Legends of Belariath
Salina Kyle
Magic Bonds Part 5
Voices growled in the darkness around me. It took my frazzled mind a little time to recognize either of them. Both deep tones and their talk didn’t make a lot of sense at that moment.
“If she dies, troll, you’ll follow her,” growled one with deep feelings of fear.
“Damn it, there wasn’t any other choice, bullhead,” the other returned. I thought I heard hurt and fear in the second voice too. “It was the only way to get those demon riders off our backs… I don’t want her to die, either.” The conversation went into a language my mind didn’t distinguish much less understand. The strong arms holding me began to flex in agitation. My eyes fluttered open in time to see the rage in Kruls’ eyes. He seemed to be getting ready to put me down on the ground.
“No one’s going to die, Kruls” I said in as loud a voice as my weak body could muster. “Would you two calm down…?” Their eyes dropped to my pale face and open eyes. Relief washed over both of the creatures as I gave my bravest smile.
“Thank the High Ones,” the Minotaur said holding me tight to his chest. I could hear his heart thumping at a fast pace. One of my shaky hands went up to touch his cheek while my other hand reached out to Corakin. The troll took it into his huge hands holding my hand in a gentle grip.
“I’m glad to see your eyes open, Caprie,” he said in a grave voice. “You had us very worried…”
“Like you really care,” Kruls hissed. They were glaring at each other again.
“What is it between you two?” I tried to growl and ended up moaning in pain. The drain on my body made any anger physically painful. Deep inner anguish and shame flashed over Kruls’ face even reflecting in the way he held his body. His enraged eyes turned away from me looking out into the black darkness of night.
“You mean he didn’t tell you?” Corakin gasped, his glowing eyes looking at the minotaur then back at me.
“Tell me what?” The troll stared at Kruls for several moments but my protector remained silent with his arms around me.
“I thought you’d have told her by now, Kruls,” the giant said, shifting a little where he squatted. “Do you want me to tell her or will you?”
“I will not speak of it,” Kruls growled in a low tone.
“I guess that means I’m going to have to tell Caprie,” Corakin said but I stopped my troll friend.
“No, Corakin,” I said, looking to my minotaur protector. “I’ll wait till Kruls wants to tell me…” Kruls body shuddered for a few moments but his sullen eyes looked down at me with resolve.
“My full name is Kruls, son of Gothor, Ruler of Canth,” he said in a low tone. “I am second born of only two sons…” My head laid against his chest trying to comfort him. “My older brother dishonored himself in battle leaving his men to die while he fled. I became next in line for the throne but I was too young to become crowned heir. I had to pass my Day of Ascension and be confirmed a warrior. A few days before my ascension, I was attacked by a human mage and a band of orcs and minotaurs my brother had hired. They were supposed to kill me but the mage thought I might be useful as a means to manipulate my brother…” Corakin remained silent.
“The mage was Thorns,” I said with confidence. My friend held me so close I felt the moisture on his furry cheeks.
“Thorns brought me back to his slave mine but feared I might find a way to escape,” Kruls continued with a voice rough from inner pain. “He gave me to the one slave in his mine that had the best chance to break my spirit…” My eyes went to Corakin but the troll wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I spent many years chained in the darkness of the mine… Unable to defend myself or stop the sexual takings… but you failed, troll.” Hatred dripped from each word as Kruls glared at the giant troll. We were all silent for a moment but Corakin shook his head.
“Thorns gave me extra rations and even female slaves and I did his dirty work,” he growled glaring at Kruls. “I’m not going to beg forgiveness for what I did… if that’s what you seek, bull-boy…”
“You tortured me… forced me to submit to other slaves… beat me and anything else you could think of,” Kruls hissed, “but it didn’t work. You couldn’t break me…”
“Did the thought ever occur to you I didn’t want to break you?” the troll hissed back. That statement made the minotaur pause to think.
“You didn’t want to?” I asked as my hand stroked my friend’s cheek to comfort him.
“Why would I want to?” Corakin said, with a casual shrug. “I owed no allegiance to Thorns. I did my best to make it look like I was trying to, Caprie, but I swear to you I never intended to really break Kruls…” Looking into his eyes, I believed the troll was telling the truth.
“How did you free yourself, Kruls?” I asked trying to move passed the rage in both of them.
“I convinced Thorns I was going to kill Kruls out of frustration,” Corakin said with a bit of a smile. “He didn’t want to loose his best leverage… Thorns has been blackmailing Jurcal for decades.”
“Decades?” I asked feeling a little confused. “How old are you two?” They looked at each other in amusement smiling at their poor little confused human friend.
“I’m near my two hundredth human year,” Corakin said, his smile getting bigger as my mouth dropped in shock.
“I’m close to one hundred human years,” Kruls said. I knew my face showed awe but I just couldn’t help it.
“Wow…” I said then stopped to think. My minotaur friend had to be very young when Thorns gave him to Corakin. It was no wonder Kruls hated the troll so much but we had to get passed the hate if we were going to stay ahead of that evil mage and my sister. Corakin seemed to have the same thoughts.
“We need to figure out how we’re going to get those shackles off of her, Kruls,” he said. “Any ideas?”
“Not really, we need to find a good mage with a lot of power,” the minotaur said as he stroked my cheek. “We have to keep ahead of Thorns too.”
“As long as I don’t use my power he shouldn’t be able to find us,” I told them with confidence. “What about the collars on our necks? We don’t want people thinking we’re runaway slaves…” Even though technically we were runaway slaves.
“I can get them off,” said a soft voice making all of us jump. Gagus came out of the darkness, bruised and bloody.
“Gagus? My God what happen to you?” I gasped. Corakin and Kruls glanced at each other then watched the Halfling enter the little clearing we were in.
“Mage Thorns… he killed everyone,” Gagus whispered. “Guards and slaves… just killed them… I managed to get to the tunnel you’d used and found my way out. I followed your trail…” I finally noticed the looks my friends were giving the little guy with some confusion.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We don’t trust him, Caprie,” Kruls growled as the little guy cowered in front of him. “Its more likely Thorns let Gagus escape to use as a means of finding us.”
“I’d never betray Caprie,” Gagus hissed looking hurt at the suggestion. “She saved my life…”
“I agree with Kruls, Caprie,” the troll said. “I don’t trust Gagus and I should know as he served me and others for his own ends…” My thoughts went around for several moments trying to figure out what to do.
“I think we should give him a chance,” I said at last feeling my weakened strength beginning to fail me. “He said he could take these collars off so we’ll let him. He can stay with us for now and prove himself to us… ok, guys?” Neither of them liked the idea but they didn’t want to upset me so Gagus was accepted into the group. He picked the locks on our collars removing them to throw into the darkness of the night. After a moment or two of arguing, we decided to rest there for the night and start on the journey to get these accursed shackles from my wrists the next day.
The next day I woke to find Corakin and Gagus had gone out and gathered some wild carrots and bird eggs for us to have for breakfast. The three of them insisted I had to eat if I was going to regain my strength. After eating that slave gruel for so long, I found I didn’t have a problem gulping down raw eggs actually savoring the flavor.
“We need to find someone to get these blasted shackles off Caprie,” Kruls said as we walked through the heavy woods.
“I know of a sage that used to live in the town of F’tal,” Gagus said cringing a little when we all turned to look at him. “If he still lives he’d be more the able to remove them…”
“F’tal… it’s about a month away by foot,” Corakin said.
“That would give me time to regain my strength,” I said, snuggled up against Kruls broad chest. “I’m sure I’ll need to be strong when the time comes… I doubt these things are going to come off easily.” Kruls held me to his broad chest for several moments kissing the top of my head.
“We’ll need better clothing if we’re going to approach any human settlements,” Corakin said. We did look like a ragged bunch of drifters in our dirty threadbare clothing.
“That’s simple enough,” Gagus said, smiling a little impishly. “There’s bound to be farms and such on the way… We’ll just ‘borrow’ what we need.” At first I objected out of the reasoning I wasn’t a thief, but after some talking I realized it was the only way we were going to get decent clothes. We didn’t want the town guards driving us away because of our ragged appearance. The sage would probably not be very happy to help those dressed in rags, and filthy. I looked down at my dirty body frowning a little.
“I need a bath, guys,” I said, as the guys looked at each other. “We all could stand to bathe.” Corakin’s face wrinkled a little.
“Trolls don’t ‘bathe’,” he said, with a blush as I giggled at him. “Well… they don’t…”
“There’s a first time for everything, my friend,” I said.
“Yea… we don’t want the guards to smell us before we actually come into sight,” Gagus said, and then ducked behind Kruls and me when our troll friend glared at him.
“It’s settled,” Kruls said, a hint of a grin on his long face. “We’ll have to find a stream shallow enough from the sun to warm the water… The last thing we need is for Caprie to get sick in her weakened state.” We decided we’d start toward F’tal looking for a good place to bathe on the way. All of us wanted to get as far away from Thorn’s tower as we could.