“ Catch her!” One of them yelled. He had devilish eyes and deep red hair. I tried to summon my powers again; I could feel the burning, icy sensation right under my skin, but it didn’t come out.
They all charged for me at once, and my heart leaped into my throat, but I silence my cry for help. Zaden didn’t give me nearly enough training for so many foes, but I appreciate the training he did gave me. I curled my hand into a fist and manage to throw a punch at one of the guys. Once my fist collided with his face, I winced in pain. I have never hit anyone before, it was never necessary. I hit the guy in the face just like with the dummy I practiced with at the castle.
There was only time to take out one of the guys before they had me captive. It was no use trying to free myself, they had my arms tied behind my back. I’ll damn well tolerate what is coming, and if I die, at least I will see my mother again and Merilla again.
Once my captors caught me, I scanned them up at down, making a mental note of what they looked like. One were tall with dark hair and cold eyes, even though all of them had those same ashy grey eyes. One was short with light hair and a moustache. The way he scanned me was disgusting. Another one was big, fat , and slow.
All sorts of ways of how to beat the living crap out of them entered my mind, but then something on the other side of the trees moved. I turned my head and found a mother of hedious creature waiting. My body froze as my eyes lingered on its dark leathery body, it’s body so thin It looked like a hairless horse of some sort, with a birdlike face. You could see the bone piercing under it’s flesh. It also had wings, demon-like wings with a talon on each wing. The man with the deep red main had to push me to walk forward.
“ Get your hands off me.”
“ Or what ?” He laughed and yanked the rope attached to my hands so hard that I smacked straight into his body. His lips were on mine immediately and his tongue moved into my mouth. I bit him hard, and he slapped me across the face, causing me to fall to the ground, and someone grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. The one who kissed me lifted my head by my hair so I could look at him.
“ You will pay for that, once we get to the castle." He pushed my head away and they all started walking. The bastard who kissed me climbed on the hideous looking creature and flew off. I sighed in relief. I was thankful that he flew away. I hated that guy, whoever he was.
The guys threw me onto a wooden wagon, and the creature immediately started to move. The road was bumpy, causing me to stumble around, making the rope wrapped around my arms dig even deeper into my wrists. One of the guys glanced over his shoulder, clearly making sure I haven’t escaped and then started talking to the other guys in some language I did not understand. The one who was clearly calling the shots, the one with short spiky blond hair stared at me with a wicked, lustful grin.
“ I like her, she has a fire in her eyes.” Turning his head back. “ She will be my little play thing." I didn’t like the way he said that, It made all the hairs on my body go upright. I glared at them as they continue to speak in another language.
The wagon was also being dragged by two revolting looking creatures who almost looked similar to the one who flew off with the other guy earlier, except this one didn’t have wings and had only twe leggs. It stood upright like a human, but for hands, it had huge talons.
I tried not to cry but tears lingered in my eyes for the unknown. I looked around, trying to see if the place looked familiar, but it looked nothing like Valtor. Everything here looked dead with darkness lingering over it, from the trees to the plants and everything that should have life. I was definitely not in Valtor anymore. My heart dropped into my stomach. Who would have thought I would find a place with a king far worse than Kaden.
When the wagon stopped, we were in some sort of city. It was already nighttime, and I was dragged up on some set of stairs leading up to a huge building. When the doors eventually opened, I find a staircase that was covered with a black carpet. It smelled awful, the bile fight it’s way to my mouth and a had to swallow hard to push it down.
“ This is one of the best houses in Dravonia.” My captor said, gesturing to the house’s interior. You could tell the house was ancient with the wallpaper flaking off, with an old yellow weathered look to it and smudges of stains everywhere, on the walls, on the floors and even on the ceiling. The wooden rails of the staircase was decaying, and I wandered if it was even safe walking on the steps. I held my breath with each step we took, wishing I was back at the palace with the white glistening marble floors and sparkly windows with the open fresh air seeping through the windows, with the scent of freshly cut grass and mixed scents of all the flowers invading all your senses. If this was one of their best houses, I didn’t want to know what the worst looked like. I shivered at the thought of that.
“ Get her into a bath, she is going to the castle. We can’t have her looking al filthy for the king.” He said that last part with a grin at an older women. He turned to face me, and gestured for me to turn around, and unfastening the rope from my wrists.
“ By the way, if you try to use your magic here, It won’t work. No one can use their magic from within the barrier.” That is why I couldn’t use my magic earlier. If I was able to summon my power, I might have been able to escape the clutches of my captors.
“ Come.” The older woman said roughly, leading me through a darkened hallway that looked like it had seen better days a very long time ago. You could tell that once upon a time ago that it indeed was a gem of a place.
I follow the older woman cautiously down the dark hall, glancing over my shoulder ever so often noticing that my captor is only a few paces behind. My hopes of trying to escape while he was occupied with something else went out the window.
I was taken to another room with an old copper bath already filled with steamy hot water. The old women escorting me to the bathing chambers ordered my captor to wait outside while closing the chamber doors in his face, I couldn’t help but give him a grin. The old woman was rather clean and smelled like roses and some other sweet scent I wasn’t familiar with. For someone who lived in such a broken-down house, she was sure well looked after.
“ You need to get cleaned up and dressed in proper dresses for the king.” The women ordered. “ We will figure out what to do with you later. You are hardly the kings type with that old women hair of yours.” She said lifting her one brow in a not so approving way, and then disappeared behind some torn curtains and after a few moments she reappeared with the most beautiful princess dresses. I huffed slightly. For whatever they were planning to do with me, I doubt princess dresses was the right outfit for it.
Another group of girls entered and started ripping the mud drenched clothes off from my body, tossing my satchel with the dragon book aside. I winched at the site of the book sliding across the floor underneath the old sofa. I pushed them away.
“ I don’t need help getting out of my own clothes.” I said through gritted teeth. The one girl huffed.
“ She is a feisty one, isn’t she?”
“ Who are you, for the Madam to choose you over us to be send off to the castle instead of us, who have waited far longer then you to be one of the kings hand chosen one’s.” Another girl said.
“ I am nobody, and I don’t know who your king is either, or do I care.” It came out rudely.
“ Oh, you will find out soon enough who he is and what your purpose would be to the king. And just so you know, no one gets privacy around here.” I swallowed hard as she said it.
“ I don’t know how things work where you are from, but things work a bit differently here in Dravonia . So if I were you, I would start getting worried.”
“ Enough Selina!” An older looking girl with blonde hair called out. The girls all giggled and left, leaving me with the blonde hair girl.