As if in a trance, Otho rose from the floor, crossing the roomto sit on the bed and dropped his head into his hands. “Did he say how many books he had?”
His voice was low, but I still heard him. “No, but he had several. My cousin, Collum, is also a reader,” I specified, just in case he wasn’t aware of that fact. “So he is likely having her read to him even now.”
“I need to stop him.”
“If it’s any consolation, he didn’t have any of the really deadly powers. At least, not to my knowledge.” The moment the words were out of my mouth, I knew they were a stupid consolation. I had absolutely no idea what he was having Collum read to him now.
Or what he had found in my absence.
“Tomorrow, I’ll take you back to the front-line camp, then I need to head back to Ralheim.”
Neither of us spoke for a long moment, realizing that Otho was likely in just as much danger as I was when it came to Adis.
In the silence, I noticed that my throat was parched, likely from the windstorm I had created earlier. “I need some water.”
Otho motioned toward the door. “There should be cups next to the pump.”
I nodded, slipping out and closing the wooden door behind me. I tried to keep my steps quiet as I crossed the floor to the pump. The clay cups were right where Otho said they would be and I snagged one, placing it under the mouth of the pump as I used my other hand to pump the handle up and down. Clear water splashed into the cup. Once it was full, I lifted it to my lips, drinking it all down before placing it back under the pump.
A hand covered my mouth.
What was Otho doing? Was I drinking too loud? I rolled my eyes, waiting for him to remove his hand. But then, out of the corner of my eye, I watched as his other hand came and took the cup from my hand, placing it next to the sink before wrapping around my waist.
Maybe it was because I had just had Otho’s arm around mywaist when I woke up, but the moment it was there, I knew without a doubt this wasn’t Otho.
I began to struggle, attempting to push the hand from my mouth so I could scream.
“If you wake the couple in the other room, we will have to kill them.”
My mind paused on the wordwe. There was more than one person behind me.
Not wanting poor Cal and Alaine to suffer for my mistake, I nodded, fighting back tears.
That was all the attacker needed to begin walking me toward the door. We passed the bedroom on the way, and I both hoped that Otho would come rescue me again, and at the same time, I knew if we were both captured, then there would be no one to stop Adis.
No, I needed to let these men take me. Otho was the one everyone was relying on.
Once we were outside of the house, the two moons revealed what I couldn’t see from inside.
There were more than ten men standing in the small area in front of Cal’s house. They had horses, but not a type I had ever seen before. They were smaller, with skinnier legs, likely designed specifically for traversing the woods. I immediately wondered if it was Cal who had turned me in, but then I brushed that thought away. He wouldn’t do that to his brother . . . would he?
There wasn’t much time to think before I was roughly pulled onto the front of one of the hoofed animals, the man holding me remaining at my back, and we were off.
Whatever the animals were, they moved lithely through the forest with such ease I was almost shocked.
Sensing my question, the man behind me murmured, “Antelopes—quieter and better at maneuvering than horses.”
Now that he wasn’t whispering, I listened closely as he spoke, hoping to recognize his voice, but nothing came to mind. Iwanted to turn and look at him, but his arm remained firm around my midsection.
Instead, I just focused on the forest around me, trying to figure out if we were headed back toward Ralheim, or forward toward Malheim.
I didn’t have to wonder long, though, because when we broke out of the woods, the sun was just beginning to peek over some of the tallest mountains I had ever seen. Though I was currently being held captive, I couldn’t help but take in the beauty of them as they glinted purple and pink in the early morning sun. I had never seen something so beautiful or majestic in my entire life. Ralheim, though quaint, was a town built on the plains.
“Welcome to Malheim,” the man at my ear whispered ominously. “The land of many mountains.”
CHAPTER 23
As we rode through small town after small town, on the fringe of the city on the horizon, I couldn’t help but notice how different life was here from life in both Ralheim and Salheim. I had never dared to leave my town before, and I was coming to realize that the world we inhabited was much larger, and much more diverse than my parents had let on. I couldn’t fault them, though, as it was likely they too had never left Ralheim during their too-short lifespan.
