Beyond the Loch: A Seven Wardens Prequel by Skye MacKinnon & Laura Greenwood

Author:Skye MacKinnon & Laura Greenwood [MacKinnon, Skye & Greenwood, Laura]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 0000000000000
Published: 2021-10-30T10:39:43+00:00

Six

She lost count of the days. She was given food and water twice a day and once she was led to a shower room to clean herself. Besides that, she was left in the cell without any answers. On the second day, a guard gave her a simple dress that she gratefully put on, hiding her nakedness.

She learned that the old woman was called Mhairi, but besides telling stories of her grandchildren, the other prisoner wasn't giving up any information. She'd been in the cell for so long that she feared how a shift would feel. Maybe it would kill her.

"Nobody has ever tried to ransom me," she said as Nessie asked her for at least the tenth time. "And they haven't had any demands for me either. They just put me in this cell and left me like a discarded toy. But I've told you that before."

Yes, she had, but Nessie couldn't help but ask again and again. She still held a tiny spark of hope that there was a reason why the two of them were imprisoned at the bottom of the sea. It couldn't just be for the sea kelpies' amusement. They never even came to talk to them, so having prisoners for entertainment wasn't the answer.

Whenever the guards left, Nessie tried breaking open the lock. She'd searched the cell floor for a needle or a pin - not that she knew how to pick a lock - but there was nothing. Mhairi simply smiled patiently and watched as Nessie desperately searched for a way out.

While they were given enough food to sate them, Nessie was constantly hungry. Not for food, but for freedom. For social interaction. For stimulation of her senses. She'd never felt worse than how she was feeling now.

Footsteps in the distance made her look up from the sketch she'd drawn on the sandy floor. It was of a mountain; Ben Nevis. Two guards stopped in front of her cell, but instead of pushing two plates through the small opening at the bottom like they usually did, one of them pulled a key from his belt and opened the lock.

Immediately, Nessie was on her feet, hope beating in her chest.

"Hands," the other guard said and obediently, she held her arms out in front of her, waiting for them to attach the wrist cuffs. She felt as if she'd done something wrong, as if she was an evil person who deserved to be treated such, but then she remembered that she was just a young loch kelpie who'd gone in search of an adventure. She was innocent and she better hold on to that thought.

The guards led her out of the cell and up a flight of stairs. Nessie stumbled several times, weakness slowing her down more than the guards allowed.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked but there was no reply. Not that she'd thought that they'd tell her. It was just to fill the silence stretching out all around them.

After being pushed through several empty corridors, they finally entered a small room.

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