Staying within the trees that lined the river, I quickened my pace. I don’t know how much ground I’d covered when the running water beside me began to roar, white mist spraying above the moss-studded riverbank, just as more voices cut through the trees. My heart jolted when I realized they came from both sides of me. I paused just behinda tree, scanning the area. Movement flashed between the tree trunks lining the far side of the river, but whoever was with me on this side wasn’t within range just yet. Carefully, I moved away from the water, even as the voices on my right grew in volume. If I allowed myself to be seen from the other side of the bank, those men could alert those here who had yet to spot me.
An animalistic noise came from somewhere behind me.
Those same voices to the right again.
I leapt for a small ditch and flattened myself, setting my eyes just above the earth. Heart pounding, I watched as blue tunics appeared in the woods to my right, the owners of those voices slowly trotting on horses in my direction. Based on their slow pace, they weren’t chasing me. Maybe they were going for water.
The animal cried out again, and I spun my attention to my trail. The noise quickly registered. It was a whine.
Maybe there are wild wolves here.
That whine suddenly became an excited bark. Another joined it. Gray and blue flashed within the brown scenery. The soldiers on my right paused in confusion.
Gray and blue. Dogs and men. A hunting party.
Indistinguishable conversation morphed into words as the distance between us shrank. “Think…have something…this direction.”
Whether this group was here for me or as part of a regular patrol, I couldn’t know. It didn’t matter, either, because those dogs had already scented me. One minute ago, I had a semblance of freedom, of hope. In a mere instant, it’d fallen to pieces.
Adrenaline, now an old friend, readied my muscles. I wouldn’t make it. I knew that. But staying where I was could result in getting run over by horses and mauled by dogs.
I had to at least try.
Galvanized by plain fear, I bolted from the hollow, sprintingforward with everything I had left to give. Ferocious, eager barks and thundering hooves followed in my wake, growing louder and louder as I leapt over roots and dodged trees and prayed to the skies above that something would save me. That the ground would open up behind me and swallow my pursuers whole. That I was more than just a useless villager and was the powerfulmagvis,itself. That Harthon would suddenly appear and throw his daggers and save me as he had so many times before.
Something.
Give me something.Please.
I’ll do anything.
A crushing weight plowed into my back, and I was driven into the ground, blinding pain splitting my ribs as they met unforgiving rocks. Hot, wet breath and a low growl assaulted my ear as my arm was wedged between a jaw, sharp teeth breaking through my tunic and into the skin beneath.
Two dogs.
I began to shake, paws digging into my back, waiting for those teeth to finish what they’d started and reach bone. Maybe the other would bite my neck and end it before the pain became unbearable.
“Off!” The stern command came before either of those happened, and my arm was immediately released, the weight on my back gone. Relief was short-lived as a savage grip wrapped around that same arm, digging into the wounds there as it jerked me to my feet.
The soldier before me, an ugly, burly man who could likely break my arm with a squeeze of his fingers, leered at me. “Pretty eyes.” Foul breath assaulted me as he leaned in, inhaling deeply beside my neck as I stifled a flinch. When he straightened, it was to greedily take in my form, his perusal pausing on my chest. I didn’t dare breathe, not wishing to draw more attention to the area. “Looks like we have a reward here, boys.”
Theboyswere at least ten other soldiers who surrounded me, two horses and those two dogs among them. Saliva dripped from the mutts’ teeth, bodies vibrating with anxious energy.
Even if I could somehow outrun these men, the animals would run me down again. They were skinny, the lines of their ribs giving away their starved state, but that didn’t make them any less dangerous. If anything, they were more motivated to tear off my flesh and feast on it.
Terror was a tight ball beneath my breast, expanding with each breath, too potent for me to do anything but stand there and try to remain upright against the weight of doom.
There was no space for hope.
My prison was already here.
I was one villager against ten hardened, armed men and their animals. There was no way I’d be able to escape them, and by the eager anticipation painting each ugly face around me, they knew it as well as I.
“Don’t look so scared,” the soldier taunted, pulling me forward so hard I bounced off his chest. “We’re usually given orders to hurt, however we want. But not with you. I think he wants to do that all himself. And lucky for you, he isn’t too far away.”
Maybe I should have felt some measure of comfort that the violence wouldn’t begin just yet, that I’d have one last reprieve before it started.
I didn’t.
