Zenora, The Dragon's Fury

Emily’s point of view:

Hayden is constantly by my side, not leaving me for a second. So, I couldn’t freely communicate with any other person, as I can’t keep up the blockage and use the mage’s mind link at the same time. So, if I ever choose to communicate, then he would know what I was saying.

Shit, I really hope that Brock’s mind is back to how it was before. When I read his mind, I knew that there was nothing of me left in there, and I almost broke down. But I have to stay strong, think positive and expect him to get better soon.

This takeover has been going on for three days now, and Hayden is forcing me to eat dinner at the dining room.

I couldn’t get one bite of food down my throat. To keep the blockage up, I could barely sleep, afraid that he would read my mind during my dreams. And the pregnancy wasn’t helping me either, constantly making me nauseous and throwing up the little food that I did eat.

So far, I haven’t heard anything from Ayinthur, and I thought about getting Ursai here in the castle, but Hayden keeps on threatening me to hurt the others. Multiple times he has reminded me that his mages can hurt Kaden or the others with just a single thought.

“If my father didn’t force my mother to leave, I would have still been here, and I’m sure that you would have chosen me.” Hayden said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“I wouldn’t, because even though you didn’t have the brightest childhood, you still chose to become a bad man. You could have chosen to come here, to get acquainted with your brother. But instead you chose to invade us, and capture everyone into our dungeons!” I replied.

“I only recently found out that I have a brother at all! If I was living here from birth, I would have become a different man.” He said.

There is no point in teaching him about morality. He simply doesn’t understand that its not the place that matters in your upbringing, its the choices you make in life. When you get angry for example, for any reason at all, it’s what you decide on how to act upon it. Your own decisions make who you are.

“I want to see my children.” I said to Hayden, there was no reason in arguing wit him any further.

“Why? You should better forget about them. We will get other children together.” He casually said, while eating steak and potatoes.

“Forget about them?! They are my children! I'll find them myself!” I yelled while rushing to the door.

There were still servants at the castle, only to keep food at the ready for Hayden. Servants are meant to keep their heads down, but I knew one of the girls wanted to help me, as she had her head up. I quickly read her mind when she locked her eyes with mine.

Unfortunately, all I could see was Tyler, sitting in the room with the other children that lived in the castle. I was glad though that at least one of my children was safe and unharmed. But what of Kaden? Or the other mages?

I quickly left her mind and blocked my own again, and nodded with my head to her, thankfully for showing me at least Tyler.

Hayden was still carefully eating, with his back towards me, while I tried to turn the knob of the door. Only to find out that it was locked.

“There are guards constantly around us and outside the rooms, that we are in. So, stop trying to run away from me.” He said between bites.

I wanted to see my children, my friends and loved ones, but he won’t let me! I need to know if they are alright, if they are unharmed. This is taking too long already; I have to come up with a plan. The servants might help me, but how can I get them to relay a message to the others?

Brock’s point of view:

So far, I found out that all of our friends are here with us, except for a mage called Nicolai and my son Kaden. Also the King, who is apparently Emily’s father, is not here with us.

We have to get out of here and get to the mages first, as we need their mind reading abilities too. Then, we need to rescue the children and at last we have to get Emily and her father.

The food that we are given, is brought down here by my brother’s warriors. Which is smart because if it were the servants from the castle, they might try and help us. So, there is no way of receiving or sending any message.

However, we did find a gap in their routine. Every hour, one of the warriors comes in, ‘Beardy' as Archeops called the man with a long beard, did a headcount. An hour later, another warrior with earrings only checked if the locks were still in place. And last, a bald one came down and only looked around the corner, stood at the wall for a minute and then walked up again. Every six hours we would get food, so ‘Beardy' would bring us food every other round.

This circle has been going on for the past three days. So, either there were only three guards, and other warriors were somewhere else, thinking that we aren’t that big of a threat. Or, there aren’t many warriors at all. Either way, if we could get them in here all at once, maybe we could overrun them and leave the dungeons.

‘Beardy’ was the most receptive of the three, as he responded to our talking. He didn’t say a word, but if we would say disturbing things, he would clench his fists around the food trays or just at the side of his body. He seemed the strongest of the three though, so if we were to antagonise him, we would have to prepare for a good fight.

“What if we don’t call for Beardy, but the bald one instead? He isn't the one that does the headcount, so he doesn't know how many are down here.” Archeops said, but I didn’t know what he was getting at.

He noticed my confusion and started to explain. If I could recall the ancient power again, maybe I could break open a lock or bend the bars apart. We wouldn’t try and leave upstairs, as the stairs are small, so only one of us could fight at one time.

Down here we would have the advantage, as we have more room to attack them with us all together. Two of us would stand behind the wall, which the lazy bald guard won’t notice as he never comes around the corner. Then when the guards would come around the corner, we would close the gap around them.

But how are we going to get them all three down here? What should give them a good enough reason to come here, without alarming any others?

“And what if you can’t open the doors or bend the bars? Are we going to wait for Emily to save the day?” Anna suddenly said with a slight chuckle.

She is the cheeky one of the bunch, as I was told she is Emily’s best friend, but I don’t like her tone though.

“Anna, please...” Dennis said to her, trying to shush his woman.

“No, so far, you men have only been talking and doing actually nothing. Maybe one of us might have an idea.” She replied to him, looking him straight in the eyes.

She started to whisper to Natalya, who was breastfeeding her baby, then to Cirilya and any other female present in the cells. Each female on their turn laughed or giggled, some of them were reluctant at first, but Anna could convince every single one of them to take a part of her plan.

When she was done, she turned to look at Dennis again.

“I don’t like the look in your eyes Missy.” Dennis said to her.

“Then you’d better turn around and not look, in fact, every man in here should turn around.” Anna stated.