Page 67 of When Storms Awaken

“Where do we go?” I asked as we turned a corner towards Alastir’s, the charm shop we had visited the day before. I pumped my arms at my sides and focused on my breathing as we ascended the round hilltop, then started to make our way back down on the other side.

“No idea. All I know is weavoidThe Shadow.” Tess panted at my side. She was in much better shape than me, and I could tell she was holding herself back to not leave me behind. Tess would never leave me behind.

We turned another corner, but the way was blocked by two cloaked figures, their hoods pulled up over their heads to conceal their faces.

“Shit,” I muttered as I started to turn back, completely out of breath.

Before I could turn and try to run the other direction, I was hithardby something from behind. I couldn’t see Tess anymore. I couldn’t hear the hard footsteps of our pursuers. I couldn’t see the misty morning air. My vision swam with black spots before I fell to my knees on the cobblestone and a grain sack was pulled over my head. That was the last thing I remember before the world went dark.

WhenIcameto,my head was pounding to the rhythm of my own heartbeat. I had a sharp headache in the back of my skull and as I peeled my eyes open, I realized my head was still covered with the grain sack. All I could see was the faint light seeping through the gaps in the burlap.

I was jostling back and forth, and I could hear the clop of horse hooves on stone. I must be in a carriage of some sort. My hands were bound tightly behind my back, so tightly my shoulders ached, and my fingers felt numb and cold. I tried to move my legs and realized that my feet were bound at the ankles as well.

I listened quietly, motionless, to see if I could hear anyone nearby. Was I alone? Where was Tess? Where were these people taking me? I listened closely but heard nothing, not even the sound of shifting or breathing from anyone else who might be in the carriage with me. After a long period of silence, nobody had spoken.

I braved the silence and softly called out to Tess, but there was no answer. I half expected to be knocked in the back of the head again the second I opened my mouth, but as I called out once more, louder, there was still no response.

I couldn’t hear the sounds of the busy road outside, or the rough shouts of people on the streets. All I could hear was the sound of the horses trotting along and the carriage bouncing back and forth mercilessly over the uneven road. It took everything in me to keep myself upright with how tightly I was bound and how hard I was being jostled back and forth by the movement of the carriage. My head pounded harder. The only reprieve was to squeeze my eyes shut against the faint light seeping through my hood.

“Nik?” I whispered, “Puck?” But nobody responded.

I was alone.

I must have dozed off at some point because when I woke again I was no longer in the carriage. I was being carried over someone’s shoulder like dead weight. I could no longer hear the sounds of the horses’ hooves or the carriage wheels against the cobblestone. The only sound filling my ears was that of the heavy footfalls of the man who carried me.

I remained limp against him, pretending that I was still passed out to buy me more time to assess where we were going. We were traveling down a long flight of stairs, arms holding tight around me as we descended. We came to a stop at the bottom and the man holding me turned abruptly. I was hot under the hood they had placed over me, my hair sticking to my forehead and plastered to the back of my neck.

“Where do you want me to put this one, commander?”

“Next cell down,” a gruff voice replied.

We were walking again, but it was a short distance before I was thrown down and dragged the rest of the way by the bindings at my feet. I stifled a grunt and tried my best not to cough as I was dragged against the stone floor, dirt flying up into my face, causing my eyes to sting and my lungs to burn. I was tugged over a cold threshold that caught me hard in the stomach before I heard iron bars closing behind me with a reverberating clang. I was pulled off my stomach and thrown against the back of the cell unceremoniously before the sack was ripped off my head and I could see my surroundings for the first time.

I was in a dark, windowless cell, a soldier staring down at me with a sneer on his face. He was older, but strong. His black metal armor was so tight it appeared painted on, the crest of a dark sword etched onto his chest plate. He scratched his grey beard with a gloved hand before turning and exiting the cell, locking it behind him.

“Wait—” I started, trying to move towards the door, but my arms and feet were still tightly bound. “Where am I? What do you want with me?” I pleaded.

The soldier sneered before spitting at my feet and turning to disappear down the long corridor.

“Wait! You can’t keep me here! You have to let me out!” I called after him, “This has to be some mistake!” But I received no reply, my voice echoing down the empty corridor. I wiggled in the dirt to try to move towards the iron bars, but my legs were numb. My shoulders felt as if they would dislocate if I tried to move them anymore. I had been tied for too long.

“It’s no use,” a familiar voice called from the cell next to mine.

“Tess?” I asked, peering into the darkness of the adjacent cell, my voice breaking. “Tess, is that you?”

“Yes,” she replied softly. “I tried breaking free, too. It’s no use. I’ve been here for hours waiting to see if they would bring you down.”Hours?

The prison was dark and damp, the cells only divided by iron bars which I could reach through if my hands weren’t bound. It was so dark I could only make out the silhouette of Tess’ body slumped against the back wall of her cell. There were no windows to provide any source of light, and the cell floors were packed with dirt. The corridor across from us appeared to stretch on forever, and beyond the long corridor was an impenetrable concrete wall.

“We need to get out of here,” I told her, glancing around to see if there was anything that could help me to loosen my bindings.

“It’s ash,” Tess sounded defeated. “They told me the bindings are made of ash…there’s no way we can get out of them ourselves. Not until they let us out. And the iron bars are infused with ash, too. We can’t use our magic down here.”

“Shit.” I hung my head in defeat. I didn’t have any weapons on me, and if I couldn’t use my storm magic, I had no idea how I was going to break us out. I dove into the deep well at my core to see if she was right, and I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was no warm energy waiting for me to call on, there was nothing at all.Shit. We were screwed.

“Who are these people? What do they want?” I asked, leaning my head back against the cold concrete of the tiny cell. It was much cooler now that I didn’t have the hood suffocating me, but my hair was still plastered to me. I was desperate to shake it out. There was nothing worse than an itch you couldn’t scratch.

“I don’t know. They haven’t spoken to me at all, other than to tell me about the bindings. I overheard them calling this the Stormvault.”

---