“If you’re trying to put me at ease, you’re failing.”
“I was certain it was a lost cause when you watched those men burn.”
The unmistakable twang of loosed arrows met his ears, and Rey said a silent prayer to the gods she could keep him from becoming arrow fodder.
With a squeal, he felt her shift behind him, followed by a series ofthwacksas the arrows struck the shield. He exhaled—they’d survived the first wave.
“Hang on tight!” He directed Horse off the road and into the woods. “Light!”
Thankfully, she understood his clipped commands, and raised her free arm above his shoulder, twisting to illuminate his path. Rey smiled grimly—they were badly outnumbered, and he would take whatever advantage he could get. Horse darted between pine stems, leaping over fallen logs and dried creek beds.
“Duck!” he barked, laying back and flattening her on Horse’s rump. They rode beneath a fallen tree, bark whizzing inches above his nose. Moments later, several Wolf Feeders cried out, horses screaming.
“Light!” he called out, straightening in the saddle. And so they continued—Silla lighting their way, Horse expertly weaving between stems and beneathlogs, as they weeded out the Wolf Feeders one at a time. After several more long minutes in the woods, he directed them back out onto the open road. They’d lost all but two of the Wolf Feeders on their tail in the forest's darkness, but Rey was not so naïve as to think there wouldn’t be others waiting in the wings.
“More!” Silla cried, confirming his suspicions.
“How many?”
She paused, counting. “Twelve!”
With a vicious curse, he urged Horse on. Silla shrieked behind him, hefting the shield up as another volley of arrows fell upon them.
“One of them is breaking off!”
Rey gritted his teeth, passing the reins to one hand, unsheathing his hevrít with the other. Two on one horse, they had no chance to outrun the Wolf Feeders. But if they each had their own mount, they could even the odds…
Ears primed, he listened as the hoofbeats grew louder, louder, until the rider was beside them. And then Rey made his move. With a swift swing of his leg, and a push off Horse, he launched himself onto the Wolf Feeder, burying his dagger in the warrior’s neck.
The man let out a cry of surprise as Rey shoved him loose. As the warrior crashed to the ground, Rey grabbed the reins, smiling once more at the yells from behind him.
“You arse!” came a cry, followed by a shriek—Silla, seated backward on Horse, was clutching the saddle blanket in pure terror as they careened down the road.
Glancing over his shoulder, Rey assessed their pursuers. A dozen riders with quivers full of arrows, and it seemed Silla had lost their only shield. As another arrow whizzed past his ear, Rey traced the landscape in his mind. An idea quickly took shape.
Kicking his mount and whistling for Horse to follow with a screeching Silla, Rey drove them down the road with even greater speed. Without Silla’s light, it was difficult to make out the terrain, but his instincts sensed when the bridge came into range, and he readied himself.
Drawing from his source, Rey also pulled from the additional reserves tattooed on his chest until an exhilarating river of power rushed through his veins. With an exhale, he expressed, pulling thick ropes of smoke and weaving them together until a storm of ash and shadows churned wildly above him. Heat lashed down on him, embers crackling angrily, and when he felt the bottom of his source, Rey drove the smoldering tempest toward the bridge.
Ignite.Another arrow sang through the air, inches from his head. The softcrackle of embers met his ears, hooves pounding on timber as he galloped across the bridge, straight through the churning mass of smoke.
Leaping off his mount, Rey waited until Horse and Silla had crossed the bridge, then forced all of his power onto the wooden structure. He could feel the dry bottom of his source and knew if this did not work, they’d be in grave trouble. But as he felt his magic catch; as he felt it begin to consume, a maniacal laugh escaped him.
The Wolf Feeders gathered on the opposite side of the bridge. In the firelight, it was difficult to see, but Rey remembered this gorge well and knew how perilously deep it went.
One of the Wolf Feeders was brave enough to attempt a crossing. Rey’s heart pounded with the force of hammer strikes as the warrior’s horse took one step, two. The horse reared as they neared the flames, throwing his rider. Screams bounced from the walls of the gorge as he plummeted down, down, down, and landed with a sickening crunch.
The bridge was now a blazing bonfire, illuminating the Wolf Feeders’ angry faces on the opposite side of the canyon. Glowering, they whirled their horses, riding off into the night.
And at last, Rey allowed himself to exhale. It would take them hours to bypass this canyon, which meant he and Silla would have plenty of time to vanish into the wilds.
Something struck him in the back. Turning, Rey took her in. Lit by the swirling light of her forearms, Silla’s eyes burned with rage.
“You wretch!” She slapped his chest. “You murderer!” She pushed him. “All those people on The Road of Bones—you murdered them all!”
Silla reared back as though to punch him, but Rey’s hands lashed out, wrapping around her wrists. With a yank, he pinned them in place at her side, causing her to stumble forward, her chest colliding with his. Her breath hitched, but she quickly recovered, trying to shake loose from his ironclad grip.
She struggled against him, her rage palpable. “You killed them!”
