Novikke couldn’t answer, but the woman didn’t wait for one, anyway. She left the room without another word.
Zaiur peered in through the open door. His eyes went to her arm. He smiled. “Come on, human.”
Not wanting another punishment, she staggered to her feet. As she passed Aruna, she raised her eyes from the floor long enough to look up at his face.
She might have looked at him with hatred if she’d had the presence of mind to feel hate. In that moment, she could only feel shock. Her arm still burned and tingled, and she could scarcely breathe.
Aruna didn’t look at her at all. His eyes were fixed on the floor.
As he turned and fell into step behind her, she felt his hand touch hers, and she thought he was going to hold on to her as he escorted her back to her hut. But instead of holding her, he pressed a small object into her palm. She hesitated, surprised, and then closed her fingers around it.
She stopped beside Zaiur and watched Aruna’s back as he walked away. He followed the mage down the hallway without looking back.
Her fist tightened around the object. It was something small and metallic. She slipped it into her pocket as Zaiur directed her toward the opposite end of the hall.
Chapter 9
Novikke felt the presence of the tiny metal thing in her pocket for the entire walk back to her prison. Zaiur hardly looked back at her. He hadn’t an inkling of what had just happened. There was no reason for him to suspect anything, but as he fastened her to the post, she was terrified that he would somehow know.
“You are very quiet tonight. I did not think you would give up so easily,” Zaiur said as he finished tying her. He moved to face her. “I like you better like this.”
She looked at his feet, praying for him to leave.
He crouched to meet her eye level. When she still refused to look at him, he took her chin in his hand and forced her face up toward his. His fingers on her felt like every disgusting, awful thing that crawled beneath the dirt or slithered in gutters.
“Don’t touch me,” she said through her teeth, but she didn’t have enough room to pull away from him.
A finger snaked across her jaw, and then he held her chin between his thumb and forefinger. His eyes went to her lips. For a horrible moment, she thought he was going to kiss her.
“Would you rather have Aruna?”
She didn’t react.
“I think he wanted to fuck you, too. He did not, though, did he? He wouldn’t. What a waste.” He let go, pulling back to study her. “Would you struggle? Or would you just be still and wait for it to be done with? Before, I would have guessed the former. But now I think maybe you have given up.” He smiled. “You did give up eventually, last time.”
“You’re never going to convince me to sleep with you willingly, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“We will see if you are still so certain when the blade is at your throat. I think I can make you do many things, with the right incentive.”
Finally, he went to the door. He looked over his shoulder at her to add, “But either way would be fine with me.”
He left, shutting the door behind him. She let out a breath, leaning her head back against her post.
“He enjoys drawing a reaction out of you,” Neiryn said from across the room. “If you don’t offer one, he will grow bored. That’s why he doesn’t talk to me anymore.”
“Then how should I react?” Novikke snarled. “It makes no difference how I act. He’s going to do what he wants, regardless.” She scowled at him with misdirected rage because she couldn’t direct it anywhere else. It made her feel a little better to yell at someone. She snorted. “You’re a man. Of course you don’t understand. You probably—”
She cut herself off, deciding that the last thing she’d been about to say was probably unfair. She was not feeling generous toward men at the moment, or toward anyone. “I’m going to kill him,” she said instead, and began trying to reposition herself so she could reach into her pocket.
Neiryn’s expression didn’t change much, but for the first time, she sensed a bit of sympathy from him. He looked away and didn’t offer any further advice. He also didn’t comment on the way she was twisting to try to get to the object in her pocket. She ended up having to get halfway standing, holding one leg out and wiggling until it fell out of her pocket and clinked onto the floor.
It was a flat piece of metal with short protrusion on one side, like a small key—as she had guessed, but hadn’t dared hope for.
She peered across the hut at the surly, beaten-half-to-death elf that was now her only hope of getting out of there alive.
“Neiryn,” she said quietly. “If I got that collar off you, could you magic us out of here?”
“How, pray tell, would you get this collar off me?”
“Could you get us out, if I did?”
“If you got this collar off, I would bathe this entire cursed forest in Aevyr’s holy fire.”
“I’ll take that as a yes. Here. Look.”
When he looked over impatiently, she nodded to the key on the ground. It was startling how quickly his demeanor changed.
His eyes went wide. “That’s—Where did you get that?” he hissed.
“A gift from a fairy.”
He glanced at the door. “Give it to me.”
Novikke hesitated. “If I give this to you, you have to help me. We escape together.”
“Yes, fine. For Aevyr’s sake, hurry up, before they come back.”
She kicked the key across the floor. It skidded to a stop halfway between the two of them. He gave her a withering look.
“Sorry,” she said.
With an urgency she wouldn’t have thought him capable of until then, he stretched out one foot and scooped up the key, leaned over to pick it up, then twisted around until he managed to fumble it into the back of the collar.
The collar popped open and fell to the floor.
There was a burst of flame, and then the ropes around his wrists were gone. After what had happened in the other building, the sight of it made Novikke flinch.
He stood up and stretched, flexing his wrists. He took a long, steadying breath, then pressed his hands together by his forehead and closed his eyes as if in prayer.
After a moment of appreciative silence, he crept to the door, limping on his injured leg, then put his ear to the wood to listen.
“Untie me,” Novikke said.
He looked back at her with fresh annoyance, as if he’d already forgotten she was there. “There is more chance of one of us getting out of here unnoticed than two. Sorry.”
Novikke stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”
There was a shadow across the light coming through at the bottom of the door as someone outside walked past. They both froze, silent, until the footsteps faded.
“You can’t leave me here,” Novikke hissed.
“Of course I can.”
“I’ve just saved your life!” She kept doing that, and it kept backfiring. Maybe she should have learned her lesson the first time.
“Don’t pretend to be some magnanimous benefactor. You meant to use my fire for your own escape. I owe you nothing. I told you, I’m not your friend.”
“If you go through that door without me, I’ll scream.”
“Then they’ll know you delivered the key to me, and you’ll be punished. Do you want that?” He shot a pointed look at her burned arm. Novikke stiffened. She didn’t want that. She also didn’t want to implicate Aruna.
He reached for the door handle.
“Neiryn!” Novikke shouted.
The look he gave her could have melted steel. For a moment, she thought he would incinerate her on the spot.
“You’re not a mage, either,” she said quickly. “You can’t heal yourself, or you would have done it already. All you’ve got is your fire. You won’t get far on your own. You’re going to need someone to help you get to a healer. Maybe even to help you limp out of this outpost.”
“I wouldn’t do that because I’m not as much of a bastard as you are, obviously, since I was naive enough to think we were on the same side.”
He hovered by the door, his face hard.
She was so tired of being powerless. She was so tired of being at the mercy of people who cared nothing for her. “Please,” she said miserably, having no further argument than what had already been stated. “Please.”
The sun elf made a face. He hesitated for a long time.
“If you try to run ahead without me, I won’t hesitate to kill you,” he said.
She slumped with relief. “Of course you won’t,” she scoffed. She suspected he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her even if she didn’t run ahead.
“Do we understand each other or not?”
“Yes.”
After a long pause, he growled something under his breath. He went to her.
He bent behind her, and there was a flash of orange light. She winced when she felt heat, but he took care not to burn her. He pulled at the ropes, and they loosened enough for her to get free.
She rubbed her wrists, checking for damage. “Thank you,” she said, not politely.
He watched her suspiciously, like he was already waiting for betrayal. He listened at the door a moment longer, then opened it an inch.
“We should try to head east, toward Valtos,” Novikke said, pointing in the direction opposite the door.
He shot her a challenging look. “We should go west, toward Tal-Vreth.”
“Valtos is leagues closer. Don’t be stupid. You know I’m right.”
He made an irritated sound. “Fine.” He peered out the crack in the door, watching for something, then opened it a little farther. He motioned for her to follow, then slipped outside. She hurried after him.
As soon as they exited, they were visible to a large portion of the outpost. Novikke’s eyes darted to the several figures she could see. None of them were looking in her direction. Everyone except for the reverse-graveyard shift would be asleep. It was morning now, with brilliant sun slanting through the trees and between buildings—which would be a boon. The night elves’ eyes weren’t as good with the light or with the contrast of light and shadow.
They passed side of the hut and around the corner to the back. The sound of voices nearby stopped them in their tracks. They were still and silent for a few seconds, and then the voices faded as they moved away.
Neiryn summoned a flickering flame in one hand, then dragged it along the base of the building. The wood blackened and then caught fire.
“What are you doing?” Novikke hissed.
He ran the fire along the wood until it was glowing red and there was no question that it would not die out. Novikke edged away from the flames, which were growing hotter by the second.
“Kuda Varai is more important than we are,” Neiryn said. “The Varai will drop everything to make sure it doesn’t burn. They’ll come here before they look for us.” He listened for more voices, then darted across the path to the next building.
After a few more frantic leaps from hiding place to hiding place, they’d reached the wall surrounding the outpost. There was no gate here, but that wasn’t a deterrent for someone who could blast fire out of his hands. Novikke watched as Neiryn raised his hands to the timber. A concentrated stream of flame jetted from his palms. The wood began dissolving into smoke and ash, and slowly he started to carve out an opening. The wood was thick. It took time.
There was a burst of shouting from somewhere inside the camp.
“You’d better hurry,” Novikke whispered.
“Shut up.” There was sweat on his brow, and he was grimacing with effort. Finally he broke through to the other side. When the wood had thinned, he punched away the remaining bits of it to make a hole big enough for them to climb through. The wood surrounding the hole had caught, and flame was licking up the wall above them, drawing a line that pointed directly to their location.
There was more shouting. Novikke turned, and there were three night elves running toward them. One of them stopped and drew a bow.
“Go,” Neiryn said. With a jerk of his arm, he flung a wide swathe of flame at the Varai.
She didn’t need to be told twice. She dove through the fence. On the other side was the forest. Kuda Varai. Huge and wild and dangerous.
Her legs itched to run. She waited, instead. Neiryn tumbled through the hole after her. He made a pained sound, clutching his leg. Novikke took his arm and helped pull him to his feet. He looked confused to find her still there.
Somewhere, a horn sounded an alarm. They ran, and within steps Neiryn was lagging behind. Behind him, black smoke billowed up from behind the fence. Their mages would be occupied with putting the fires out, but that didn’t help with the archers and swordsmen who were climbing through the fence after them.
Novikke leapt to cover behind a tree. Neiryn dove after her just as an arrow shot past his head.
“You can’t outrun them,” Novikke observed.
“No,” he said, without his customary venom. He rested his hand gingerly on his wounded leg, wincing. “I will have to outfight them and then outrun them after.” He glanced up at her uncertainly. “Will you help me?”
She bit her lip. Another arrow dug into the other side of the tree. “I’ll try, but I can’t do much to help fight.”
“I thought you were in the army.”
“Not as a fighter.”
He sighed. “Of course. Is there anything you can do?”
“I could just run and leave you here.”
He gave her a dark look.
She was, shamefully, considering it. There wasn’t much she could do for him, and staying would only get her captured along with him. The only thing that kept her from doing it was how vehemently she’d denied his predictions earlier. She would hate to prove him right.
There was a rustling in the undergrowth behind them. They turned in time to see a sword swinging toward them. Novikke ducked, hunched against the tree. There was a burst of flame. As the sword came toward Neiryn, he raised a hand filled with fire and jammed it into their attacker’s face, blasting flames into his mouth.
Novikke stared, horrified. There was a brief, muffled shriek, and then the sword dropped from the night elf’s hand. She stepped back as he fell. He was dead before he hit the ground. She caught a glimpse of his face, charred and unrecognizable, and quickly averted her eyes. She glanced up at Neiryn—who had already turned his attention to the archers behind them—with a new wariness.
Neiryn shot another round of fire at their pursuers, then ducked. He was breathing hard. “I can’t keep this up indefinitely.”
“Then let’s keep moving.” She picked up the fallen night elf’s sword. It was surprisingly short, light, and balanced—less unwieldy than the swords that were standard issue in the Ardanian army.
Neiryn leaned around the tree and shot another volley of fireballs behind them, forcing the night elves to take cover. The fire wasn’t really spreading, given that this was Kuda Varai, but the night elves took no chances. As soon as the fireballs landed, a mage was quenching the flames before they could grow.
They ran—but there were more Varai flanking them from the west. They must have been patrolling around the outpost when the alarm sounded. Shouts rang out. Many more of them were coming now.
Neiryn said something in Ysuran that sounded like a curse. He positioned himself in the cover of another tree and squared off against the closest one. Another headed straight for Novikke.
“Neiryn?” she called, backing away. He was busy. He didn’t even look in her direction.
The night elf slowed as he approached her, shouting something that she didn’t understand. She turned and ran. She yelped as the tip of his blade sliced through the back of her shirt.
Running parallel to the fence, she moved to put herself farther out of range of the people coming through the hole. The night elf’s light footsteps crunched through the brush close on her tail.
When she came to a patch of sunlight streaming between the trees, she stopped, ducking behind a broad tree. She put her back to it and circled around it, hearing the night elf rounding it just behind her. She ran all the way around the trunk until she was behind him. He whirled on her, and when he did, the rising sun glared in his eyes.
Night Elves of Ardani: Book One: Captive Page 11