by Sophia Sharp
Nora watched, stricken in terror, as Borrak’s blade sunk deep into the upper part of Gray’s front leg. Gray roared and threw his shoulder wildly at Borrak. It connected, and the man went flying across the tent.
Gray was on him in an instant. He roared again and swept one clawed paw right at Borrak’s chest. Borrak screamed out in pain as Gray’s claws cut deep trenches along his flesh. But there was nothing more he could do. Another scream died in his throat as Gray’s entire weight shifted on top of him, crushing the man entirely. His limbs twitched, but Gray’s jaws were already on his throat, and the man’s life was ripped away with one savage chomp.
Gray roared again, a primal sound, a sound of pure victory. Nora looked and saw Serkhol lying face down, completely still, in a pool of his own blood. She could see the tracks across his back where Gray’s claws connected. Another roar came from Gray, this time with him rising up to stand on his hind legs. He looked absolutely deadly, the perfect killing machine. His massive shape took up the entire tent, now, and his fur was matted with human blood. Nora had never seen anything more beautiful.
Gray came back down, and looked immediately at Nora. And right away, Nora saw the difference in his eyes. Whereas before they held a visceral animal intensity, they were now full of concern and caring. Only for her. He started to walk over, but abruptly lost a step and fell forward.
Nora gasped – and choked on the taste of the cloth rag. In Gray’s moment of victory, she had forgotten all about the knife he had taken to his leg.
Gray tried again, getting up and walking toward Nora. But he couldn’t put any weight on the leg he had been stabbed in, and ended up hobbling on three legs. As he labored over, Nora’s heart went out to him. She hoped the injury wasn’t too bad, that the blade hadn’t gone too deep. No matter what, she would nurse him back to full health. Immediately. It was the first thing she would do after getting out of this snare.
Gray was beside her. He bowed his head toward her bound arm. His fur brushed her skin, and…nothing happened.
He stumbled back, looking as shocked as Nora felt. But then she realized what had happened. Of course! The herbs on the rag – they were suppressing her Vassiz abilities. Her connection to Gray would definitely be affected.
He looked at her, as if not quite sure what to do. As if he wasn’t even sure she was herself anymore. Nora violently shook her head from side to side, trying to knock the rag out of her mouth. But it wasn’t working. She tried speaking, but all that came out was a low, mumbled noise. Gray still only looked at her, completely unsure of what to do.
But what could she do? Without the connection, she couldn’t tell him how to free her. And with the rag in her mouth, she didn’t know how long it would be until the effects of the herbs wore off. She thought back. If they had been administrated once to her when she was captured, and then once again a bit after she had been thrust into this tent…it meant that it could take half a day, or more, before she could finally break free.
But Gray didn’t have that long. If left untreated, even in the best of situations, the wound he took could become infected. And the bacteria would spread to his blood stream, where it would overtake his entire body until he was beyond healing.
Wait a second. The pole! The one behind her, that her arms were bound to. If she could get Gray to break it down, she might be able to wiggle free, and then undo that filthy rag in her mouth. She wondered if the effects of the herbs would go away quicker if she wasn’t breathing their fumes every second breath.
She looked at Gray, making deep eye contact with him. He looked back at her…and suddenly, Nora saw recognition come back. The recognition that had fled momentarily when the connection with her didn’t work.
With her head, she motioned to the pole right behind her. Gray just looked at her. She tried again, slowly bringing her eyes up above her head toward the pole, as best she could. Gray still only looked at her. She blinked and then banged her head a few times against it.
Gray straightened and took a step toward her. She winced as she saw him avoid putting any weight on the bad leg. Then, very slowly, he rose up on his hind legs, and – with his good forelimb – took an easy swipe at the wooden pole above her head.
It snapped effortlessly, and Nora found herself falling forward. Gray roared again, quieter than before, but he sounded distressed. Then Nora felt the cloth of the tent fall upon her back.
She hadn’t realized the pole holding her up had also been holding up the entire canvas. With it gone, the tent had collapsed inward.
She rolled over and wiggled up to get her hands free of the wretched wooden rod. When her hands slipped over the top of the snapped piece, an overwhelming elation overtook her. She had done it! She had escaped!
Quickly, she slipped her bound hands underneath her legs to bring them to the front. And then she tore off the wretched rag.
For the first time in what seemed like years, she took a long, clean breath.
And smelt smoke.
Immediately, her senses heightened. Smoke? The candles! They must have lit the canopy on fire when it fell onto them. She had to get out. She heard Gray groan and felt the canvas shift as he also tried to escape. But the cloth on her was thick, and she had no idea which way to go. It was also dark, making it nearly impossible to see anything. She wished desperately her Vassiz senses would return sooner rather than later.
She pushed herself up into a crouch, the canopy yielding – barely – to her movement. Picking a direction at random, she started forward.
She used her nose to guide her. It might not have been nearly as sensitive as she was used to, but it told her she was moving away from the smoke. And toward fresh air.
Nora moved slowly, in a crouch, unable to see anything, and careful not to walk directly into the flames.
She took another crouching step forward and felt a resistance in the cloth in front of her. She pushed against it, feeling the fabric tighten and stiffen at the same time. She pushed – and stumbled out in the fresh night air, landing unceremoniously on her face.
Immediately, she got to her feet and turned back to see what remained. The moon gave her just enough light to see. The fabric of the tent lay spread out on the dirt floor, and she could see shapes underneath it. One of them was unmistakably Gray. Her eyes darted to the edge where the candles had been, scared of what she might find – and she sighed with relief. The small fire the candles started hadn’t burned very long, and although she could see some charred bits at the canopy’s edge, it was nothing that could start up again.
But Gray was still in there, and she saw him moving around uncertainly. As it were, he seemed to be getting only more tangled with the tent.
“Gray!” she called out, and he turned immediately toward her. “Come,” she said, and watched as he took a hesitant step toward her voice. “That’s right. Come here.” He took another step, and then another. Nora winced each time he moved, because she could clearly see the way he struggled with that injured leg. But soon enough, he was at the edge of the tent, and his head emerged from the under the canvas.
Nora hopped over somewhat awkwardly toward Gray. Her feet and hands were still bound. But she did not want to wait until the mixture of herbs wore off before she could finally be free of them. Gray came out completely, and his fur absolutely shone in the moonlit night.
“Thank you,” she whispered to him, leaning against him with one shoulder. She wanted to throw her arms around him, to form that connection that would let him know how much she truly appreciated the rescue. But for now, that awkward lean was all she could manage.
Gray nuzzled his head against the side of her arm and then slowly lay down on the ground beside her. While he didn’t look to be in any great pain, Nora knew the wound on the side of his leg was troubling him. She wanted to fix it as soon as possible.
But first, she had to get free. She looked around, trying to get a sense of whether there was anything she could use to assist her. And she felt absolutely stupid when s
he remembered Serkhol’s knife.
It would be on the ground somewhere under the tent canvas. She had to get to it, which meant pulling the heavy canvas away. And she didn’t know if she were strong enough to do it just yet.
She looked at Gray, and wondered whether he might be able to help somehow. But then again, with the way he labored when moving, she did not want to use him unless it became absolutely necessary.
Another question came up in her mind as she looked at him, though. A question she wondered about from the moment she saw him inside the tent. How was it that he had gotten here, when he was very clearly outside the barrier earlier? She had a suspicion, though. And it had to do with the two torrial.
She had seen the way their glow had petered out after Borrak and Serkhol took them off. And, if anything she had seen in the previous month was any indication, that meant they stopped working when they came off. Why, Nora didn’t know. But the timing of everything fit together so well. The barrier that had trapped her before had to be something that required a torrial. And once the first of the medallions had come off, it was likely that the entire barrier disappeared – if Gray’s arrival was any indication of that, which it clearly was. But she also wondered what else the two torrial could do.
In either case, she’d find out as soon as she moved the canvas tent. Kneeling down to grab a corner with her bound hands, she pulled back with all her might.
Chapter Twenty-One
~Rescue~
Nora struggled through it, but eventually, and with a great deal of sweat and effort, she succeeded in pulling the entire canopy off. Underneath was not a pleasant scene.
The bodies of both Borrak and Serkhol lay ruined in slushy puddles of their own blood. The ground had soaked some up, but as Nora walked amongst the wreckage to get to Borrak and the knife, she felt the moist warmth at her feet. And for whatever reason it repulsed her.
Amazingly, the table where the candles were lay completely undisturbed. The torrial were both still in the middle of it, and Nora’s clothes, together with Borrak’s and Serkhol’s shirts, remained underneath. Only the fallen candles gave away that the tent had collapsed.
Nora hobbled over and picked the knife from Borrak’s hand. Using its sharp blade – still stained with Gray’s blood – she cut through the rope that bound her feet. Next, positioning it between her knees, she rubbed the bands binding her hands until she seared them completely. An overwhelming sense of relief gripped her.
A gust of wind blew across her back, and she shivered from the cold. That was something she had completely forgotten about. With her Vassiz abilities intact, the cold and heat didn’t touch her. But now, sitting in the mud almost completely unclothed, and with the herbs still in effect, she was freezing.
Quickly, she scrambled to her clothes. In her haste, she’d forgotten completely how they had come off. She picked up her shirt first, throwing it over her head, only to have it fall to her feet. That’s when she was reminded of the slits that had been cut in it. She picked it up off the ground, and looked it over. She realized, holding it in her hand, that she could see a little bit more detail in the fabric than before. She exhaled thankfully. It meant that the herbs were starting to wear off.
But there was no way to mend her shirt, no way to tie it to somehow keep it on. And the same applied for her jeans, when she got to them. The only option, she realized with a growing sense of dread, was to use either Serkhol’s or Borrak’s shirts.
She shivered, and this time it wasn’t from the cold. She didn’t want to have anything to do with those two men touching her. But then again, she couldn’t just continue on half-naked. So, holding her breath and grimacing, she picked up one of the shirts and threw it around her shoulders.
Except that when she did so, nothing happened. She didn’t know what she expected – a shirt was just a shirt, really – but somehow she’d thought that knowing who it had once belonged to would make her skin crawl. And it did, in a way, but it was more mental than physical. Quickly, she did up the buttons on the front. The shirt was large and fell down past her knees. And surprisingly, it did not smell.
Next, Nora looked at the two torrial. She reached out to pick them up, then pulled her hand back. She remembered what Borrak had told her. About the elders using them to keep a tab on him and his brother. If that’s what they could be used for, Nora did not want to risk giving her location away. She did not want the elders to know anything about her.
But the medallions on the table did not have that iridescent glow. In fact, as best as Nora could tell, neither was currently functioning.
She didn’t want to take any chances, but she couldn’t just leave them there, either. Borrak had mentioned to her they were a key to their power, to their ability to trap her and the others. Were these torrial responsible for that black cloud that snatched up Hunter, Madison, and Alexander one by one? For the same gale that had engulfed her before she woke up bound and hanging upside down?
That could very well be the case, she decided. In fact, she could come up with no other explanation. Yet if these torrial only worked when they were touching somebody’s skin…
Nora picked up her tattered shirt, and shielding her hand, reached out toward one of the medallions. She touched the intricately worked surface with one hand – with the shirt acting as a buffer – and…nothing happened. She sighed with relief. The lines on the face of the medallion did not begin to glow, and she felt none of the reverberance that Rafael said came when using one of the devices. Still, she thought it better to be safe than sorry. Quickly, she wrapped up both medallions in her shirt, tying them off in a knot and leaving the chains exposed. Then, she cut off a small piece of fabric from her jeans and used it to pick both medallions up by their chains.
Now, she had to find the others. She remembered how she had been carried to the tent, and knew they were not far off. With all of them free, they could rush to Portland and find Gray the care he needed.
Of course, a bear wandering through the streets of an urban city would surely cause questions, so she knew that their options were limited to finding a pharmacy, getting some type of antibiotics, and applying them to Gray’s wound. And praying that they had done it fast enough.
She glanced over at Gray, who was still watching her from his perch on the ground. She wished desperately to form the connection with him, if only to see how much he was hurt. But she knew, based on her vision, that she was still under the influence of the herbal mixture. Trying now would only confuse them both.
“I’ll be back soon, okay?” she told him as she started off toward where the others were. “You stay here and…try not to move.” Gray only looked at her, but the way he crooked his head made Nora feel that, connection or no, he understood.
She walked the short distance to the area where the others were held briskly. When she saw the shapes of the wooden structures that held them form in the darkness around her, she broke out into a run.
She reached Alexander first. Taking a quick look at him, and seeing that he had passed out again, she glanced at Madison and Hunter to see if either of them was awake. Neither was. They must have been administrated a fresh serving of the herbs just before Borrak and Serkhol got to her tent.
Since she was already by Alexander, she decided to start with him first. She bent down to undo the rag that had been placed in his mouth, and threw it away as if it were a live serpent. The thing was vile, plain and simple.
Next, she stood back up to use the knife on the top of the rope that held him. She tried to be careful, to cradle him before he fell, but he turned out to be unexpectedly heavy. And without her strength back yet, she fumbled him down to the ground.
Well then. She stood up, hands on her hips. She definitely wasn’t used to feeling so weak. Exhaling loudly, she bent back down to start using the knife on the rope twisting around his body.
Once Alexander was free – if still passed out – Nora moved on to Madison, who was the next closest. This time, she took a bit more c
are with lowering Madison down, if only because now she was more aware of the strength she lacked. The rag came off next, and then all the ropes binding her body were sliced through.
She looked Madison over. She was out cold, as well, but didn’t seem to be hurt in any other way. Neither did Alexander, for that matter.
It was Hunter she was worried about. She remembered that horrible bruise on his face. And as soon as Madison was safely on the ground, she ran to him.
She slid onto her knees just before reaching Hunter. He hung there, twisted away from her. She took him by the shoulder to turn him around and gasped when she saw his face.
From far away, the bruise had looked bad, but not horrible. From up close, however, it looked absolutely dreadful. The entire left side of his face was puffed up almost beyond recognition, and the eye on that side was swollen shut.
“Oh, Hunter,” Nora whispered, cupping his head in her hands. How could she have let this happen? She pulled him closer, holding him tightly for a few seconds. Then, with increased determination, she rose up quickly to cut through the rope that held him. She caught him just before he fell, and with all the strength left in her, lowered him softly to the ground.
It was then that she saw the first flicker of his eye.
“N…Nora?” he said uncertainly.
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Oh my God, you’re awake!”
“A…wake?” He sounded drowsy. “Where…where am I?”
“You’re in the woods. We’re all in the woods. We were captured here by two humans serving the elders.”
“Captured?” His eye widened in surprise. “We were captured?”
“That’s right,” Nora said gently, “but Gray ended up saving me. And he took care of the two humans.”
“How could…humans…capture us?”
“They had torrial,” Nora explained. “But that’s not important now. You are. How are you feeling?”
