Hunter

by Joanna White

It was something I didn’t understand. This feeling, like so many others, was alien to me.

  “Come on!” He grabbed my arm and darted off to the left. The path winded and curved, and only branched off once, but we stayed on the path. I could hear the Hunters catching up.

  Suddenly, I could sense another Hunter’s presence in the maze.

  Hindah.

  “Dalex, this corridor doesn’t branch off anymore. Either it leads out or it’s a dead end. I need you to go to the end of it,” I told him in a hurry.

  “What about you?”

  “I’m going to lead the Hunters away.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t leave anyone behind!”

  “Why?”

  He gave me a weird look. “Because it’s the right thing to do.” His tone sounded as if it was the only possible answer.

  The right thing to do.

  “Go,” I told him. “I’ll create a distraction and I promise I’ll catch up with you.” My tone left no room for suggestions.

  He nodded and jogged off down the corridor. Why was he so determined to help me?

  I turned and ran back the way we came, nocking another arrow. Surprisingly, I had no idea what I was going to do to distract them. All I knew was that we were impossibly outnumbered.

  Why did they want Dalex alive so badly that Hindah would come… after three Hunters were already on mission? More importantly: why did I get this feeling like I couldn’t let them have Dalex?

  Why did I feel like I had to protect all of the prisoners?

  I shook my head to rid myself of the thoughts. I was getting close to Novarch, Becx, and Kehlarch. As soon as I rounded a corner, I loosed an arrow. Kehlarch saw it coming and froze it, moving out of its way at the last minute.

  Suddenly, I felt so cold I could hardly move.

  “I told you, we are going to capture both you and the new prisoner,” Novarch hissed at me. I couldn’t feel my feet or hands and I couldn’t move. My eyes narrowed on theirs viciously.

  “Why do you want him so badly?” I demanded.

  “He’s different.” Novarch sneered at me.

  “How?” I narrowed my eyes at him.

  “You’ll see,” he said with a smile. “Now, if you’ll go back to being a Hunter and not this pathetic, undercover Hunter that is acting more and more like a traitor, we will put you in chains and Kehlarch can give you back your warmth.”

  Did I have a choice? It was either pretend to be captured or actually get captured. I couldn’t hide the curiosity I felt at wanting to find out Dalex’s secret. But deep inside, my stomach twisted at the thought of the Hunters capturing him. If they wanted to capture him, it had to be for only one reason:

  To turn him into a Hunter.

  No one, not Dalex, not Sine, and not Lehlax deserved that.

  It was real for him, even if I was only pretending at being caught.

  Was capturing me real to them?

  Yes.

  They didn’t trust me. Not that any of us trusted each other either, but I had been helping the prisoners way too much to make them comfortable. Novarch and Hindah both knew that if I couldn’t kill them without hesitation, then I was compromised.

  Had that ever happened to a Hunter before?

  I knew the answer before I had even asked myself the question: no. It hadn’t. No Hunter felt anything but the rush of the kill, the hate that guided us, the anger that fueled us, and the power that we all shared.

  So, why was I feeling so many things I knew I shouldn’t be feeling as a Hunter?

  Had I been compromised? Had I betrayed them as Novarch suspected?

  I honestly didn’t know.

  Finally, hesitantly, I nodded. Instantly, I felt warmth spread all through me, and I could feel my feet and hands again. Novarch put my hands behind me and chained my hands to my feet.

  Using all the strength I could muster, I yanked against the chains, but they wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t break them; I was their prisoner now.

  “Sorry, Jared, but we have to make it believable. We used the only metal that Hunters can’t break out of,” Novarch explained, with the hint of a smile on his face.

  I just glared at him.

  He grabbed me, and with his metal bones, even if I wasn’t chained, I would never have been able to break out of his grip. If it had been pretending seconds before, it wasn’t now.

  “Oh, and one more thing,” he said, throwing me. I stumbled with the chains on my feet and my head slammed against the wall. Blood spilled from the gash and down the right side of my face.

  He grabbed me again.

  “Had to make it believable that we caught you, right?” His lips slid up into a grin.

  I clenched my jaw in anger but said nothing.

  He dragged me down the corridor until we reached a doorway that I could tell was the exit to the maze. As we exited the maze, I secretly hoped Dalex had made it out and was far away from here; that their plan had been for nothing.

  As soon as we stepped out of the maze and it became invisible again, I realized with a sinking feeling that what I hoped wouldn’t happen, had happened.

  Hindah and Malik stood nearby, Dalex at their feet in chains.

  Hindah grabbed him by his hair. “Well, would you look at that?” he shouted in Dalex’s ear. Dalex winced but said nothing. His eyes met mine and I knew he felt the same sinking feeling that I had.

  CHAPTER 9

  AVERELLA

  I had no idea where Lehlax and Sine were, if they were even alive, and, now, Jared and I were in the hands of the Hunters.

  I didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing, but they didn’t kill us right away like I thought they would. As soon as I saw Jared in chains, blood on the right side of his face, my heart sank. Soon, we would both die.

  One of the Hunters, the one I suspected was the leader, pulled me up by my hair, making me wince. “Well, would you look at that?” he yelled.

  I met Jared’s eyes. They held no fear, only determination, and anger. I breathed in deeply as the Hunter threw me down on the ground.

  “Let’s move! Make them run a little while,” he said with a dark chuckle. The other Hunters smiled in response. Some joined him in laughter. The winged one walked up to the leader.

  “I think it’s only fair, seeing as he was the one who destroyed my wing that I give him a little payback,” he said, his face full of rage and anger. The leader nodded once and the winged one held a dagger as he walked up to Jared.

  “No!” I cried out, standing to my feet.

  The leader shot me a hard look and started toward me.

  “Dalex, it’s fine,” Jared murmured to me. His eyes held mine and they also held a warning. I bit my lip.

  The winged one slashed Jared’s shirt open, as the one that held him, the one who had an iron grip, turned Jared around and slammed him against a tree. The chains around him rattled.

  The winged one took the dagger and slashed Jared’s left shoulder open. Jared gritted his teeth but showed no other signs of pain.

  This seemed to infuriate the winged Hunter. He twisted the knife in Jared’s flesh, but Jared didn’t make a sound.

  “Malik,” the leader hissed. When the winged one, Malik, turned to face him, he continued. “That’s enough.”

  They re-chained both of our arms in the front instead of behind us and then attached the chains to the same creatures that had dragged me when I was first taken. When the creatures dashed off, I suspected it would only tear at Jared’s shoulder, but he didn’t make a sound. I glanced at him worriedly but didn’t have time to think about it because then we had to run.

  They ran us for hours. By the time we stopped, I was so exhausted even the pain of being dragged couldn’t motivate me to try to stand. When they finally stopped the creatures, I was so exhausted that I couldn’t move.

  They chained Jared to a nearby tree. The Hunter who could control fire came and made a fire in the middle of the area, and the earth Hunter made a small pit around it. I was unch
ained and thrown onto the ground across from where Jared was.

  “What’s your name, prisoner?” the leader asked me.

  “Dalex.” I forced my aching muscles to sit up.

  “Dalex, huh?”

  I nodded mutely.

  “Is that your real name, Dalex?” He glared at me with malice in his eyes.

  Again, I nodded mutely.

  “I think you’re lying to me,” he said, slipping around behind me. He bent down, so I could feel his hot breath on the back of my neck, grabbed my neck, and squeezed.

  I winced, trying to get air into my lungs as I fumbled for his hands, but he yanked me to my feet and put his other arm around my stomach. The hand that was around my throat jerked my head back so that I could see the sky and I winced. His mouth was right by my ear.

  “Tell the truth, prisoner,” he hissed in my ear.

  I opened my mouth to respond, but all that came out were gasps. Where his hand gripped my neck, it ached so badly my eyes burned.

  “What’s the matter? Having some difficulty breathing?” He tossed me to the ground. Pain exploded in my head as it slammed against a rock with a sharp thud.

  “Stop,” Jared said menacingly.

  The leader laughed, putting a foot in the middle of my back. “Stop?” he asked, as if he didn’t know what the word meant. He pressed down, making me wince. “Stop…this?” He only pressed down harder, before he moved his foot to kick me in the mouth. I rolled over and reared back, tasting blood in my mouth as black spots danced in my vision.

  “What do you want with him?” Jared asked.

  “I want to have a little fun,” he replied matter-of-factly.

  “If you want some fun why don’t you unchain me and fight me like a man, coward?” Jared hissed, his voice, his tone, all full of rage.

  The leader yanked me up by my hair again, grabbing a dagger, and held it up to my throat. I flinched, and my eyes met Jared’s.

  He stared at me, almost as if willing me to be strong. I couldn’t look away from his gaze. If I was going to die, I was going to die looking into those calm, reassuring, beautiful red-gold eyes.

  “What do you want?” Jared asked the leader; his voice was deadly calm.

  “I want…” he started, sliding the dagger down so it was right above my stomach, “the truth,” he finished, sliding the dagger up so it rested right over my chest.

  He knew.

  I didn’t know how, but he knew. Closing my eyes, I swallowed back a lump in my throat and bit my lip to keep from screaming.

  “Dalex,” Jared said, his tone calm as I opened my eyes. His fierce eyes firmly stared into mine. “Stay calm. Keep your eyes on mine.” His tone sounded as if we were the only people around.

  I couldn’t bring myself to nod, but I held his gaze and he held mine, even as he spoke.

  “What truth?” he asked the leader.

  “This,” the leader hissed. He dug the dagger into my shirt and slashed it open. The shirt hung loosely on me, attached only by the sleeves. My stomach and the gauze that covered my chest were exposed.

  Jared’s eyebrows knitted in confusion, but he didn’t have time to say anything before the leader slashed open the gauze covering my chest, leaving the only wrappings that were around the wound on my left shoulder.

  “A woman!” the leader yelled, throwing me to the ground. I landed on my stomach and I stayed there, too terrified and too ashamed to move. I couldn’t look at Jared; I wouldn’t look at him.

  The other Hunters all burst out laughing and they jeered at me, their voices loud and yelling over one another. The leader knelt beside me and sliced the cloth that kept my hair tied back. My shoulder-length hair came spilling out around my shoulders as the leader grabbed me and jerked me to my feet, one hand on my neck, the other on my chest.

  “So, tell me dear: what’s your real name?” he hissed at me.

  “Averella,” I whispered.

  “Averella! How beautiful!” His foul breath was hot on my face. He threw me against a tree, slamming my head and chest against the rough bark, and stood right behind me, pressing his body against me.

  “Why did you come here? Because we all know for you to be here, you made the Gredi want you here,” he continued.

  I didn’t say anything. He slammed me against the tree once more and again pressed his body up against me, his mouth at my ear. “You sure you don’t want to tell me?”

  With silence as my reply, he turned me around to face Jared, grabbing me in his tight grip so that he still stood behind me.

  I didn’t want to look at Jared, I couldn’t meet his eyes, but I somehow forced myself to meet his gaze. His eyes were still beautiful, still fierce, but they held something else I couldn’t read. He had a shocked look on his face, and a deep fury there that was just as menacing as the other Hunters. He shook his head, just enough for me to see.

  He didn’t want me to give these Hunters the satisfaction of knowing all my secrets, of knowing why I came here.

  “I’ll never tell you,” I hissed at the leader. He threw me to another Hunter that was on my left.

  That Hunter grabbed me, laughing and yelling horrible things at me, while another one came up to me and pounded his fist into my mouth. I spit out blood as that same Hunter kneed me in the stomach. Doubling over, I gasped for air, but the Hunter who held me pulled me back up, putting his hands around my jaw, squeezing tight. The Hunter in front of me kicked me in the stomach repeatedly until I couldn’t breathe. They threw me; I slammed into a tree, landing on my right side.

  Pain rattled every part of my body, and I wheezed, unable to get much-needed air into my lungs. The leader flipped me over and knelt over me, grabbing me, spitting on me, slapping me. He started hitting my ribs so hard I couldn’t breathe. Air…. I needed air…Another Hunter held my hands above my head, pressing them into the ground. I felt something cold being placed over them.

  I distinctly heard the rattling of chains as the leader kept touching and beating my chest. He punched my cheek and the rusty twinge of blood formed in my mouth. Leaning down, he fiercely kissed me. I bit him as hard as I could.

  He growled and cursed at me, calling me something vile. “String her up!” he yelled.

  Suddenly, the Hunters who were around me were gone, standing far away from me. The chains around my wrists pulled me up to my feet and continued pulling me up higher. The other end of the chains had been wrapped around a tree and was used to lift me in the air. My feet no longer touched the ground.

  The Hunters stood around me, jeering, yelling, punching, and spitting on me, smacking and screaming at me. It wasn’t until the leader cried out that they all stopped. One of them had handed him a whip.

  I whimpered as he flicked it across the ground, making it crackle. The next time he snapped the whip, it hit me in the middle of my back. Then it hit me in my stomach, followed by the back of my shoulder, my chest, my legs, my arms, my neck, my jaw, my back…The pain became unbearable and I screamed. Spots danced around my vision until all I saw was black and I couldn’t hear any voices. All I saw, all I heard, all I felt, was the crack of the whip and the burning pain…

  Suddenly, I couldn’t hear the sound of the whip anymore. I couldn’t remember why I was being whipped or why I had been so afraid of it, but then I remembered the pain it caused me. I tried opening my eyes, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t feel anything except the agonizing pain all over me.

  I don’t know how long it was before my body slammed against something, but next to the burning all over me, that was nothing. I tried forcing my eyes open again, but when I did, all I could see were blurry shapes and blackness.

  Seconds passed… hours… minutes… I wasn’t sure how long it was until I felt myself being shaken lightly. After many tries, I finally got my eyes to open. Everything was a blur all around me.

  “…kay……s..afe… ay…wi….me…ope…eye…”

  Nothing I heard made sense. Blackness overtook me again and I wasn’t sure how much time
passed before I felt something cool against my face. I forced my eyes open and I could barely make out Jared’s outline above me. I was lying on the ground and he was busy putting something on me. A cool sensation came over me and the pain wasn’t as bad as it had been.

  “Stay…me…Av…Sta…” I could make out his voice, but nothing he said made sense. It was all a jumbled mass of words. I could make out another face above me, and another. I whimpered, afraid the Hunters were back to hurt me.

  “It’s…oka…The…can’t…hur…you…we’r….sa…”

  “He’s…a…?”

  Something finally did register in my head, something someone else asked Jared that I didn’t understand, and then I heard and understood Jared’s response.

  “She’s a woman.”

  PART TWO:

  Prisoner

  Chapter 10

  JARED

  Hindah took out a dagger. My stomach knotted up and I knew he wasn’t bluffing. Hindah was still playing with Dalex, but I knew exactly what that meant:

  Hindah wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.

  I just wanted to help Dalex die with bravery, keeping my eyes on his to help him stay calm as he died.

  Then, Hindah slashed open his shirt.

  I couldn’t hide the confusion on my face. There was gauze on Dalex’s chest and I remembered his wound… Was it really that bad?

  Hindah slashed the gauze off.

  Revealing Dalex’s chest.

  He…was… really… a woman. I didn’t know what I was more shocked about: the fact that Dalex had been able to hide this so well from us or that a woman was here in the prison.

  I briefly got a flash of something alien in my mind, but before I could tell what it was, it was gone. The urge to protect Dalex only grew ten times stronger now that I knew the truth about him...or, well her. A deep surge of anger pulsed inside my chest with an intensity I’d never felt before.

  Then, they started beating her, throwing her from Hunter to Hunter, jeering, yelling, and abusing her. She gasped for pain and as they beat her chest so hard, her breathing became gasps and those gasps became wheezes. What they were doing? Why? My body shook with anger and fury, and I felt an icy hatred, so familiar and yet so powerful I could hardly breathe. I had killed so many people, but this… This was a level of depravity and immorality that I refused to agree with or allow.