“Mavis!” Kaven yelled from off to the side, bringing me back to reality.
I had forgotten he was there; he had been so silent. The relief I expected to come from hearing his voice never did.
Kaven started toward my captor, frying pan in hand. The woman, Renata, stepped between them and swiftly bludgeoned Kaven with the hilt of her dagger. There was a loud thud as his body hit the Ground. I covered my mouth with my non-bloody hand and screamed.
“He’ll live. He just might not like it when he wakes.” She grinned, sheathing her dagger, and sauntered off.
“Alona!” I cried. She was crouched down next to her brother, holding his bleeding head in her lap.
My captor leaned in close to my ear and whispered, “Come with us, and no harm will befall the girl. That is a promise.”
“I don’t think you can keep promises,” I sniffled, my composure breaking.
“Then you will just have to see, won’t you?”
“I don’t have a choice.”
“No, you do not,” his words resolute, echoing what I already knew.
I looked at Alona, at her small frame hovering protectively over her brother, and my throat tightened. I had so much to say and such little time to say it.
“Alona, listen carefully.” She looked up at me tentatively. “Tell Kaven when he wakes to take care of my mother while I’m gone. Don’t let him come after me. I will return.”
Alona nodded, tears streaming down her face. I opened my mouth to say more, but then I felt the sudden jerk of the rope.
“Time to go.” My captor tugged the rope away, pulling me from Kaven and Alona. I followed his lead without a fight, looking back only once to take one last glance at them. They were as much my family as my flesh and blood were, and now I was losing them, too.
I told myself that it wouldn’t be the last time I saw their faces. It couldn’t be.
I would fight with everything in me to get back.
I decided in that moment that there was a benefit to my new situation—a purpose. I would finally learn what happened to Willam. And maybe, if the gods were merciful, I could bring him home with me.
The Veiler hauled me through the streets. I had no choice but to obey—for now.
When we reached the village square, I saw families grouped and lined up in rows. Mothers clung to their children, and fathers clutched their wives. I counted fifteen Veilers in the square. Some held swords, while others merely stalked around looking bored.
“Do not fight us, and you will not die. We do not wish to see more bloodshed,” boomed a hauntingly graveled voice addressing the people.
I searched for the source of that voice. When I found it, I stiffened. The speaker was Crooked Teeth, the same Veiler that Kaven had knocked unconscious. I was shocked to see him alive—he had taken quite a blow to the head. And from the way he scowled at me, I could tell he remembered who I was.
The Veiler who led me here suddenly shoved me to the Ground, earning a collective gasp from the villagers that watched helplessly. My knees stung with the contact against hard stone, and I winced. That would bruise.
“Our Lady demands two more to accompany us,” Crooked Teeth continued. The bastard couldn’t keep the glee from his voice.
“What?” Panic overcame me. “No, you have me! Please, I beg of you, just take me.” I flipped my head up to my captor in a move of desperation.
“It is always in three that nature likes to be,” he said, quotingThe Old Book. “As much as you might like to believe that we make our own rules, we do not. We follow the words written in the sacred text.”
“You mean you choose which words you follow. I distinctly remember reading that all of Our Lady’s children contain a part of her, and so a crime committed against one of her children is a crime against her.”
Unsurprisingly, the Veiler did not answer. Instead, he kept his eyes narrowed on the crowd before us.
“Those between the ages of thirteen and twenty, step forward!” ordered Crooked Teeth. “Keep in mind that if you attempt to trick us, it may very well be the last thing you do.”
Slowly, people stepped forward. My stomach fell, and the feeling of bile rising inside returned. All I could do to keep it at bay was remind myself that Alona wasn’t there. The Veiler had promised. While normally I would never value the word of a Veiler, I needed to believe that this was different. I needed to believe he meant what he said, and that Alona was safe; otherwise, I might break entirely.
I watched as the redheaded woman from before, Renata, walked intently by those who had stepped forward. She looked them over, searching. I wondered what she was looking for. Was she going to cut them like she had cut me?
