Rohn (Dragons of Kratak Book 1)

by Ruth Anne Scott

  Tara frowned. “I thought you didn’t care. I thought you didn’t feel anything.”

  Lilith lowered her eyes to the ground. “I guess I didn’t.”

  “Why should we believe you can feel anything now?” Ari asked.

  “I don’t feel anything now,” Lilith told him. “But I guess I don’t want to see what happened to Ledo happen to Taig. I couldn’t do anything for Ledo then, but I can do something for Taig now.”

  Tara couldn’t control her shaking hands. “Come with us, Lilith. Get away from these horrible people. You can go back to the Avitras and find your parents.”

  Lilith shook her head. “I’ll help you get away, but I won’t go. The Outliers are my people now. I’ve been with them all my life. I can’t change now.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” Allen told her. “You helping us proves you’re still alive. You don’t have to stay here.”

  Lilith turned away. “I can’t leave. Now come on. I’ll show you how to get away.”

  “How are we going to get us past the guards?” Ari asked.

  Lilith shrugged. “I drugged them. They won’t wake up any time soon.”

  Before anyone could argue with her, she slipped out of the tent into the night, leaving the friends no choice but to follow her. Allen went first. He cocked his ears to hear the soft fall of her feet in the grass. Tara hung close behind him until they found the torches surrounding Taig. Sure enough, a dozen guards lay asleep on the ground. They didn’t stir when the group approached.

  Taig’s chin hung down on his chest, and a bruise darkened the side of his face where Lilith hit him with her stick. Reina stepped on dry stick, and Taig’s head shot up with a start. “Who’s there?”

  Tara ran to his side, but she dared not touch him. “We’re here, Taig. We’re getting out of here.”

  His eyes raced from one side to the other. He yanked at his bonds when he saw Lilith. Blood trickled down his wrists. “Don’t let her come near me.”

  Lilith laughed in his face. Her bright teeth shone in the torchlight. “I’m sacrificing a lot more than you think by letting you go. Don’t tempt me to keep you here after all.”

  “What do you mean?” Tara asked.

  “Don’t you know?” Lilith waved her hand. “I guess you wouldn’t know. The designated gets to pitch the chosen before the sacrifice.”

  Tara blinked. “You’re not making sense. What are you saying?”

  Lilith smacked her lips. “This is like explaining everything to children. One person gets picked to conduct the sacrificial ritual. Old Ponchy gave me the honor of designating me, and I got to choose who we would sacrifice. I chose him.” She nodded toward Taig. “If I’m going to pitch someone, I might as well pick the best one, and he looked the best to me.”

  Aeifa made a disgusted face. “Are you telling us that, after you groped Taig the way you did, you’re going to finish him off before you kill him? You’re going to have sex with him.”

  A groan escaped Taig, and the Ursidreans shifted from one foot to the other.

  Lilith darted forward. She pressed her body against Taig and ran her tongue up the side of his face. He jerked and struggled, but he couldn’t get away. Lilith bit his ear. Then she stepped back with a cruel laugh. “You love it, don’t you? You wish I could pitch you, just once, don’t you? Wouldn’t you love to get into me, just once before you kick off for the outer stratosphere? Wouldn’t you love to die shooting your strength into me? You know you would.” She laughed at her own joke, but her voice rang hollow in the trees.

  Taig fought against his bonds and whined in terror. The others stared at the two in shock. In the end, Lilith turned away. She pulled a metal dagger from her waist and slashed the thongs holding Taig’s wrists. He slumped and almost fell, but Tara ducked under his arm and held him up.

  Lilith sniffed at him. “He won’t be running anywhere the way he is. The guards will catch you before the sun gets up.”

  “I’ll run out of here,” Taig replied. “I’ll run ‘til I drop.”

  “We’ll get him out of here,” Tara told Lilith. “Don’t you worry about that. We’ll get him out if we have to carry him the whole way.”

  “You’ll have to,” Lilith replied. “You’ll have to get over that pass in a hurry if you want to get away with your lives. If the Outliers catch you, they won’t bother to bring you back for a second chance.”

  “We’ll make it,” Ari exclaimed.

  “What about Reina?” Aeifa asked.

  “One of us could carry her,” Allen suggested.

  “Who could carry her?” Aeifa asked. “You two boys can only just run fast enough to keep up. You couldn’t add a weight like that and expect them to make it out.”

  “I would carry her myself,” Tara replied, “but I’ll probably have to carry Taig.”

  Taig pushed her away. He took one unsteady step before he caught his balance. “No one’s carrying me. I can run. You see if I don’t keep up with the rest of you.”

  Ari spoke up. “Then I’ll carry Reina. Now come on. We don’t have a lot of time.”

  “We’ll be back in Ursidrean territory before sunset,” Allen exclaimed.

  Lilith shook her head. “You can’t go back to Ursidrean territory. The Outliers will find you if you go that way.”

  “What other way is there?” Tara asked.

  Lilith pointed up the pass where they first encountered the Outliers. “When you get to the top of the pass, turn west. Follow that ridge and don’t drop down for anything. It will curve around to the south.”

  Allen frowned and stroked his chin. “I noticed that curve of mountains when we passed them last time. They reminded me of something.”

  “It’s the Western Divide,” Lilith replied. “It’s the border between Avitras territory and Ursidrean territory.”

  Taman’s eyes lit up. “Then we’re home. Once we find the Divide, we can follow it back to Harbeiz.”

  Lilith stuck her knife in her belt. “Don’t bother running away at all if you’re going to go that way. You might not trust me, but you’re as good as dead if you go anywhere near Ursidrean territory. The Outliers know you were searching for it, and that’s where they’ll look for you. Follow the Divide until it curves around to run north-south. Then drop down into Avitras territory.”

  Ari stiffened. “The Avitras? We can’t go to them. They’ll kill us.”

  “We don’t know that,” Tara told him.

  “They’ll take you prisoner as soon as you cross the border,” Lilith went on. “They’ll take you to their Alpha.”

  “Piwaka?” Aeifa asked.

  “He’s an old man,” Lilith replied, “but he favors peace. He’ll listen to you, and he’ll make sure nothing happens to you.”

  “You said Piwaka is your father,” Tara countered.

  Lilith fixed her with a fierce stare. “He is. Tell him and my mother I sent you.”

  “When we tell them where you are,” Allen told her, “they’ll want to get you back.”

  She smiled. “That’s exactly why I’m not going with you. I would have to explain what happened to Ledo.”

  Tara stared at her. Then she turned away. “I understand. You don’t want to face them after what you did.”

  “I didn’t do anything,” Lilith replied. “I was a little child, barely able to understand what was happening. If I hadn’t taken part in the feast, the Outliers would have killed me, too. They would have left me to die in the wilderness where they found me.”

  “You still haven’t explained how you wound up out here in the first place,” Ari pointed out.

  “That’s because I don’t remember.” Lilith moved away. “Now get on your way. These men won’t stay asleep forever. Get running, and don’t let me see you around here again.”

  No one hesitated to be told twice. Tara ran into the trees. Then she paused to make sure Taig could keep up. He trotted at her side, and they picked up speed along the path to
ward the stream. Taman and Allen came behind at their steady pace. Ari grinned at Reina, who gave him a playful smack on the arm. Then he hitched her up on his back and set off running with the others. He couldn’t run as fast as he usually did, but he kept pace with the Ursidreans, and Aeifa ran behind him in case he needed help.

  Taig stumbled once in the tangled undergrowth. Then he found his footing. In a little while, he ran at Tara’s side the way they used to in their own home territory. The wind cooled Tara’s cheeks, and her nose caught the exotic scents of forest all around. She could almost believe they were back home again and none of this ever happened.

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  Taken for the Alien Prince PREVIEW

  Chapter One

  Layla could only remember running. She was barefoot and the ground beneath her feet was cold and damp, sticks and rocks occasionally digging into the soft flesh and low brush clawing at her as if trying to stop her. Everything around her was hazy. The color seemed to have washed out of the world and left behind only shades of brown and rust and grey. She felt like she was running through water, moving slowly no matter how hard she fought to go faster.

  Chilling air whipped at her face and she felt the first few stinging raindrops of a storm cut at her skin. She didn't know where she was going or how she had gotten there, and as she ran, the trees seemed to blur and blend into one another, making it impossible for her to orient herself.

  She knew they were coming after her. She could feel and hear their heavy footsteps even in the thick, muting air and feel their presence getting closer. They seemed to be everywhere even though she couldn't see them as she ran. The oppressive feeling of them was getting more intense, but she had to keep running. She didn't know where she was running, but her feet wouldn't stop. Her mind and her fear wouldn't let them.

  She thought she could be getting away. She might have a chance to get out of the woods and find her way back home – only, she couldn't remember what home was or where she may be able to find it. All she could do was run.

  A cold, sharp breath invaded her lungs as she turned around a massive tree. The hard, choking pressure of a hand on her neck cut off the breath and she felt the ground beneath her feet disappear as the hand lifted her up. There was a moment of consuming terror and then the world around her turned to streaks of black and grey. Then there was nothing.

  What could have been hours or days later, Layla became aware again. She kept her eyes closed as consciousness slowly rose through her body and she felt every inch become awake and present. Her muscles ached with the type of depth that came from intense exhaustion and long exposure to cold. The air around her, however, felt warm and damp. She was lying on her back and could feel something hard beneath her like a slab of stone. A tingling sensation flowed through her body and she tried to move her arms, only to find that they were lashed to the stone beneath her with rough lengths of rope. She tried to move her legs, but they were also secured to the stone beneath her.

  She kept her eyes closed, terrified of what she may see if she opened them, and tried to remember what happened before she was running through the woods. No matter how hard she thought about it, however, Layla couldn't come up with anything except running. Her feet still felt chilled and stung from the forest floor, but she had no sense of how much time had passed since whatever had grabbed her and lifted her away.

  Taking a long breath to steel herself, she let her eyes slowly slide open. As her eyelids opened and she lifted her head, the first thing she saw was the horizon. It glowed a vibrant shade of green as what looked like a deeply purple sun melted out of sight. She looked above her and saw a low grey ceiling as if she was in a small room. Confusion joined the fear that pumped through her as she tried to process what could be happening to her.

  Suddenly she was aware of a presence in the space with her. She could feel someone near her, but she couldn't turn her head enough to look. She wanted to speak, but couldn't bring any sounds forward. The feeling of the presence shifted and she felt someone walking around from behind her head to pause at her side. She looked up at him and felt her breath catch in her throat. The man standing beside her was startlingly beautiful and she felt so immediately drawn to him she briefly forgot her fear. He gazed down at her with eyes the color of honey. The flicker of a torch above his head and the glow from the sinking sun showed streaks of bright, clear blue through the shimmering, melting color.

  The man gazed down at her and ran the backs of his fingers along her cheek. Not exactly sure why she was doing it, Layla tilted her face slightly into the touch. She started to open her mouth to speak, but he shook his head, bringing a finger to his lips to quiet her. Without a word, he backed away from her and disappeared back around her head. A second later, the feeling of his presence in the space with her was gone. She lifted her head and saw that the sun was nearly down. Straining to see as much of it as she could, she watched as the purple dissolved into the vibrant green, blending into a single line of color before the sky went dark.

  Just as the last of the sunset disappeared, she heard footsteps approaching. She hoped it was the same man she had seen beside her, but the feeling of their presence was different. It was like the oppressive, terrifying feeling that had surrounded her as she was running through the woods and she immediately felt herself tense. Four men appeared on either side of her and her body shook so intensely she could feel the ropes burning her wrists and cutting into her ankles. None of the men spoke, but at the same moment they bent down and she felt herself rise into the air as the men lifted the stone slab beneath her and started carrying her out of the room and into the darkness of the night beyond.

  Chapter Two

  Layla watched as the sky moved past over her head, seeming to unfurl like a roll of velvet as the men carried her. They had lifted her above their heads like she weighed nothing despite the massive piece of stone and were carrying her smoothly almost as though she were floating through the air. Now that she was out of the small, tight room with the torches, the air felt cooler and she drew in a breath she hoped would calm her. She needed to get her mind together, to put herself back in control of whatever was happening. If she had any chance of escaping, the only way she would make it happen would be to stay calm and think clearly.

  She searched her mind for anything that would help her, anything that would tell her where she would go or how she may be able to get away from these men. All that came to mind, however, was the slow motion repeat of her running through the woods through a washed-out colored world that seemed further and further away with each step the men took.

  Suddenly she felt the slab of stone tilt and she seemed to get higher. She realized that the men were climbing a set of steps up into an ancient-looking stone building. The hall they carried her down was lined with torches contained within bright metal cages and featured thick tapestries in shades of green and black. She couldn’t tell what the tapestries depicted and by the time they reached the end of the hallway, she had given up attempting to decipher them and lowered her head back down on the stone slab to ease the tension and pain forming in the back of her neck from trying to hold her head up while not being able to move her arms or legs.

  The sound of a heavy door opening filled her ears and she watched as a tremendous doorframe passed overhead. Her captors had carried her into a sprawling room so vibrantly bright after the muted light of the corridor that it hurt her eyes. She closed them, squeezing them as tightly as she could until the burning stop
ped and she no longer saw the pinpricks of color dancing on the backs of her eyelids.

  When she opened them again she realized that the room was not bright simply because there was more light in it than there had been in the corridor or in the small room where she had woken up. Instead, it seemed intensely bright because it was completely lined with mirrors. Now that her eyes had gotten accustomed to the refracted light, Layla was able to look up and see that the ceiling reflected the floor and the walls, creating a never-ending series of reflections that was dizzying in its depth. From the reflection above her, she could see that the men carrying her were all dressed identically in hooded green cloaks nearly the color of the sunset she had seen when she awoke. Black gloves covered their hands and the hoods concealed their faces so that she was not even able to determine their age. She only assumed they were men because of their size and strength.

  Layla felt the men lower the slab of stone to the floor and she turned her head to see the men walking away. Smaller figures in hooded purple robes approached and she felt the ropes at her wrists and ankles loosen, then soft hands come to her arms and gently lead her up to a sitting position.

  "Come with us," a sweet, almost musical-sounding voice said.

  Layla felt like she had no choice. She knew that she should run, but the compulsion was tempered by the realization that she truly had nowhere to go. Until she had some concept of where she was or how far she had come, she wouldn't be able to escape. Though whoever these people were had been gentle with her so far, she had no idea how they would react to her should she attempt to get away from them. Instead, she allowed these smaller figures, who she assumed to be women, to guide her away from the stone slab and across the mirrored floor toward a platform at the far end of the room.

  They walked up a steep set of stairs and she saw a deep tub cut into the center of the platform.