Spring 85: creature

Most loved Zann,

Lord Clear grabbed a fistful of my neck, and hauled me out of the side corridor. The expression on his face hadn’t changed in the short time I’d known him, but now I could see some differences. He was very angry with me. His face was tighter around the eyes and there was almost some colour in his skin.

“Ordinarily I would have opened you up from throat to cock by now,” he said. “But you’re one of Ellewen’s pets. And I think just barely highly enough of Ellewen not to slaughter his creatures.” I choked and coughed and struggled to breathe as he dragged me down the hall by the throat. “Here we are, I think. This one smells unpleasant enough.” And he threw me.

The light was very dim and I was disoriented. So I couldn’t make very much sense of what was happening to me. I know now I flew through the air, hit a wall, and slid down it into a dark hole in the floor. I bounced down this hole to a chamber at the bottom, hitting hard, hurting my leg.

I lay in the damp darkness, gathering my wits. Lord Clear didn’t say anything. I could hear his footsteps getting quieter.

He was right about the smell. There was something nasty down here. Rats for sure. The rest could just be old dead rats and rat cack. That would be bad enough. And it was dark. Rainy night at sea dark. I looked up to see if any light was coming down from the little corridor beads, but if it was, it was too faint for me to make out.

I had hit the stone floor painfully. I cautiously extended my leg. Moved my foot. It hurt, but didn’t seem broken. I shifted my shoulders and sat up slowly. Scrapes and bruises, I thought, but nothing worse than that. I stood. Unsteady. The floor was roughly flat, uneven. There was some stuff on the floor; I’d figure it out later. Feeling before me, I stepped forward until I found a wall. It was wet. I felt all the way around. It was a small chamber with no doors. It was, I knew, an oubliette. Drop someone in from the top and forget about them.

The things on the floor. I waved my foot around until I felt something move when I hit it. I picked up whatever it was. Bones. Bones and rags. How many dead people were down here with me? I couldn’t tell. One or two.

I thought of you.

I didn’t want to die down here, but I couldn’t think of what to do about it. Call for help? Climb? Find a secret door? Calling for help might work. The other two certainly ought not to. But, whoever came down here? The guards sure didn’t.

People would be looking for me. I was supposed to be coordinating the whole Lord Clear situation! Candur would know something was wrong. Maybe Ambe could find me magically. Wande wouldn’t just shrug her shoulders when I didn’t come home tonight. Ellewen…

I wondered about Ellewen. Why did he send me away with Clear so easily? Did he not know what kind of person Clear is? Or… I almost couldn’t say it to myself.

Or maybe he just didn’t care about me.

And then I cried for a while.

Love,

Ybel