The man raised the ax to his shoulder. “You’re trying to trick me?” He shouted. “How many are you hiding?”
Khal hadn’t moved. “I’mtryingnot to scare you.”
The man took a step forwards, and half of the others materialized out of the trees, many I hadn’t seen. The woman started crying. One of the little ones pulled on her skirts. “What are they doing, Mama? Mama?”
“Youstay back!”The man shouted.
Khal spread his hands. “If you try to hurt me, my friends will hurt you. You don’t want this. If you don’t accept help, you could die in these woods.”
“I’ve met your kind before! I won’t fall for this!”
“We are Drashik. We have no quarrel with you.”
“If you had no quarrel, you wouldn’t be here, showing your face!” He was desperate, verging on hysteria, his grip choking on the axe. The ox was nervous, shuffling. One of the children darted out from the other side of the wagon, toward her father’s leg. And the world went slow and sick, the colors warping. Fear was pulsing in my head, and in my fingertips, my stomachtwisting like I was going to vomit, but something else. And then I started hearing them, seeing them. Khal’s thoughts- the wagon, the family stuck, the man’s anger- The woman’s thoughts, a string of bodies hung in trees, something she must have seen before- The man’s, creatures running out of the trees, how many, how many he could strike down, which direction, were they sneaking up- the child’s. The child wanting to grab someone safe.
Which direction? Which one first? Are they coming? They’re sneaking-
He had the axe high and the child was going to grab his leg and the axe and the child and the axe, we were moving in syrup, theaxe-
“Stop!”
I’d screamed the word. I was three feet into the clearing, between the man and Khal. The child had frozen in the air, eighteen inches from the man.
“Your child,” I choked out. “That’s your child. Don’t hurt it.” The man looked back, down. The child released from that hold in the air, fell against his leg. He looked back up, his face fear and confusion and more fear. “Please,” I said. “Please.”
I was swaying on my feet, the power pulsing through me. I saw myself through the man’s eyes, pale and shaking, my hem torn and my legs showing beneath the knee. I looked like a feral creature, like something piteous and deranged. But he wasn’t afraid of me. His thoughts jumbled through child, axe, child, girl, orcs, a barrage of thoughts and I clenched my head and gasped.
Khal stepped towards me. “Rowena?—"
“You leave that girl alone!” The man yelled. His face was only terror. He thought he was going to die, and still he tried to defend a stranger. The woman sobbed.
“I’m alright,” I said, for Khal as much as him. The power was fading, the connection almost broken. I forced myself to speak. “They don’t want to hurt us. They’re travelers. They just want to clear the road.”
“Who are you?”
“I'm also a traveler. I've been moving with them. I’m coming from Belnor. They were fighting for the baron. You know about him. They’re loyal.”
The man hesitated, watching the figures in the trees.
“I’ve seen them fight. If they wanted us dead, we would be dead already. You’d have died before you found the axe. They mean no harm. Let them right your wagon. So your children will be safe. Please.”
The man slowly lowered the axe.
Khal moved up beside me. The man tensed as he neared me, but didn’t speak. Khal motioned to the wagon. “The branches were a good idea. But we should be able to do this with ten."
In a clipped voice, the man spoke to the children, ordered them to join the woman. I walked with them, somewhat to get out of the way- my muscles were not going to move a cart- but more because I had felt, had seen her fear, and I wanted to calm her. I didn’t want her to stay afraid.
Some of the orcs moved to the wagon, while the other half stood back. Khal- his form was slighter than most of theirs, more lithe, and it’s strange I hadn't noticed- was directing them, putting his shoulder to the side.
The woman's hand found my sleeve. The child on her hip had flax-colored hair, like Thea. This woman was looking up at me, her eyes brimming.
"Will they want the children?" she whispered.
I shook my head. "No. You're going to be safe." I'd imagined the same kind of ruthlessness days ago, hadn't I? "We're going to leave you. It's fine."
Her hands clasped mine. I couldn't hear her, just watched her mouth shape the words. "Thank you."
The wagon jolted back into place, some of the orcscomplaining and laughing. The woman tensed, clinging onto my arm. They would seem like monsters to her. The children were staring.
