He laughed as she started to nibble on his outstretched finger. “We need to find her something to eat. The poor thing’s starved. But I can’t tell you where in this bloody nightmare we’ll find milk for the little beastie.”
“Shiksa,” I whispered. He lifted a questioning brow. “That’s her name. Shiksa.”
“That’s a pagan word.” The admonishment rang clear in his voice.
“It means ‘little warrior.’ My mother used to call my brothers and me that whenever we fought.”
“Your mother was pagan?” Oliver stood straight and took a step back as if I would infect him with the memory of my mother’s religion.
“No,” I answered. “She wasn’t pagan. But she knew the language. She didn’t despise it as most do today. She saw value in the tradition.”
“It’s dangerous to use a pagan word, Tessana.”
I waved him off. “And who but you will hear me speak to a foxling?”
He had no response.
I tucked Shiksa back into my pouch where she whined and mewled. “We’ll find you something to eat soon, little warrior,” I whispered to her. To Oliver, I said, “Let’s be off, before we lose the light.”
Oliver glared, but led us back in the direction we’d come from.
We couldn’t find a single one of our markers. Oliver pulled the inaccurate map from his bag, but it was impossible to tell which direction we needed to go. Had we run toward the north from the south? Or had we started south and run west?
We wandered around for the better part of the morning. Shiksa whined and howled until we found mushabooms to feed her. The pillowy root was soft enough for her to tear apart with those tiny teeth. We only found three of them, and she wasn’t quite satisfied when she finished, but she quieted down, licking her chops with her pink tongue.
If only we had been that lucky. By the time the sun reached its highest point over the canopy of leaves, my stomach growled angrily and my legs dragged over the roots.
“Is there anything left to eat?” I panted as we turned in yet another circle. We thought the road was west, but walking that direction had not proven productive.
“No,” Oliver groaned. “Well, a little. But we better save it for this evening.”
“We should have found the road by now.” I ran fingers through my matted hair, braiding the wild strands into submission.
“This isn’t a forest,” Oliver added. “But an impossible labyrinth into Denamon.”
I would have rolled my eyes if I’d had enough energy. “Just a little further,” I encouraged. “We’ll find it eventually.Somethingis this direction. It can’t be all trees until the end of the world.” Shiksa mewled in my pouch, arguing with me. “The road has to be here somewhere. There is more to this realm than this bloody forest. Eventually we’ll find civilization again.”
Oliver and I stilled at the same time. Something snapped overhead, like a rope breaking from its tether. The rush of wind screamed through the woods as we waited for the something to appear. My hand fell instinctively to my belt, resting on my weapon.
I screamed as a clever rope-trap swept up from the forest floor. One second we stood firmly on the ground, the next we were flying through the tangled branches praying to the Light that we wouldn’t knock our heads on the deadly things or each other.
The air rushed from my chest and my stomach flipped until we stopped swinging. We hung there, next to each other, swaying back and forth and dangling upside down.
We were pinned low enough to be an inconvenient length from the branches above yet too high to touch the ground below.
Both of our satchels dropped to the earth in the chaos, just out of reach. I tried to keep my traveling gown from giving in to gravity and embarrassing me further while keeping a close eye on my pouch.
My sword had also managed to come unclasped and lay in a pretty silver slash against the cluttered forest floor.
“Dragon’s blood!” I screeched at it.
Oliver reached for our pouches while I struggled with my dress, but even his long arms couldn’t quite reach.
A voice came from behind me, sending a trill of fear over my skin. “And here I thought we were going home empty-handed.”
Another voice answered from our side. “Luck was on our side today, Dravon. For we have not caught a simple dinner, but riches enough for many dinners.”
“You will find nothing but empty pockets and worthless purses from us,” I answered. I tried to make out their forms, but it was difficult from this position. I twisted around but couldn’t hold myself in place. The most I made out was rawhide hunting boots and black leathers.
