Chapter 130

“Mmph,” Elena gasped. She tried to scream in shock, but the sound never made it past her lips and sank back down her throat.

In the next instant, icy water wrapped around her body like a web, and her ears rang as though the surrounding air had vanished. Water surged through the cloth covering her head and rushed in all at once. Elena clamped her lips shut.

She gathered what little strength she had left and struggled to free her body from the chair, but the ropes did not budge. 

Elena thought she was thrashing violently. In truth, she no longer had the strength to do even that, and bound as she was in deep water, she could not move freely at all. Against her will, she simply sank lower and lower.

Her limit came quickly.

The more she tried to hold her breath to avoid swallowing water, the faster her breathing grew ragged.

No. I cannot hold on any longer, Elena thought.

At last, she could not endure it and inhaled.

In that instant, river water poured into her mouth and nose like a massive tidal wave.

Elena choked. She shook her head violently and shut her mouth again, but she had already swallowed far too much water.

“Your Grace. Please. Please help me,” Elena begged silently.

As her consciousness blurred, she called out to Kennard.

***

Through a vision hazy as though shrouded in mist, a face wavered into view. No matter how many times she blinked, the features would not come into focus. Only neatly braided red hair stood out with painful clarity. The woman was sobbing, drenched in sorrow.

“Who are you?” Elena asked.

She moved her lips, but no sound came out.

Even so, as though she had heard, the woman lifted her head and looked at her.

“Please erase my memories,” the woman said, gripping Elena’s shoulders and speaking words Elena could not understand.

“My memories? How could I possibly erase your memories?” Elena asked.

Once again, her voiceless words seemed to reach the other person.

“You can do it. With your blood. My beloved daughter, Elena, please. Erase my memories and free me from this hell,” the woman said.

My daughter? Elena thought.

She could not make sense of it.

My mother? she wondered.

She had no idea what the woman was saying, yet without realizing it, Elena raised her left arm.

In her right hand was a dagger she did not know where it had come from. Her mind screamed at her to stop, over and over again, but her body moved on its own.

It was as though someone else had taken residence inside her, acting against her will. Words she had never even considered slipped naturally from her lips.

Elena pushed back the wide sleeve of her dress, clenched her fist, and slashed her forearm with the dagger.

Elena gasped. Dark red blood welled from the gash and ran down her arm. She dipped her fingers into her own blood and began writing something on the woman’s forehead. She could not see it clearly, but it was closer to a drawing than to letters.

Words that might have been a spell or a prayer flowed from her mouth. It was not a language she normally used, and she could not understand its meaning. Even so, her lips moved as naturally as though she were singing.

For a brief moment, calm seemed to settle over the woman’s tear streaked face.

Then Elena’s consciousness slipped away once more.

***

“Ahk,” Elena cried.

A whip struck her back, tearing flesh apart. Her body twisted in agony, trembling as though seized by convulsions.

She could not breathe. She opened her mouth wide and tried to draw in air, but it was useless.

Tears and saliva dripped onto the floor, and her sweat soaked body sprawled across the cold stone ground.

“Restore your mother’s memories. Even now,” a voice snarled in fury above her.

In Elena’s lowered field of vision, she saw leather boots embroidered with ornate gold thread.

She struggled to turn her head and look up.

The man before her had silver hair that glittered like scattered jewels.

Her vision was blurred by tears, and she could not make out his face clearly, but she could see that his eyes were pitch black.

“I cannot,” Elena said faintly.

She barely moved her lips, and she could hear nothing herself.

“If you cannot, then who can? It was bad enough that you used your power without my command, but you dared to use it on your own mother. Did you think you could separate her from my side and live out your allotted life?” the man demanded.

She did not know who he was, but his words pierced Elena like blades.

“Father, please forgive me,” Elena pleaded.

She could not help being startled by the way she had addressed him so naturally.

Once again, she heard no voice of her own, yet it seemed he could hear her.

No matter how many times she blinked, her blurred vision did not clear.

“I do not need anything else. If she is not here, I need no one,” the man shouted.

He sprang to his feet.

The next instant, a sharp sound cut through the air, and the whip lashed down across Elena’s back.

“Aaah,” Elena screamed.

Sharp metal fragments were attached to the end of the whip, so it did not end with a simple blow.

Her skin was sliced open or torn deeply, exposing raw flesh as blood sprayed in all directions.

Elena gagged as she struggled to breathe.

She tried to push herself up from the floor, but her arms would not support her.

Unable to flee or move at all, she could do nothing but endure the whip as it tore her apart.

“I will hang your shredded body on the castle walls. Then even your mother, wherever she has hidden, will see it. Even without her memories, if her own daughter ends up like that, she will return by instinct, will she not?” the man shouted in anguish.

To Elena, his words were sharper than the whip tearing into her flesh.

She did not know how many more times the whip struck after that.

She could not even scream anymore. Each time the sharp metal ripped into her, all she could do was flinch.

At some point, the cheek and ear pressed against the cold stone floor grew numb, as though frozen solid.

Elena forced her eyes open and stared at her blood soaked hands. Bruises had darkened her skin to a deep red, and her fingernails were cracked or crushed.

Her hands, too, had been split open by the whip.

Another lash struck, and her body jerked.

She closed her eyes, and tears that had pooled there spilled down her cheeks. Her consciousness was hazy, as though she were dreaming, yet the despair and pain were painfully vivid.

With great effort, Elena moved her fingers.

A trail of blood followed her fingertips, forming pictorial symbols on the floor.

She did not even move her lips this time, chanting the spell silently to avoid being discovered.

It was different from the one she had used to erase her mother’s memories.

As before, she could not understand the words she was speaking, but she knew she was calling down a curse.

***

A chill like a blade piercing her body made Elena shudder.

When she came to, she found herself curled up on a bed, wrapped in sheets and fur.

The parts of her body covered by the fur were bearable, but her exposed face was struck directly by a cold draft from somewhere.

Elena lifted her head slightly and looked around.

The room was emptily vast, containing nothing but an old bed, a desk, and a fireplace.

There was not even a lamp. Only the firewood burning in the hearth offered a small measure of warmth.

Where am I? Elena wondered.

It was a place she did not recognize, yet it felt strangely familiar. It seemed as though she had seen it somewhere before.

No matter how hard she tried, she could not remember.

Even so, Elena did not find it strange that she was here.

After lying still for a while, she felt as though the tip of her nose might fall off from the cold. Her breath puffed out in small clouds as she slowly pushed herself up. Pain surged through her entire body, and a groan escaped her without thinking.

She pulled the fur back slightly and saw a beige dress stained with dried blood and dirt.

How did I get hurt like this? Elena wondered.

Despite her shock at the sight of her body, she moved again as though it were nothing.

Wrapped in the fur, Elena made her way toward the fireplace.

When her bare feet touched the cold stone floor, pain stabbed through her like needles.

She swallowed the sound and hurriedly dragged a wooden chair that had fallen beside the desk over to the hearth.

She sat down, tucking both legs deep into the fur, and the cold that had been spreading from her feet through her body slowly began to ease.

Elena glanced toward the window, which rattled under the force of the wind.

Iron bars were set into the thin glass.

She could not open the window, yet icy air poured in relentlessly through it.