Chapter 9

I bolt up from my dream trying to stand but so dizzy and off balance by the chains on my wrist that forced me to fall back to the ground. "Where in Aser's realm am I and why does my head hurt so much?" Zeke asks aloud not expecting an answer.

"You are in the dungeon of the Lord of the Wastes." Says a female voice though oddly a familiar one though I have no clue why I don't think I have ever met her before.

"So who is the Lord of the Wastes and who are you?" I try to see who answered me but the only light came from the small vertical slits in the walls. As I look for the voice, I get my first real look at my surrounding. It was a large stone walled cell with vertical slits around the tops of the walls, that let in a minimal amount of light. As I look around I can see there used to be rooms or at least more walls, now though it was completely open except for a small area toward the back of the room that had the cloth as a makeshift wall. That is where the voice had been from.

"He is the one who now controls these parts. My name is Arerian, what's yours?" A woman peeked out from the cloth, she had faded brown hair, a sharp-angled face, and her eyes flashed silver in the low light.

"Hello Arerian I am Zeke, How did I get here?" I ask her as I stand back up.

"Buster and that goblin Golrick brought you in here." Arerian stepped out from behind the cloth and walked toward me. She stood at about 5'8 and looked to be in good shape for someone in prison. It put me on edge, something just seemed off and I don't know why just yet.

"How long was I out?" I pull at the chain, it seemed old and not in the best shape. This gave me a great idea "So why are you here and how long have you been here?"

"I have no clue why I am here other than, they want something from me. However, I have no memories of anything at all. So they can't get anything from me which is why I am still alive and here. As to the second question I think I have been here for about 5 years now."

"What do you mean you don't have any memories of anything, did they do something to you?" I ask now actually worried.

"I don't know the first thing I remember is waking up here, in that bed over there." A look of sadness shadowed her face. "For some reason, Buster comes to check on me every day. He gets mad at them when I am not fed or have a chance to clean myself, and when they try to chain me up he hurts them. Well unless he has orders from his master to interrogate me which they do once a month."

"Sounds like he is very interested in you for more than just your memories, wonder why that is?" I ask as try my chains again when I hear the bolt on the door, thrown open.

"Get away from him girl, before we make you. I would hate to hurt you again!" I look to the door where the voice came from and I see a human male and his goblin partner.

They both laughed at what the human had just said "Hate to hurt her, good one Adrien. We both know you enjoy making her suffer and beg you, not to mention what you really enjoy doing." The goblin laughed loud and high and he drew his dagger and moved toward American. She started to back away with a look of fear and hatred on her face.

"Sweet Arabian you should just give us what we want. It would be so much easier and much safer for you. Though not as fun as when you fight or try to escape like you for the last 5 years, those hunts are amazing though. You are strong and fast, deadly with a sword if you would stop all this nonsense I could protect you." Adrien smirked while he looked at her with a lust filled eyes. The way he was looked at her, plus that smirk, and him ignoring me completely made me mad. Which rarely happened, I grab him around the neck as he passed me.

"Never talk or look at a lady like that." I squeeze his neck tighter trying to make him pass out, but he was not there. I hear laughter behind me and turn to look, but there was nothing there. Then I feel a sharp pain in my shoulder and start to bleed, it felt like someone had shoved a spear into my shoulder. I look at my shoulder and see a shadow leave my shoulder covered in blood.

"How do you like this, here's your first lesson never attack your captors. You will only end up getting hurt though that was going to happen anyways!" He started to laugh as he reappeared in front of me.

"You're one of the shadow mages of Nerros the god of darkness and shadows, aren't you?" I ask through clenched teeth.

"Yes well, my family is, though that is no concern of yours. You should be more interested in what is about to happen to you." Adrien turned away from me and started toward American. I hear a metal clang at my wrists. I look down to see a metal bracelet, with a phoenix designed into it. An idea formed in my mind that would let me escape from this place, Adrian glanced at me she had heard the metallic sound and she attempted to distract them.

"Please Adrien, Leave me alone you've all had your fun this week. I have just barely recovered from it all, why are you all coming after me so soon." Adrien steps closer to her and I finally get a good look at his face. He stood at about 5'10 was about 210 pounds. His hair was medium length and jet black, it was spiked all around his head. When I saw his face, it caused me to flinched it looked so bad. It was a long thin face shallow cheeks and hollow eyes that were completely black. His nose is very long and came to a harsh point, his face ended in a very sharp pointed chin so sharp it looked like it would cut you. He had three long jagged scars from the top right of his forehead to the bottom left. It was almost as if someone or something had clawed him.

"Hey Hatchet Face leave her alone, I am the one you are here for this time. So come and get me." I say to get his attention. He turned toward me with a look of hatred.

"Oh, we are going to have so much fun with you very soon. I promise you that, I will enjoy causing you so much pain that you will beg me to put you out of your misery."

"Why wait for you coward let's see if you can back up all that talk." I slide my hand away from my wound and toward my wrist, and I waited for him to get closer.

"Oh you are so asking for it, I am going to flay you alive! Then heal you and start again! I swear you are going to wish you were never born!" I wait until he is within spear distance when I believe he is about to strike me. I activate my shield and go down to one knee behind it as his spear glances up and away from me. Throwing him off balance, I sweep my foot out at his ankles knocking him to the ground. He hit so hard that it knocked the wind out of him before he had the chance to get up I kick him in the side of the head hard. It knocked him out cold. As I stand up fully I hear the chain hitting the ground, when my shield deployed it must have broken the chain. I turn toward the goblin as he looked at Adrien's unconscious form and say.

"Are you ready for yours, you ugly little rat."

"I will hurt you for what you have done to my friend." It yelled as it ran toward me. It gripped its dagger in both hands, I let it get closer then I charge the goblins with my shield. I ram it so hard that I hear its wrists snap. The dagger is deflected up and into the air, as it fell back down I reach out and caught it. Then I turn my shield horizontal and push its arms up. I stab the goblin in the chest and let the dagger slip out of my grip as the goblin falls. I look up at American as the goblin hit the grounds and ask, "Are you ok?"

She bent down and plucked the dagger from the goblin's chest and she looked up at me and said "Yes I am fine, though I should be asking if you are ok. That's a nasty wound, and a nasty spear too." She stepped towards me. I reach over and deactivate my shield as she gets close enough to touch me.

"I am glad you are ok, and this is nothing I have had a lot worse." She lifted my shirt away from the wound to check it. "Oh that's even worse than I thought, that spear has a nasty bite to it." She gently put my shirt back down. "They healed your shoulder wound when they brought you in here a day ago. Now you have wounded again, you have some bad luck don't you." She smiled up at me. "So how bad does it hurt?"

"Only when I move." I laugh as she smiled at me again, this time I get a small laugh from her. "We need to get out of here, and then treat my wound before too long. Wait did you say I been out over a day and they healed me? Why would they do that?"

"They like to have as much fun as possible and for as long as possible before they kill a person. Your right though we need to do both causes if you don't get your wound treated you will get an infection." She said as she turned to face the door. I reach down and pick up Adrien's spear, it's a nasty piece of work. The blade was leaf-shaped, but instead of the normal edged blade, it has a sawtooth one. It's designed to do massive damage when pulled out. She looked back as I move toward her I see another look of sadness cross her face. "Though I like standing here talking to you we should really be going before he wakes up or someone comes looking for him."

"Your right lets go," I said as I hurried toward her. "Do you know where they would have put my stuff?"