was worse than a hangover.

Little by little, Aruna worked her way into a kneeling position. Finally, her eyes focused and she could see where she was. She was in a wooden cage, not unlike the ones those bandits had held the pit wolves in when she and Bishop had rescued Karnwyr. It was just large enough for her to crouch. She looked to her right and saw another cage with a man inside. Benor. He was snoring. Aruna rolled her eyes. At least he was alive, and that was a relief. She saw that they were in a dark corner of a large chamber and in front of them, a slab of rock jutted out from the stone floor, obscuring their view from the rest of the chamber.