Soldiers surrounded him with their sword points near his neck. But Eragon's mind didn't care. He had sent Saphira to safety. It was enough. Whatever happens hereafter, he was ready to accept. Eragon rested thus for sometime on the ground looking at the night sky thinking of his various conversations with Arya under such skies. Then Murtagh's face entered his field of view. He looked confused and angry. "What did you do, Eragon?", he asked hardly. Something in Murtagh's voice made Eragon laugh. He laughed and he laughed. Almost hysterically. It earned him a punch on the face by Murtagh. But his laughing continued. "Take him in.", Murtagh shouted.
Two soldiers fell with cries of pain and both Murtagh and Eragon grabbed their respective swords at the same time: Eragon seemingly becoming aware of the surroundings again. Blodhgarm stood there alone armed with a elven sword. Eragon rolled over with all his elven speed and stood side-by-side with Blodhgarm. Murtagh sneered at them. "Charge", he ordered his soldiers. Four of them ran towards Eragon and Blodhgarm. Others were watching cautiously as the soldiers drew near. An eye-blink later, the four lay heads cut off before the waiting elf and rider. "Capture Eragon alive, you fools.", called Murtagh and this time all the remaining 30-odd soldiers ran towards Eragon and Blodhgarm. Both of them turned around and ran into the night trees. "What are you playing at, Eragon? What did you do with Saphira and how do you plan to escape me?", Murtagh's mad shouting reached Eragon's ears.
Murtagh set fire to trees around him with the word, "Brisingr" and the light that arose from the trees exposed Eragon and the soldiers started to converge upon him. Eragon extended his already tired mind towards the soldiers and occupied the easily accessible minds of five soldiers and quickly sucked out all the life-energy in them. New vigor running through his veins from the energy got from the soldiers, Eragon dashed forward towards three soldiers and slew them with a swipe of his sword. Blodhgarm though was too tired and managed to kill just one soldier, before five of them fell on him. He fended them off desperately.
Eragon shouted "Garjzla, letta". The same spell he had used with success on the LethrBlaka. It served its purpose-taking away the eye sight of the soldiers surrounding Blodhgarm-and Blodhgarm made quick work of the desperate fear-filled and blinded soldiers. Murtagh was getting restless as seen from the bulging veins on his neck. But he didn't move to attack Eragon or Blodhgarm. He was busy healing Thorn's half-torn wings.
Twenty soldiers surrounded Eragon and Blodhgarm in a circle. Eragon tried his hand at attacking the minds of soldiers. Blodhgarm was too tired to do so. His attempts were rewarded with four dead soldiers. The remaining soldiers paled at the sight of the death of their comrades seemingly because of Eragon's look and hesitated in attacking. This resulted in the remaining soldiers attacking out of sync of each other. This provided an easy opening for Eragon and Blodhgarm with their sharp and fast reflexes. Ten soldiers were thus killed easily and that left just six more soldiers. 'Six soldiers and the real enemy' - Eragon's mind said to him.
Eragon felt more than he saw Murtagh turn towards them as the six soldiers started converging on them. Eragon dodged a swipe aimed at his neck and turned around with a sweeping motion to cut through the armours of two soldiers. By then, one soldier was trying to put his sword through Eragon's heart. He brought Brisingr around in a spectacular half arc from his side and placed the flat side of Brisingr unerringly in the path of the sword. The stopping force jarred the soldier's hands as he had been putting in his all in the attack and the soldier's sword slipped out of his grasp. Eragon twisted Brisingr in his hands in a smooth motion and brought it down on the shoulder of the soldier killing him. Meanwhile one soldier sneaked his way around Eragon and tried to slash at his ribs from behind. Eragon seeing the soldier and realising that he had no time to react shouted, "blöthr" and the soldier stopped in mid-hit. A sword penetrated from his back in a seconds time and Eragon quickly surveyed his surroundings to make sure that every soldier was taken care of. Blodhgarm was badly injured and tired though. And Murtagh was looking at him with a permanent sneer sticking on his face.
"What did you do to Saphira, Eragon?", Murtagh asked. Eragon looked him in the eye and said, "Why do you want to know, Murtagh?" Murtagh cursed loudly and ran towards Eragon with Zar'roc held aloft over his head. Thorn flew towards Eragon too. But Blodhgarm didn't waste any time in pitching himself against the dragon. Eragon sore from his just concluded fight, was still faster than Murtagh and dashed at him with incredible force. Crossing swords of equal calibre, Zar'roc and Brisingr, Murtagh and Eragon attacked each other ferociously. Murtagh's speed however increased by magic couldn't match Eragon's natural speed. He often ended up fending Eragon's ferocious blows. Technically though, Murtagh was equal to Eragon and so the initial surge of energy Eragon felt abated after a series of complex attacks in which he had succeeded in just nipping at Murtagh's ribs.
Gradually, Murtagh's speed started to match Eragon's because of the fatigue Eragon felt and he too was on the offensive as much as Eragon now. They pushed each other to their limits, but both weren't anywhere near injuring the other.
Murtagh jumped high into the air to dodge from a ferocious swipe aimed by Eragon at his knees. Eragon, meanwhile adjusted fast from his missed swipe and in a graceful swing got to his toes attacking Murtagh again on the side, this time. There was a visible disturbance near them as Thorn succeeded in overcoming Blodhgarm at last injuring him gravely in the process. Blodhgarm lay on the ground unable to do anything more than watch the proceedings.
With Thorn's arrival in the fight, Eragon was forced to move back. Thorn and Murtagh pushed Eragon back rapidly. Eragon couldn't do much because of the bulk of Thorn's size and the fact that he now had to fight two people rather than one. Nevertheless, his confidence was not shaken. He turned back to see that Murtagh and Thorn were pushing him towards the base of the Utgard mountain. He knew he would be cornered if he were pushed against the mountain. His chances of escape were now bleak. He shouldn't even have considered the existence of escape in the first place. Even under such gloomy circumstances, he found that he was not all that concerned about being captured. He was satisfied and even happy to have ensured that Saphira was safe. He was determined though, to not go down without a fight.
Once Eragon was pushed against the base of Utgard, Murtagh tried to attack him mentally. But the determination in Eragon was strong that he not only held Murtagh out but also fought back by sending his own mental dagger towards Murtagh's defenses. They didn't stop fighting with swords even while indulging in the mental battle. Thorn chose to be silent and started watching the proceedings. Murtagh said in mid blow, "What are you fighting for Eragon? Do you still believe you can escape us?" "Why? If I kill you now I could very well escape.", Eragon replied casually. Murtagh looked amused. "You never stop trying." "And you never try anything", Eragon replied harshly. "You don't know how much I have been through, brother. If you were subjected to all that I was..", Murtagh started hotly. "Don't. Underestimate. Me.", Eragon shouted. "Then you underestimate Galbatorix. He is too powerful.", Murtagh wanted Eragon to understand. "I will never be subjugated by that monster.", Eragon said. "We will see that once he is finished with you.", Murtagh sounded unimpressed.
Eragon found new force into his attack after that brief conversation with Murtagh. The emotions that coursed through him at the thought of Galbatorix-hate and anger-fuelled his attack. His hands were sore. But his mind was refreshed. He ignored the pain that arose from his limbs and increased his attack speed. Murtagh who wasn't expecting such a ferocious attack from Eragon at such a late time in their fighting, faltered. Eragon using the opening cut open a thigh of Murtagh and tried to plunge Brisingr through his heart. Thorn was fast to react though: Eragon was pushed down by the huge talons of Thorn. Eragon excited in the heat of the battle started searching for the impossible: a way out of the dragon's grasp. Murtagh healed himself in the little time he had and with anger boiling in his eyes shouted, "Letta!!" tying down Eragon to the spot below Thorn.
Eragon using the fact that Murtagh had closed off his mind completely connected his mind with the burning trees around them and fuelling his spell from their large store of energy uttered, "Brakka du vanyalí sem huildar eka!" Murtagh as usual didn't try to stop Eragon from uttering the spell. Minutes passed. Both kept their spells active. "What did you do with Saphira, Eragon?", Murtagh persisted. Eragon just smirked at Murtagh. Murtagh sneered at him. "It will land us in trouble, Eragon", Murtagh seemed to plead. Eragon twitched because one of the trees fuelling him energy died. But didn't react to Murtagh.
A quarter of an hour passed and Eragon felt the death of three trees fuelling him energy. There weren't anymore burnt trees around to take energy from and he was already sick of killing trees for his personal benefit. But he knew how important it was to escape from such a situation and so searched for the mind of the lone tree remaining within his range and connected with it. Murtagh was increasingly looking bemused and at times even flashes of fear crossed his face.
Another five minutes passed and Eragon felt the force holding him give way a little. But he also noticed that the last tree providing him strength was near death. He silently asked for the tree's forgiveness even though he knew that the tree wasn't intelligent enough to understand him. When the tree died, Eragon tried earnestly and tried to maintain the spell as much as he could sustain. But when fatigue overtook him, he released the spell. Just seconds after that Murtagh too released his magic and both of them flopped without any semblance of energy in them. Thorn had let his hold on Eragon and went near Murtagh. Eragon crawled himself toward Blodhgarm and gave him Aren and Brisingr and said to him in his mind, 'Deliver these to safety' Murtagh refreshed by energy from Thorn, walked over to Eragon; lifted him up and said, "You could have come with me without suffering this much." "I almost killed you.", Eragon replied with as much arrogance as he could muster in his weakened state. "Hmmm.... Don't fret, Eragon. You are now my prisoner.", Murtagh said authority written all over his voice. Eragon smiled to himself: No. Saphira was safe.
* * * * * * * *
"This elf isn't needed.", Murtagh said and raised his hand to use magic. "Don't", shouted Eragon. "Who are you to command me?", refuted Murtagh. "You call yourself a victim of fate. But you kill as ruthlessly as your master, Galbatorix. Whom are you trying to deceive by acting good, Murtagh?", Eragon ventured into Murtagh's core values. Murtagh glared at Eragon. But stopped using magic.
* * * * * * * *
As Blodhgarm watched helplessly, Murtagh went behind Eragon; kept his hands on Eragon's shoulders and said, "Slytha". Eragon fell asleep. Murtagh feeded some drug into Eragon's mouth and tied him to Thorn's saddle. Then he climbed into the saddle. He glared at Blodhgarm for a while and then Thorn took off. Blodhgarm lay there cursing his inability to help Eragon and silently admiring Eragon's mental strength that enabled him to save Saphira, fight Murtagh valiantly for well over an hour and save him, Blodhgarm from death. He was sure that Eragon will never be controlled by Galbatorix like Murtagh.
Author's Note:
I just wanted to show how strong Eragon was mentally in this chapter. His capture was all but confirmed when he sent Saphira away in the last chapter. Wasn't?
Hi, wonderfull chapter. I loved the sddition of the energy from the trees. It's nice to know Eragon will never give up.
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