Until he called out in a clear voice, “How much will you give me for her?”
She stiffened. What?
Mathos tightened his grip on her as he walked slowly toward the soldier with the crossbow. “I’m sure we can come to some arrangement. Think how much Dornar will reward you if you’re the man that brings her back. Surely you don’t want to share with that idiot?”
The young Blue’s eyes flicked toward the guard closing in behind them as a horn blew in the distance.
“I’ll give her to you, just for you, but you’ll have to lose your partner.”
She started to squirm, but he held her ruthlessly tight as he stepped to the side of the path.
“Shut the fuck up,” the soldier behind them said loudly, but she could see the crossbow wavering, as if the guard in front of them couldn’t quite decide where to point it.
Mathos looked down at her, his face serious. “Sorry, darlin’.”
“Don’t you dare call me—” Her words cut off into a shriek as he spun and threw her. She sailed through the air and into the river with a loud splash. The freezing water closed over the top of her head in icy darkness and her chest burned with cold and frantic panic. She kicked desperately, purely on instinct, and suddenly found herself above the water.
She heard a rough scream from the shore, but then the water filled her ears. Her heavy woolen cloak dragged her down as fast as the rushing water pulled her forward, and she fought to get it off her shoulders. Soaked, it was lethally tight, the buttons slippery and almost impossible to open.
She hung, suspended below the swirling water for a moment, working the buttons, and then, suddenly, she was free.
She kicked furiously back up until she reached the surface, gasping in huge lungfuls of precious air.
The river hauled her relentlessly forward, and it was all she could do to relax her body, to concentrate on staying afloat.
Gods. Was he already dying? Shot through by a crossbow bolt after saving her and sacrificing himself? Would the last thing he knew be the realization that she had not trusted him as she said she did?
Or, if he lived, would he take that knowledge with him as they dragged him back to Dornar?
Chapter Fourteen
Mathos usedthe momentum from throwing Lucilla to launch himself at the shocked guard and grab the crossbow, forcing it to the side.
They wrestled viciously, but Mathos had years of campaign experience that this young Blue didn’t come close to. Mathos spun to face the way they’d come, jabbed a brutal elbow back into the man’s face, shattering his nose, and then lifted the crossbow still gripped in the soldier’s hands and pulled the trigger.
The guard with the sword fell with a gurgling scream, the bolt through his throat.
Mathos stepped away, and the young guard staggered back, whimpering, with his hands over his face.
He ignored him. The boy was no threat, and he was out of time. He threw the crossbow into the raging Derrow and then took a running leap into the water himself.
The cold punched the air out of his lungs as he kicked hard, looking for Lucilla.
Fuck. It was too dark, the river too fast, and he couldn’t see her.
His beast howled in rage and horror as scales settled over his skin all the way to his eyes. His shoulder throbbed in agony, but he forced himself to pull against the water, again and again, constantly searching.
She had said she could swim. But then, she’d also said she could climb trees, which had been a stretch of the truth at best. Gods.
He found a rhythm and kicked hard, allowing the water to push him forward as he scanned for Lucilla. His scales helped him to conserve heat, but Lucilla didn’t have that advantage. He had to find her. Had to get her out of there… if it wasn’t already too late.
The clouds parted, and the river was suddenly drenched in pale light. But it didn’t help. There were strange shapes, rocks and logs and old tree roots, everywhere.
Everything looked like a body. A log half in and half out of the water caught his attention, but it wasn’t her.
Gods.
The appalling thought that he’d killed her began to build in his chest. Had he done the wrong thing? Maybe he could have protected her better on land?
