"It's here! I have it!" he screams.
The red haze surges. KILL!
The soldier lunges. But I am faster, moving inside the reach of his spear before he can set it. My fist connects like a stone hammer, collapsing his chest with a sickening, wet crunch. He lets out a wet, broken gasp, his eyes wide with shock. Before he can properly scream, my other hand is at his throat, squeezing.
Not to kill. To silence.
I slam his head against the trunk of a pine, the solid thud echoing flatly as he drops to the snow. It is silent, fast, and brutal.
I leave the body where it fell and run.
Behind me, I hear the elves find him, their shouts a mixture of confusion and anger. Good.
I push myself hard for a mile, charging uphill, the shooting pain in my leg a white-hot agony with every step.
And then, I stop.
I step sideways off the trail, planting my feet on a wide stretch of bare rock that the wind has swept clean of snow. Here, I leave no tracks. I leave no blood trail. I vanish.
I wait, perfectly still, and listen. The shouts of the elves grow more distant, their tones shifting to anger and confusion. They are lost.
I am not.
I turn and begin to move back toward the cabin. My strength is from the Urog, but this... this is new. For the first time, my mind feels like my own. I move with a silence that matches the snow falling from the pines.
When I return to the clearing, it is empty. Good. I move to the crevice, my heart pounding, only to find it empty as well.
No.
A cold, black panic seizes my heart, a fear worse than the elves, worse even than the red haze.
Did they take her? Did I fail?
"Betty?" The word is a broken, raw groan torn from my throat.
"Threk?"
A faint whisper answers me from above.
She hid. She didn't just stay in the crevice; she climbed deeper and higher into the rockfall. Smart.
Relief washes over me, so strong it steals my breath and makes my wounded leg buckle.
I look up and see her small, pale face peeking over a ledge ten feet above me.
I reach up, my arm easily spanning the distance. My hand becomes a platform. "Come," I grunt.
She climbs down onto my hand, her weight nothing. A leaf.
I lower her gently to the ground, where she immediately falls against my chest, her small hands fisting in my hide as she shakes.
"You came back," she sobs into my chest.
Always.
I push her away gently, just enough to look at her. "Run," I grunt, grabbing her hand. It is so small, it vanishes in mine.
We move, this time together, silent and fast.
