Page 46 of Feast

He decided to remove Ika’s leash, in the hopes that would win some trust from her.

It seemed safe enough, after all. He and his pack brothers would hear her if she tried to slip away in the dark.

CHAPTER 15

Ika did not fall asleep.

Her muscles were weary, and her mind felt sluggish and blunted by the events of the long day—the nith, the punishment at Thusar’s hands, his long interrogation, and then all the shameful things that had followed.

Once or twice, the darkness nearly claimed her, but through sheer force of will, Ika kept her mind awake and alert.

I was an hour before dawn when she finally made her move.

The ukkur were snoring loudly. Their massive bodies hemmed her in on all sides, exuding intense heat which remained trapped beneath the heavy blanket of stur’ux fur that Thusar had spread over top of them. The air was thick with their musky scent. Their naked bodies pressed against her from all sides, and their hard members prodded her from every angle.

That warmth and that sense of protection nearly seduced her too-tired brain to sleep. It required a supreme effort to move.

Taking great care not to rouse the sleeping ukkur, Ika crawled out from beneath the covering and shivered as the chill air of the cave hit her naked body. The fire had died down to embers in the night, and the interior of the cave was dark and cold.

Under normal circumstances, Ika would never have been able to slip away from the ukkur like that. Her movement would have caused them to wake up.

But Ika had taken measures to make sure they did not.

Just before nightfall, Gunnar had taken her outside to relieve herself in the snow. She had been shamefully leashed, like some kind of untamed animal, to ensure that she could not run away. But Ika had not intended to do so anyway. She knew that the ukkur would catch her before she could escape.

Instead, Ika had had a different plan. It had required a great deal of luck, but the gods had favored her, and she had found what she was looking for. Oneirix. A hearty lichen that clung to the bark of trees and survived even through the chill of winter. Rolf had taught her how to identify the stuff by its pale green color.

She had squatted by a tree that carried a large amount of oneirix, and she had surreptitiously gathered a handful while she was making water. Gunnar had not seen.

Ika had wanted the oneirix because it contained a potent narcotic. When crushed into a powder and inhaled, even a small quantity would induce deep sleep and vivid dreams. Rolf had sometimes used it as medicine when Ika had been sick and needed extra rest.

Now, Ika had used it on these ukkur for another purpose.

After they had dozed off, she had sprinkled a sizeable amount under each one’s nose. Enough to keep them unconscious well past sunup.

It would give Ika the chance she needed to escape.

But many obstacles still lay between her and Rolf’s den.

She needed to prepare.

Even though the fire had died down, there was just enough light for Ika to accomplish what she needed to do. She tiptoed across the stone floor to the place where the ukkur’s gear was stored, and she quietly set to work gathering the things she would need.

The first thing was clothing. It was even colder outside the confines of this cave, and Ika would surely freeze to death if she tried to make the trek naked as she was.

Thusar had recovered Ika’s ring necklace from the nith vehicle, but her other clothing had been left behind. That meant she would have to steal some of the ukkur’s.

A couple of fur cloaks would do.

The cloaks were far too big, and they swamped her small frame, but they were warm and would shield her from the cold. For the time being, Ika was more concerned with function than with looks.

For makeshift boots, Ika found a few smaller strips of fur which she wrapped around her feet and bound with long pieces of rawhide cordage.

Good enough.

There was just one last detail.

Ika needed to arm herself, just in case she encountered any danger on her journey back to her home. There were predators stalking those snowy woods, after all.