Legend of the Seeker Drabble 2
“Don’t touch me with that! Please!” Walter struggled as the Mord-Sith came close with her Agiel. She held it in front of his face, threatening to touch it.
“You are lucky Lord Rahl needs your appearance to be flawless,” the Mord-Sith said grinning wickedly at him. She took a chain and handcuffs from the wagon with the gold and chained Walter up behind it. He was going to be walking behind the thing the entire way back and Walter didn’t expect them to go slow for him.
The lead Mord-Sith climbed on top of the wagon while the others walked next to it. General Egremont mounted his horse and took a spot behind Walter, together with the rest of his men.
Walter stumbled behind the wagon while the Mord-Sith urged the horses to pick up the pace. From the corner of his eye, he saw Malray move behind the trees along with them. Walter looked straight at him and saw his friend waving. Walter smiled and wanted to wave back with his restrained hands when he saw Malray making gestures. Walter squinted his eyes and tried to read Malray’s lips: “Don’t show it’s me!” Malray put a finger to his lips. Walter pressed his own together and looked straight ahead quickly.
“Your friend is lucky that we have no use for him,” General Egremont said from behind him. Walter let out a slight yell. Luckily Egremont hadn’t seen it was Malray or he would not have let him go so easily. A former D’Haran officer that stole his dead master’s gold would not have gone down well with him nor with the Mord-Sith.
Walter swallowed and dared not to look at the forest beside him again. He didn’t see anything in the corner of his eyes again for the rest of the way back. He wondered if he would ever see his friend again. He hoped he would. Maybe Malray would try to rescue him from the deep, dark dungeon he was taken to. Walter knew it was a long shot though. Malray had to get past half a dozen of Mord-Sith and a few D’Harans. On top of that, he couldn’t use Walter’s looks anymore like they had done before. He would probably never see him again.
Walter bowed his head to the ground in misery, just as the Mord-Sith on the wagon urged the horses to pick up the pace even more. Walter stumbled along before he tripped. He fell head down into the muddy soil. The Mord-Sith didn’t respond to his yelp all too quickly. He was dragged over the ground a few feet before the wagon had stopped. He was glad they at least stopped. They could have gone on without caring about the welfare of their unexpected cargo.
Walter crawled up to find mud everywhere. It was in his hair, nose and mouth. He spat it out as he tried to fix his hair. He was stopped just when he reached his forehead by the restraints around his wrists.
General Egremont yelled: “Let’s go!” as the Mord-Sith who walked next to the wagon stood there smirking at Walter’s state.
He felt miserable. He wasn’t sure if he would ever see the best friend he ever had again. On top of that he was taken by the awful Mord-Sith and their torture sticks to the treasure temple by command of Darken Rahl himself. He really didn’t know how he could get out of this one. The only thing he was ever able to use to get out of things were his looks. That trait was now out of commission for good.
He looked at the chains and where they ended on the wagon. He wouldn’t get it loose. And even if he could, there was that general behind him with the D’Harans, a few Mord-Sith walking not far from him and another on the wagon with a bow and arrow, and two horses that would catch up with him in no time. Walter sighed and shook his head. He almost tripped again as he lost his focus on the pace of the wagon for a bit.
It took more than an hour to get back to the temple. By then Walter was exhausted. Walking on the pace of the wagon and putting all effort in not tripping had drained him of all his energy. The horses had halted right in front of the temple doors he had left as their lord not long before. When one of the Mord-Sith took off his handcuffs, it was a good thing two others had already restrained him by his shoulders, or he would have fallen to the ground.
He fell into the arms of the two Mord-Sith. His knees were so weak that they hung down and almost touched the ground.
“Get up!” yelled one of them.
Walter tried to regain his balance. When he found it, he immediately lost it again and sank to the ground. “Woah! Sorry. So sorry.” He scrambled his legs back to the solid ground. “I have weak ankles,” he apologised with a nervous smile. The Mord-Sith on his right rolled her eyes.
“I saw that!”
While a few other Mord-Sith loaded off the crates with gold from the wagon, the other Mord-Sith dragged Walter into the temple. They brought him to the room with the fireplace he recognised from only a few hours earlier. They let go of his shoulder and Walter dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.
“Get out of those clothes.” General Egremont walked into the room and his eyes looked furiously at Walter who scurried towards the wall.
“I… I didn’t mean any harm. We just wanted a little money to live happily, that’s all,” Walter cried through the room while he heaved his hands up to Egremont.
“You stole Lord Rahl’s gold.” The general looked down at him like a tiger looked at his prey. That statement was sufficient to give Walter goose bumps.
Walter started shaking. He didn’t see a way out and a life in the dungeon until Rahl would come back to the living and order Walter to die wasn’t exactly how he had seen his own ending.
A few slaves came in with bowls of fruit. Walter scanned them to see if the pretty girl from before was with them. He was disappointed when he realised she wasn’t.
“Take him to the dungeons and make sure he’s out of those clothes before you lock the door,” Egremont ordered two Mord-Sith.
They put their arms under Walter’s armpits again and put him upright in front of the general. Egremont looked at Walter sternly. “Once you were useful to Lord Rahl. Now we will keep you safe until he returns. Then we will hear why we had to keep you alive in the first place.” Egremont waved his finger behind him, as sign to take Walter away.
Walter was scared. He didn’t know for how long he’d be in the dungeon and what Rah’s plan would turn out to be if he became alive again. Rahl mentioned Walter’s dead body, so it couldn’t be good.
Panic suddenly came over him as the Mord Sith dragged him down the stairs. “No! No wait! Please! I could still be of use in life. I could pretend to be Rahl from the underworld. I could appear to people as him! In the fire, like Rahl does.” He was struggling hard. He wanted to break free, run up to Egremont and make his case. Instead, one of the Mord-Sith kicked him hard against his shin. Walter bent over in pain and gasped while the Mord-Sith regained their hold of him.
“You can’t run.” The Mord-Sith replied coldly.
Walter stopped struggling. He knew it wouldn’t work.
As they made their way down, he heard people coming up the stairs. They weren’t talking. As the group came closer, Walter immediately recognised her: it was the pretty girl from the day before. As he stumbled past her, he couldn’t help himself; he had to look at her. And she looked at him, surprised. She had not expected to see Lord Rahl being led to the dungeon of course. Apparently she wasn’t the only one of the group looking at him. As the group of slaves walked past and were still gawking, one of the Mord-Sith took out her agiel. Annoyed she yelled: “This man is an impostor. The true Lord Rahl is dead. Now, go back to work!”
When the slaves walked up the stairs with their heads still turned their way, the second Mord-Sith had had it: “Now!” She waved her agiel in the direction of the slaves to make them move away faster. Quickly the group ran up the stairs.
The entire time Walter had not been able to take his eyes off of her. She was mesmerizing to him. His heart fluttered when she turned around one more time while getting up the stairs.
He smiled gently at her. She didn’t respond and turned her head back quickly.
The Mord-Sith picked up the pace and soon they had reached the dungeon. Two D’Harans were playing a game of dice Walter didn’t recognise.
They opened the first door and threw Walter in the area behind it.
“Take of your clothes.” The Mord-Sith looked at him pleased. It was obvious she wasn’t leaving nor looking the other way.
“Could you…?” Walter didn’t finish the sentence, but pointed to somewhere outside of the cell. The Mord-Sith rolled her eyes, but turned around nonetheless. The second Mord-Sith was already out of sight.
As Walter took the red clothes off, he wondered if he were to remain almost completely naked in the cell. He folded the coat and top before slowly taking of his pair of pants. When he was only in his underpants, the second Mord-Sith came into the cell and threw a grey shirt with matching trousers at him. They were dirty and way too large for Walter, but it was better than no clothes at all, he figured.
Before he had even put on the new clothes, the cell door slammed shut and he heard the lock being turned. With his trousers half on he ran to the door. There was a small hole on eye height with bars, so he could look outside into the dungeon. He watched the two Mord-Sith walk back to the stairs and the D’Haran soldiers standing next to the doors of his cell.
Walter turned around and walked back to where he left his new shirt. He was locked up; there was nothing he could do. As he put his trousers on fully, he heard footsteps. He looked up and saw movement at the barred opening. He walked over to see what it was.
It was she. He saw her dark eyes piercing through the bars onto him. She held the bars with her hands and she was swaying a bit. It seemed she was standing on her toes.
“I’m Mika.” She smiled softly.
“I’m Walter.” He smiled back.
Mika turned around. Apparently the D’Harans were fine with her being there and talking to him, but she seemed a bit more afraid of the Sister of the Agiel coming back.
“You’re not Lord Rahl then are you?” she whispered.
“No.” Walter sheepishly answered. He had pretended to save her as Rahl yesterday in the bath. He was a bit ashamed of himself.
“You’re too kind to be him.”
Mika suddenly looked at him anxiously. Then Walter heard the footsteps coming from the stairs.
“I need to go, but I will try to come back.” She touched Walter’s hands he had put on the opening in the door. She smiled at him before disappearing to the right. The D’Harans didn’t seem to care. He wondered what she had used to bribe them with.
Walter stumbled to the back of his cell. He slid down the wall until he sat on the stone floor where a few strings of hay laid. He pulled his knees up to his belly and wrapped his arms around them.
He smiled to himself. He might just survive this after all.