The boy softens. "Once we moved with Mother from Greyhawk to Oakhurst, Mother was always sick. Aunt Kerowyn, as we called her then, claimed it was a wasting disease born of sadness after Father passed on. Back in those days, Aunt Kerowyn took pity on us and provided house and security. Mother was not well enough to be of use, but Sharwyn and I could run simple errands for Her Ladyship. At Auntie's request, Sharwyn would stay up late, lingering long into the twilight hours, reading to and studying with Her Ladyship.
Years passed like this, then one day Auntie took Sharwyn to the house's lower basement and kept her there for many long months. Gretchen brought food and drink, I think, but I was not permitted to visit with Sharwyn. Aunt Kerowyn had become harsh the two years prior, snapping at us for the slightest wrongdoing. I feared to query her, and when she whispered to me with a tart laugh that Sharwyn was ill and contagious and that she was kept cloistered for her own safety and for the safety of the family, I ceased inquiring. When in the spring Sharwyn came out from the basement, she was altered. She was thinner, for a start, and had dark circles under her eyes as if she had not seen sleep. Where once she had been gay-hearted, she was morose and prefered her books to our former walks in the wood.
A suspicion rose in my throat that was confirmed at summer's start when he appeared and took away a small crying bundle in his arms. Belak, Her Ladyship called him, and said that the whelp was his to claim and that the Oath was now satisfied in full. Sharwyn wept that night and when I crept to her room to soothe her, she at last told me her tale of woe in full: the brutal nature of her first encounter with Belak, the nine months of being trapped below the house, and the ripping of her womb as the child was birthed. I paled to think of Her Ladyship's part in these events, which soon gave way to rage. Confronting Her Ladyship in the grayest hours of the morning, Mistress Hucrele laughed at me, her voice full of scorn and derision. 'But whelps yourselves,' she claimed. 'Unwanted, a burden to your House!' No longer content to tarry in Hucrele Manor and fearing Her Ladyship, Sharwyn and I stole away when the moon set the next night.
We were intercepted south of Oakhurst and drug to this...pit...of hell by goblins with a hobgoblin at their head. Belak came for Sharwyn soon enough; though I have been kept as a plaything for the hobgoblins lairing here to whip at their leisure, I still have ears and have heard some of my sister's fate. She is here in this place, though below, and Belak keeps her as his pet and bride.
My aunt does not know this, but a year ago while sweeping and stocking at the feed store, a messenger came from the Free City bearing a writ from an Uncle I didn't know we had; there is a dowry for Sharwyn--not that she will now be able to ever claim it--and a stipend for me. It is from this that I propose to pay you, if you will but help to recover my sister and free us from this accursed place. I cannot imagine the whys of Her Ladyship's design to bring us back to Hucrele Manor, but now at least you know my story and can guess my reason to fear a return to Oakhurst; nay--I will not go, not back to her."
The youth dabs at his one unswollen eye, wiping away wetness. "You have healed me and spoken not ungently; better fare than I have received in my cell at the hands of the vile creatures inhabiting this dungeon. If you will not aid me in recovering my sister, then, I beg you, at least do not tell Her Ladyship that you have found us alive. If she hears that we yet live, she will hunt us down to some evil purpose, of that I am certain. I want what any man wants--freedom to live as well as he may chose with a heart free of worries, and a place in this world of his own. I am Talgren Feist. My sister is Sharwyn Feist. You are well-met folk. Please, forgive me my unkindness; these have been dark days."
