Chronicles of Den'dra - Spencer Johnson Page 0,105
three neat red gouges through. It reminded me of the bald man that had purchased me from my mother all those years ago. The scars would look similar when they healed. I started laughing as I thought about how that man had earned them. His death at the bandit’s hands was probably justice for far worse deeds than selling innocent children into slavery.
I stopped laughing as they pinned me to the floor. The humor was lost as I heard what Oscarion was saying and doing. My disheveled white hair was pulled back, revealing my elvish ears. There was stunned silence for a few seconds as they gawked. Then Oscarion began raving about what he was going to have done with me when he got to Shienhin. My blood chilled as he described how they would kill an elf. It ran pure ice as I felt a calloused hand run up the inside of my leg beneath my dress. I tried to scream, but a filthy rag was stuffed in my mouth preventing any chance of my calling help. I struggled despite knowing I was no match for the three ruffians that held me. The one tried forcing my legs apart, pulling on my undergarments while muttering something about how it would be like to be with an elf when the door opened.
Estavo stood silent for a moment with his face a mask of pure livid rage. The three men shrank from him as he advanced, shaking from the intensity of his temper. I was relieved by my rescue. I couldn’t have been happier to see the master of the house than at that moment. My joy, however, was short lived. The one with the shaved head, freshly adorned with the three red gouges that still oozed blood, had a knife secreted in his shirt. He drew the blade and I watched in horror as he thrust it into Estavo’s heart. I wanted to scream as the fiend pulled the blade free and stabbed Estavo again and again until the old man fell to the floor bleeding his life’s blood from a dozen mortal wounds.
I was so shocked that I didn’t even realize that I had been released until I found myself on my feet unable to stop shaking. The bald man calmly wiped the knife off on Estavo’s cloak before returning it to his shirt. He withdrew it again when he turned and saw me.
“I’m the Lord of house Loneka.” Oscarion looked down on his dead father and repeated his realization a couple more times. He must have liked the way it rolled off his tongue because he smiled. Reality struck me and only the fact that I had not yet eaten anything saved me from vomiting. I was now the property of Oscarion who hadn’t a flicker of emotion in his body other than that greedy grin.
“What about her?” The burly knave that had accompanied Oscarion and the bald murderer inquired. Oscarion coolly informed them that I had just murdered his father and that I would be subjected to a punishment equal to the crime. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That he would watch his father murdered, then frame me. His line about no one believing my word against theirs echoed in my ears just before I heard him say that they could have a little fun before my sentence should be carried out. I hoped that I would wake up momentarily and find it all to be a bad dream, but knew in my heart that I was about to die. The bald murderer was unbuckling his belt while the other two grinned at me. I was horrified that they could be so calloused and depraved. Enraged at the depths to which humanity was capable. I felt a rush of malice and only wanted to deprive the three of them their lives. I wanted nothing more than to see them bleeding like Estavo. To free the world of their taint.
A darkness blinded my sight. Only a prick of light remained. It grew stronger until it was before me. A lily of a thousand colors. I seized it in my rage and hurled myself at my assailants. I could almost feel myself tearing their minds asunder with my bare hands. I don’t know that happened next other than that some stranger with straw like hair and piercing blue eyes was looking down on me when I woke and that I knew everything would be all right again.