Page 1 of Upon Buried Embers
One
Elf
I was dying today.
I was sure of it.
“Come on, elf scum, keep moving!” A hard shove follows his words and I trip, landing on my hands, scraping them across the cold, stone ground.
A whimper escapes me from the pain, my breathing ragged against the winter wind, as puffs of air form in front of my face.
I cry out when a rough hand grabs my tangled hair, and I’m pulled up onto my knees. I claw at him with bleeding hands, trying to make him let go, but it’s useless.
I’m like a rat scratching at him; he can barely feel it.
“Get up,” he barks. “The Pit awaits you.”
Ice runs through my veins at the thought of where he’s taking me, the place no one comes back from.
The Pit.
I’ve heard of it over the years, of course I have, and none of it has been good.
They throw the unwanted down there to feed the beasts that roam in winter, knowing they will never be seen again.
No witnesses, no crime.
“Please,” I whisper, my vision blurring. “Please, it was a mistake.”
“Mistake?” His laugh is cruel. “Your Master doesn’t want you anymore. He made that very clear. You bring in no coin, and then you steal from him? Stupid girl.”
“That’s not true!” It was just last week that someone paid him to cane me. The marks on my back and thighs may have nearly healed, but I still feel the pain of them.
“It’s true,” he snarls. “I would’ve given you to the tavern keeper back in Ole Creek if it didn’t mean my death being found with you. No one wants to harbor an elf. Especially a useless one.”
No one wants you.
Those words rattle around in my skull as we make our way to The Pit. It looks like the entrance of a cave, but I know that within the darkness there is a slope that will lead me to my demise.
I wonder how many souls I will meet below.
“Quickly!” The city guard barks at me, his heavy hand on my shoulder, squeezing far too tightly. “We can’t be seen.”
“Please.” I try again, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” I’m gasping for breath now, the panic setting in. I don’t want to return with Master, but I don’t want to leave Effy on her own with him either.
“You stole bread from him, dirty elven thief. You should know your place, he’s sick of you,” he spits, and I try to wrangle out of his grasp, desperate to escape as the entrance looms before us.
Master is cruel, but down there is something far worse.
“No, no, no.” I start crying, tears dripping down my slim face. “I didn’t mean to.” The winter wind catches the copper strands of my hair, covering half of my face as flurries of snow begin to fall.
“Don’t make too much noise in there.” He spins me, his crooked teeth yellow and his beady eyes large. “You know they are hungrier in the winter.”
Fear rushes through me as he turns me back around, my teeth chattering and my body trembles in my threadbare tunic and pants.
The guard doesn’t care though. No, he just pushes me to the edge of the entrance as I lean back into him, panicked sounds tearing from my throat. He’s much stronger than me. He grabs the metal around my neck, pulling me back with him to gain momentum before he shoves me into the dark hole.
I open my mouth in a silent scream, the dark swallowing the light and for a few short moments… there is nothing.
