Chapter Three
Emilyn opened his eyes slowly; carefully. The darkness was so utterly black and complete, he wondered for a moment if he’d gone blind. He sat up and immediately felt a wave of nausea was over him. With a groan, Emilyn sank back onto the cot. “That was a really bad idea,” he muttered to himself. “Okay, let’s try that again.” Emilyn carefully raised his body into a sitting position. He swung his legs over the edge of the cot and yelped as they brushed the ice cold floor. He got to his feet and hopped across the freezing stone tiles, cursing expressively. He hopped smack into a wall and fell flat on his back.
A door creaked open behind him as flickering yellow light spilled into the room. Emilyn scrambled to his feet and spun around. An enormous figure loomed in the doorway, a lantern held high in one hand. “Ah, you’re awake. Good.”
“Who are you?” demanded Emilyn.
“Is that any way to speak to the man who saved your life, and your friend’s too?” chuckled the man. “Come on. I expect you’re hungry.”
With that, he turned and began to walk away, taking the light with him. Emilyn hesitated for a fraction of a second. Could he really trust this strange man? No, probably not, he decided. But food was food. Emilyn hurried after the man, following the bobbing light through dark, twisting corridors. By the time he finally stopped, Emilyn’s teeth were chattering with cold and his bare feet felt like blocks of ice. “Stop that noise!” the man commanded.
Emilyn clamped his jaws together without protest, and watched as the man rapped the solid stone wall before him. Rap. Pause. Rap. Pause. Rap. Long pause. Rap rap rap. Then he stepped back and waited. Is he insane? Emilyn wondered. What does he expect will happen?
Emilyn’s jaw dropped as the apparently solid stone wall swung inward on silent hinges. The burly man stepped in, with Emilyn close at his heels. The hidden door thumped closed behind them.
The room was blessedly warm and filled with the flickering light from an enormous fireplace. Emilyn looked around warily. People with pale, unfamiliar faces were everywhere; standing in groups, sitting on the floor. They watched him with suspicion as a murmur of excitement rippled through the silent crowd. “Is he…”
“It can’t be!”
“He’s just a boy, we mustn’t frighten him.”
“Does he know anything?”
“Silence!” thundered the man. “The boy’s just woken up. He knows nothing. Someone get him a blanket and as much food as we can spare. Quickly!” A girl who had been kneeling by the fireplace, feeding the flames, stood and slipped away. She returned with a thick, rather moth-eaten grey blanket, a hunk of slightly stale bread, and a bowl of thin stew. “Here.” She handed Emilyn the items and smiled, pushing a strand of pale red hair out of her eyes. “It’s not much, but it’s all we can afford to give.”
“Thanks,” muttered Emilyn, avoiding the girl’s curious gaze. “Go sit by the fire, boy,” ordered the man. “We’ll call you when we’ve decided what to do with you.”
Emilyn started to protest. “Actually, I-“ The red-haired girl shook her head warningly behind the man’s back, pressing a finger to her lips. Emilyn frowned, but turned and seated himself on the pleasantly-warm hearthstones close to the blaze. He wolfed down the food and set the bowl at his feet. The red-headed girl immediately appeared at his shoulder and silently whisked it away before Emilyn had the chance to ask her anything.
He wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and stared into the fire, watching the colors flicker and change. Just as he was dozing off, a thought jolted hm awake. Emilyn leapt to his feet in horror. The girl! Is she even still alive? He spun around, searching the room for the enormous man who had brought him here. Emilyn narrowed his eyes at a broad-shouldered, thick-waisted man with a curly red beard and sharp grey eyes. Was that him? It had to be. No one else in the room even came close to his size.
Emilyn hurried over to the man and waited until he had finished speaking to his companion. “Excuse me, ah, sir, I was just wondering if-“
“Not now, boy,” snapped the man.
“But sir-“
“I said not now!” The man turned and glowered at Emilyn, who held his ground.
“Please, this will only take a minute-“
“Enough!” bellowed the man. “I take you into my very home when we have no room to spare, feed you with food that can barely fill the mouths of our own, and you dare to question my authority? You dare?!”
Emilyn’s mouth opened and shut a few times. He stared up at the tall man who seemed to tower over him, growing louder and taller as he talked.
“I-“
A hand on his sleeve warned Emilyn not to say anything. “Father, don’t be so hard on him,” came a familiar voice. “I’m sure he just wants to find out how his companion is doing. Wouldn’t you feel the same?”
Emilyn turned and saw the red-haired girl. She was smiling sweetly up at the man, whose gaze softened as he looked down at her. “Yes, well,” he muttered, obviously embarrassed. “I suppose…”
“I’ll just take him to her room, shall I?” asked the girl, already leading Emilyn to a door he hadn’t noticed before. They hurried through it into a long hallway, with lanterns hanging from the walls every few feet. The girl grabbed one as she went past. The two walked in silence for a few minutes.
“That was incredibly stupid of you.”
“What?” demanded Emilyn. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Idiot,” the girl huffed, all signs of sweetness gone. “Come on. Can’t you walk any faster than that?”
She stopped abruptly in front of a solid, dark wood door. Emilyn walked right into her, nearly knocking her down. He grabbed her just before she hit the ground. “Sorry,” he muttered, more out of automatic politeness than anything else.
“You should be.”
“Oh, yeah, don’t bother thanking me for stopping you from cracking your head open on a hard stone floor,” Emilyn snapped sarcastically.
“I won’t.”
Emilyn opened his mouth to say something very rude, but stopped as the door to the room swung open.
Sincerely,
A Writer
