The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Thirty-Seven

Whathad she done?

Thequestion had gone through Elise’s head countless times during the past littlewhile as she sat in Raul’s closet with a thin blanket wrapped around hershivering shoulders, waiting for him to show up. As it turns out, Raul hadnever moved his clothes to the small room, so it was void of anything butherself and the blanket they’d thrown into the room when night began to fall,turning the stone room icy cold.

She had no idea howlong she’d spent in the room, so far. It felt like it had been hours, but itprobably hadn’t been that long; she would’ve had to use the chamber pot, by thenif she had been. She hadn’t been visited by anybody since she’d entered theroom, and, other than when they gave her the blanket, the door hadn’t beenopened since they’d thrown her in. She didn’t know how long she had to stay inthere, if they intended to kill her, or if they were going to ship her off toKurzh the next day; all she knew was that she was waiting for General Raul tocome back from the ball to pass sentence on her.

Finally,after a long wait in the pitch-black room, the door opened, allowing brightlight to flood in. Someone walked in, grabbed her by the shoulders, and shovedher out of the closet.

Elisealmost ran back into the closet when she saw who was standing outside of it.She was now face to face with a very unhappy General Raul.

“So,this is the one that’s been going through my reports?” he asked. Elise didn’tsay anything; what was she supposedto say? “It’s quite a miracle that she was able to stay hidden for as long asshe did.”

Elise found herselflooking down at her toes; the Giskens had taken her shoes, thinking that therewould be something in them that might help her escape, like a knife orsomething. Of course, they weren’t able to replace anything, but they never gaveher back her shoes, or the dress she wore over her white shift.

“Whatdo you want us to do with her, sir?” Bram asked. He was standing next to Raul,with his hands behind his back.

“GeneralPolain has been so kind as to allow us to use his dungeons while we’re here,”Raul said. “We’ll take her down there until we’re ready to leave.”

Elisebit her lip in an attempt to keep it from shaking. Dungeons; the word reallymade what was happening to her sink in. She was a Gisken prisoner, now. Theywould probably torture her for information, maybe even kill her.

Shewrapped her blanket tighter around her shoulders. Gods help her.

“Ofcourse, sir,” Bram said. “When would you like us to take her?”

“Rightnow,” Raul said. Bram looked surprised, but he didn’t question the general’sorders; nobody ever did. “I would greatly appreciate it if you were to securethose hands of hers, too; I don’t want any more of my men to be burned bythem.”

Bram nodded and begansaying something to the men. One of them pulled out some rope, which they usedto tie her hands behind her back tightly. She couldn’t seem to keep her handsfrom shaking.

Withthat, they left Raul’s room and began leading her to the dungeons.

CastleMatisse’s dungeon was the dirtiest place in the castle, by far. Even as theyled her down the winding, stone steps, she could smell human excrement. Everysurface was slick with water, and was dark enough that she had to squint to seeanything beyond the light of the torch they’d brought down with them. It seemedthat, despite all the beauty that was in the castle, it still had its darkside, filled with cramped prison cells meant for arrested noblemen. From whatshe knew, she would be the only person down in that hell while she was there.

Finally,after winding their way through the dungeon, they stopped and took off theblindfold. Elise could see that the Giskens had led her to the very end of theprison block, to the last cell. When the Giskens opened the cell, she could seethat it was sparsely decorated with a pile of straw on one side and a bucket onthe other. It looked miserable, enough so that Elise couldn’t help but wonderhow anyone could survive a full prison sentence in this hell as they untied herwrists and led her into the cell. It smelled even more of urine in the cellthan it did in the hall, to the point that the mere scent made her sick to herstomach.

“Howlong am I going to be here?” Elise asked as one of the Giskens pulled out a setof shackles.

“Thatall depends on how fast we can pack up,” the Gisken said as he put the shackleson her wrists. They cut into her skin, enough that she found herself trying tokeep herself from moving too much. “After that, you’ll come with us back tocamp, where you’ll be hanged for espionage.”

Elisefelt like she’d been punched in the gut. She’d known that what would happen toher wouldn’t be envious, but to know that she would be dead within a few days…well, that really stung.

“Don’tbe so sad,” Raul said as his men began to leave the cell. “We know that youaren’t the mastermind of this plan. If you were to tell us who was the personwho got you to do this, your sentence will be commuted to a few years inKurzh.” The cell door closed behind them, leaving Elise alone with Raul.

“Now,would you be interested in giving up any names?” he asked.

Muchto her shame, Elise actually found herself considering it. She didn’t want todie, and she knew that Olrick, Eza and Silas probably didn’t expect her tostand up to interrogation, but… how could she sell them out like that? Olrickhad a mother and younger brothers and sisters who wanted him to come back fromwar, Silas had a little sister in Mirinia that he wrote to every day who beggedhim to come back, Eza probably had family in Kurzh she wanted to see again,though she hardly talked about it; what right did she – someone who didn’t haveany family left in the world – have to sell out someone who did to people who were going to killthem?

No,she wasn’t going to sacrifice the lives of one of her friends just so she couldlive a little longer. She came to that decision as she looked down at her toesand didn’t say anything. She prayed to the gods to give her the strength shewould need to resist whatever they were going to do to her.

Raulsighed and shook his head, almost as if he were disappointed with her. “Ireally didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me without any otheroption. We need to know who is responsible for this so there can be somejustice for the men who were killed because of this.”

He opened the celldoor and said something in Gisken. A few seconds later, two soldiers walkedinto the cell. One of them – a Jotiese man who looked to be a little older thanshe was - was holding batons similar to Bram’s, but made of wood. The other onelooked to be a Gisken, but there wasn’t really a way to tell with him; hecould’ve been a Caithian like her, as far as she knew.

“Gentlemen,I would appreciate it if you avoided doing anything that would be toopermanent,” Raul said. The soldiers nodded in understanding, and Raul left hercell.

“Onelast chance to tell us what we want to know before we start,” the Jotiese onesaid. “Who put you up to this?”

Elisedidn’t say anything.

TheGisken got behind her and firmly took her by the forearms, as if to brace herfor whatever was coming.

TheJotiese man smacked her in the stomach with his baton, hard.

Elisefound herself doubling over after the baton hit her in the stomach. Gods, didit hurt; she couldn’t think of a time in her life where she’d been hit so hard,before.

Sheshut her eyes tight before she could begin crying. She’d wondered whether ornot the Giskens would physically torture her since she was a woman; it seemedthat they really were going to beatthe information they wanted out of her.

“Itdoesn’t have to be this way,” the Jotiese man said. “This is all only happeningbecause you allow it to continue. Ifyou were to give us the information we want, all of this would go away. Youwouldn’t have to suffer through interrogations, or die in a few days. You couldlive a full life, if you would just give us the name of the person who got youwrapped up in spying.”

Onceagain, Elise found herself debating whether or not she should tell them or not,but she reached the same conclusion as she did before: she couldn’t give themup, not after everything they’d done for her.

Shestayed silent.

Therest of the interrogation continued in much the same way as it began: theJotiese man would hit her hard in various places – her legs, her arms, herstomach – then give her some reason for why she should betray her friends, andgive her an opportunity to end the interrogation. Through it all, Elise managedto stay quiet. At least, she didn’t tell them about Olrick, Eza or Silas; asmuch as he didn’t like to, she found herself crying out in pain as the smacksfrom the baton got harder and harder as the Jotiese interrogator got more andmore frustrated.

Shedidn’t know how long he’d gone at her, but after what seemed like hours, therewas a knock at the door and one of the soldiers came in, holding a tray of foodfrom the kitchens. From where she was standing, it looked to be a dish of riceand meat in a cream, with some bread and a small cup of water.

Elisecould feel her mouth beginning to water. She hadn’t realized just how hungryshe was until she saw the food.

“GeneralRaul said this is for the girl,” the Gisken said. The Jotiese man’s eyesnarrowed even more than they already were.

“Tellhim that she doesn’t get any food and that she won’t until she’s cooperative,”he said.

“Idon’t give a damn whether or not she was cooperative,” Raul’s voice said fromthe corridor. “We will not be using starvation tactics in this case.” TheJotiese man sighed as he allowed the Gisken to hand her the food. It seemedthat he wasn’t too happy about how Raul wanted her to be treated, but he wasn’tabout to argue with him; he wasn’t the sort of man you would want to arguewith.

“Iguess our time with you is at an end, for now,” the Jotiese soldier saidbitterly. The Gisken behind Elise stepped out from her. “Try and get some rest;you’ll need it for tomorrow.” The two of them left and shut and locked the celldoor, leaving Elise behind with her foot.

Shecarefully sat down on her “bed” and allowed a small flame to emerge from one ofher hands. As she slowly ate her dinner that night, Elise tried to sort throughwhat was happening. She was a prisoner of war, now, arrested for spying; theywere going to have her killed if she didn’t give up Olrick, Eza or Silas, andeven if she did, she’d probably spent the rest of her life in Kurzh. Eventhough she’d been dealing with that reality for the better part of the day, shestill found that it was a hard thing to accept.

Aftershe’d finished her dinner, she curled up on the straw and, for the first timein a long time, cried herself to sleep.