The Eternal Blade Saga Book 2, Chapter 27: They Will Break You

I startled awake and was welcomed to consciousness by a splitting headache, as if daggers were repeatedly stabbing me in the back of my skull. I groaned and touched the back of my head. It was severely tender to the touch and I could make out a large bump forming under my scalp. I must have hit it when I passed out, but I couldn’t really remember what happened after Danae shot the drugged dart into my shoulder. Slowly, I opened my eyes. My lids were heavy and my vision blurry. I couldn’t quite make out my surroundings aside from some fuzzy lines and a few spots of flickering light.

Echoes of my dream had already started to fade, but Grenth’s words stayed with me. I mulled them over as I continued to inspect my new environment. Running my hands along my sides, I discovered I was laying on a thinly stuffed mattress on a raised wooden cot, though there was something poking me in my back. I squirmed, trying to move my spine away from the hard lump. Despite the throbbing pain in my head, I propped myself up and squinted, trying to get a better look at my new environment.

There were strange vertical poles in front of me and to my sides. Confused, I turned to look behind me to see if they were there too, but I turned a little too fast. I suddenly grew dizzy and my elbow gave out from under me. I fell back onto the cot, searing pain tearing through my skull. I groaned and closed my eyes as a realization hit. I reached for my axe on my hip only to find that my weapon had been taken. Trying to keep my panicking to a minimum, I took in deep breaths and let them out through clenched teeth until the spinning stopped.

I had been put in a cage.

“Are you alright?” a familiar voice asked. I glanced over to find a tall figure sitting on a stool just on the other side of the bars. I rubbed at my eyes and looked again. Even though he was mostly shrouded in shadow, I could make out the outline of Quint’s tall form.

“Wha—oh gods,” I muttered as I slowly pushed myself up. The world lurched for a moment so I stopped half-way and propped myself up by my arm. “What did you do to me?”

“We had to drug you.”

“Why is it that when I’m drugged, you’re involved?” I grumbled.

He leaned forward, into the torchlight, and rest his arms on his knees as he clasped his hands together. There was something different about his appearance. He wore a black longcoat with red trim and a cream-colored tunic underneath. His vest was trimmed in black and red. His usual pallet of forest colors was nowhere to be seen. “It was for your safety.”

“My safety?” I sharply repeated back. “Please explain to me how being in this cage is for my safety?”

As Quint straightened himself, he crossed his arms over his chest. His gaze fell to the floor and he leaned back into the shadows. I imagined he was considering how to respond and what words to use. After all, he had years to get to know me. Countless interactions and conversations no doubt gave him useful insight into understanding the inner workings of my mind, as did the many observational opportunities. Perhaps he knew me better than I knew myself at this point.

“I can’t stay here, you know that.” I pushed myself all the way up and groaned as the world seemed to lurch again. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in and let it out. “Whatever game you and Danae are playing at is over. I need to get out of here.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t.”

I opened my eyes and narrowed them. “You can’t or you won’t?”

His silence broke my heart wide open. I tried searching his face for any hint of remorse or regret—something, but his face was hidden in shadow. There was a coldness where once I felt the warmth of friendship and this once familiar person sitting before me now seemed like a stranger.

“What is this Quint?” I demanded. “What do you and Danae want with me. Why are you keeping me in here like a gods-damned animal?”

“I didn’t want it to go this way,” he started to explain. “I never wanted to put you in this position, but we were running out of options.”

“We…so you are working with Danae. I suppose you’re with the Order as well,” I speculated as I unceremoniously pushed myself up and off of the cot. My legs were a bit wobbly, but the spinning and pain had thankfully started to subside. I wanted to be on my feet to face whatever else he had to say.

“Yes.”

“How long?”

He shifted uncomfortably where he sat.

“How long?” I growled.

“Since long before we met,” he replied, hesitating. “I joined when I was sixteen.”

“And Fireheart Rise?” I asked, my voice wavering. I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer. The truth often hurt worse than the beautiful lies told to us. I may have wanted the lies, but I needed the truth. Sometimes we need what we don’t want.

He bowed his head. “A fabrication. I needed a way to earn your trust. I needed a way into the group.”

I placed my hands firmly on my hips and did my best to hide the severe disappointment that tore at my heart. I didn’t want to believe what he said, but I couldn’t just deny the truth. “Why?”

“When the Order found out about Dhuum’s blade and that it was in your possession, they grew nervous. Who wouldn’t at the discovery that a god’s weapon was in the hands of a mortal. They wanted to make sure there was no danger so I was sent in to contain any threats,” he paused and shifted in his seat again, “by any means necessary.”

“Any means,” I muttered, then my eyes went wide. Realization struck as hard as a runaway Dolyak. “Grenth’s horns. It’s you, isn’t it. You’re the Reaper.”

He rose to his feet and approached the bars. I took a couple steps back, trying to keep a comfortable distance between me and the man who was sent to kill me if he had determined me a threat. My move did not go unnoticed. Quint raised his hands in a show of good faith. It didn’t matter. He wasn’t the one in the cage.

“I just want you to know that I had no intention of killing you.”

“That makes me feel so much better,” I shot back with a glare. “You lied to me. You lied to all of us. And to what end? So the Order of Whispers can get their hands on the blade and add another treasure to their trove? Have you ever thought of what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands here?”

“We wouldn’t let that happen,” he tried to assure me.

I shook my head and scoffed. “You know what they say about good intentions. All it would take is for one person to make the wrong decision with the blade in their hands. So many would die.”

“How can you be so sure it’s safe in your hands?” he asked as he stepped closer to the cage door.

“You stay away from me,” I warned as I held up a hand.

He frowned but stopped as requested.

“Where are the others? What have you done with them?”

“They’re safe back at the hall. We can explain everything after-.”

“After,” I repeated, letting the words trail off and end in a pained chuckle. While I was being kept incarcerated like a beast, the blade was left guarded by inexperienced guardians. Since Lord and Lady Byrne knew of the blade, I worried they would be coming for it and soon. They were desperate enough to go into business with the Inquest and nearly kill us all with one of their creations. That couple was serious. Since I had escaped from their grasp, it was just a matter of time before they came for it.

My anger and frustration at my current predicament, at being betrayed by people close to be who I thought I could trust, collided and resulted in a sudden strike at the bars with my hand. Danae quickly stepped back, her fingers curled around her sword’s grip and ready to draw. Pain stung my palm and I cried out as I cradled my hand to my chest.

I pushed back from the bars, my legs no longer feeling as wobbly as they once were. Shadows edged into my vision and cold overcame my senses as anger boiled up from deep within. I couldn’t stay in here. I needed to get out. A tickle built up in the back of my throat and I started coughing. Instinctively, I took in a deep breath, placed my hand palm up in front of my mouth, and blew outward. A horde of locusts swarmed towards Quint and Danae, but as they reached the bars, they were met with a shower of purple sparks. I immediately felt the backfire of my magic in the form of thousands of needles sticking into me from head to toe. Stumbling back, I tried to catch myself before falling down, but my legs hit the cot and I fell back onto it ungracefully.

“Nienna, please don’t,” Danae warned as she emerged from the shadows, donning her black and wine feather-paneled longcoat and her sword holstered on her hip. “The cage is imbued with reflective magic. Any magic you use will be redirected back at you. For your own sake, please don’t do that again.”

I grumbled a curse under my breath.

“I’ve been looking for you everywhere. What are you doing?” Danae asked as she turned toward Quint. “We need to go. The rat is here and he brought in some of his cronies. Forged credentials no doubt. The team is stalling them, but whatever story they make up will only play for so long.”

Quint silently nodded.

“Wait a minute,” I said before they could leave. Carefully, I pushed myself up and off of the cot. My whole body still tingled from the cage’s defenses. “You’re using me as bait?”

“Nienna, you don’t understand,” Danae began to say.

I pointed a finger sharply at her. “No! I understand quite well. You drugged me and put me in a gods-damned cage to be bait!”

The ship captain shook her head, her dark curls bouncing. “I wish there was another way, but I couldn’t see one. Not with your stubbornness. I’m sorry, we don’t have time for this. Come on.”

Quint rose to his feet and flashed me a sympathetic side glance. He opened his mouth to say something, but then balled his hands and followed Danae out of the room, leaving me alone in my confinement. I turned around, away from the cage door, my hands balled into fists. Unfortunately, that was the risk of letting people in. They could break you.

Anger at Quint and Danae’s betrayal welled up inside me and in a fit of rage, I flew over to the cot and tossed the thin mattress against the cage’s bars. I would have ripped it apart if given the chance, but something caught my attention as it clattered to the floor.

Breathing hard from my exertion, I bent over to pick up a glimmer of optimism: a silver key that had fallen to the floor when I threw the mattress. I assumed that was what had been poking me in the back when I was on the cot. Someone must have left it, but the question was who? Hopeful, I looked around to make sure no one was around, before making my way quickly over to the cage door. I slipped my arm through the bars and tried the key in the lock and turned. I felt a click and the door unlatch. With a triumphant smile, I escaped my enclosure.