THIRTY – ASH
I know Ridders are not very patient, but I didn’t expect them to gather me for the torture a full thirty minutes before sunset. All of them are in the room, except Den.
Here we go. Ted and one of the ones I don’t know, approach my cage. Ted kneels down to talk to me, “You have one more chance to shift, we won’t torture you if you do. We will reward you with a quick and painless death.”
“Fuck you.”
“Wrong answer, shifter bitch.” He unlocks the door of the cage, I hear the soft metallic click and I prepare my attack, but he doesn’t open the door right away.
“Turn around and put your hands on the back wall.”
“No.” I stay in my fighting crouch.
“Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.” He nods to the other man, “Smith, can you help persuade her?”
He reaches down and pulls out a long skinny sword and smiles, “Happy to.” I now understand why there is a long slit running horizontally through the middle of the cage. He sticks the sword in, right for me and I am forced to back up. “Now turn around and grab the cage. I won’t ask again.”
“Damn it,” I do as I am told. This is not good, I will not be able to fight from this position. I feel hands shove me roughly into the cage and another set yanks my arms behind my back. Whoever is holding my hands, switches the grip to free a hand. A second later, there is a knife at my throat.
Ted speaks, “If you try anything, I will slit your throat. It won’t be deep enough to kill you though, so don’t think that will be an easy way out.” So, he is the one holding me. I don’t know how I will do it yet, but he will be the one I kill first.
Thinking of revenge will help keep me strong. I cling to my hatred and let it envelop me.
He backs me up off the fence and we head towards the table. “Climb up.” I don’t have an option to refuse him, not with the knife at my throat or the sword in easy striking distance, so I obey. When I am on the table, the other stranger comes over to tie me down. He starts with my ankles. Each one gets its own rope, which he secures to something under each corner, holding my legs hard against the edges.
I am then forced to my back, a lot harder than necessary and they raise both my arms over my head. They get the same treatment and I am stretched out, each extremity reaching for a different edge. The ropes are secured so tightly, they are digging into me even when I don’t move. I can tell they have done this before because I will be helpless to struggle.
Ted starts laying out the torture supplies, they are the standard ones with a variety of clamps and knives. I refuse to look scared, so I turn my gaze towards the ceiling. “You can end this at any time, remember that. All you have to do is shift.”
“I will tell you again, I am not a shifter. I am just a woman who moved to a new village.”
“None of us believe you. Should we start with fingernails?”
“Or what about flaying?” Another asks.
“No. We will give her a chance before it gets to that.” I know they are just trying to scare me and god it’s working. My last moments are going to be unbearable.
I look around the room and catch Stann’s eyes. At least he doesn’t look like he is enjoying this, but his discomfort doesn’t help me. Unless it gets bad enough and he decides to stop it. I remember what he said though, he was looking forward to torturing the person who killed Den’s cousin. Does it not matter to any of them that he is only dead because he attacked me? Was I not supposed to fight back?
I see Ted approaching and I wince. So, it begins. When he picks up my hand, I feel the cold steel of the pliers on my fingertip, but before he rips, Gregory’s father’s voice rings out, “Hold on a second.”
“What now Cliffden?”
“Are you absolutely sure she is the one who did it? A matching hair color and a coincidental timeline could just be that, a coincidence.”
“You know I am sure. There was also her behavior. She was strange during dinner, Stann told me that was not her normal attitude.” He released my hand and set down the pliers. They made a heavy bang when they hit the surface of the table. “Then after we left the tavern, Zach watched her breakdown and immediately leave with your son, Gregory. Not to forget your other son, who slipped out behind us and followed until we got to Stann’s house. Why would he do that? Perhaps to gather intel on an enemy?”
“It could all be a misunderstanding, she was attacked and almost raped two days ago. Her behavior could have been an aftershock from that.”
“She is the shifter.”
“You better be right, my son loves her and her death will crush him. It had better be for a reason.”
“I will be proven right soon enough, she will shift when the torture starts. They always do.” He picks up my hand again. Before he is able to get a grip on my fingernail, I hear the door crash in. I am helpless to look around, but in a second, I see see a familiar owl flying in my field of vision. Gregory found me.
From the sound of things, he brought the cavalry. For a group of people that are used to hunting shifters, they do a horrible job of noticing Gregory flying above us. They are distracted by the mass of men running through the doors. The three men surrounding me run towards the door to defend against the invaders and prevent them from getting to me. This opens it up perfectly for Gregory.
He lands, shifts and sweeps a knife from the torture supply all in one heartbeat. During the next one, he is sawing through the bindings on my arms. He gets them free, then hands me the knife so he can look around and it was not a moment too soon. Ted is wielding a sword and a long knife, and he is charging straight for Gregory.
I saw my leg bindings with a fury. These bastards will not hurt another person I care about. Gregory easily dodges the blow but he is in real danger, going against Ted while unarmed. Taking a quick look around the room, I see Den and Stann wresting on the ground. Gregory’s father is standing back, not fighting. The other two are easily surrounded by my group of defenders.
That leaves Ted for me.
I get my other leg free, then leap off the table, striking out with the knife at the same moment. It isn’t a killing blow, I make a shallow cut on his arm. It does what I needed and it distracts him away from Gregory. “You were right, Ted. I am the shifter from Naven.”
“I already knew that,” he shouts and lunges at me. I dodge and meet his lunge forward, getting close enough to prevent him from being able to effectively use the sword against me. I place myself if the danger zone of a knife strike, but that is safer than a sword. From here, I at least have a chance to strike back at him.
I punch out with my left hand, aiming for his throat. He is blocked from stopping me by his grip on the sword, so my strike lands. At the same time, he was swiping at me with his knife hand, I only partially block it, allowing the tip to graze my shoulder. I feel the warm spurt of fresh blood, but I don’t feel the pain.
He starts choking from my throat hit and he backs up, trying to create space. My guess is he wants to use the sword, to give himself a chance to recover. I am not going to let that happen. I follow his retreat. I slash with my knife, cutting deeply into his forearm. Blood starts flowing down over his hand, and I know he won’t be able to grip the knife nearly as well now.
He tries to back up faster, and I can see the fear in his eyes. He didn’t expect me to fight him so easily. I am preparing to throw him to the ground with a kick when I see Gregory approaching him from behind. One second, Ted is running in retreat, the next he has a knife sticking in his back, so deep I can see the tip pierce the front of his shirt. He looks down, stunned, then collapses to his knees, dropping his sword and knife on his way down.
I follow him down, and say, “You could have just left us alone and nobody would have had to die.”
“I needed to rid the world of your evil.”
“We are not the evil ones.” To drive home that point, I give him a quick and painless death. I stab him directly in the heart. He would have died from Gregory’s, but it would have taken a few hours of suffering.
Gregory wraps me in a hug as soon as I stand up. I let his embrace smother me, as I am confident the fighting is over. “Thank you for finding me,” I say into his chest. He leans back and caresses my hurt arm, “Of course, I will always find you. Are you okay?” Motioning at my cut.
I shrug, “It’s just a scratch.” Then I turn to look around the room. The other two strangers are both laying dead. Stann has stopped fighting, but Den is still holding him tight. Lord Cliffden is approaching me and Gregory. I move protectively in front of Gregory.
“Stop,” I growl at him.
He stops his approach and says, “You can relax, I am not going to fight.” Gregory does the opposite of relaxing, he pushes past me and punches his father square in the face. The punch has so much force, he is thrown to the ground. Gregory moves to jump on him, but Grant appears from nowhere and holds him back. “Gregory, stop!”
“Fuck no. He was just going to watch as that monster tortured Ash.” Lord Cliffden is looking up at his sons, “I was going to. I wouldn’t have let them kill her though, not unless she proved to be a shifter.”
Gregory is struggling to get past Grant, “The torturing would have killed her!”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, she is dangerous! I saw the way she expertly killed Ted.”
"He is only dead because he hunted me down!” I shout, “I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just want to live!”
Lord Cliffden stands up and brushes off his clothes. Gregory is glaring at his father, like he wants to throw him back down again.
Everyone was drawn by our yelling and they start to circle around the four of us. I am sure the fight is going to contine when Grant speaks up, “Can we all just calm down and discuss these events?”
Den shouts in, “I think that is a wonderful idea.”
Gregory says through clenched teeth, “Fine.” Grant finally releases his hold on Gregory, so I move to grab his arm - hoping my hold will keep him from attacking his father again. It is not that I am protecting his father, I am worried what it would do to Gregory, if he actually did manage to kill him.
I say, “Let’s clean up a little bit before we start. Gregory, you need to put on some clothes and a few of us have some wounds we need to bandage.”
Grant adds, “I can find something to cover the bodies until we decide what to do with them.”
“I will get some booze,” Nash adds, “I don’t know about you lads, but I need a drink after this.”
“I'll help, Nash,” Tom says. He looks sick but is doing a good job of holding himself together.
“Hurry back everyone.” I say, then turn towards Lord Cliffden and stare him down, “You will not leave this room, or move, for that matter.”
“Fine,” he waves me off like my request annoys him, but he won’t bother making a fit about it.