Quest of the Bounty Hunter: Kidnapped

Marie

Marie slowly opened her eyes to painfully bright light streaming through her window. She didn't remember much from the previous day, but she assumed that she had slept through the night and that it was now morning. A cold towel speckled with deep red blood was laying beside her among the rumpled sheets.

Marie sat up in her bed and leaned against a pillow propped up on the headboard. She glanced to her left and nearly jumped when she realized she wasn't alone.

It was Klieria. She was fast asleep, slumped over in a wooden chair.

Marie watched as her body rose and fell with even breaths and noticed the dark bags under her eyes. She must've been up all night with me.

Marie's hand slowly crept up to her face to feel the still stinging bruise on her cheek and her black eye. When she caressed her nose, it still felt broken but there was only a small rim of dried blood around her nostrils. Klieria must have cleaned it.

Very quietly, so as not to awake Klieria, Marie slipped out of her tall, plush bed and stumbled drowsily over to her full length mirror. In one glance, she summed up her current situation. Disastrous. Her hair was disheveled tangle. Her dress was rumpled and there were small drops of blood down the bodice. Her face was just a plain mess.

A single tear slid down her cheek but she brushed it away as soon as it appeared. The fate of the five kingdoms was on the line. She needed to pull herself together. Her father had told her that an army was in the walls. She had been right about that. He even was kind enough to tell her where they were. Of course, he probably hadn't thought she would seek them out. He thought he was scaring her rather than aiding her.

Marie allowed herself a soft bitter laugh. She would make him pay even if it meant losing her life.

She quickly changed into a more suitable, cleaner dress and slowly crept out into the empty hall. The castle seemed to be paused. No one was cleaning. No one was whistling. The normal maids and stewards were eerily missing from the corridor.

Marie began to search each hall of every floor to find the tapestry that would mark the secret entrance to the tunnel her father had bragged about.

After a few flights, her legs began to tire from climbing so many steps and she was about to give up when she noticed the tapestry hanging on a wall of the fourth floor. It was weaved with bright colors, depicting a red dragon spewing flames of anger, a sword stabbed in between the scales of its chest.

Marie shivered at the image and mustered up the courage to push the tapestry aside and push open the panel of wall that appeared to be seamless.

The hidden corridor was pitch black, no lights anywhere. Marie began to walk slowly forward, hands out in front of her. She walked and walked for what seemed to be hours but she knew it was just mere minutes.

In the darkness, Marie continued to feel her way through the passages by dragging her hand along the corridor walls. Goosebumps spread up her arms and back as the deafening silence pushed against her.

Suddenly a torch flickered to life in front of her and the whole passageway jumped alive with moving figures.

Marie opened her mouth to scream at the sudden discovery when a hand clamped over her mouth. A voice whispered into her ear, the breath hot against her clammy skin. Chills ran down her spine and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

"Don't you dare make a sound, missy. Seems like you've already been in a few tussles judging from your pretty face right now."

Marie squirmed and tried to struggle away, but the person just pushed her into the arms of, judging by the smell, another man.

"Hey, girlie, don't struggle. This may have been your home once but it's ours now too. We control the castle...and its occupants."

"No. Stop." Marie managed to whisper but fear made her voice crack which earned a hearty laugh from all the men in the tight passage. Now that the torch was brighter, Marie could see that they were all armed to the teeth with swords and daggers and they all looked meaner and stronger than her father, who was quite a formidable man.

Another arm wrapped itself around her waist and the hand grazed her stomach. Marie let out a yelp and whipped out an arm towards the offender who merely caught it and gripped her wrist with his other hand. Marie spun around and kicked the man's ankle as hard as she could. He winced and dropped her hand for a moment. It was enough time. Marie sprinted back towards the way she came. Hands came from every side. Grabbing her hair. Her thigh. Her arm. Someone caught her dress sleeve and ripped it right off.

Marie's lungs were burning by the time she hit the door running. It flew open and she went tumbling out into the corridor. The light was welcomed with a gasp of joy as Marie slammed the door shut and  swung the tapestry back over to cover it.

Marie didn't stop running until she saw the door to her chambers, seemingly surrounded with a bright, saving glow.

"Klieria! Help!" Marie panted as she burst into the room and tripped across the rug on the floor.

Klieria snapped awake immediately and shot to her feet, "What?"

"They're in the walls! They're everywhere. We were right..." Marie gasped as she collapsed into Klieria's arms and began to sob.