Anything for You

Chapter 18

This chapter is rated: K+

Arya tried to clear her head as she crept down the dank meandering tunnel leading under the city. Her muscles were sore and tiered, and her mind was still dizzy and unclear.

"Come on now your highness we still have a way to go! Come we must hurry!"

Arya groggily followed Angela's instructions and tried to pick up her pace. She could here sounds from above every now and then, as the tunnel moved up and down.

"You know Arya, Your very lucky to be alive... your lucky that Roran found you in time! There you were... A strange shadow running through the woods... very lucky indeed..."

She ignored the witch as she continued to talk on about how lucky she was. Arya didn't believe in luck. Just close calls and death. As the tunnel meandered down, the sounds of battle faded away from the surface, and it became steadily hotter and darker. The humidity was became uncomfortable after a while, but Arya didn't mind. She could stay awake when she was uncomfortable.

"Arya..." Angela said after some time. "Are your thoughts clearing up now? Can you remember how you got out here?"

Arya felt hesitation in the witches voice as she spoke. Something is amiss here... She thought. Something is being held back.

"I can't remember everything... right now... But you must tell me... Where am I?" She said cautiously.

"You see Dröttningu... We had to hold some things back from you... for your own safety you see I'm sure you will understand..." Angela trailed off uncertainly, and it was all very unusual for the normally very confident witch.

"What are you trying to say Angela." Arya said in a deadly serious tone, "What have you done."

Angela stopped for a moment and allowed Arya to catch up with her. She looked confused and worried, but also very frightened for some reason. She hesitated for a second, but then began.

"You see, we found you out in the woods one day... or rather I should say Roran, Eragons brother, found you. You were out on a mission to stop a supply train in the inner empire-'

"But then why don't I remember any of this?" Arya said in a deadly tone.

"That's just the thing... We had to take your memories... For your own safety you see..."

Arya was angry now. No one went into her mind without her permission. It was her only fortress of solitude. The one place she new that would always be hers and hers only. And now Angela just came along and violated her privacy, her most sacred possession, for her protection?

Well I'm going to find out... she thought menacingly.

"So... Angela" she said in a deadly cold voice, "You took away my memories for my protection? I am well enough off without people looking through my thoughts!"

"We did it for your protection!" Angela said in a surprisingly grief filled voice, "You will find out soon enough."

"What happened?" Arya said in a much softer tone, "You must tell me what happened. I must know!"

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Eragon woke up bound and gagged. He was lying on warm red sand, and he could hear soft voices speaking somewhere behind him. The moon lighted up the land scape, and he could see that he was at the bottom of what appeared to be a sand dune. Recognition hit him hard. He knew where he was. The Hadarac Desert.

Be could see his own shadow in front of him, flickering in the light of a fire somewhere behind him. He struggled against the bonds on his arms without trying to draw attention to himself. But to no avail, he was spotted.

The soft voices stopped speaking, and Thorn stretched his neck over him, his huge blood red eyes staring into his own. As Thorn examined him, Eragon could hear footsteps coming down the sand dune towards his position. He squirmed harder desperately trying to break free of his bonds before half brother could get to him.

Calm yourself rider. We mean you know harm. A deep voice boomed into his mind, cooperate with us and all will be well.

I will never cooperate with you empire scum! I have no wish to become a puppet of The King!

Thorn roared with anger and blasted fire onto the sand next to him until it turned into glass.

Calm yourself Thorn... A new voice said, We must forgive him for what he says, for he does not know of what he speaks.

The new voice was musical in his mind, and sounded like it belonged to a female. But it was not cool and smooth like that of Arya, but more fiery and less thoughtful.

He could feel his gag being removed, and his arms and legs being untied from behind him.

You must promise me that you will not run Eragon. The voice said in the ancient language, We mean you no harm and only wish to speak to you. Then you will be free to go if you wish. But in turn you must swear not to harm us for the duration of this meeting. Do you agree?

Eragon thought it over. She had spoken in the ancient language, and he could find no loopholes which they could use to go back on their word.

Very well, I will stay. He replied also in the ancient language, But I will warn you. If you try to hand me over to someone who has not taken such oaths, I will flee here, and not return to hear what you have to say.

Very well, Shur'tugal, we will do no such thing.

Eragon felt his bonds release, and he shakily got to his feet and turned around to meet the owner of the voice. It was Minevra. She stared down at him with her red eyes, emotions hidden the way only an elf could. Thorn stood behind her, and hummed in a neutral way before lumbering back up to the top of the sand dune. Minerva followed in suit without a word.

Eragon followed her to the top of the dune were there was a campsite set up around a blazing fire. Next to the fire sat his half brother, Murtagh.

Murtagh motioned for him to sit down, so he did, and much to his surprise, Minevra sat down next to Murtagh.

"Well, Eragon, I see you've met Thorn and Minevra. I hope that you agreed to our terms?"

"Of course I did... Why else would I be sitting here?" Eragon asked trying his best not to think of his anger for Murtagh.

"Well, you did agree..." Murtagh said. "In that case, I can be more blunt with you brother. You see, as of four days ago we were freed from the king. It was not through our doing though. We tried to change our own true names, but it was of no avail."

Then how did you escape?" Eragon asked suspiciously, "How do I know your just not tricking me?"

"Very well then, I will tell the rest of the story in the ancient language then. Will that satisfy you?"

"Aye."

Murtagh nodded to him and began his tale.

"It began when the king received news that his last remaining dragon egg had been stolen. The king was furious of course, but the real problem began when he sensed that the egg had hatched. Something broke in him Eragon. He realized that has now outnumbered in every way. The Varden had more riders, and with he help of the elves and dwarfs he was also outnumbered in men. He began acting differently. He spent more and more time alone, and spoke to no one but Shuriken. His mentality began to become unstable, and he killed anyone who tried to approach him. He changed so much that his true name changed.

He had bound us so that our true names were bound to him. We were, in a literal sense, part of him. And It was through this connection that he gained the ability to posses us at any given moment, regardless of what mental barriers we had. But when his name changed we were freed. He had defenses against our names changing, but not against his name changing. They called him a mad king before, but now he is truly mad.

However, I believe that this is only momentary, and once he regains his edge, he will be sharper and deadlier than ever before. We had no idea when that time would come, so we decided to flee the city, and hope for the best."

Eragon pondered Murtagh's story for a while, until he was satisfied that he was telling the truth.

"But then how did I get out here? Why did you break me out of that prison if you were just going to take me as your own prisoner?"

"I have no intention of keeping you prisoner Eragon! What don't you understand? I'm trying to resist the king! When I found out that they had captured you, I came to save you. I can't help the Varden like you can! I'm a burning fuse! It's only a matter of time before I become a puppet of Galbatorix again! As soon as the kind changes back, we will be in his possession again. It was the least I could do for the people to free you!"

"But if you know your going to change back why are you running? It is inevitable in the end isn't it?" Eragon asked.

"There are two reasons. The first is that I do not know how far the kings influence is. Minevra used to be able to find the minds of people as far away as Surda from the capital! If I can get out of the range of the kinds mind he many not be able to control me anymore. Also, I have been trying to change my true name in other ways..." Murtagh said while his ears turned red, "You see Minerva here is my wife... I met her in Uru'Baen, and decided to bring her along on my journey."

"I'm your mate for now..." Minerva said laughing at his embarrassment, "You never know, I might find another handsome rider out there..."

Even Eragon had to smile. He surprisingly felt good that Murtagh was taking his advice, and that he was not alone.

"If my name does change, I will be more than happy to help you in your fight. But it is very unlikely. There are still spells on me that try to keep me from changing. So in the event that I do become property of the king once more, I want you to know that I am truly sorry for the deaths of Hrothgar, Oromis, and Glaedr. I know that I will have to repay my debt with the elves, dwarfs, and dragons for my acts." Murtagh said in a sad voice, "Especially Oromis, and Glaedr."

"I had no intention of killing them. But it was not in my power to stop it. I wasn't even aware of what I had done until I came out of the trance. But I would like you to have this." Murtagh stood up and picked up a saddle bag pulling out his late masters blade. Naegling.

Eragon did his best to hold back the tears that formed in his eyes as he took the blade from Murtaghs hand. This was the blade that was suppose to help his master in his times of need. But when he needed it, it wasn't there. He felt sad holding something so precious to him, so he set it down in the sand behind him out of sight.

"Also, I got your other weapons back..." Murtagh said putting Brisingr and his bow and arrows beside him.

"But my biggest question to you is... do you forgive me for what I did?"

Murtaghs question had caught him off guard. Could he forgive Murtagh? He had sworn to avenge Hrothgar's death, and he still had a burning hater towards him for the death of his masters. But could he forgive him? Thinking on the matter, Eragon recalled the once wisely spoken words of his master during the first weeks of his training.

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They were sitting outside cross legged meditating with their eyes closed listing to the sound of the running water of the creek.

"Eragon?" His master had said, "I know that you struggle with the ideals of killing people, but if you were to kill a man in cold blood, would you feel guilt later on?"

"Yes, I would."

"But if you killed a man because it was your duty to do so, would you still feel guilt?"

Eragon thought about it for sometime, recalling the people he had killed during his time as a dragon rider.

"I would still feel guilt no matter what. No matter if it was in my own defense, or out of cold blood, I would always feel guilt..."

"But when Saphira kills people she feels no guilt." Oromis whispered over the breeze, "Why do you think that is?"

"Because she is a dragon I suppose... she always kills thing... that's her nature."

Oromis said nothing for a while, and he wondered if he had said something wrong.

"Weather you realize it or not, everyone feels guilt sometime in there life. And guilt is not a bad thing. In fact it is quite the contrary, if it was not for guilt, there would be no forgiveness. Tell me what you think forgiveness means Eragon."

Eragon cleared his mind and thought for some time.

"Forgiveness is when we take pity on someone. When we decide not to punish them, and not to spread hatred. And forgiveness eases guilt."

"That is partially right. Guilt is our minds way of making peace with ourselves and the world. And to cure it we must except what we have done, or seek forgiveness. Guilt and forgiving together create peace. And in order to win this war, you don't need to kill all of the enemy, or destroy all of their cites. You need to forgive them, and they need to forgive you. Do you understand?"

"Aye."

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"I forgive you Murtagh." Eragon muttered from his dreams, "I forgive you..."

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AN: OH SNAP! 3,000 WORD LONG CHAPTER WHAT NOW!

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AN: OH SNAP! 3,000 WORD LONG CHAPTER WHAT NOW! (here you go riptide) Sorry I haven't updated in a while! My parents lost their jobs, (that's why they were traveling all over the place, trying to find jobs in the foreign stock exchanges) and it's been really crazy for me. Also, turns out taking college level classes in 10th grade isn't a good idea! (well no way...) But anyway, I got some announcements. When the fourth book comes out I will be overhauling all of my stories. That basically means that I'm going to take all the stories where I called Arya's green dragon Eridor (If Arya has a green dragon) and change it to what it's name is in book four. That way, people an enjoy my inheritance cycle story even after book four! (and make sense of it)

So as you can tell, that will take a LONG time considering that I will have to read book four first, and then convert 4 stories to the new information. So anyway, I will try to keep all four of three of my active stories running, but honestly, I have very little time now. I got a girlfriend, took WAY to many AP classes (I took two AP classes and all honors everything else), and jointed 2 new clubs at school. So as you can see I'm very busy, and I have very little time to work on these stories. But at least I'm still continuing them right!

Also, I realize after book four comes out, all of the 'my prediction of what will happen in book four' (including this one) stories will be busted. I still have intentions of continuing this story, but if no one reads it I might just put it on hiatus, finish my other stories, and then finish this one later. But anyway, IF YOUR STILL GOING TO READ THIS AFTER BOOK FOUR, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, LET ME KNOW!

Also, very big shout out to PRINCESS ARYA! who is of course my new beta, Who edited this chapter.

Also, if you like romantic comedy kind of stuff, and the Percy Jackson Series, I released a new one shot story over there too! So go over to my profile and read it!

But anyway, thanks for being patient with me, and please review!