The Monarch: Days of Dusk

Chapter 4. Introductions

Gwen

The carriage stopped after a while and we were taken out of it and placed in a cave, shackled in chains and the sacks were lifted.

We were in a cave of some sort, with dark stone for walls and a wide mouth, guarded by the men in furs. The walls had shackles inserted and we were bound in iron chains by them. The floor was the same dark stone.

The rain lashed outside. It guessed it was evening.

Anna was silent, not a single tear on her cheeks. Her eyes had somehow sunken and dark circles emerged underneath them. Her eyes were wide open, taking in all the dismal scenery around her, the unyielding shackles, the darkness of the cave and the frowned face of one of the captors standing before us, his furs all wet.

“If you want something, you tell me. If you try anything stupid, I will crack your skull against the stone.” He declared as he sat on the left side, leaning against the wall.

He had a scarred face, with roughly cut beard and shoulder length rough untamed black hair. He looked to the cave entrance, rubbing his hands as to stave off the cold.

It was cold. Winter was here after all. But I didn’t feel a thing. I was numb.

“Where are you taking us?”

My voice sounding cold and strange, even to me.

“To your new home, to meet your new chums.” He replied, smiling venomously.

I didn’t ask another question after this.

We kept travelling and stopped a few times in between, to rest the horses or if the weather won’t permit any travel. By the feels of it, we must have covered an enormous distance.

After about seven days of travelling, we got to the place that was to be our final destination. They took us inside and locked us in a cage, taking off the sacks. They left soon after.

As I looked around, we were in some sort of a cave or a mine I thought. The chamber was filled with solid iron cages, six of them, three opposite to three, with torches lining in-between the cages on the walls.

In other cages, I could see other children. Some were my age, some older and a few young ones. Some were in pairs, some alone, a boy my age was crying with his face in his hands. His cage was the opposite to our own.

Another one was looking here and there, two girls were sobbing, wrapped in each others’s arms.

What is this place?

Why are we all here?

Why did they capture us?

This place really had an aura of despair hanging about it. Everyone was terrified, shocked and grieving at the same time.

Beside me, Anna was looking here and there, observing with wide open eyes, taking in everything with focus written upon her face.

“This place is underground.” She said.

“Where have they gone?

Stop. Anger sparked in me.

“As we were being carried here, I noticed we were being carried down at least two sets of stairs. This means that we are in the basement and the men are at the level above us”

“Shut up” I said aloud, anger surging through me.

“There are no structures like this in and around the village or the mountains that I know of, the ground there is too unyielding to dig. We must be in a valley or in the foothills at least. She said, calmly my loud enough so that at least the cells immediately around us would be in earshot.

“Shut up!!!” I shouted, anger turning into blind fury as I slapped Anna hard on her cheek.

“Like it matters anymore! Father and mother are dead! Killed! And we couldn’t do anything. We are all bound here and they will rip out or necks just like they did to mother…….” My knees felt weak just thinking about it again and I fell down, crying, my face in my hands, tears flowing free.

“Yes, if we let them. If not, we may get out of here.” She said calmly, apparently unfazed by my slap.

Now that I noticed it, everyone had fallen silent.

I looked up and her her face, full of resolve and eyes glinting with intelligence and hope. She was three years younger than me but now looked five years older than me. She put her hand in her skirt and produced something that made other children sigh in awe. To me it looked like a gift from the gods themselves.

She held her hand up, and it held a dagger. Long and straight, it’s edge catching the light from the torches and glinting dazzlingly in the light.

My tears of sorrow turned to tears of joy and in the rapture of it all, I got up and kissed Anna on her cheek that I slapped and embraced her tightly, crying in her neck as she hugged me back and stroked my hair.

She softly said, “Will you help me with this?” Something she always asked me when she was her ladyship was in need of some brute mountain strength.

“Yes.”

I said, sobbing but smiling and held on to her.

“How did you get it?” I asked her, everyone else listening intently. I could feel their eyes boring into us.

“Father gave it to me. I’ve been keeping it beside my bed ever since those nightmares started, remember?”

Yeah, I did remember.

A month ago, Anna complained of some very disturbing nightmares and father gave her one of his hunting knives to keep beside her bed, as a charm to ward off nightmares. An old charm if the mountains.

“But how did it get here?”

“After I attended to mother, she told me to leave and let her rest and so I left for my room. After a moment, I heard someone open the door and come into the main hall.

I, out of sheer instinct, grabbed the knife and came out. Then he grabbed me out of nowhere and I couldn’t breathe. Then you came and he released me. Then mother came and killed those two. But after mother….” She choked a bit

“I pocketed it out of fear to be used when necessary. As we were coming here, there was never a chance to use it. Even if I did, they would have expected that. But now, we have the element of surprise.”

She explained, to my utter bewilderment.

Anna was always the smart one but this was something else entirely.

I knew a small knife meant nothing against the iron cages we were in, but I really wanted to believe in her. And the way the other kids looked at her, I could see that they wanted to believe in her too.

The other kids….

“All of you!” I said as I leaned towards the bars of the cage and they did the same.

“You saw and heard her, saw what she has. That is the hope for our escape. I take it that all of you have been captured here, with your family killed. We have been brought here for gods know what but I ask you, are you with us?”

Silence.

“Yeah” the boy in the cage adjacent to us said. “Yes” the girl from the corner café said. Soon, all of them affirmed it. They were with us.

“Good”

“ Tell us about yourselves. Who are you? Where are you from? How were you captured? Any and all clues you have about our captors.” Anna said.

It took some time as we had to be wary of someone eavesdropping. Also, we weren’t exactly in the state to be much talkative.

We were ten in total. Six girls and four boys. Ingrid and Falk, Maggie and Penny, Kirk, Amber, Jason and lastly Sven.

First two pairs were siblings, just like Anna and me while Jason and Sven were alone.

Kirk and Amber were together but they were not siblings, rather they were friends.

Out of them all, only three were old enough to actually do something.

It was the short blonde haired Jason, captured from barracks, a village in the plains, Sven, a tall, brown haired boy from the mountains, just like us and Kirk, a cold looking dark haired boy from Bjornstead, in the lowlands.

Kirk and Sven were about my age and. Jason between me and Anna.

Then they told us how they ended up here.

“ My house was attacked in the dead of the night. Me and my brother were sleeping. Suddenly we heard our dog barking and then it stopped. My brother and I sneaked out to see what happened, then they pounced on us with swords in hand. They tried to grab us but Rick would have none of it. He bashed one’s skull , split it open but then…..another one got him.” Said Sven, looking down in defeat and despair. His parents had died long ago.

Jason had a similar story.

“ I had gone to live with my granddad, in the town.

My grandma had just passed away and my parents decided I would be good company for my grandad. They had to leave for the village as it was time for the winter harvest. I was all too happy. However, one night, as he was telling me about his childhood stories, suddenly four men broke into our house, shot my grandad with arrows….and took me away.” Tears fell down his face, at least they were alive, maybe even looking for him, even now. I hoped they would find this place and come in numbers.

The story of Kirk and Amber was a bit peculiar. Kirk and Amber were friends, not siblings. They lived in the same village.

“ I was out for hunting, in the forest near the village. It was evening, I wasn’t looking for anything, just passing time. Suddenly, out of nowhere, two men came up on me. I shot one with an arrow but the others quickly came up to me, knocking me out.”

Then he looked at Amber. She was fidgeting with her hair. Dark as the night, contrasting sharply with her pale skin. She was from the Lowlands after all. She looked down a bit.

Was that a blush?

“I had followed Kirk from afar. I kept a distance but then I heard him shouting and saw what happened. I quickly ran to the village, but was caught by them halfway there.” She said shyly.

Kirk stroked her shoulder and she looked up to him with a faint smile.

Did he just do that?

CREAK.