“No!” she screamed. She fought whoever held her as she was swooped away by a pair of arms, kicking out and grasping for something—anything—within reach to fight her attacker. But her strength was nothing compared to a centaur and she was swiftly carried to the other side of the clearing.
“Your time has come Minotaur,” one of them shouted as they moved in to surround him.
“Vedikus!” she shrieked, seeing him rise up with his axes dripping with his blood. His flesh was torn from where several spears had grazed him. He glanced her way, rage filling his eyes and for a moment in time the mists surrounding him swirled across his body and illuminated his frame. He took a step toward her.
The centaurs closed in with sharp lances.
Panic laced her veins and her throat tightened, as a gut-wrenching wail rose from her chest. It was muffled when a palm covered her mouth.
“Calm, little human, calm,” a man hummed softly in her ear, holding her tightly against his unfamiliar body. She was held like a ragdoll, subdued with her feet swinging above the ground, higher up than any mere man could hold her. Realization struck her as bloodcurdling roars pierced her ears, that she was being trotted away. The ground moved swiftly beneath her dangling feet. “Calm, calm.”
Aldora tensed her fingers, reaching whatever flesh she could of her abductor to tear with little leeway.I need to get to the ground.
The yells raised and faded with each clash of metal, growing more distant each second. Tears pricked her eyes as she imagined the razor bone tips of the spears stabbing Vedikus’s body again and again. Her nails tore deep when she found velvet hide.
“Calm!” the centaur hissed, jostling her.
She didn’t care what he had to say and pressed the soles of her boots against his front legs and pushed off with all her might. Sweaty hands slid across her skin and she began to drop. They caught on her clothes before falling away completely, ripping the sleeve of her tunic.
She fell forward and landed hard on her knees, her arms slamming into the sodden ground a moment too late to catch her fall.
“Feral female,” the centaur sneered, rounding to her side, “we are here to save you, not hurt you!”
Aldora bit through the pain and grasped her dagger, rising up to face her new abductor, intent on killing him.I need to get back to Vedikus. His name rose up like a mantra in her head.Vedikus. It cleared the chaos in her mind.
The centaur trotted in a circle around her, just out of her reach. One of his hands pressed against his side where she’d scratched it. Her fingers slipped across the smooth handle of her weapon, half-hidden in the grasses. Her calves quivered within the dampening cloth of her pants, soaking up the bog water.
“Youarehurting me,” she rasped, eyes following the centaur as he continued to circle her. She moved with him to keep him in her sight.
“You did that to yourself. You have spent too long in the minotaur’s company.”
“It was not by choice. It is now.”
The centaur crept closer and she dropped back.Stay outside of his reach.If she had learned anything from her childhood, it was to stay outside the reach of an animal, farm or otherwise. One misplaced kick could drop you if not kill you.
“Is it? Little of us are given the freedom to choose, and those that do...” The centaur looked behind her to where the others had disappeared. “Some kill and ask questions later.”
Aldora’s lips flattened. It was what she’d planned to do.
“Some? No one has remained alive in his presence, nor mine since I was tossed into your world. I saw your kind several nights ago in the fray killing all who neared.”
“Yes, we were there, the leader of our herd, myself, and Telner.” The centaur’s voice lowered. “We fought to keep you alive.”
“And Vedikus,” she added, taking a short step away. “He kept me alive.”
His eyes narrowed. “The minotaur will pay for stealing you away.”
“Why didn’t you attack him like you had the rest? Why wait until now when you had the chance then?” Her eyes roved over the creature idly staring at her with interest. He was the first centaur she had seen clearly. The others had been a blur in the mist. His hair was long like a woman’s and woven into a myriad of braids over his shoulders and back; they sparkled when slivers of light made its way through the gloom and made a dullclinkwhen he tossed his head.
Nothing sparkled here, and the tiny glints looked so unlike the horrible, shrouded, monotony of colors that made up the rest of this world.
“Did you not see the creatures that had come to take you? Those who would rape and eat you?”
“I can’t see in the dark,” she snapped, still circling with him.
The noises in the distance suddenly stopped. Aldora clenched her dagger and strained to hear, hoping that Vedikus’s voice would call out to her. The centaur whistled and was met with another that approached, and in the distance, a quick pounding of hooves from a dozen horsemen running through the mud met her ears.
“You heard them then,” the centaur said smugly.
