Garinor spent the day with his hands and feet bound. He was terribly uncomfortable. Periodically, he was brought out as before and placed into the circle of men and women and the leaders again asked him to hand over the stone, but he refused every time. It would be a waiting game.
He was deprived of food at lunch but was given some bread and water for dinner. He was miserable, and he wanted to hand over the stone and be done with the whole ordeal. But he reminded himself that they were looking for him to do exactly that, so he remained resolute.
Garinor didn’t sleep well that night, for he was awoken every two hours and given a chance to turn over the stone. The two leaders appeared to be taking turns, for the first few visits had been with the leader of the white tents and the rest of the night had been with the leader of the brown tents. Time and again he refused the demand, partly wondering why they didn’t just take it from him on their own.
The next day turned into a very uncomfortable one. The morning sun was hidden behind a thick gray cloud of rain that showered the encampment all day long. The leaders saw this as a fortuitous sign and posted Garinor outside to receive the brunt of the storm.
He wished he could call out to be let into a tent, but the gag was held firmly in place and no amount of wriggling helped. His bonds were also checked periodically so he wouldn’t loosen them and escape. It was a dreadful day and when a few passersby trudged through the muddy path between the camps, no one could see Garinor, for he was kept off to the side and obscured from view.
Garinor spent the day without food except for a few bites at the end of the day. They apparently wanted to keep him alive, but his comfort was not particularly important to them.
He tried entertaining himself with thoughts of his friends and family, but the dreary day turned all his thoughts sour. He wondered if his friends had survived the hunter attack in the forest, but he argued that they were children facing fully trained professionals, and therefore they must have died. When he thought of his family, he realized the hunters would have traced back the initial guard’s location and they would have also dealt fatal blows to his family. And as he thought of these frightening possibilities, he remembered the glowing red haze of Arvion in the distance and he wondered, too, if Paligar had met the same fate.
A break in the rain came in the early afternoon and a quick meeting was assembled, where Garinor was challenged yet again. The two leaders sat facing him, their expressions stern. The woman turned to him and raised her eyebrow. “Your imprisonment can continue like this forever. Will you now hand over the bloodstone?”
But Garinor shook his head.
The man piped up next. “We can choose to let you die. It is only by our grace that you even live now. Give over the stone and be gone.”
Garinor refused, boring his eyes into the man’s.
They remained there silently for a while, staring at each other. At last the woman released an exasperated sigh. “If you won’t concede, then you’ll face a challenge to earn your freedom. Fail that and you lose both the bloodstone and your life. This is your last choice. Give up the bloodstone or face the challenge.”
Garinor stared at her for a long time and wondered what he should do. He didn’t doubt that the threat was more of a promise. They wanted the stone and so he felt he should keep it. But was it worth risking his life to do so?
Someone removed the gag from his mouth so he could answer, but Garinor needed to decide.