Seal of the King (33 page)

Their keepers brought a meal of something indiscernible in a bowl. They ate in silence as their thoughts eroded their confidence. Periodically Aurora paced the room trying to clear her head. She thought about trying to venture out
, but Ruth was too weak to fight anyone, and she wouldn’t leave her.

Sitting together on the makeshift bedroll they often held hands for comfort
. When they spoke their conversation always led them back to the situation at hand, and speculation that only fueled their doubts. After so many years as a prisoner Ruth must have adapted to the endless uncertainty. She slept often. While Ruth was asleep, Aurora’s thoughts were muddy and troubling. She fought against the memories their walk into the keep had brought to the surface, tortured by them again and again. When she was able to push them away, her fears for David and what was going to happen easily took over. The time spent here was turning into constant torment robbing her of all her strength.

They’d had several meals
, and slept numerous times. She had no idea if they had been there for days or even weeks. She began to feel that her life had always been in this room, and everything else was a dream. Her feeling of helplessness was consuming her, eroding her confidence. In some distant corner of her mind, she knew she was a warrior. But with every passing moment it seemed to be slipping further away.

***

After an eternity they stopped, and David lay there feeling half dead, unable to move. Then they dragged his father before him, his feet and legs bound. They forced him to kneel, and he uttered a single word “Son”. Then it began; they beat him badly. David cried shamelessly with the anguish of being unable to move. He couldn’t do anything to help him. Then lying there on the floor in a pool of his own blood one of the beasts lifted his father’s head, and slit his throat. David wailed in torment, and before he could catch a breath his mother was there.

She too was bound, a look of abject terror on her face. David cried out begging “No, no”
, but it did not matter. Every scream of his mother’s cut him like a knife. It was all too terrible to witness, and then she was dead too. David was scarcely able to breathe, his eyes burned fiercely, and when he blinked to clear them he was staring up at Aurora.

He spluttered out a choked “I’m sorry I failed you.” Her look of horror at seeing him
, and the terror on her face ripped through him like hot coals. They beat her endlessly. She was strong and fought hard, which made it all the worse. He wailed and screamed uncontrollably, trapped in a nightmare that seemed like it would never end. When her lifeless body finally fell face down on the floor, her beautiful face horribly disfigured stared at him unmoving. The light gone in her eyes, he lay there frozen in a silent scream. He thought the pain would rip him apart into so many shards that he would cease to exist.

Once again, David was lying on the hard stone floor of the little room wracked with pain in every part of his body. He didn’t know how he had returned or if he had been there for hours or for days. He was clothed again
and all alone, just lying there trying to find some rest in the break from his torment. Festus hadn’t asked anything, none of them had asked anything, they just unleashed endless torment on David, and cackled with laughter while they did it. To his relief he realized the death of his parents and Aurora hadn’t been real, it had been a warning, but the pain of seeing it remained.

David didn’t ask why. He knew it didn’t matter. He knew that it was coming no matter what. All he could do was endure it. He held onto the memory of those he loved
, looking for strength in the knowledge that somehow all this would be for their protection.

While he lay there
, he heard footsteps. He couldn’t tell who or what it was, and didn’t care. As they entered the room, he didn’t even try to see who it was. He was waiting for the pain to start again and was surprised to feel a cold wet cloth on his face.

As the blood
and sweat was wiped from his eyes, he could make out a face in the dim light “Aurora is that you?”

“Sh
h, rest I will tend to you.”

“Are you al
right?”

“I’m
fine. Just relax while I clean you up.”

“What did they do to you?”

“They haven’t done anything to me yet.”

“Did they say anything to you?”

“David we are lost. You need to surrender. You have to bow down to Him to save us.”

“I can’t
, you know I can’t.”

“David, your mother is here, I can only imagine what they will do to the two of us if you don’t.”
She said urgently.

David looked at her. He couldn’t find the words to say what he was thinking. The pain had left him disoriented. “I… I can’t.”

She leaned in close to him, and whispered into his ear “if you do what he asks we can be together.” She said in a husky voice as her hand ran down his chest to his stomach. She started to kiss him on his neck. “Wouldn’t you like for us to be free?” Her hand was moving under his belt. “We could have whatever we want.” Then she kissed him on the lips hard. Immediately he knew it wasn’t her.

Suddenly he found some strength
and pushed her off him. “Who are you?” He demanded as he sat up.

She flashed him a wicked grin turning Aurora’s beautiful face into something evil. “You know
who I am. Don’t you want me?” She said, as she started running her hands up her side towards her bust writhing slightly.

“You aren’t Aurora. Get away from me.”

She hissed at him flashing pointed teeth, and suddenly he could see her for the demon she was. She jumped to her feet and ran from the room. David shook his head a little to clear it, but immediately regretted it. The small shake sent a wave of pain through him. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and vomited. He took deep breaths to steady himself, and slowly began to regain control again. Pushing himself up, he was relieved to see he could stand, and that he didn’t have any broken bones.

He could just make out patches of blood on the floor telling him he had some wounds
, but there wasn’t enough for him to worry about now. It occurred to him, he must not have actually been skinned because there would have been a lot more blood. He stumbled a little walking over to the wall, and leaned against it giving himself a chance to catch his breath. He felt inside his traveling coat, and was amazed to find they had not taken away his weapons. Then it occurred to him that could mean only one thing, they were not a threat to the Dark One. Then he found the gold dagger they recovered from Roktah. He hoped that the Dark One did not know it was there, and that it could be used against Him. His strength failing him, he slid down the wall, and collapsed into a heap desperately trying to hold onto consciousness. He cried out with what little breath he had “Lord help me.”

***

Ruth and Aurora sat there in numb silence. Their anxiety had been steadily growing, and they both jumped slightly when the door swung open. In the doorway were the two hooded figures. They moved forward, each of them holding a small piece of rope. Behind them stood Festus, he looked at them with a contemptuous grin, and said, “Put out your hands.”

The two of them complied
, and the hooded figures began binding their wrists. “Where’s David?” Aurora asked, trying to clear her thoughts.

Festus’s grin grew wider
, exposing his ragged teeth. “Oh you will see him soon enough. Now come with us.”

They followed Festus down a series of corridors
with the hooded figures behind them. With each step, their fear began to build. Aurora was wondering where David was, and struggling against the notion that he might already be dead. Everything about this place was pressing in on her, and it took all of her resolve to keep from collapsing. Finally, they entered a large chamber with a lone man standing facing a chasm against the back wall, with steam rising up from its depths. Festus stopped, and said, “Master, they are here.”

The Dark One turned to face them
, and Aurora was struck at how handsome his face was, but his wicked smile sent a chill down her spine, and she could feel Ruth shiver slightly next to her.

Somehow Aurora summoned her courage
, and said boldly “what do you want from us, and where’s David?”

The Dark One’s smile broadened
, and he said, “How sad! You stand here before me so bravely, concerned for young David while he is off sampling the delights of real women.”

“You lie!”
She shouted angrily, a sudden fire burning inside of her.

He moved closer to her
, and said, “Look at you, all these years of battle have stripped you of your womanhood. You might as well be a boy fighting by his side.” Ruth tried to speak, but he flicked a finger, and her voice was gone.

Aurora looked at the Dark One
, hatred for him rising up churning her insides and she croaked at him “You’re wrong. He loves me!”

“Did he tell you he loves you?” The Dark One said with a slight air of mock concern
.

"Yes he did,"
she said struggling to maintain her composure. She was feeling too many emotions, fear at standing before him, anger at his words, and anxiety over him speaking her own doubts out loud. All her awful memories, every fear and doubt she had still floated at the edge of her thoughts. They were pressing in on her, making her easy prey for his taunting.

“You must have had a long journey to come here. Did he seek solace in your embrace
, and enjoy the pleasures of your flesh?” He asked.

A tear ran down her face
, and she said in a small voice, “He does love me” as she recalled in the carriage that night, how David had resisted her advances. She couldn’t think clearly. Her thoughts swirled uncontrollably, he had said it was because he loved her, but was it because he did not find her desirable?

“Men have long used simple platitudes
, and professions of love to get what they want from women. What can you offer him as a man, what do you know of men? What can you do for him that a simple woods guide cannot?” He asked coldly.

"But I love him,"
she said in barely a whisper.

“Yes, I am sure you do. You with your calloused, blood stained hands. How many men have you killed without regret? What do you know of love? What do you know of the tenderness of a real woman?”
He said enjoying her anguish.

“I know what love is. I had wonderful parents until you took them from me” she said tears streaming down her face as she tried to muster her failing strength.

“Ah yes. Your parents whom you let suffer. You showed great love for them as you abandoned them to die for you. How could David ever trust a love like that?”

Aurora, the pain in
side her welling up threatening to choke her, said in barely a whisper “I… I… didn’t have a choice.”

“Of course you did, my men were looking for you. I suspected you were the one in the prophecy
, and all you had to do was come with them, and your parents would still be alive.” He said twisting the words into her like a knife, “and yet you sacrificed them, you wouldn’t even lift a finger to save your own parents.”

Aurora desperately fighting the urge to vomit struggled to think. The weight of her life felt like
an avalanche crashing in on her. She struggled to breathe. The loathing and hatred she felt for him was turning in on her. She had always blamed herself for her parent’s death. David had helped her to forgive herself “David told me it wasn’t my fault” she said desperately.

“Of course he did. He needed you to lead him here
, and couldn’t stand the thought of you whining about it endlessly. Do you think he would have left his parents to the same fate?” He said grinning at her torment.

Like getting slapped in the face his words stung bitterly, without hesitation David had selflessly saved his father at
considerable risk, relentlessly traveled here with the hope of saving his mother. What must he think of her? She sat frozen hiding while, before her eyes, her parents were slaughtered. Her knees buckled, and she fell to the ground speechless. Ruth knelt beside her, and when she reached out Aurora pushed her away. She didn’t deserve to be consoled, her grief was an inadequate punishment, and she sobbed gasping for breath unable to look at him.

Showing no mercy he
said, “So child. How can he possibly love you when there are so many other women with so much more to offer?”

She barely heard him turn
and walk away, consumed by her grief. She tried desperately to catch her breath. She looked around frantically, trying to find something to console her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw David enter the chamber. She saw his bruised face and bloodstained clothes, and then she gasped. He turned and saw her too. For a split second, her heart lifted at seeing him then her hope faded. With a look of anger and disgust on his face, he looked away to face the Dark One. She went numb. Was it all true? Here they were facing their final moments and he showed no sign of concern for her or even his mother.