The moment the others had left, Val started working on escaping the chair.
She cried out for help a few times, hoping that someone from the street would hear her and come help, but it was to no avail. Time passed and she continued to struggle against the fabric, making little progress. She started to panic and began thrashing, but only wore herself out in the process. She had to get herself loose soon or Carl would be done!
Much to her surprise, Carl groaned and starting lifting himself up off the floor.
"Oh my head," he said placing one hand on a nearby table to steady himself. With his other hand he reached up and touched the bloody wound on his temple. He pulled his fingers down and looked at the blood.
Val watched as the giant man rose. As he did so, the panic and frustration inside herself doubled and then doubled again. Carl had only been mildly injured all this time! The woman lied as to the extent of his injuries! There was no reason for her to stay!
"Blood?" He looked around confused. His eyes then focused on Val struggling in the chair. This snapped him out of whatever haze he was in.
"Val! What happened?" he asked as he moved to untie her. "Where are Claire and Mand?"
"Taken," Val said.
"Taken?" the large man roared. He started stomping towards the door. "Come on! We have to find them."
Val nodded dumbly and followed the large man into the street.
As soon as they got outside, Carl starting running. "The docks!" Carl shouted back to her. "They would've been taken to the docks! Meet me there!"
The man soon disappeared around a corner. Val stood in the center of the street, people looking on with some curiosity, wondering what would have caused the owner of The Right Rudder Inn to suddenly burst out the door and start running down the road at tremendous speed.
Val felt the eyes of the crowd on her. As much as she wanted to move, she couldn't.
Several emotions welled up inside her. She felt frustrated by the fact that she stayed behind for nothing. Carl would have been OK. If she had gone with them, she may have been in captivity with her sister, but at least they would have been together. Together they might have been able to hatch a plot to slip away from the kidnappers.
Now her sister was gone forever, she was sure of it. She wasn't even able to break free of a measly tablecloth - a loosely tied one at that. If she had broken her bonds earlier, she would have seen that Carl was OK and she might been able to catch up to the kidnappers and perform a rescue.
A rescue? This made her laugh. Her sister, with her more powerful abilities wasn't able to thwart the kidnapping attempt, what chance would she have?
The onlookers, seeing no movement from the young girl, shrugged and went on their way. Whatever drama that was happening, they wanted no part of it.
Val was like a rock in a stream, people flowing to her left and right, paying her no mind and continuing on with their day. She was like a rock in more ways then one, possessing no feeling aside from an empty numbness.
"Val?" the sound of a familiar voice brought her back to reality.
Val lifted her head, Terry looked down at her from the back of a horse. The man looked around, seeming somewhat perplexed by the state he had found her in.
"Val, are you OK? Where's your sister?"
The emotion that she had been trying desperately to hold back came rushing forth. She started crying.
"She's gone," Val wailed.
Suddenly, all eyes were on her once again. Onlookers started whispering to each other. Some shaking their heads at Terry, wondering what the man had said to make the girl cry. Val didn't care how she looked, or how Terry looked, all she wanted was her sister back.
She suddenly felt an arm around her shoulder. Terry had dismounted and was now next to her, guiding her towards his horse.
"I don't know what this is all about," he said as they approached the animal. "But I can't have you standing in the middle of the street bawling."
He lifted himself onto the saddle and reached down with a hand. "You don't have to tell me right now what's wrong, but if you come with me, I'll listen to your story and do whatever I can to help make it right."
Val took the man's hand and was lifted up to the back of the horse. She wrapped her arms around him and buried her tear-streaked face into his back. She didn't know if this was the right thing to do, but she was being shown kindness, and she needed to feel something that didn't make her hurt.
The horse started walking and they clomped along the streets. Terry said nothing as he guided the horse onward.
Val's mind was in overdrive. Did Carl catch up to the kidnappers? Did she make a mistake not following after him? Would he be waiting for her at the docks? What would happen if he returned and found her missing as well? Would he think she had been kidnapped? Was Terry actually a nice person? Was she now being kidnapped by him?
Question after question and scenario after scenario flooded her mind. She had no answers to any of these things. They just kept circulating through her head like an endless waterspout.
Terry brought the horse to a stop and dismounted. Val looked around and saw that they were in front of the Heads and Tails Inn. It was the place Terry had told them where he would be staying when he had dropped them off in town.
"Come on, let's get you cleaned up," said Terry, holding out a hand. "Then tell me what happened."