The Forgotten Rogue

Chapter 19

The first thought that went through Emeric's head as the painful blows started falling without respite, was that his attackers were using wooden canes to beat him.  They thudded dully with each blow, but the pain that swept through Emeric was far from dull...It was excruciating as hit after hit landed on his exposed body from every direction. 

"You think you're so good?" One of the tormenters spat, "You think you're the best?"  A different voice..."Well, news flash. You're NOT!" At the last words the beatings painfully continued, tearing painfilled cries from Emeric's throat.

Each time Emeric tried turning his back to his tormentors, blows seemed to fall from a new direction.  He blindly tried getting away, but a blow to the back, that hit harder than a battering ram, sent him sprawling to the ground.  A cry of total agony escaped his lungs, but it was muffled down by the gag...No one would hear Emeric's cries of a pain.

Blows rained down on him.  He grunted with each one as his attackers targeted areas that were particularly painful...His unprotected head, ribs and neck...

More cries of pain squeezed up Emeric's throat as the unrelenting pain only grew worse.  He tried getting to his feet to escape, but a boot to his torso sent him back to the ground, coughing and heaving for breath.

As an eternity of blows and pain passed, Emeric gradually started to feel himself fading as unconsciousness tightened its grasp on him.  He couldn't feel the blows anymore but by the unrelenting pain that crawled up and down his body, he was certain that the beating was far from over.

Emeric's mind started playing tricks on him and he was back in the dense forest.  Memories, good and bad alike, swept through his vision in a whirlwind.  He was loosing his senses.

The blows paused for a few seconds, and Emeric was drawn back to full consciousness.  A painfilled groan muffled from behind the gag as his body went into an immense spasm of pain.  He turned himself so that he lay face down, digging his forehead into the ground as he tried to ignore the pain that had claimed him.

A shout of pain, loud enough to pass right through the gag, was wrenched from Emeric's lips as one of his attackers kicked him in his side...There was a resounding snap as more than one bone broke under the blow.

Emeric whimpered as he curled up against the pain...He wished it could all just stop...That it would all just go away...that he could just die...

He vaguely registered the sound of laughter.  His tormenters' he knew.  The sound of their pleasure was faintly growing softer.  "That aught to teach him." He dimly heard a voice comment just before he heard the door open and close...And everything was silent except for the frequent groan of pain that involuntarily came from him.

Emeric wasn't sure how long he lay sprawled there on the cold floor in the dark room, 10 minutes?  30?  Or even hours...But he had fallen unconscious after his attackers had left...And now we lay stranded in the storeroom. 

He was writhing in pain and tugged desperately at the binds that uncomfortably tied his arms behind his back, but in his injured, weakened state his efforts were futile.

He tried calling for help, but the gag grabbed any words that he tried to utter.  He cried out harder, but in a blinding flash, pain hammered in his head and he fell back into a long, dark spell of unconsciousness.

*****

Calvert was busy examining reports by his desk when a knock at the door to his study echoed through the room. 

"Enter." He said without looking up from the document before him.  He finished reading through the last few lines before finally raising his eyes to the patiently waiting man who had stepped into the room.