Chapter 6: Your blood

“You still refuse to tell us where you have been on the surface?” The Matron said with a sinister voice, her red eyes focused on the chained man. At the corners of the room, some braziers were burning, a rare source of light in the Underdark. A part of the torture on the male Drow. For not many were able to withstand real light in their sensitive eyes.

Elendar was stripped bare, except for a lousy old looking pants, his body was free of any clothing. Naked so that Priestess Irae’lin could release her whip on his skin. 

“No answer will leave my lips. I will die with my secret in me.”

Matron Sharadreza gave a soft snarl, showing her displeasure. She kept walking before the bound male, thinking about her next step.

“We will pull the answer from you, refusing is futile, Elendar. Sooner or later, we will know what you are hiding there and we will destroy it before you very eyes!”

Elendar didn’t react, keeping his eyes focused on the ground, seeing the shadows of the female Drow dancing before his eyes. 

“Maybe this will loosen your lips. Bring him in!”

The door was opened and Shinira, the second daughter of Matron Sharadreza entered, pushing a young boy before her. From the looks of it, he was around three year old, dressed in old clothing with several holes that already seemed to be sewed a few times. The boy looked like he was living on the streets and when Elendar looked up, he could also notice several scars, both old and fresh on the boy’s skin.

“Do you still recognize him, Elendar? This is your son, Breghen. Kept alive in torture, just as Lolth has demanded from us.”

The boy could only stare before him with an uninterested look in his eyes. There was no shine in his eyes, like he wasn’t even alive. Elendar could see the hardship the boy had to endure, being a toy to his older sisters.

“Put him down and bare his back!”

With a push, Shinira forced the boy on his knees and ripped open the shirt, revealing his back. Irae’lin chuckled, seeing her handy work on the child’s bare skin, that was littered with scars. She walked around the child, letting her nails caress the boy’s cheek. Breghen shivered, remembering the pain that his sister brought to him. But he was not allowed to show his fear, for it would only bring more pain.   

“Tell me what you were looking for on the surface, Elendar or your son will suffer before your eyes.”

The male Drow’s eyes shifted shortly to the Matron, then to the oldest daughter, who already stood grinning in anticipation for the pain she was gonna inflict. She held her snake whip demonstrative in her hands, ready to strike. But Elendar refused to speak and lowered his gaze back to the stone ground.

“So be it.” Sharadreza said in a cold tone, before giving a flick with her hand. Irea’lin’s whip flew through the air, the four snake heads hissing in anger. The boy flinched when the whip hit his bare back, drawing blood from the fresh wounds. He didn’t screamed at the first hit and tried his best to not make a sound at the second, but when the third whip hit his back he gasped for air and let out a scream.

The screams of the boy were filling Elendars ears and he tried his best to close himself from the scene before him. But a strong hand pulled his face up, forcing him to watch the torture brought to the boy.

“Don’t you dare to turn you face away Elendar. Look at your son, look at his face that screams out the pain … and remember that this is your doing! Your fault! Tell us what we need to know and it will stop!”

And while Elendar watched with tears in his eyes how Irea’lin’ was enjoying this with every hit she made, he refused to speak. He could not betray what he was doing on the surface. He could not tell her name. For if he did, he would only sign her death. He would not be able to save his son, who was already in the web of Sharadreza, but he could prevent that his love would fall into her hands. So that she did not have to suffer by the hands of his kin.

So he watched in silence, a tear rolling over his cheek from time to time, but he refused to open his mouth to speak. Eventually the boy collapsed, fainted and fell on the ground.

“Enough.” The Matron ordered and reluctantly, Irea’lin rolled up her whip. 

“Bring him back and make sure that a healer look at him. We don’t want him to die from those wounds.”

Elendar was releved to know that the torture of his son was over.The boy was carried away, nothing more then a limp puppet.

“We will return, Elendar. Day by day, until you can no longer contain the guilt. One day, you will break!”