The King Returns

Chapter 24 - Dungeons

While the battle took place outside, Eir could somehow faintly hear everything from deep inside the dungeons, the sounds echoing and bouncing against the walls. It was cold and quiet, the torches that lit up the place getting fewer and fewer the further down she went. 

She investigated cell after cell, but they were all turning out empty or filled with elves, lying on the floors on the verge of death. However much she wanted, she didn't have time to release them. Her top priority was Sasha. After that she could relax a little. 

But, the dungeons kept going deeper and deeper and there were still no signs of him anywhere. Eir kept getting more desperate the more she looked. Now, she was running, Sylvina shaking in the bag because it was getting colder, so cold even a dragon's thick skin could feel it. 

Eir kept hoping and praying that Sasha would be alive, she felt like she had to tell him something. Like she needed to get something out before it was too late. 

As she was running aimlessly in the darkness, Eir suddenly stopped as she heard a loud scream that echoed loudly through the walls. It sounded like someone was getting horribly tortured, it sounded like Sasha. And Eir started to run. She ran faster than she had ever done before, beyond what she could ever imagine. 

The scream led her to an entrance, a very dark entrance. As she stood there, Eir felt her whole body was shaking like a leaf in the cold wind. She didn't notice before in all her panic, but the temperature had sunk so low she could no longer feel the tip of her fingers.

As Eir stood there contemplating, another horrid scream made her decide once and for all and she dashed into the dark entrance. Taking down a torch from the wall, she started walking. A disgusting smell reached her nostrils. It seemed to be oozing from the walls and, it smelled like dead corpses and burnt skin. Eir quickly put her hand on her nose, trying not to let it bother her.

***

Lusha and Almar were still running around in the corridors. They had run into Zyron's soldiers a couple of times but Lusha easily took care of them all with a few swift swings of her swords. Lusha made Almar nor join in by saying he needed to save energy and strength for the battle between him and Zyron. 

  "How long is this corridor anyway?" Almar complained, running along Lusha's side. 

  "You know you'll have to get used to this in the future?" Lusha said jokingly, taking some fast-long steps. 

  "Hey, I'm not king yet and besides, how could anyone possibly get used to all of this?" Almar asked waving his arm around, gesturing to the whole place. 

  "I could get used to this," Eira said from the bag.

***

Eir arrived at stop, faced with wall of many rusty barred doors. It seemed to be the place they kept the extra important prisoners. Eir felt the isolation closing in on her, tightening around her chest and it was so dark. She only had one light after all, and the torch slowly started getting smaller and smaller. 

Eir, however scared she was, started getting that feeling she had experienced before. But it was stronger this time, pulling her towards the door farthest to the right. It was a magnetic force, making her step up towards it. Eir touched the door, putting her hand in the middle of the old wood. She pushed it slightly and it came open, someone had left it open. Why? She didn't even bother to consider because inside the room, she saw blood. Blood on the stone floor, blood on the walls and... 

Eir put her hand over her mouth when she heard small heavy breaths. In the farthest depths of the room, Eir spotted a person, kneeling, arms hanging by chains in the ceiling. Eir saw that it was an elf with long white hair but, something about him seemed familiar.