The ground before me was empty.
No woman. No violet fabric. No black blood.
I whirled around, expecting those strange irises to be far too close again, but I was alone. “But how…?”
I spun again and then two more times after that, searching for some sign of the woman or that ancient voice. Neither were there.
A gentle, cool breeze brushed my skin, and I looked up to see the tree branches softly swaying. Relief began to spread at the return of clean air and the departure of that horrible stench. Thank the Domus,I could breathe again.
I gulped the fresh air in, looking again at the ground where the woman with the multicolored eyes had been.
It could…it could have been a dream. Or perhaps I was too hungry and thirsty, and I was losing my mind. Both were unlikely explanations, but the thought that this dying, bleeding woman who’d messed with my head had simply vanished into thin air was even more unbelievable. That could only happen with something like magic, and magic did not exist in the six Territories. All that did exist was the harsh reality of natural life. That and the Domus, which was the closest thing to magic we had.
With my free hand, I pinched my arm through the thick tunic.
Nothing changed.
“You’re imagining things, then,” I said out loud, shaking my head, even though my arms still ached where her grip had been. I reached for the flask that hung from a hoop in my trousers and took a slow pull of water. Food would only come once I returned home, and after the last few minutes, I was ready to leave my trapping for tomorrow. I would eat and sleep, forget this happened, and ask Marsik for more fighting lessons.
A chorus of snapping sticks reached my ears, and for the second time in a row, my heartbeat jolted into a racing tempo. Legs stopping, I pivoted toward the sound.
Three figures emerged from behind thin trees, their clothing looking like the tree trunks themselves. If not for the warning sound, my eyes would have believed they were extensions of the wood. Though they were fifty paces away, it was clear they were huge, bigger than anyone in the village and the Princeps himself, cloaked from their heads to their feet in a brown, patterned fabric that blended with the bark. Only the skin of their noses and eyes was visible, and even that was smeared with mud.
Soldiers. Hunters, maybe. Nothing I recognized or wanted to know. Nothing that should be out here in the woods.
Things had just gone from bad to terrible.
A thick, braided rope hung from the middle figure’s grip. Thin ropes were better for trapping. These men weren’t here to catch animals. My hand shook where it gripped my own knife.
This couldn’t be happening.
I came to the woods and trapped birds and small animals, then returned home to cook, chop and sell firewood, sleep, and wake up with the sunrise to do it all again. I ducked my head and stayed far away from trouble. The greatest danger I faced was starvation or punishment for not following the rules, and until today, Ialwaysfollowed those damn rules.
“Her eyes,” the one on the left said, the deep, guttural tone surprising me in its roughness.
His friends nodded.
Myeyes?They were brown and dull, like most. But something told me voicing that fact would not change the intent in the men’s faces. The intent to capture or kill, which was made clear by their deliberate advance and the coarse rope.
It’s just a dream you have yet to wake from.
But my instincts didn’t believe that. So finally, I ran.
Chapter 2
Iwouldn’t make it to the village. Hours of trekking through the woods and splitting logs had made me strong, sure, but the tree men were giants.
Giants had giant muscles.
Considering I was of average height, those giant muscles were stronger than mine.
I sprinted in the direction of the village, jumping over most brambles and fallen trees and only going around those that would trip me. Though I didn’t dare look, the sound of racing footsteps told me the men kept pace.
My lungs began to burn as I vaulted over another trunk, wishing the heavy netting I used for trapping wasn’t secured so tightly to my cloak. The men didn’t need to catch up to me. They simply had to outlast me.
It would probably be easy for them.
I wracked my brain as I flew over the ground, struggling to think past the panic that drove me forward. I knew each tree and rock and groove in the woods within the village boundaries, but this land, so far outside of my normal trapping grounds, was foreign to me.
