CHAPTER 23
When Adrina woke, it was dark. She experienced a sharp pang of bitter disappointment when she realised Damin had not come back. Well, what did you expect? she asked herself grumpily. It's not as if he actually wants to spend time in your company. Tam had not lit the candles yet and the room was full of dancing shadows. Moonlight reflecting off the still waters of the harbour painted flickering patterns on the ceiling. She lay still for a moment, wondering what had woken her, then heard the noise again in the corridor outside her room.
Curiously, she climbed to her feet and crossed to the door, placing her ear against the warm wood. The noise grew louder, the unmistakable sound of shouting and the clang of metal on metal. She stepped away from the door in puzzlement. It sounded like a fight. Was the palace under attack?
The door burst open suddenly and the light from the passage outside momentarily blinded her. She screamed as the room filled with armed men. Arms grabbed at her and a mailed hand was clamped over her mouth, stifling her cries. She struggled against the man who held her then suddenly relaxed as she remembered the child she carried. If she struggled too hard she might cause it harm.
“Are you sure that's her?” one of them asked.
“Aye.”
“Then let's get out of here. Make certain they're all dead out there,” he added, jerking his head towards the corridor.
A Raider slipped through the door, his sword drawn. Adrina cringed as a high-pitched and unmistakably female scream followed a few seconds later. She twisted her head around and caught sight of a blue skirt puddled on the tiles near the door, the familiar slippers stained with the blood that pooled around them.
Tamylan!
“Get her to the balcony,” the man in charge ordered. “The boat is waiting.”
Adrina struggled as they dragged her across the room, her heart beating so hard she thought it might burst through her chest. She turned her head, trying to keep Tam in her line of sight, willing the feet to move, to give some indication that she was still alive. The man sent out to finish off the guards slipped back into the room and closed the door behind him, cutting off her view. Adrina sobbed into the mailed hand still covering her mouth.
Tamylan!
They dragged her through the open door and out onto the balcony. A Raider was lowering a rope over the edge, down to the dark waters of the harbour below. His leather breastplate was embossed with a soaring eagle. The Raider who seemed to be giving the orders checked the rope was secure then turned to Adrina.
“Sorry about this, Your Highness.”
The man holding her suddenly released his hand from her mouth, but before she could scream a mailed fist hit her in the jaw. The pain blinded her for a moment and she struggled to stay upright.
The second blow was more effective. By the time she realised she had been struck again she was unconscious.
The next thing Adrina knew, she was tied hand and foot, lying in a puddle of icy water in the bottom of a small boat. The sea churned beneath them, and the motion of the boat made her ill, but she was determined not to vomit. She held down the contents of her heaving stomach by sheer force of will. Spitting out a mouthful of sour blood and stale salty water, she lifted her head to see where she was. In the darkness she could make out little but the bare feet of the sailors who pulled on the oars, and the booted feet of the Raiders who had kidnapped her.
One of them looked down and noticed she was conscious. He bent over and pulled her into a sitting position, squinting at her in the moonlight.
“Awake, then, are you?”
“You have a gift for stating the blindingly obvious, my man.”
“I ain't your man, missy,” the Raider replied. “I'm one of Lord Eaglespike's men.”
“Again, you state the obvious,” she remarked, glancing at his breastplate, proudly embossed with the soaring eagle of Dregian Province. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere safe.”
“That's a rather relative term under the circumstances. Untie me at once!”
“Can't do that, Your Highness.”
“Why not? Are you afraid I'll escape? With all these big, nasty sailors surrounding me? I'm flattered.”
“Lord Eaglespike said...”
“Ah! Lord Eaglespike! Did he give orders that I was to be treated like some galley slave you snatched for a bit of sport? Untie me this instant!”
Her tone almost had him convinced. He was reaching for the ropes when another man stopped him, looking down at her with contempt.
“Leave her be, Avrid,” the other man ordered. “Don't let her trick you.”
Avrid lowered his hands, almost apologetically. Adrina glared at the Raider with all the regal scorn she could muster while sitting in such an inelegant position.
“I promise I will personally see to it that you all die a very slow and painful death. I will supervise your torture and execution myself. I enjoy watching my enemies suffer long, excruciating punishments. I'm Fardohnyan, you know. We have ways of making a man live in agony for weeks without killing him.”
“Shut up!” the Raider ordered, noticing the looks on the faces of the men who could hear her.
Adrina smiled coldly. “Then, there's always a chance I won't get to do a thing to you myself. Once the demon child hears of this, your days left in this world will be so few even you could count them. Did I mention that the demon child is a friend of mine?”
“I told you to shut up!” The Raider's voice had an edge of panic to it. “Don't say another word!”
“Am I scaring you?” she asked cheerfully.
The Raider punched her in the face rather than answer her question.
Just before dawn, they reached their destination, a small stone jetty that jutted out into a small churning bay in the shadow of a massive white tower that seemed to grow out of the cliff-face. Adrina was hauled from the boat by another pair of Dregian Raiders and dragged along the slimy dock to a narrow staircase that wound upwards towards a square of yellow light. Shivering in her damp clothes, she shook off the man who was holding her and climbed the steps without assistance, despite the effort it cost her. She was cold and stiff and aching in places she didn't know existed until now. Her head ached, her stomach was queasy and her face felt as if it had swollen to three times its normal size.
At the top of the stairs was a small guardroom where more Raiders waited for her with another man dressed in gold-chased armour. He studied Adrina with concern then turned to the Raider who had hit her in the boat.
“Lord Eaglespike said not to harm her, you fool!”
“She's not hurt bad,” the man replied defensively. “Nothing's broken. But she's got a mouth on her.”
The young lord turned to Adrina apologetically. “I'm sorry, Your Highness. You were not meant to be injured.”
“That's a fairly hollow apology, don't you think?”
“We've brought you here for... political reasons,” the young man explained uncomfortably.
“Is that what you call it? Where I come from, we don't usually start our political negotiations with criminal acts.”
“If you'd stayed where you belong and Damin Wolfblade had heeded our warnings, we wouldn't need to commit criminal acts, Your Highness,” he shrugged. “I am Serrin Eaglespike, Lord Cyrus' brother.”
“Bully for you,” Adrina replied, unimpressed.