“I do this all the time, remember? And I don’t need to fight them off, just outrun them.” She shrugged her shoulder as if she were completely confident inher ability to outlive her plan. It would at least be easy to draw the dakii’s attention with her white dress.
They still didn’t look convinced, and she needed them to listennow. There was one thing she could tell them to convince them.
“Remember that day right before we got the duchess’s ultimatum? With the two-call alarm? When the dakii just ran off?”
Hadima nodded slowly, brows twisted with confusion.
“That was me. I ran a chase and led them away.”
Kladara grumbled something about secrets and moved into the position Iryana had given. The others soon followed, but Hadima’s eyes followed her warily. Iryana gave her a nod.
No one seemed to question that she had given most of her arrows away.
In a sudden blur of silver-blue fur and black claws, the dakii pounced out of the trees.
The Kleesolds were trained warriors from birth, and not one of them faltered. Arrows flew over Iryana’s head, digging into the dakii, while the younger two slashed with their blades. The dakii came from both sides, pressing in, and Iryana knew they wouldn’t hold long—but at that moment, they were strong.
She watched one of the beast’s assessing eyes as she took a few steps away from the others and fired an arrow at him. It missed entirely, landing a few paces shy, right where she had aimed.
The dakii’s attention narrowed in. Iryana made a show of looking around nervously, and then she bolted into the trees the way she had come.
Bow spinning behind her, torso twisting, Iryana fired her second arrow in front of the dakii on the other side, making sure it passed right through their line of sight.
Please work, she chanted to herself, running faster. Crashes sounded out behind her as the dakii must have leaped after.
The initial burst of adrenaline wore off too quickly, and Iryana’s legs protested her sprint.
She risked a glance back to count the dakii, and it looked like they were all following.
Relief flooded her limbs, making them even more tired. She could feel her speed waning already, her lungs burning and her head getting lighter. She had to get them further from her family.
All around her, the forest was a chorus of snarls and pounding paws.
She mapped out the valley around them in her mind, picking her path as she ran. Taking sharp turns through narrow ravines, squeezing between thorn thickets, anything she could think of to slow the dakii down.
At first, it seemed to be working.
Just as Iryana thought she had gained enough ground, a smaller dakya leaped in front of her, cutting her off. It must have circled around and dove from one of the overhead ridges.
With a gasp, she barely summoned her shield fast enough to block the swipe of the beast’s sharp black claws.
The impact threw her hard into a nearby tree, hitting her side with enough force to knock the wind out of her. She didn’t feel the pain, but she glanced down to see red seeping through the gap in her armor where two of the buckles were now ripped off.
Gritting her teeth, Iryana rolled, somehow holding onto her spear, and dove into the dakya.
Amidst the rushing shadows and pine needles and pale blue fur, the imbued tip of her spear hit just the right spot. Not waiting to see if the dakya was dead, Iryana tore off again.
She was far enough away now that the dakii weren’t likely to turn back around. And her family must have had enough time to make it most of the way back.
Up ahead was a cluster of younger trees, so dense they were hard to move between even for her. They wouldn’t slow the dakii down for long; the dakii could go around or crash through quickly enough. But it would give her enough of a chance to lose them.
That dense wood was all she could think about as she pushed on, the pack growing closer again.
She thought she wouldn’t make it in time, but then she was there. Slipping between the trunks, not much thicker than her thighs, a brief wave of relief hit her.
The dakii snarled behind her, slapping against the edge of the wood, a half dozen trees creaking from their weight.
She hurried further, ignoring the creaking and cracking behind her, slipping between trees as branches snapped at her clothes, hair, and face.
