“If you wanted to fish, you could’ve just asked me,” Lerek said, hands on hips. Sonah cast him a mutinous look as she trudged out of the water.
“I suppose you think you can do better?”
“I know I can,” Lerek boasted, grabbing the spear from her hands. “You forget, I spent much of my childhood with Terena and Croak. Their father taught us how to fish.”
“Taught you to fish but didn’t teach you how to use a sword?”
Lerek gave her a sour look and held out his hand for the makeshift spear. He gestured for her to move behind him, and Sonah rolled her eyes. Watching him from a safe distance, she crossed her arms and frowned as she waited.
And waited.
He stood as still as one of the marble statues in the gardens at the White Palace. She admired the concentration it must take to be so focused, arm raised as he kept his eyes trained on the water.
As she watched, he hurled the spear, the end wobbling as it stuck in the stream bed. He strode toward it, dropping to his haunches as he yanked back on the spear and she cried out, pointing at the fish on the end of it.
With a hand clapped over her mouth, she stared at Lerek, who grinned back at her as if he’d captured the moon. Smothering a giggle, she gave him a mock bow.
“Very good, Your Highness. Tonight, we feast!”
“Well, we’ll need more than just the one,” Lerek said with a crooked grin. She grinned back.
“I’ll go start the fire, then.” Sonah turned with a spring in her step.
It was still darkout when Sonah woke. The fire had died down and the last of the embers had long since turned cold. The woods were quiet.
Unsure of what had caused her to rouse, Sonah shifted up to her elbow and looked around. A prickle of awareness made her skin rise like gooseflesh.
Then she heard it.
The soft snap of a twig behind her made Sonah scramble to her feet, her dagger out as she stood defensively. She kicked at Lerek’s shoulder and hissed at him to get up as her eyes darted around the darkness.
A shadow materialized into the shape of a man and Sonah’s eyes widened.
“Lerek! Get up! Get up, now!”
As soon as she’d yelled, the man rushed her. Sonah flung her dagger and was rewarded with the man’s yelp.
Turning, Sonah looked for another weapon when she heard a snarl behind her and turned in time to see a man grab Lerek. Two more ran toward her.
“Grab her, dammit!”
The man in front of her clutched at his arm, her dagger embedded in his shoulder. His face was hidden beneath a mask covering everything below his eyes, his clothes so dark shecouldn’t tell if he was a Spartan soldier or a brigand. Either way, she couldn’t let them take her.
As Lerek struggled against his captor, and the other two men circled closer to her, Sonah opened her mouth and screamed.
The man holding Lerek immediately released his hold and Lerek dropped like a stone. He covered his ears, his eyes wild as he looked up at Sonah.
The others were similarly incapacitated, and Sonah grabbed Lerek by his tunic and tried to haul him up.
Turning, Sonah crashed into the chest of one of their assailants. The man grabbed her by the tunic and slammed his forehead against hers.
Chapter 11
IBROS
Sonah blinked away the fog in her head. Heavy lids moved as if weighed down and she pushed past the pain in her head. Her fuzzy vision cleared and she saw two figures a few yards away, backlit by the soft fire flickering off to her right. She noticed a sustained note, loud and monotonous, in her ears. Her jaw ached, and her head throbbed. She blinked harder, trying to focus.
Something was in her mouth.
