Page 33 of Ruins of Magic
“They are safe, for now. Sleep. Tomorrow you will be tested and die.”
“What? Why would you test me if you’re just going to kill me?”
“There is always hope, but no one ever survives,” the head imp said as if it were of little significance to him.
They left and slammed a door shut behind him. Arion quickly realized he was in a dungeon, assumingly inside the castle.
He moved to sit next to the door and pulled his knees up to his chest holding them tightly to him.
“Valaria? Garron? Are you there?”
There was no answer, but he could hear their light snores from time to time. He hoped they were having happy dreams knowing it may be their last.
Morning came before sleep found Arion again.
“Arion? Garron?” Valaria called out. “Are you there?”
He heard her rattling the cell door and she sounded close.
“I’m here, Valaria,” he assured her.
“Where are we? What happened?”
“The imps. Ryze’s little minions that he still commands from the grave is what happened. They brought us here during the night to await trial tomorrow.”
“There has to be a way out of here.”
“No, I don’t think there is,” he said trying not to alarm her, but wanting to be honest.
Garron awoke in the middle of their conversation.
“They are going to kill us, aren’t they?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s the plan,” Arion said. “And get this. Apparently, I speak imp. I don’t think they were ready for that.”
“Wow, that’s cool,” Garron said.
Arion laughed, because in that moment, what else could he do.
The imps returned to take them away. There were a lot more than the dozen that had visited Arion in the night.
“We take no pride in this,” said the one that had stepped up to talk to him previously.
“They why do it?” Arion asked.
The imp scrunched up his little rat nose and shook his head. “Evil will descent on us all if we do not.”
They were each led to a different section of a large room where hundreds of imps congregated. One moved to stand at a podium up front as a dozen or so were assigned to each of the three friends.
“You have been found guilty of trespassing on the dark sorcerer’s land and for that you will stand trial and pay the ultimate penalty.”
“What are they saying?” Valaria yelled out across the room.
“We’re being put on trial for trespassing and must pay some ultimate penalty,” Arion said.
Chattered broke out all around them as the remaining imps discovered Arion’s ability to understand them.
“What’s going on, Arion?” Garron asked.
