Hollow-eyed, malnourished, and quite possibly as close to death as he’d ever been, Addax wondered if he would die in this place. He wondered what would become of his brother. Before Abiram’s caravan, they’d begged for food because they didn’t know what else to do. Now, it seemed they were to live on the street again, and Addax didn’t relish the thought. He’d once had plans to find his mother and sister and return to Kitara to fight alongside his father, but all of those events had happened over two years ago. It seemed like a thousand years had passed. His father was dead, and so were his mother and sister, more than likely. Although he didn’t want to believe that, deep down, he knew it was true.
He and Essien were the only ones left.
As Addax pondered what the future would bring, he heard horses in the distance. He was near the road, but still somewhat protected by the grove of olive trees. Turning his head, he could see enormous warhorses ridden by men covered with steel coats and great tunics and big, square buckets of metal on their heads.The tunics they wore were red, with yellow cats on them. There were so many that he couldn’t see where the line of them ended, all of them heading down the road and into the village.
Somewhat fearful, Addax tried to move without waking up Essien. His brother would likely cry at the sight of so many armed, unfamiliar warriors, and that would bring attention to them. If there was one thing Addax had learned as a young lad, it was how to be quiet. Noise was never a good thing. But he couldn’t move enough, knowing he could be seen from the road.
And he was.
By dogs.
Two big gray dogs found him, licking his face furiously, wagging their tails, and evidently quite happy to see him. Even the dogs had steel on them, around their necks, and Addax was absolutely terrified. The dogs were very big, but thankfully friendly, and they licked Essien, too, who awoke to a giant dog head in his field of vision that was larger than his own head. He opened his mouth to scream, but Addax slapped a hand over his lips so the sound would go no further.
Then someone was yelling for the dogs. The dogs heard their names, but they were so happy that they’d found new people that they refused to leave the boys. In fact, one dog lay across Essien, and the other sat down next to Addax. It didn’t seem to matter that someone was calling for them. They’d found something and they were proud of it. As Addax watched in terror, one of the heavily armed men on the road moved into the olive grove and dismounted.
He was heading straight for them.
“Argos!” the man boomed. “Artemis! Did you not hear me, you foolish animals?”
Addax had no idea what the man was saying. He didn’t understand the language. But he was absolutely petrified as he clutched Essien, watching the big warrior approach. The mansaw them fairly quickly, realizing his dogs had found the pair. He slowed down, pausing a moment before removing his helm. He had hair the color of gold and a beard of nearly the same color around his jaw.
Addax had never seen hair that color in his life.
“Aap kaun hain?” the man asked, not unkindly.
Who are you?Addax recognized the language because he’d spent enough time in these lands to understand, and speak, a little of it. But he was so frightened, and so hungry and exhausted, that he started to weep.
“Addax,” he said. “Ana Addax.”
I am Addax.
The warrior looked him over. He pointed to Essien questioningly, and Addax told the man his name. But that didn’t seem to satisfy him. He didn’t go away. He tried to get the dogs to come away, but they wouldn’t. He finally gave up and crouched down a few feet away from them, even as other warriors saw what he was doing and reined their horses to a halt.
But the man’s focus was on Addax.
“Do you understand me?” he asked in the language of the land.
Addax nodded. “Aye.”
“Are you injured?”
Addax shook his head. “Nay.”
“But you have bruises and blood on you.”
Addax didn’t know how to answer that. He was terrified to tell him the truth, so he made up something. Anything. “We… we are traveling.”
“Where are you going?”
“I do not know.”
The crouching warrior was joined by two more of the biggest men Addax had ever seen. One had the same gold hair, but the other man had black hair and blue eyes. They all had blueeyes. Addax had never seen that shade before, nor skin tone that color. It was quite pale.
“Where are your parents?” the crouching man asked. “Where do you belong?”
Addax shook his head. “We belong to no one,” he said. “Please… will you let us go?”
The other blond warrior walked around the tree trunk, coming up on their other side. He, too, crouched down, closer to Essien. He spoke to the other man in a language Addax didn’t understand.
