Chapter 12

Eragon continued following behind Brom, leaving Dras-Leona behind. The sound of alarm trumpets could be heard sounding off within the city's walls.

Brom heard this and began driving Snowfire even harder, hellbent on putting as much distance between him and Dras-Leona. He could guess search and tracking parties would be formed soon. Sent out to scour the surrounding area searching for him and Eragon.

Eragon on the other hand, was in his mind communicating with Saphira.

'Saphira, get in touch with Brom. We'll rendezvous with you and then go from there.'

{Are you hurt?} She quickly responded, essentially ignoring him.

Eragon smiled slightly hearing the concern in her voice.

'I'm fine.'

{What of the ra'zac?}

'The ra'zac are no more, the only thing that remains of them is the things I grabbed off them.

{As they should be} She then went silent for a moment before speaking to him again. {I've sent Brom the location}

'Good, I'll keep following behind him.'

-x-x-x-x-x-

It was a short while later that the group finally was back together, with Eragon arriving last. He quickly hopped on Cadoc riding alongside Brom while Saphira took to the skies. They planned on riding until it got dark and then they would settle down for the night.

While they were riding Brom quickly took note of the cloak Eragon was wearing. Instantly recognizing it as the one the ra'zac wore.

"I assume you were fortunate in your encounter with the ra'zac." He said inquisitively.

Eragon eyebrows raised hearing this. "I guess you could say I was. I had wandered into the cathedral and turned around to leave when I saw the ra'zac and a platoon of soldiers following behind them. He slowly shook his head. "No I wasn't fortunate, I got lucky. I used a few spells to boost my speed and was able to separate and overwhelm them. As for the soldiers, they ran away."

Brom chuckled lightly. "You say it so simply, but the things you accomplished today are astonishing. You just eliminated two great evils today. But I must ask you. Are you fine with carrying around things that caused so much pain and misery?" He asked. His tone which was light at first turned serious at the end.

Eragon went silent for a moment before he spoke. He already had in mind what he wanted to say. "Brom these things aren't the things that caused pain and misery. It was the intentions of the ra'zac that did this. These are just tools. It was just the way they were used that has branded them as "evil".

The old man nodded, seeming to agree with the young rider. "Your words have thought and wisdom behind them but you must understand not everyone thinks the way you do. If recognized they might automatically brand you as evil or at the very least view you in a negative light."

Eragon smirked. "That's the thing, I don't give a damn about how someone views me. I plan to live my life the way I wan't. I don't need some random person's opinion to decide what path I will take, as I will decide that path myself. Because in the end when I have to face King Galbatorix what good will those opinions do? Make the Mad King reflect upon his actions? No, in the end only my strength will be the thing that strikes him down, not the random opinions of people."

"Your words contain some truth to them. I won't press the matter any more since you've made up your mind about it." The old man could only shake his head. "Let us leave Dras-Leona behind. I don't want to be anywhere near here when the King arrives, as heads will roll once he finds out that his hunting dogs have been put down."

Eragon could only nod his head in agreement. The trip to Dras-Leona was fruitful in many ways. He'd managed to kill the Ra'zac eliminating one of the threats to himself. He'd absorbed both their bodies, assimilating their strength with his. Plus he obtained two good swords and an extremely rare poison. But he still felt this wasn't enough to take down Galbatorix. The man had been able to cause the fall of the Riders for a reason. Eragon wanted to be strong enough to crush anything the king might throw at him with his strength alone.

-x-x-x-x-x-

They eventually stopped their travels for the night and settled down. They ate hardtack and dried meat that night to avoid making a fire. While they did their best to cover up their tracks they couldn't avoid the tracks Saphira left behind. As large footprints she made. But they eventually came to the conclusion of using magic to try to cover them up. Even going so far as to have her fly to different places to leave different footprints to at least confuse their future tracks a little.

This would realistically only work against humans as if they had urgals on their trail again they would be able to track them using their scent. But between having urgals and humans on their ass or just urgals they'd rather have just urgals…

-x-x-x-x-x-

As Eragon was sleeping it happened again, he felt that strange presence touch his mind again transmitting him images of the woman again. It was the same as the first time, she was still hanging from the cell walls but he saw blood dripping from under her fingernails.

'So she's being tortured.' He thought to himself. Coming to the conclusion that she was getting tortured wasn't hard but what stumped his is why he was seeing this. Why was she being tortured in the first place? Where exactly was she being held? What made her so special exactly? Does she know something of value that they want?

He didn't have to wait long to get the answer to one of his questions though as the woman's head lifted up as she seemed to be looking directly at him. Or so it seemed as upon further inspection he noticed the dazed look in her eyes.

'So on top of being tortured she's also being drugged. So I'll assume she knows something of value.'

It was upon further inspection that he got an answer to one of his questions. When she had lifted up her head her hair had fallen back revealing more facial features. Most noticeable being her pointed ears.

'...She's an elf.'

Eventually he got an idea. Even though he could speak out loud at the moment he could express his thoughts to the presence quite easily. While it wasn't guaranteed that he would get a response he felt it wouldn't hurt to try.

'I don't know who you are and why you're showing me this but unless you can show me where she's at I won't be able to help this woman. I'm not all knowing and I don't have enough time to check every random prison in Alagaësia. And going off the fact that she's an elf I can guess wherever she's being held is hidden or has heavy security. I'm pressed for time too. So if you want me to help her you have to give me something more to work with than just this.'

Even though he got no clear response he could feel the strange consciousness… stirring? Seemingly finally deciding on something the images being shown to Eragon changed. Instead of being in a cell with the elf, he was above a city. But he could tell it was no ordinary city as it was fortified, even more so than Dras-Leona. He mainly saw soldiers wandering the streets. So while the being didn't give him a said response, it had given him a pretty big clue.

This was a good start as even though he couldn't recognize what city it was because he was new to this world and the Eragon before him hadn't really explored the world around him. He was pretty sure Brom would most likely know. The old coot had probably been traveling around the empire for decades. And if Brom actually couldn't figure what city it was he would just leave it.

While he wanted to help he wasn't about to risk his neck trying to find the woman. His next destination was the Varden because he had a feeling that the search for him would be heightened due to him killing the Ra'zac. He didn't feel like playing a game of blue's clues while having to duck and dodge the Galbatorix's forces.

'I don't know when I'll be able to find her– if I even can, but if I do I'll try my best to rescue her. That's the best I can do for you at the moment. Now begone, as I have a lot to think about, and I would rather not have someone constantly touching my mind.' He simply pushed the other presence away using his overwhelming spirit.

-x-x-x-x-x-

The next day after waking up they had a quick breakfast before they began discussing what to do next.

"Now that you've avenged your uncle are you ready to head towards the Varden?" Brom asked Eragon as they were packing up their camp.

"Actually about that. Do you remember that weird dream about that woman I had?"

"Yes, of course, it was like you were scrying in your sleep if I remember correctly."

"Yes, it happened again and this time something interesting happened." He began to explain to Brom a general summary of what happened glossing over the race of the woman as he wanted to see if Brom knew where she was at.

"The details you gave me could match only a few cities, but in reality only one truly fits the bill, Gil'ead. It's more of a military fortress than it is a city. That begs the question, what exactly makes her such a high value prisoner and why do you keep scrying her." He said why rubbing his beard.

"Oh yeah, her being an elf probably makes her a high value prisoner, I just wonder how she got captured." Eragon said nonchalantly as if that small detail wasn't important.

"SHE'S WHAT!" Brom roared in astonishment.

"Yeah she's an elf, I saw her ears, they were pointed. Calm down old man I can't have you croaking from a heart attack. Just imagine what all you past enemies would think. Probably laugh from beyond the grave.

Brom was flabbergasted."Eragon this is serious, for her to be captured something extreme must have happened."

"Calm down, I've already decided to try to help her.. But after we break her out we're going to have to haul ass to the Varden as the empire's security is going to be at an all time high, hell they probably have search parties looking for us now.

His words seemed to help Brom calm down a bit. The old man took out his pipe and began smoking to help calm his nerves. After a momentary pause he finally seemed to calm down.

He released a deep sigh."I've been out of the loop for too long as I've heard nothing about this from the Varden."

Eragon simply shrugged his shoulders as he began relaying the change of plans to Saphira.

-x-x-x-x-x-

{Who would've thought the woman was an elf?} Sapira said.

'Yeah I was just as surprised but that's not important. What's important is the "being" showing me the images of her.'

{... being?}

'Yes, I figured out what was happening. I wasn't scrying in my sleep, no it was someone else showing me those images. Like they were scrying and were showing me at the same time. It's hard to explain.'

{Do you have an idea who it might be?}

He shook his head.'No idea, but thinking about it for their mind to touch mine means they were either close to me which I doubt. Or their mind is so strong they could extend its reach from far away, which is concerning in itself.'

{Do you think it might be a trap?}

'I really don't have a clue, but I plan on trying to save her. If it is a trap we'll just have to bust our way out.'

{Are you strong enough to do something like that?}

'Yes, me and Brom together make a hell of a team. That's not to mention we have you in case push comes to shove.'

Saphira found this last part amusing as she imagined herself swooping in, scaring the tiny humans as she appeared in the sky.

Sensing Saphira's thoughts made him chuckle a little.

'I guess it's about time we start a new chapter in our life anyway. Are you ready?'

{Yes. I wonder what the future has in store for us little one.}