Her voice called down softly. “Well?”
“Jump. I’ll catch you.”
“Don’t be absurd.”
In a swift move I barely saw, Ly’Tana moved to the left slightly, no doubt to avoid the branches I landed in, and jumped. As before, she controlled her fall with a roll, crashed through dead twigs and leaves, and arrived with an ungraceful thump at the base of a tree.
Chapter 14
Hounds of Hell
“Ow.”
My head spinning from the impact, my wind knocked askew, I floundered awkwardly to a sitting position. Fire lanced through my left ankle, searing hot and sharp to my knee. I could not control the hiss of pain that escaped my teeth and brought Wolf swiftly to his haunches beside me.
“Highness, you are injured?” he asked, his voice still low. “Where?”
“I’m fine,” I gasped, trying to suck in air. Between having the breath knocked from my lungs and the agony slicing its way through my leg, I felt lucky to have even managed those words.
“Don’t be absurd.”
My own words resounding back to haunt me forced witless laughter to bubble up from my gut. Only the lack of air prevented it from erupting.
“Show me.”
His words, though spoken softly and without emphasis, had enough of an edge of command in them. I wordlessly took his hand and guided it to my left ankle. Too late, I remembered who truly held rank here. How did he do that?
With oddly gentle hands for one of his size and profession, he gingerly felt and probed my ankle without taking my boot off. He obviously knew as well as I did that once off, I may not get my boot back on again. I could already feel it pulsing, swelling, within the close confines of the supple goatskin. Sweat broke out on my brow, slowly dripping down the sides of my face, threatening to ooze into my eyes. My hair clung in damp tendrils to my face, and while the night had cooled somewhat, I felt nauseously hot.
“Not broken,” Wolf murmured.
“Good,” I said, preparing to stand up.
I braced my hand against his shoulder, and put weight on my right foot. Until his implacable hand on my hip kept me firmly in place, on my butt, amid the dead leaves, twigs, and loose arrows spilled from my quiver.
“It is still badly sprained, Highness,” he said.
I felt him move the joint back and forth, quite gently, but the slight movement was quite enough to leave me gasping at the sharp pain.
“You cannot walk on that,” Wolf said firmly.
“I have no choice,” I snapped. “Those Sheka-Shek-whatever-hunters will be on us within moments.”
“Of course they will be,” he said, getting to his feet. “But we’ll be on our way before they get here.”
“Then what—” I stammered.
“I’ll carry you.”
At his insistence, I unbuckled my weapons from around my back, stuffed the spilled arrows back into my quiver. Wolf then looped the belt and my bow over his shoulder. His powerful arms scooped me up with as much effort as I might use to pick up a puppy. My breath caught in surprise at the ease in which he did so.
“You cannot carry me all the way,” I protested as he set off at a fast walk through the trees.
“Care to make a wager on that, Highness?” he asked, a faint mischievous smile on his lips. “Perhaps we can arm wrestle over it? You win, you walk.”
Hell and damnation. Men always like to strut their sheer brute strength before the weaker sex. I shut my teeth on any more attempts to dissuade him from carrying me. Resting my arm around his neck, I leaned back into his shoulder and relaxed. His arms were actually quite comfortable, I thought peaceably, his stride long and smooth. He smelled nice too: a clean manly scent, faintly of leather, spices and fresh pine.
Aware of how easily he blushed, I leaned my face close to his and breathed deep.
“You smell nice,” I commented.
Almost total darkness could not hide the swift rush of blood to his face. I almost laughed aloud. Oh, this is just too easy, I thought, delighted.
He glowered, his eyes rolling toward me, his brows lowering into a mild scowl.
I put my arms around his neck. He harrumphed, a sound closer to a man choking than one clearing his throat. Ah, I was having way too much fun with this. Nephrotiti, shame me.
The feather in my hair dangled close to his ear, tickling him. Without making it obvious, he flinched slightly every time it swung too close. I smoothed it and his hair back from his face so I could watch him, his face so close to mine. Another blush crept up his neck into his cheeks. My grin sprouted wings.
“You are adorable when you blush.”
“Excuse me?”
Funny. He suddenly could not look me in the eye.
“Anyone who blushes as easily as you do can’t be all bad,” I said.
The scowl deepened but still could not hide the furious blush on his cheeks. I could feel the heat of them baking off his skin in waves. I chuckled.
“Care to know how many men I’ve killed?” he asked.
I shrugged, still grinning. “How many of them were outside the Arena and in cold blood?”
The world echoed with his silence. Damn, if he didn’t actually flush deeper. I had no idea a human face could turn such a variety of shades of red.
“You are an evil woman, Your Highness,” he grumbled.
“I know,” I replied, kissing him on his bristly cheek. “But you like me anyway.”
This time, Wolf actually laughed. “Aye, Your Highness, I do like you.”
“I like you, too, Wolf.”
He harrumphed again. “Good. Most excellent. Where do we go, Your Highness?”
Ah, I’ll not let you escape into formality. You won’t get off that easily.
“The monastery lies about three leagues north of Soudan,” I said. “Kel’Ratan will meet us there. Where are we now, in relation to the great north gate?”
“Far south. We will have to circle Soudan.”
As though he had been there hundreds of times, Wolf found a small foot trail and speeded up his pace. I glanced up at the stars, noting we headed roughly east by northeast. The trail took us further from the city wall, into trees and undergrowth, wending its way further from the town and potential guards manning the guard posts.
“Where will this trail take us?” I asked.
“If this is the right one, it leads east toward a cliff.”
“I remember it, we camped not far from there when we came here.”
“It’s about five leagues from where we are now. If we can reach it, we might temporarily lose our pursuers.”
“Back there you said there was no way we can mask our scent. Why not?”
“These hounds are too smart and too well trained to be fooled by common tricks. They can pick scents from the very air itself, even from prey downwind of them.”
“That’s impossible.”
I caught a swift glance from those chilling gray eyes with the eerie ring of black, eyes still cold enough to raise goose pimples on my arms. Somehow, his eyes had changed back to their normal color without my noticing. I looked closer in the darkness: his blond locks had magically transferred back to his normal black coloring. Perhaps the distance between him and Rygel caused the spell to fail.
“Are you so sure?”
I lapsed into silence. Wolf moved as swiftly as he could while not jostling me, to spare me as much pain as possible. Inwardly, I cursed my luck to have injured my leg. Despite his speed, we would have travelled much faster had I been able to run beside him. Perhaps the Shekinah Tongu had already reached the south gate and even now set their hounds upon our trail.
“How will the escarpment help us? Descending it will slow us down.”
“It will slow the Tongu down as well,” Wolf answered. “They will be exposed, vulnerable to your arrows.”
“Won’t they just shoot us down with their own bows?”
His teeth gleamed white under the faint light of the stars as he grinned. “N
ot if they want us alive. I’d wager my jeweled collar, if Rygel hadn’t taken it, that is, your winged friend is out looking for you. We might be able to keep enough distance between us until we can find him, and through him get help from your warriors.”
“Will they attack then?”
“Not openly. But they will not cease until we are taken.”
Wolf ran on, ducking under low-hanging branches, jumping dead trees, crashing through undergrowth, heedless of the noise he made. As the hounds would trail us by scent anyhow, silence would do us little good. I peered into the darkness and the dense forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of our pursuers. The pain in my foot faded to a dull throb. Perhaps I could run now. Wolf shook his head when I mentioned it, refusing to consider the notion, and ran on.
A faint lightening in the sky over the treetops showed me dawn not far away. Birds interrupted the deep stillness with their awakening chirps, greeting the coming daylight. I took heart from the normalcy of the sounds of the forest coming to life, the frightened woman in me hoping that with the coming of dawn, our pursuers would slink away, defeated. The trained warrior in me knew such hopes were amateurish at best.
I speculated we had travelled perhaps three leagues when Wolf stopped to rest and catch his breath. He put me down on a nearby log with as much gentleness as he might show a precious relic.
“Forgive me, Highness,” he said. “I need a moment.”
While his breath came and went evenly, I saw the droop in his eyes that told me he neared exhaustion. I put my foot experimentally to the ground.
“My ankle is better,” I began.
Wolf’s head rose sharply as though, animal-like, he caught a sudden scent. His eyes widened in the dimness, suddenly alert, wary. At the same instant, the birds among the trees shushed their chirps. Eerie silence settled over the forest. Naught stirred, naught breathed, naught moved. Not even the breeze rustled through the treetops. Only the hairs on the back of my neck rose to stand at attention while a chill crawled down my spine.
In an instant, several things happened at once. Wolf snarled, clawing for the hilt of his sword at his back. The snarl from his mouth sounded so utterly wolflike, I half-thought a wolf to be standing near, baring its teeth at me. At the same moment, huge creatures burst from the undergrowth surrounding us and lunged, oddly silent save the noise they made among the thickets. I stumbled to my feet, then immediately found myself slammed hard into the ground. In a tangle of fur and legs, I saw baleful eyes glaring, bristly savage muzzles tied shut with leather thongs. I pushed at them with my hands and feet, feeling their claws rake my body as I fended off heavy bodies covered in thick wiry fur. Hounds.
Shekinah Tongu!
They had tracked us down with their hellish hounds. Huge dogs with gray and brown wiry hair, muzzles tied to prevent them from biting and rending.
They wanted us alive.
Above me, Wolf slew a hound that leaped for his throat, despite its inability to kill. A savage swing of his blade cut its head off, the body falling to the side, twitching, in the dead leaves and brush. Another leaped toward him. He smashed it in the ribs, sending it huffing for breath, limping madly, into the forest for protection.
Huge beasts, the hounds’ weight kept me pinned to the ground. I cursed, flailing about me with my fists, connecting as hard as I could to the hounds’ sensitive ears, chopping at their throats, punching ribs. Despite their tied muzzles, their lips skinned back from savage white fangs, gleaming in the faint light. Weird chuffing noises hissed from their throats.
Wolf seized a hound that worried my throat by the skin over its back, lifting it high into the air. It still struggled, trying to bite his hands, twisting, thrashing; only the thong tying its mouth shut saved Wolf’s hands from a serious mauling. He turned, two fast revolutions, and slung the beast into the trees. Amidst the chaos above and around me, I heard it hit a tree with a solid thunk.
Bleeding from dozens of gashes raked from the hounds’ claws, I fought my way to a sitting position, then awkwardly to my feet. Wolf had possession of my sword and bow, in their belt over his shoulder, but I still had my dagger. I whipped it from its sheath, and instantly plunged it into the side of a hound that leaped for my throat. The hound’s lunge took me back down to my back again, its death throes pinning me to the rocks with its weight. Its body protected me from the hounds still alive, chuffing, clawing ineffectively at their dead mate as they sought to kill me. Despite their inability to savage my flesh with their fangs, their aggression alarmed me. Had their muzzles not been tied shut, I have no doubt both Wolf and I would be dead now. Well, perhaps not Wolf. I shot a swift glance in his direction, seeing him hack his sword through the body of yet another daemon hound. On his feet and armed, he would prevail against almost any opponent.
I made to heave the dead weight of the hound off my body when another body fell upon me, slammed me back down, pinning me once more. This time no hound glared down into my eyes. A human face with a myriad of scars and tattoos that crawled over dark skin in strange patterns hung perilously close to my own. White teeth gleamed in the faint light while black eyes seemed to drink in and swallow what tiny light there was. A hunter.
In a flash, I raised my blade to swiftly stab the Tongu between the ribs and stop his beating heart. He seemed to read my intent before I thought it, for his own hand caught my wrist and twisted sharply. I bit my lip to prevent an outcry of pain, and my knife dropped, harmless, to the ground.
Beyond the Tongu’s evil face, I could catch glimpses of Wolf fighting with sword and dagger against four or five Tongu. Hounds still leaped to bring him down, but were cuffed and whipped aside by more Tongu who stood aside and watched the battle rage.
My right hand immobilized, I brought my left around in a sharp punch to the Tongu’s ear. He hissed in pain, and whacked me a sharp blow in return across my face. I fought on, heedless of his blows, seeking to hurt him badly enough I could roll him off me and get to my feet.
“Stupid bitch,” the Tongu hissed in a hoarse whisper.
Only then did I notice the scars that ran across his throat in twists and loops. Not only did they cut the throats of their hounds, but it appeared they also they maimed their own. The battle above me raged on in near silence, only grunts, hisses, whispers and the ring of metal against metal.
A second Tongu aided his mate by dragging the corpse of the dead hound off me, and together they pinned me to the earth, my hands outstretched to either side. I still tried to kick, earning the attentions of a third pouncing on my legs.
“Fiery bitch,” one over my head hissed.
Wolf’s battle for his own life came into view, and I saw beyond the heads of my attackers Wolf fighting with sword and knife, his moves too swift to see in the near darkness. The Tongu saw them, though, and his blades wounded, but failed to kill, any of his enemies. My ragged hope that he would win out to save us both waned as an opening behind him emerged, an opening a Tongu took full advantage of. The Tongu hit him, hard, with the hilt of a dagger, on the back of his head.
He did not fall. However, his blades dropped in their defense, and the Tongu seized their chance. By sheer numbers, they drove him to the earth. I nearly cried when I saw them tie his hands behind his back, taking his weapons and my bow from him. He lay still, gasping, half-conscious, in the dirt not far from me. Brutal would have his prizes, I thought bitterly, and wondered how well I would die under the torture he no doubt had waiting for me.
“I get her first,” hissed the one who sat astride me.
My mind and body froze at the menace in his words, the intent behind them. I caught a leer in the glint of his eyes in the half-light, read his thoughts. The possibility every female warrior of my race faced when captured by the enemy.
Rape!
Panic set in as they held my body down with their greater strength and tore at my clothes. Nephrotiti, nay! Anything but rape. I could not prevent the scream of sheer terror that ripped through my throat. My panic tasted of sweet hot cop
per, and my bladder let go. I struggled, wept, thrashed, all for naught. Rough hands tore my leathers from me, every scrap, right down to my boots. Hot rank breath scorched my face, the dim stars above and behind their grunting straining bodies.
A Tongu reeking of old sweat, piss and blood pressed his body to mine, his mates splitting my legs wide open. How many were there? Seven or nine or a hundred, I would suffer their brutal bodies possessing me, hurting, their savage lust tearing me apart. Until now, I had always had steel in my hands when faced with rape.
I could not help it. In panic, I screamed again.
“Bitch.” Another hiss in my face, its breath hot and rank, smelling foul.
Hot flesh probed between my legs. I thrashed and kicked, trying to bite the face so close to my own. A hand clamped down over my mouth, mashing my lips against my teeth, bruising, cutting my face. I tried to bite the stinking hand, but not able to get a grip with my teeth.
An earth-shattering roar, so loud, so savage, so inhuman, suddenly broke the darkness at the same instant the sun’s first rays shot over the horizon. My attackers froze in a distinct tableau, their grunts and hisses silenced. They forgot me, held in thrall by the sound of hell arriving on earth.
A giant rose from the darkness near the earth, a shadow among shadows, a huge god of ancient legend rising with the sun’s power mantling its enormous shoulders. Usa’a’mah himself might have descended to pitch battle against the foes of his worshippers, dropping from heaven, the sun herself shrouding him in light. For surely only a god could stand against such enemies with only courage in his fists.
Silhouetted against the bright light, Wolf raised his arms, breaking like a strand of sea kelp the leather thongs that bound his wrists. With the sun behind him, his shaggy, unkempt hair falling to his shoulders, he appeared like a fallen angel from the underworld. Only his eyes gleamed in the huge, dark shadow he had become. Red eyes. Not gray, not blue, no eerie ring of black. No shred of humanity sparked within their depths. Just the color of fresh blood filled them, the evil red eyes of a daemon straight from the pits of hell. The Wolf I knew, and liked, had vanished. A shaggy devil from the fiery depths of the underworld stood in his place. Another hellish, daemonic roar filled the clearing.
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