Chapter 19
Yawning, I stretched and hit metal. For a moment, I could not remember where I was or in what situation. I felt horrible. Everything ached and the memory of the last day returned with my knowledge of the burning, collaring and transfer to the elder wizard’s possession. I couldn’t stand up, but I could kneel and moved around the cage to observe the room in which I was.
It wasn’t round as I expected from the dome although I could see the dome’s curved roof above me. My cage hung from a stout brass-colored chain 40 feet above me. Any movement on my part sent it swinging in gentle gyrations that made me sick to my stomach. I was already queasy from the last bout of vomiting and hungry as well.
There weren’t any windows; the room was just a bit larger than a bedroom – say 12’ x 12’ with wooden walls covered with colored tiles that bore archaic rune stones painted on them. Lamps were affixed to the walls and produced a soft light that did not interfere with my sleeping. The floor was stone with a large drain and on one wall; I saw a spigot with a hose attached. No chairs, tables or other equipment was in the room. It wasn’t a torture chamber; I saw no instruments lying about but that didn’t mean the wizard couldn’t bring them in with him. I thought about twirling the cage around, twisting the chain until a link broke but I wasn’t sure if I had the strength or the stamina to wind the cage that much.
Looking down at my wrist, I saw that where he had slit me was almost healed just like the scar on my neck from the collar’s burn. It seemed that part of whatever an Yfed Gwaed was; accelerated healing was also part of it.
I knew he was coming before he opened the door. I could both see his heart beating and smell his blood. It awakened in me a desperate craving for sustenance and drool spilled from my mouth as he opened the door. His eyes glowed greenish in the dark doorway until he spoke. “Lights.”
The room brightened and I covered my eyes at the sudden shock to my eyesight. When I could open them again, he was standing next to the cage. “Call me Master,” he said. “And I will feed you.”
“No man is my master,” I spat. I shook the bars. “Let me out. I need to piss.”
“Piss on the floor. That’s what the drain is for among other things,” he returned calmly. He spoke words that I did not understand, yet I felt them crawl over my skin and bind me in a net of unseen lines. He tightened his hand and I was squeezed until I could not breathe. “Call me Master,” he said again.
“I. Will. Not,” I ground out between gritted teeth. He tightened more until all I could see were black spots yet I did not pass out. He grunted and opened his hand placing it on my chest just above my heart. I could not move.
“You already wear a geas on you,” he said his eyebrows high in astonishment. “And a Royal curse. Who are you?”
“I have no name,” I sucked in air as I could breathe again.
“Why? Did you lose it?”
“I fell from a long way and hit my head. I broke my arms and legs, Agenor said. His daughter found me in the river and her father brought me to the farm. He healed me. He told me he was naming me Reuven. That’s all I remember.”
“Yet, you know what a condorla is.”
“I rode one once, I think,” I frowned. “What is an Yfed Gwaed, a blood drinker?”
“A creature that preys on the blood of humans and is more powerful than any mortal man. A legend from the old days and thought to be extinct. They were called vampires and dracules. They could only be destroyed by sunlight, holy water, garlic and wooden stakes through the heart. Sometimes, silver could do the same thing.”
I patted my chest, and had a vague memory of being shot in the back with an arrow. “Yes. That is a wound from an arrow,” he agreed. “And you have over twenty scars from a flagellum on your back. You must have pissed off someone important.”
“I don’t know. I don’t remember,” I answered reluctantly.
“The only place high enough for you have fallen from a great height would be a building in the capital. Or the Lyr’s Palace in the Grove. Do you remember the Great Trees where the nobles live? They use condorlas expressly, more than we do here.”
“I don’t remember where. I told you, I just remember falling from a great height, blue-green walls and the cold.”
“Cold, hmmn. Have you ever been on the Wall of Ice?” He asked and I paused in mid-denial.
“The glacier,” I said slowly. “I remember running across the glacier on a sylph.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
“Call me Master and I will feed you,” he smiled and it was an evil thing to witness. I shook my head and he left me alone in the brightly lit room with the door open to taunt me.