Welcome to Chapter Eleven of #SilvanusAndEmpire! The town of Annex has been buzzing like a beehive since the Bakers were killed and Lyrinn and Caddoc were abducted. Now, let's see what's been going on across the river since then...
SIlvanus and Empire
Chapter Eleven
Public domain image, sourced from News24
Caddoc awoke to find himself on the ground trussed like a hog. His hands were bound at the wrists in front of his chest, and his feet at the ankles, both with a rough, strong rope. The side of his head throbbed painfully, he was blind - it felt like there was some sort of burlap sack over his head, cinched by another piece of rope firmly about his neck - and his robe, undertunic, hose, and boots were gone. They even took my father’s medallion, he thought bitterly, shivering in the cold. Must still be nighttime if it’s this cold out. He tried vainly to wriggle some feeling back into his numbed fingers.
A chill wind ranged over him, and he cocked his head at the sound it brought to his muffled ears: rustling leaves. The forest! He thought. They’ve brought me across to the other side. But that means I’m in Silvanus. Oh, you’ve stepped in it now. Of all the nights to visit Lyrinn, you pick the one where her long-lost kin come for her! He wriggled madly as panic began to set in, trying desperately to free himself from his fetters. I must be cursed. The wind rustled the trees again; Caddoc shuddered as a cutting breeze skittered over his exposed flesh. Where were his kidnappers? Had they left him here to die, slowly, from lack of food? Don’t be daft, he told himself. You’ll die of thirst long before that, and maybe even of exposure before that as well. He made a low noise in the back of his throat, somewhere between a whimper and a whine, and strained against the thick ropes. He only succeeded in rubbing his wrists raw.
Once more he heard the trees move about him and he braced himself for another gust of icy wind, but it never came. Footfalls! he thought. He fell silent, trying to lay quietly as his heart thundered in his chest loud enough (or so it felt to him) to wake the dead.
The sound of snapping twigs and disturbed leaves grew steadily closer until it was right before him. He was unable to repress a shiver and was rewarded with a swift, vicious kick to his midriff. He doubled over, gasping, as pain blossomed like a poisonous flower in his chest. He groaned as he was kicked again; he heard the cruel laughter of a young woman. Why is Lyrinn kicking me? he thought dimly before someone grabbed the sack over his head and pulled.
He gagged and scrambled awkwardly to his feet as the rope cut into his neck; it was either stand or stop breathing, and he wasn’t quite ready to give up just yet. He wobbled unsteadily, shivering in the air as deft hands began to work the knotted cord holding his hood in place. The rope loosened, and off came the sack, leaving Caddoc blinking and disoriented in the dim light of false dawn. He was standing in the midst of a trackless forest of thick-boled trees, some evergreen, others just beginning to bud. Fallen branches and untold years’ worth of dead leaves carpeted the dark, cool earth.
As he looked around he felt a foot land squarely in the small of his back. He went sprawling. Cursing, he rolled over painfully, spitting out dirt and glaring back behind him.
Looming over him was a slim-figured young woman dressed in deerskins. She sneered at him while casually fingering a wicked-looking stone knife. Caddoc blinked. “Lyrinn? No, you’re not.” The knife the woman held had a broken blade. “You...! Where's your cohort? What have you done with Lyrinn?”
She gave him a feral grin and hunkered down next to him. She laid a finger across her lips and shook her head slowly, sending her thick red hair swinging about her face. Caddoc opened his mouth and felt the jagged edge of his captor’s knife digging into his exposed belly. The woman shook her head again, still grinning at him cruelly. Caddoc swallowed and nodded; he got the message.
The woman looked over her shoulder and spoke some more of the language he’d heard briefly last evening before getting knocked out. She shifted her position and he could see his other assailant standing several paces behind her. He too had removed his hood and let his own striking red hair tumble free, and his young, beardless face had more than a passing resemblance with the Bloodhair woman. In his hands he held one end of a stout rope; the other ran down to the ground and was tied around the wrists of a disheveled-looking Lyrinn. Her feet had been left untied and she hadn’t been blindfolded; instead, a balled-up piece of cloth had been stuffed in her mouth as a gag. Hunched there on the ground, she met Caddoc’s gaze, and he could see fear tinged with relief in her eyes. He doubted that his own gaze looked much different to Lyrinn. At least they didn’t take her clothes, he thought, as he shivered in the wind.
The man and woman spoke together for a few moments, apparently coming to some sort of decision. The man tugged on Lyrinn’s rope, and he watched her struggle wearily to her feet. They set off into the forest, the man pushing Lyrinn along in front of her. At the same time, Caddoc’s guard bent down, knife in hand, and sawed through the rope binding his feet. She spoke roughly to him, motioning him to stand.
Caddoc got up painfully, feeling the pins and needles in his feet and legs. He flinched as the woman looped the remainder of the rope about his neck and quickly tied a slipknot; she snugged it tight and pulled on the trailing end. Caddoc had no choice but to step forward as she did so, feeling like a dog on a leash. His captor laughed at the disgusted expression on his face. She motioned with her head and set him marching off, trailing behind him.
They walked through sunrise and most of the morning, and Caddoc was never so glad for the spring sun against his skin. The long hike began to take its toll upon him, however; without his boots, every rock and bramble they passed through left its mark on his feet and legs. He was a sore, bleeding mess by mid-morning, and by noon he was finding it harder and harder to stay on his feet. Finally he tripped and fell over a moss-covered log and couldn’t get up; he could hear the curses of his captor as she walked up to him and gave him another not-so-gentle kick in the ribs. He hissed at the pain and spat on her soft leather boots.
With a growl, she dropped to her knees and grabbed Caddoc by the scruff of his hair. She bent his head back and placed her knife against his throat, glaring at him and whispering only the Emperor knew what into Caddoc’s ear. Caddoc tensed as the blade began to cut into his flesh.
Lyrinn’s captor called out harshly, and the pressure against Caddoc’s neck disappeared. He looked up to see the other Silvani looking down disapprovingly at both Caddoc’s captor and the naked young man himself.
“I can’t go on,” he rasped, coughing and clutching at the rope around his neck. He pointed to his bruised, bloody legs, and then shook his head. “Too tired,” he said, meeting the Wildman’s inscrutable gaze.
He spoke to his companion again, and she handed him Caddoc’s leash. He hauled Caddoc to his feet by pulling on the rope roughly. He leaned in close and pointed over to Lyrinn, then slid a finger across his throat.
Caddoc swallowed. “Well, perhaps I can walk all right after all,” he said lightly, picking up his knees and clumsily wobbling from foot to foot in a painful display of vigor. “Come on, let’s go, then, shall we?” He jogged in place, trying to ignore the ache in his muscles.
The two Bloodhairs looked at each other and then laughed at him. It wasn’t a pleasant noise. Lyrinn just looked at Caddoc and shook her head. They set off again into the forest.