Freyas Saga Ch. 18

"Yes," said Merion, staring at the thick darkness of the Night Walk.

"Then let's do this," said Five. "We'll go as quick as we can but there are corners and we don't want to run into the wall. Just hold your arms in front of you like this."

Merion folded her arms before her chest defensively, as Five showed her, then Five clutched the girl to herself, putting her own arms around her for protection.

"All right," she said. "Let's do this."

They went ahead and plunged into the darkness, and immediately the blows started coming; harder, this time, raining on Five's shoulders and head and sides. Merion yelped and Five knew that she was getting them too.

"You're doing wonderful," she cried. "Just a bit longer."

"It hurts," the girl sobbed.

"I know," said Five, moving forward, clenching her teeth as she was struck again and again. "But it's only for a bit."

They reached the wall and turned a corner. Just one more corner, Five thought, and Merion cried out again as something struck her. Something hit Five in the face and she saw stars. They reached the corner and turned one last time.

And then they hit the wall. Five reached out to see if there was another corner, but there was nothing but solid wall on three sides, and behind them, the way they had come.

The Night Walk had been sealed off.

"Why have we stopped?" whimpered Merion.

"There's a wall," said Five, and gasped as another blow struck her head.

"You mean we can't go?" the girl cried.

"No," said Five. "It's cut off. We'll have to go back."

"This was for nothing?"

"Yes," Five grated. "Waste of bloody time. I'm sorry. Come on."

She backed away, around the corner again, still trying to protect the girl, but the blows kept hammering her and the girl twitched and sobbed as she too was hit, until at last they emerged from the thick darkness and found themselves in the wood-panelled room.

The girl sank to the floor and Five sat down and held her. They were both red and sore and bruised, or at least they seemed to be; the appearance of their bruises soon faded, but what stayed behind was the memory of the pain.

Not going back in that fucking thing.

"You were really brave," Five murmured, stroking the girl's hair, "really brave. I'm sorry that didn't work."

The girl sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve and looked up at Five.

"Are you all right?" she said. "You must have got a worse bashing than me."

"I'm all right," said Five, smiling. "I've had worse beatings. Look."

She opened her mouth and showed the girl the gaps in her teeth from when Freya had beaten her.

"That's disgusting," said the girl. "How'd you get them?"

"Got beaten up for real," she said.

"What's it like?"

"Hurts as bad, but you stay damaged."

"So," said the girl, "what are we going to do?"

Five looked around at the room. The only light came from very small, very narrow windows high in the wall, too small for even a scrawny girl like Merion to get through.

"We'd better get back to my mistress," said Five. "She'll know what to do."

***

Five and Merion rounded the corner and saw the pool of light up ahead, and Five immediately realised something was wrong.

Freya was lying on the floor and a man was crouching over her, his back to Five, looking at Freya's body intently.

Five shouted "Hey!" and the man slowly stood up, without turning around. Five broke into a jog, pulling Merion with her.

"What are you doing?" Five said as she neared the man. "Leave her alone! Step back!"

The man obligingly took a step backwards, and then as Five approached the edge of the circle of light, he slowly turned around.

He was young, with slicked back hair. He was handsome, in a rattish kind of way. He looked straight at Five, who stopped dead, and he smiled at her.

"Hello," he said. "Fancy seeing you here."

Five's mouth went dry and she felt hot and ill. She stared at the man for a moment, then looked down at Freya.

"What happened?" she said. "What did you do?"

"Me?" he said. "I did nothing. Just came down the corridor and found her like this."

"You're a liar," she said. "What did you do to her?"

"God's truth," he said. "She was like this when I got here. S'pose she's not normally one for sleeping in corridors?"

"Tell me what you're fucking doing here," Five whispered, "or I swear, I'll fucking beat it out of you."

"Ooo," he said. "You dun 'alf talk big now. Didn't used to be so brave. Used to be all scared of me. What happened?"

"A lot," said Five. "Been in the wars."

"That would explain it," he said.

He stopped, looked her up and down, and clicked his tongue.

"You're still the same dog-ugly cunt you were back in the day," he said.

"You can't talk to her like that," said Merion. "Who do you think you are?"

The man smiled at the girl, and winked at Five.

"Tell her," he said.

"He used to be someone I knew," said Five. "His name's Dannel."