Page 27 of Feast

It was the silent ukkur, the one with the close-cropped hair and heavy brow. He grunted at her like a beast.

“Good catch, Slaine,” the bearded one said. Then to the leader, “Should have known it would try to make a run for it.”

The leader grunted and gestured to the younger one.

“Muk, stand over there and block the entrance in case the creature tries to bolt again.

“Aye, Thusar!”

The young one leapt at his leader’s command, and took a wide stance at the entrance of the cave, blocking Ika’s path should she try to sprint out into the snowy woods again.

The leader spoke again, this time to the bearded one, “Gunnar, can you remove those shackles?”

Ika had their names now, at least. Thusar was the leader. Gunnar was the bearded one who had touched her inside. Muk was young and eager.

And Slaine. Slaine was the one that scared her the most.

Gunnar set Ika on her knees again and moved around behind her. She felt his fingers moving about her hands and wrists, which were still bound together at the small of her back.

“Yeah, I can get these,” Gunnar said. “No sweat.”

He went to one of the packs stowed along the side of the cave and rummaged for a minute before returning with a jangling ring of strange metal sticks that Ika did not recognize. Surely those tools had not been crafted by hand. They looked like the kind of things the nith would make.

Stolen nith artifacts. So, these ukkur had fought and killed nith before.

Ika shuddered to think what they might do to her.

Behind her, there was a jostling of her bindings and a clicking of metal on metal as Gunnar did something with those weird little sticks. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, there was a loud SNAK, and the shackles released like claws opening and fell away.

Ika brought her hands around in front of her and rubbed at her tender wrists.

She had more mobility now. She could fight if she had to. But for now she held back. To go on the offensive against these savage ukkur would be foolhardy even for her.

The young one, Muk, was still guarding the door, and the other three now had her hemmed in.

She could hear their rough breath, could feel the intense heat emanating from their half-naked bodies.

The leader stooped in front of her and held up a stone knife.

Ika cringed away, but Gunnar and Slaine caught her by the arms, holding her in place.

“I don’t know if you can understand,” Thusar the leader said. “I’m going to remove your mask now. If you bite, I will hurt you. If you scream, I will silence you. If you understand, nod your head.”

Ika kept still.

She had almost given herself away, but she was smarter than that. She could outwit these stupid ukkur brutes.

The leader was bluffing. He had threatened to hurt her, but that threat only made sense if he recognized her as a sentient being. So Ika would play dumb. She would act like an animal. She would not let on how clever she really was.

“It doesn’t understand you,” Gunnar said to his leader.

Thusar grunted. His blue eyes drilled into Ika’s, searching for any trace of deception.

“You’re right,” Thusar said at last. “Nevertheless, I want to get this mask off. Hold the creature steady and be prepared for biting.”

“Just be careful,” Gunnar warned.

Silent Slaine merely growled, at Thusar or at herself, Ika could not tell.