Inktober Day 13: Rise

 Chapter 11

When Magda awoke, she was in a daze. She looked around her to try to discern her environment. The room was dark and smelled strongly of that spicey scent she remembered from the food they had eaten with Kandra.

Kandra.

Magda frowned. She felt uneasy about that woman. Why hadn’t she been more cautious? She could have told Wendell that she didn’t trust her. But Wendell knew better than she, and they were still in her father’s land. It should have been alright.

She heard a groan from across the small chamber, and her heart loosened a little.

“S-sir Wendell?” she called quietly. “Is that you?” She made to rise, but found her hands and feet bound.

“Lady Magda.” She heard his voice and was glad. “Are you hurt?”

“No,” she said. “I feel strange in my head, but I feel no pain. What has happened?” As she asked it, she realized what a silly question it was, but she was used to Wendell having the answers.

“In truth, I do not know,” he replied. “Are you bound as well?”

“Yes, my hands and feet.” She lay there for a moment, willing herself not to cry. She could not feel much from her circlet at that moment, but she knew it was still there.

“Wait,” she said. “They have not taken my circlet. I suppose I must have hidden it well.” There was one thing to be glad of at least.

“My lady,” Wendell said. “We must be cautious even now. Best to keep to ourselves what we would not have taken from us.”

In the next moment, they heard footsteps coming from one side of the room. Magda could just make out the shape of a door before it opened, light spilling in and blinding her momentarily. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw Kandra before them, flanked by two men in dark, tattered robes. They looked much like the men who had ambushed their caravan days prior.

Kandra smiled and opened her arms.

“Good morning, my guests.” Her voice was sickly sweet and her manner as graceful as a hostess genuinely greeting dear friends. “Please rise from your beds. We have much to do today.”

Magda and Wendell merely lay there, not answering. Kandra hummed and then looked to the two men beside her. One of them came forward, to drag Magda out of her bed.

“Do not touch her!” Wendell called out. In the light, she could see his face and it was fearsome. Magda thought the man gripping her arm might suddenly burst into flames from the intensity of Wendell’s gaze.

Kandra laughed as the man continued to pull Magda up. The bonds on her feet made it difficult to move and she would have certainly tripped had the man not been gripping her so tightly.

The other man came forward to pull Wendell up from his seat, but Wendell was harder to manhandle than Magda had been. He writhed and threw the man off of him, tripping himself in the process.

Kandra tutted. “Oh, dear sir knight,” she said. She approached Wendell and with one motion of her hand, he rose into the air, his feet hovering inches off the floor. “Now you see, when I tell you to rise, you will rise, whether you like it or not.”

Kandra set Wendell back on the floor, and the man whom Wendell had thrown off before was back to hold him there. Kandra addressed them both.

“Now,” she said, her smile never faltering. “I do so enjoy entertaining the princess and her brave escort in my own home, but you have been invited elsewhere, and I am obliged to take you there.”

“Who are you?” Wendell said. “What do you want with us?”

“I have already told you,” she said. “My husband is the lord of this manor, and I am to escort you to my master, who wishes to speak with you.”

“You expect us to believe that you are the wife of a vassal of our king?”

“Believe what you like,” she said. “Now, we are to depart presently, and it will be easier for all involved if we do not have to carry you all the way.”

One of the men stooped to cut Wendell’s bond and as Kandra turned to leave the room, she paused at the entrance.

“And do not try to run off,” she said, her head angled towards Wendell. “I am loathe to imagine the anguish the king and queen would feel to learn their beloved daughter has been crippled whilst under your care.”

She turned to leave again, and Magda surprised herself when she decided to speak. “What does your master want with us?” She tried to put as much force into her voice as possible, but it still came out with a slight waver.

Kandra looked back at Magda, and smiled like Magda was a small child trying to involve herself in matters too great for her.

“My dear,” Kandra said. “You are a princess from a neighboring land. Why should a great king like my master not want to meet you?”

Magda looked into Kandra’s eyes for what felt like hours but was only a few seconds. She searched those eyes for hidden meaning, for malice, or anger, anything to discover her plans. Magda was no sorceress like Kandra; she could not hope to read her secret thoughts, but she could understand when someone was lying to her.

“You don’t know.” Magda spoke these words without thought. “Your master does not trust you with such information it seems.”

For the first time since coming into the room, Kandra’s smile faltered for an instant, before she recovered and left.