The Wolves of Gryning: Chapter 18
Chapter 18: The Red Warrior's Escape
Two days and two nights Valdigt hung suspended in the air. Without food or water she wasted, and felt always the tug of the weights on her. She felt herself sagging against the cuffs, and she chafed and bled. Sometimes she felt sure she would die of the suffering, and with no relief she lost first her will, then her mind, then her sight. Valdigt felt feverish and in the fit of fever realized her vision was blurry. She swam in a sea of haze and pain like fire. Such was her torment that she did not realize the chains had begun to lower; she was unaware even when she was uncuffed and held standing. Gradually the relief around her joints turned to pain again, and she had no conception of being dragged through the hall. Swollen wrists and ankles felt the shock of the cold and she realized she'd fallen into a shallow of water. She drank from the pool greedily and without knowing. And though she still could not see she felt her thoughts creeping back, the storm cloud in her head beginning to abate a little. The deserts of her mouth saw a deluge, the first rain in millenia, and she began to feel life again. It entered her painfully, at first, and she began to convulse in the shallows. A dull pain in her shoulder awoke screaming, and she remembered the fear of that whip. The blood began to run again. She had given up all hope, but now her body lashed out for it, clung to it. And then in her struggling she heard a voice.
"By ashes, what's happened to you?"
Recognition of the voice brought back memories of a past life; could it be? That rough and throaty timbre could only belong to the otter captain, Thess. She remembered the two of them setting sail, and then... Her convulsions slowed and she splashed less and less. Thess watched as she splashed but made no motion to stop her. She just stood, watching. Finally Valdigt's motions came to a halt, and she lay face up in the pool, exhausted and panting.
"How's your voice?" Thess asked. "Can ya still talk?"
"I-" Valdigt tested the voice she hadn't used in days. The cords in her throat twitched and a puff of dust eked its way out, clouded by spiderlegs and dead skin. "I'm a-alright."
"Up on your feet, come on now. Do ya need help?" the otter girl helped Valdigt up out of the pool, but her weak legs couldn't stand on their own. "Let's getcha out of here."
"H-How did you...?"
"How did I get in?" Thess flashed a smile like stars. "It wasn't easy. Had to do a fair bit of sneaking, clubbed a few of the guards over the head. I didn't run into any of those wardens though. If we run into one of them, trouble is just the beginning."
"You have no idea."
Valdigt felt her blood run cold. She knew the voice, though she'd never heard it speaking before. Or could I just not understand before? They saw one of the Molokhiin round the corner in front of them, the warden carrying the same bladed whip from before. Her shoulder began to ache. She knew she had heard the voice before, coarse like a body through gravel. When she'd heard it last she'd heard only grunting, screaming, vocalizations. And words in some unknown language. Valdigt could hear now, when she spoke in the Common tongue, that her voice was that of a she-wolf.
"Or have you forgotten our little... arrangement? You haven't forgotten, Miss Thess. I should hope not. Because we do not forget so easily. Oh no, and we believe in justice."
"Easy," Thess said. "You've got the prison full enough as it is. What's one prisoner?"
"No prisoner comes to us falsely. It is our duty to see them all punished."
"I'm telling ya, she's not the one ya want. She was a mistake."
"No," the Molokhiin dropped the bladed tip to the floor. "There are no mistakes."
"H-How do you know her?" Valdigt broke in. She was still leaning slumped against the otter's shoulder. Thess hoisted her up and turned, pushing her forward. The Molokhiin began to twirl her whip by the end and made ready to attack.
"I'm getting you out of here," Thess grunted. "Both of us are leaving, now, and no one's going to stop us."
The heavy blade went slicing through the air, between Thess and Valdigt's heads. It landed on the ground on the other side of them, clattering to the stone with a sickening scrape. The warden gripped the whip's handle and tensed her body.
"You've been bringing less and less bounty home, little otter. What makes you think you can enter and leave as you please?"
Neither Thess nor Valdigt moved.
"You know what happens when I pull this, don't you? One tug and that blade is coming right back to me. Never mind that your bodies are in the way. It's felled bigger beasts than either of you."
Valdigt thought she heard a sick glee in the Molokhiin's voice, and looking down at the blade, she knew the beast wasn't lying. The blade was near long and curved, and its inner edge was thinner than paper. It looked sharper enough to cut through diamonds. If the warden pulled that back through them, it would cleave them in two. The girls turned to face the Molokhiin.
"No time to explain," Thess whispered. She pressed a small key into Valdigt's hand. "Keep this safe. I managed to borrow it off a guard; he won't be waking up for a while. I'm not sure what it opens, but you'll have to find out on yer own. Can you stand on your feet yet? We'll have to hope so. Wait for my signal, and sorry I couldn't get ya out of this more cleanly."
Thess lifted her free hand in submission, one hand still supporting Valdigt against herself. The Molokhiin grunted in satisfaction and bore down upon them, hands outstretched. Valdigt was roughly pulled away and pushed against a wall. It unwound ropes from about its own body and began to tie Thess up. The otter waited patiently while the warden continued to tie her up. Valdigt lay still where she'd been placed. Thess fixed her with a determined stare; she didn't know what the otter had planned, but she watched, and waited.
And then Thess screamed and butted forward with her head. She caught the Molokhiin off guard, and she fell backwards over herself. She tumbled backwards in a flurry of rope and fabric and arms flailing. The warden hit the ground hard, and in the resounding crash Valdigt barely heard Thess scream:
"Run!"
Her legs were weak and barely felt able to support themselves, but Valdigt slumped forward into the shadows and fled, as fast as she possibly could. She clutched the key to her chest and tried not to imagine what was happening behind her. The sound of grunting and screaming echoed well into the depths of the prison, and then a terrific peal went up. A bell somewhere was shrieking its alarm.
Her hiding place she'd found behind a pile of stones that had broken off from a wall; she had followed the dark halls deep into the prison, not keeping track of the twists and turns she took. She had no idea what sort of force had ripped this particular wall to shreds so violently, but the debris that had been left behind was large and loose. Valdigt had little trouble easing one of the stones up from the pile, just enough that she could crawl behind it. The pile must've been there long, because no one seemed to notice it.
It was there that she waited, although she had no sense of how long she did so She watched as more of the Molokhiin hastened down the halls; they all wore the same shapeless iron masks, though their capes were differently decorated, and the runes etched into their weights were not all the same. They carried an assortment of horrifying weapons. She saw a spiked ball as big as her head dragging behind a chain; another of the wardens carried a pike with a point half the length of the pole, and with a crown of smaller spikes blossoming out around the tip of the point.. One of the beasts lumbered forward with nothing but a wire between its hands, and she saw in its glint that its edge was fine as razor.
But all three of them passed the rubble pile without noticing her. She breathed a prayer, knowing it was only a matter of time before they came back. While she waited she found time to rest, just a breath, and her fierce hunger reminded her again of its presence. Her back was awash in pain. Neither of these troubles hindered her, but they drove her harder, pushed her into instinct. Valdigt eased her way out of the rubble, into the clear. Empty hallway stretched on either side of her. Hope had not yet entered the girl's mind, but when she looked at the key in her hand she felt something like persistence.
She looked up, and though her eyes had adjusted somewhat to the dark, there was nary a lit candle in the place, and she traveled in darkness. A series of alcoves lined the hall, little trapdoors set in the floor of each. When she looked closer, she remembered being hoisted upwards out of her cell through a trapdoor very much like one of these. There was a padlock on each of the trapdoors and she'd tried her key on the first of these, but to no avail. The keyholes here accepted a much larger and rounder key; her key had to unlock something else, deeper inwards. She walked towards the far end of the hall, counting the pairs of trapdoors on each side, but gave up early. The far end of the hall never seemed to get any closer but the number of trapdoors she counted grew. There must be hundreds of them, she thought, catching her breath. Are they all still alive in their cells? She passed through the hall and saw nothing but cells. Two more halls the girl walked before finding a new door, but it was promising from the first sight. It was a short door, built of a sturdy wood, and the padlock on its handle had an opening that looked receptive to her key. She approached quickly, thinking how good her luck was that she had not run into any prison guards.
The key caught in the lock, trembled, then clicked open. The padlock dropped to the floor. A gruff voice rang out behind her:
"Hey, who are you?"
Valdigt turned, snarling. The prison guard had dropped his lantern to the floor, lights like spirits fleeing upward. The terrible light caught Valdigt's face and distorted it as she rushed him, so that he thought he saw a demon. He yelped, like a pup, and flinched, then struck out wildly with his sword. Valdigt ducked and tackled him by the legs, catching him and bringing him down. He grunted as the wind left him, and before he could draw another breath Valdigt rid him of the need of it.
She didn't have time to think about the violence of it, nor the severity of what she'd done - she'd never killed until now - so she dragged the body into the newly opened room behind her, went back for the lantern, then shut the door behind her. She began to cry again, against her own wishes. Valdigt held herself as she shook and trembled, and would not look at the deadbeast or the gore that still covered her. Then, knowing time was still scarce, she stood and sniffled through the tears that still ran unabated down her face.
She'd unlocked a store room, various supplies lining the shelves and trunks. Dusty barrels had been stacked in each corner. She thought she'd be able to stash the guard's body behind one of these, but she couldn't do it while she could still see him. Valdigt rummaged till she found a heavy tarp, then used it to cover the body. He'd been heavy, but he didn't struggle. She hid him, then stacked another barrel above where the body had been placed.
In the room Valdigt found several sets of prison guard armor, and dressed herself in a new shirt and pants, along with gauntlets, greaves, and shoulder pads. She ignored the boots, but took a helmet and armed herself with one of the spare swords. Thus armed, she turned her focus to the rest of the room, and found a barrel of salted fish, of which she ate her fill. Then, her thirst drawn back out, she drained an old flagon of sour wine. Finally she found several old sets of keyrings, and looped them onto her belt.
"Now we're getting somewhere," she said, and began to plot her escape.
The first cell she'd unlocked smelled like the worst and oldest of the world's sorrows. Rank was the stench that assaulted her. But hoping to rescue a prisoner, she pressed on, and her determination was rewarded wickedly. She saw a yellow glimmer in the darkness, and realized they were only the ends of bones, not yet fully free of their owner's body.
She hastened out of the cell, but did not give up. Valdigt began to check the other cells, passing the occasional guard on her way. None of them seemed to notice her, even when there was fresh blood drying on her face, and she thanked the Flame that she'd not been recognized. Nor did she pass the Molokhiin, and she was sure they would have noticed her. Finally she turned into a hallway without any guards, and she tried her key again. The first of the prisoners she rescued was the she-wolf Sentha, then Liahla, and finally Vjona. Valdigt gave a set of keys to each of them and sent them away.
"Go," Valdigt said, "Free as many as you can. The guards cannot hold back all of you at once."
"Can we arm ourselves?" asked Liahla.
"There is a store room, two halls over," Valdigt pointed backwards the way she'd come.
"And how many guards in the way?" asked Sentha.
"At least two, maybe three. You'll have to get past them first, but you can take their weapons too."
"Teach us the name of our savior," said Vjona, approaching and bowing her head. "Teach us that we may honor you, upon our escape."
"I am Valdigt of Gryning, and of the Royal Guard. I serve the wolves and the ruler of the fortress on the cliffs."
"Then may we meet again, Valdigt of Gryning."
Vjona stepped back with her keys; Sentha and Liahla bowed as well, then took off. They immediately began to unlock the other cells in the hall, lifting dazed prisoners out of their cells. Some of the stronger or newer prisoners needed no help, and leapt out raging. The commotion drew the nearby guards into the hall, and Valdigt ran the opposite direction. The thronging mass of released prisoners surged towards the guards who, weakly armed, were overwhelmed.
Valdigt couldn't stop thinking about what she'd heard earlier - something the warden had said, the first of those Molokhiin she'd seen. "You haven't been bringing in enough bounty," she had said. The statement had been directed towards Thess, but what could it mean? It made her feel uneasy, especially considering how easily the otter had been able to find her. Despite her worst fears, she had to concede that Thess had freed her from her torturers, and she couldn't abandon her now. If Thess was still in the prison, Valdigt wouldn't leave without her.
She found a path that cut left, perpendicular to the halls she'd been traveling, and it sloped upwards without openings of any kind. Valdigt took the steps two at a time, bounding up into the big chamber at the top, where she saw doors leading in all directions, and felt heavy carpet beneath her feet. It was the first room she'd entered that had been lit, a ring of candles lining the walls. The air here felt oppressive, heavier even than in the dank cellars where she'd been tortured. She felt her skin begin to crawl - then she heard a scream, and nearly leapt out of her hide. Her blood raced. That scream couldn't have belonged to anyone but Thess. She followed it to its source and flung the door open.
The four Molokhiin wardens were in the room, standing around the otter. A smell of cooked meat and burnt fur crept into Valdigt's nose, and then she saw the blood on Thess' knees, on the floor, saw the hand severed before her, saw the newly sealed flesh atop the stump. The warden with the razor wire slung his weapon clean of blood, and replaced a super-heated piece of iron in the fire. All five beasts, Thess included, turned to see who had intruded. The otter girl clutched her arm, where her hand used to be, then her eyes rolled up and she collapsed.
"You," the warden with the whip growled. "I knew you'd turn up again."
"Let her go," Valdigt said. She held her sword aloft, hackles rising, and she snarled.
"Foolish girl," spoke the warden with the pike. "You cannot fight all four of us."
"I-I-Impossible to win," said the one with the razor wire. "W-W-We'll cut you to pieces."
The fourth warden, the one with the ball and chain, said nothing, but let its weapon thud heavy to the floor. Valdigt knew that confrontation was impossible - she'd be killed for certain - but she could hear the thunder of the prisoners behind her. Their battle was raging, and they seemed to be winning. She could hear them getting closer and knew they weren't far behind her now.
"One on one," Valdigt said. "Pit me against the strongest of you."
"I don't think so," the one with the whip raised one hand, holding the others back, and she stepped forward. "We're no fools. We won't be baited into a duel. This is the end of the line for you."
"Are you not wolves?" Valdigt demanded. "Have some honor! Grant me my final request."
Thess on the floor began to stir again, then settled. Valdigt took another step towards the girl's body on the floor, and the wardens with the pike and the wire moved behind her, blocking her path to the door.
"You're surrounded now," said the one with the pike. "Give it up, girl."
"L-L-Let's kill her!" said the one with the wire. "I'm b-b-bored. Let's do it, n-n-now."
But the one with the whip kept her hand raised, and the others didn't attack. She tilted her masked head towards Valdigt and addressed her with a voice that echoed with contempt.
"What would you know of honor, prisoner? Only the lowest of the low are sent here. You think you're the hero, don't you? You're the hero and we're evil, not fit to be spared. We're lower than beasts, aren't we? We torture and we maim and we kill. But what we do is not evil. We mete out justice where justice is deserved. No one makes it here but scum; and that's what you are. You're scum, you understand? And who are you, to question the morality of our ways?"
"Moral, immoral, that isn't for me to decide," Valdigt could hear the crowd very near now the chamber. "But it is dishonorable to deny a wolf her final request. You owe me a fight, one-on-one."
"Enough!" broke in the one with the pike. "Didn't you hear her, scum? You don't get a say!"
The one with the ball and chain grunted and yanked the chain, dragging the spiked implement along the floor. The one with the wire wound the ends of its weapon around its hands and began to cackle. Valdigt saw the four beasts advancing upon her, and she span around, brandishing her weapon.
Then the air burst open. The door blew inward, splintering on its hinges as it was thrown open. The crowd of prisoners funneled into the chamber, lead by Vjona, and they charged the Molokhiin. Two different swords were plunged into the chest of the one with the wire, who fell back screaming hideously. Valdigt bent down and hoisted Thess' body up onto her shoulders. The girl was well-muscled and heavy, but she moved aided by adrenaline. The wardens leapt out into the crowd but were quickly cut down. There were too many beasts for them to fight at once, weapons or no. A few prisoners fell, but soon the Molokhiin were overrun and struck down, their masks bashed in with bricks and their bodies pierced a hundred times over. When the carnage had settled they picked the bits of mask and cloth off their bodies, and the faces underneath looked young, frozen in the same rictus of fear she'd seen on every other deadbeast in the place. Filled with disgust, Valdigt had the bodies covered, and they were all carried into the central chamber, stacked together with the fallen prisoners, and burned as one.