Heir To The Iron Crown: Dyrith

49 - Fjörutíu og Níu

I looked away from him.

"But I'm weak, I can't even shift," I told him, just as three guards rounded the corner towards our cells.

"Don't insult us child. Your mother could have taken them all down on her own and more. And just because you can't shift, that doesn't mean you're any less wolf," he said.

The first guard had reached my cell and was already unlocking it with the ring of keys jingling loudly in her hands.

She opened the cell door for the other two guards who pulled me up roughly, gripping my arms tight.

I was hesitating as they pulled me out and the guard at the door locked it behind me.

I had gone years without my wolf, always ready, never thought myself defenseless.

But now, I was hesitating as they pushed me to walk.

That was until I heard my father's voice again.

"The one on your right has an injured knee," I heard his whisper.

That's when I noticed the man's barely obvious limp.

"The one behind you is human."

I had come a long way from the cell now, but Tei's instructions in my mind didn't stop.

"Take care of the one on your left."

I watched as the stairs to, most probably, the dungeon exit came into my line of vision, at the end of the long corridor.

"You have an advantage here Rayne. Tei just told you your opponents' weaknesses, and you still won't fight?" Ima asked.

I knew what she was doing. She was challenging me.

Perhaps it was a challenge worth taking.

I took a deep breath, and willed a thick vine to erupt underneath the weak leg of the guard on my right.

He screamed in pain as the vine tightened around his hurt leg, letting go of my right arm.

That was all I needed.

I aimed left, landing a punch in the other guard's face before either he or the human behind me could react.

Surprise has a bigger advantage in combat than I thought.

The guard on my left needed a second to recover, but the human had already taken her fighting stance.

That's when the jingling keys on her waistband caught my attention.

I was hit with a vision of deja vu, because I now knew what I had to do next.

"Raynhildur don't! Just leave! I know what you're thinking and I'm telling you, you will get us both killed!" Tei was screaming in my mind, but I was already tuning him out.

No access to wolf.
An object to retrieve.
Multiple opponents.
Relentless fighters.

I'd done it before, and I'd do it again.

I felt a surge of power and adrenaline in my body.

As the werewolf regained his stance and attacked me from the side, I dodged and immediately countered with an almost fatal blow to his stomach that had him doubling over.

It wasn't enough to take him down though, and the human guard was already moving towards me quickly.

I almost didn't need to will the vines from the earth anymore, they knew exactly what to do.

They had wound up around the human guard, rooting her in place, limiting all her movement, and leaving the keys for me to take.

I quickly pulled the ring of silver keys from her waistband, fingers burning, about to make my way back to Tei, when I felt a tremendous pain in my leg, and fell hard on my face.

The werewolf I didn't hit hard enough had shifted, and I watched as his fangs sunk through my calf, digging deeper with no sign of release.

I screamed in pain, Tei's voice in my head telling me to run, the silver keys that I was clutching tight only adding to my agony.

The keys.

Without second thought, I sat up and shoved the silver keys right into the wolves eyes, pressing harder and harder till I could hear his eyes burning.

Perhaps I could never write again, perhaps he could never see again.

But my mind was occupied with escape and nothing else.

Escaping with Tei.

As the wolf howled miserably in the otherwise quiet dungeons, finally letting go of my bloodied leg, I pulled myself up and did my best to run towards the cell my father was in.

I could hear him aggressively telling me to not come back, but I'd already made up my mind.

As I reached him, I was covered in more blood than I was before, and I couldn't have stopped my tears even if I tried.

I didn't even realize I was sobbing before I saw the tears running down Tei's face.

I somehow made it to his door and fumbled with the burning keys, a sensation I was perhaps becoming numb to, but Tei took them from my hand quickly, looking through for his own.

Perhaps after twenty-two years, you recognize the key that opens your cell, because it didn't take him more than one try to get to the right one.

"More will come, we need to be quiet," he said to me, still in my head, while motioning for me to follow him.

"I don't want to fight anymore," I told him, almost desperately.

I was thankful for the cloveroot potion, because I felt as if I'd lost my voice.

"I will protect you," he replied without second thought, as instinctively as a father would say to his child.

A sense of relief flooded me, even though we both knew we weren't safe, his words still felt enough.

I couldn't tell how I could still walk, let alone stand, as I followed Tei to a direction completely opposite to the exit I'd just seen.

I didn't question it.

As I walked, thin, delicate vines with small leaves wrapped around my heavily bleeding leg, those that I didn't even wish for.

They felt cool, and took some of the pain away. They didn't hinder my walking; only the flow of blood.

As we walked, I saw a staircase leading up to a heavy door just like the one I'd seen on the other side of the dungeon.

Tei climbed the steps quickly, looking through the ring of keys, trying to find the one that fit that door.

Unfortunately, I could tell that his luck had run out, as he desperately tried keys against the lock.

"You know you can't open it Tei," an unfamiliar voice echoed against the stone walls around us.

"It was worth a try," Tei replied dryly, in a quiet voice.

"With your scent all over the place, I think it was a lost cause to begin with," the man replied.

I looked behind me to find a man walking towards us, flanked by many guards. My senses were weak, and I couldn't place their scents.

He wore dark red robes and had long white hair. Something about his attire tugged at me.

"Rorik, she has nothing to do with any of this, you know that. Kill me, but let her go," Tei said in my defense.

The man in the red robes, Rorik, only scoffed.

"You know very well I can't do that. I will, however, grant a part of your wish," he said, a sense of manic pleasure dripping from his words.

"I will kill you. But first, you will helplessly watch your daughter die.
The way you helplessly watched your wife."