The fear she should’ve had before now filled her tenfold. Its wormy, slimy, and twitching chill spiked every fiber of her being.
The monsters in the mist were nothing compared to the monsters she lived among. They were brutal with their paranoia, and fast acting when it came to the unknown. She hid from her own kind more than she ever tried to hide from the shadow of the wall. What good was a fiend that couldn’t reach you over those that could?
“If you do not want to be caught, female, then I suggest you run,” the creature at her back warned, a threatening whisper in the dark. Fear kept her rooted in place.
The patrol drew closer, a hulking figure winding through the trees.I’ve made a mistake.Aldora blinked back tears.
“Run!” the monster hissed.
She surged forward—bolting without thought—her limbs flailing and catching on shrubs. Her entire body created an explosion of noise that served as a beacon for those searching for her.
“Stop right there!” the guard bellowed.
Getting her bearings, she shot through the treeline and onto the path, her feet springing as if she ran across fire. The thudding and pounding of heavy footfalls trailed behind her. He was gaining. And the threats that tore from her pursuer’s throat grew closer by the second. The clink of his chain mail was directly behind her.
Her heart raced. She couldn’t let him catch her. She dove off the path and back into the trees, this time on the opposite side of the labyrinth and toward Ledger.
I can’t go back there!She immediately changed direction.I can’t damn them.The thought of her family suffering because of her actions terrified her more than being caught. Leaves slapped her face and sticks abraded her skin. The guard continued to bellow, closing in.
“You’re under arrest! Once I get my hands on you... Thetras and Savadon will have you!”
A hand came down hard on her shoulder and Aldora swiveled and lowered under its weight. She dodged to the right and ducked her head, keeping one foot in front of the other, but fingers caught in her hair, ripping a lock out. Staggered, she cried out and twisted from the man’s grasp, dropping her weapon. She tripped and fell, her knees slamming into the ground as her hand came up to clutch her scalp.
Pain strummed across her scalp.
The man growled as he slammed into her, pressing her into the dead and slimy leaves. Air expelled forcibly from her lungs from his weight. It stunned her briefly but not long enough to give him complete advantage of her. She pushed at the ground and tried to squirm away. He grabbed her braids and snapped her head back.
“It’s over you fucking cunt!”
“No!” she shrieked, reaching for her dagger. Her vision swam with stars.
The guard lifted up and forced his knee into her back, his weight locking her in place. “Yes, miscreant whore. I knew something wasn’t right about you when you denied my escort. And to find you at the wall...talking.” He spat on the back of her head.
Tears flooded her eyes. Aldora tilted her face, trying to get a look at the shadowy figure above her. Silvery threads of moonlight filtered through the leaves as she heaved, searching. “Laslite,” she gasped. She couldn’t see his face but the excess fabric of his uniform piling over the tops of his boots had their color.
He grabbed her hand that had been moving over toward her dagger and wrenched it behind her. She shrieked when another wave of shooting pain burst through her arm. The Laslite gripped the other next and tied them with cord.
“Savadon has no need or use for briar witches,” he snarled and jerked the rope binding her wrists, uncaring of strength upon her. She was forced to her feet, screaming. Her arms were stretched behind her and her vision darkened.
“I’m not a witch—” she stammered as quickly as possible.
“Who were you talking to then? A lover? I see no one else. A ghost? That wouldn’t help your case.” He spun her around to face him, clutching her neck. “Yourself? It matters not. The kingdom can’t have its first line of defense playing at treason, even a lowly freeman. If you represent a hole in the kingdom’s defenses it is my duty to fill that hole with your corpse.”
“I’m innocent! I heard children playing...”
The Laslite’s grip on her neck tightened. He stared down at her with contempt as she fought his hold. The rope broke through the skin of her wrists. Air was just out of reach and his hand only tightened further.
“Plea...se...” Aldora wheezed. “I can’t...”
The patroller released her and she collapsed, hacking up bile and coughing violently. Her muscles seized.
“I don’t believe you, you cunt.” He pushed her over with his boot. “But you’re a pretty one. A girl who moves that much while being strangled must fight like a wildcat being fucked.”
Apprehension knocked the breath right back out of her as his threat filled her head with terrible ideas.
I have to get away. Coughing, she searched for an escape.
The Laslite continued with disdain, “Unfortunately, I can’t pass judgment on you alone.” The anger in his voice was thick. “Not within Thetras’s domain. But those who can are still awake.” He crouched and Aldora slowly looked his way. She didn’t want to meet his eyes but forced herself to do so, even if she was met with nothing but cruelty.
