Down a Lost Road by J. Leigh Bralick

were cold, though the walls seeped so much
sticky heat it felt like a sauna.
    The minutes dragged by.
    What were they doing to him? I tried not to
think about it, blocked the images. What did the Ungulion mean, it
would be the last time? I rolled back onto my knees beside the
grate, craning my head to peer down the corridor. The rough metal
abraded my cheek, reeking with the stench of rust. Such a deafening
silence.
    A sharp clang shattered the stillness,
followed by the rasp of metal hinges. Footsteps. Finally I caught
sight of them – the Ungulion, tall and straight, half-dragging a
slumping figure beside him.
    “ Yatol!”
    Yatol’s head lifted, just ever so slightly,
not nearly enough to let him see me. I didn’t care. He was alive. I
kept saying those words over and over, even while I heard the
Ungulion slam open the cell door and shove Yatol back inside. The
key clanged in the lock.
    My momentary relief vanished in an eruption
of new terror. I sank away from the bars, hiding my face in my
knees and listening, breathless, while the tapping resumed. Three
steps, four…
    “ A newcomer, I
see.”
    I couldn’t look up. The key turned in the
lock, the door whined open. Two more steps and I didn’t have to
open my eyes, I could feel him standing over me. The smell of death
hung around him. The air grew colder, then suddenly a moldy grey
hand seized my wrist.
    “ Get up!”
    I pulled back but the hand wouldn’t release.
I wondered how bones and rot could have so much strength. Then an
iron ring clamped shut around my arm, the chain dripping toward the
ground in a rattle of cold metal.
    “ Please let me go,” I
whispered.
    The Ungulion tugged the chain, trying to get
me to stand. In a moment he would grab my other hand. On a sudden
impulse I reached into my back pocket, babbling nonsense all the
while. Pyelthan felt like ice. I pulled it out, slowly, trying not
to make any abrupt movements. With my hand still behind my back, I
shoved the coin into the pile of rocks. Just as I let go, the
Ungulion jerked me to my feet, clapping my other wrist in
metal.
    Before I realized it, he had propelled me
into the corridor. A scrabbling sound came from the next cell, then
the door shook as Yatol threw himself against it.
    “ No!” he cried, hoarse.
“Leave her alone!”
    He stretched one arm into the corridor, the
other hand clutching the bars, white from effort trying to hold
himself up. The Ungulion lashed out a metal-clad boot, kicking the
grate so hard that Yatol reeled back. I caught his gaze, just for a
moment. I saw his features marred and gruesome in the dim light,
but I couldn’t comprehend the terror in his eyes. In another minute
we had passed his cell, and I stumbled numbly beside the Ungulion,
down a hall through utter darkness.
     

     

Chapter 5 – Darkness
     
    We passed through a doorway from pitch black
into blacker pitch. The Ungulion jerked the chain between my
wrists, so hard I almost lost my balance. A harsh clang drowned the
rattling of the links, then a heavy weight dragged down on my arms.
I took a step forward, experimentally, but lurched back again as I
reached the end of the fetter. Then I backed up and my hands
brushed against rough stone that felt like a wall or a pillar. It
didn’t matter which. It just meant I wasn’t going anywhere.
    My motions must have annoyed the Ungulion,
because suddenly the chain yanked back, hard. The Ungulion had
refastened the fetters, so that now I couldn’t move at all. I
snapped the chains once but it was more for defiance than any
belief in its utility. My wrists flared with pain and I stood
still.
    The Ungulion’s robes whispered as it moved
away. Then came the sound of stone striking stone, and a spark
danced in the void. One lone candle began burning, a tiny
flickering thread of gold. Somewhere behind me wind whistled
through a chink in the wall, died, then picked up again. I
shivered, straining to make out the dimensions of the room. I could
see nothing