by Rebecca York
Now she knew why she had to get away from him. He was dangerous to her in ways that she hadn’t even understood. She took a few more moments to collect herself, wishing she was back in the cave so she could splash cold water on her face. When she was feeling more like herself, she thought she might try to contact Rowan. But not here. She had to get away from this place in case Cullendor came back and tried to force himself on her.
“No,” she whispered aloud. “Don’t put the blame on him. He didn’t force you. He’s just a very tempting man, and you’re away from all the rules the village imposed on you.”
Stepping to the door of the hut, she looked around for him, then hurried off in the direction they had been traveling.
She kept to the woods, sometimes seeing lights in the distance, but she took his advice and stayed away from other people as she put distance between herself and the hut, praying to Ravina that Cullendor wouldn’t know which way she had gone.
Eventually she’d run into someone, but it was probably best to postpone that meeting in this wild country.
After a few hours, she stopped to rest, sitting down with her back against the trunk of a tree. She was more tired than she knew, and when she closed her eyes for a moment, she drifted off to sleep. She awoke with a start, blinking as the rising sun flashed in her eyes.
It occurred to her that she might have made a mistake by leaving the hut. She had food enough for a few days, but she possessed none of the coins people used out in the world to buy things. After her food ran out, she might be reduced to eating berries and field greens until she reached Arandal.
She kept to the forest, hoping she was walking in the right direction. She directed her steps first toward the sun, because Cullendor had said that Arandal was east of Valleyhold. As the yellow orb crossed the sky, she kept it to her right.
She kept silently calling out to Rowan and then listening for a signal she could follow, but now it was as if her sister had vanished from the face of the earth. She couldn’t hear her at all, and as she walked, her panic rose.
She was so focused on trying to call to Rowan that she almost stumbled into the midst of a band of travelers walking along a wide forest trail.
Ducking behind a tree, she stood perfectly still as she watched them pass.
They were a ragged bunch, the women with long stringy hair and stained clothing, the men with equally unkempt hair, muddy boots and scraggly beards. They numbered about twenty, and all of them carried packs, even the few children who hurried to keep up with the women.
Willow had never seen the like, or smelled such a crowd of unwashed bodies. She was trying to fade farther back into the forest, when a lean yellow dog started to bark and race toward her. She turned and ran, but it was already too late. A couple of the men came charging after the dog as it nipped at her ankles.
“Got ya,” one of them crowed as he brought her down to the ground with a thud that made her head spin.
“Careful. Look at her clean hair and face. She could be a valuable catch.”
Willow struggled to get away, but the other man slapped her hard across the face. “Settle down before you get hurt, girly.”
Before they could do any more damage, she went still, gathering her strength to send them a mental blow. She changed her mind when the dog growled. Even if she got away from the men, the dog would bring her down and he could do more damage than the humans.
“That’s right, sweet thing,” one of the men approved, thinking she had decided to cooperate. Which was not the case. She was simply biding her time.
When the dog growled again, one of the men cursed at it, and it whined and lowered its head.
They pulled Willow to her feet, each of them holding one of her arms as they marched her back toward the main group.
Everyone had stopped to watch the men bring in their captive. When a small boy wiped snot off his nose with his fingers and cleaned them on his trousers, she fought not to gag at the sight—or at the smell of the unwashed herd of people.
“Look at that fancy clothing,” one of the women murmured, walking forward to finger Willow’s skirt.
Fancy? It was plain village wear, but it looked fine compared to the rags these people were wearing. Who were they? And why were they tramping through the woods?
“What do we do with her?” someone called out.
“Strip her and throw her back into the woods,” a man answered, making everyone laugh. “After we have some fun with her,” he added.
“Not on your life. She’s more valuable than her pretty duds.” The man who spoke came striding forward, giving her an appraising look. “She’ll fetch a nice price at the slave market in Gordwill.”
“Slave market,” Willow gasped.
“And more if she’s a virgin.” He cupped his hand around one of her breasts, then trailed his fingers to the curve of her hip. When she tried to duck away, the men who had caught her held her in place.
She clenched her teeth and stood stiffly, still considering striking out at him with a bolt of power, but she could never defeat so many people at once. She had to wait for an opportunity to escape.
He turned to the crowd. “Where’s the healer?”
“Here, sir,” an older woman with gray hair and a mouth full of missing teeth said as she stepped forward. She must have a high place among this group because she was dressed better than any of the other women.
“Ah, Sally. Examine her and see if she’s intact.”
“Yes, my lord.”
My lord? This greasy fellow was a lord? Willow might have laughed in his face if she hadn’t been in such a precarious situation.
She tried to pull away, but the men who had captured her held her fast.
Sally looked around and pointed toward a clearing at the side of the trail. “Over there. Cora, Greta, come along.”
As the men dragged Willow away, she felt her panic rising. What were they going to do to her?
Sally looked back over her shoulder at the half dozen people who had followed them. “Shoo, shoo.”
After a moment, the followers turned back.
When Willow and her captors reached the clearing, the two men pulled her down to the ground, and held her in place while the two women knelt at her feet and spread her legs apart.
“No, please,” Willow gasped, but nobody listened. Could she use her powers now? No, there were still too many of them. She might hurt some of them, but the rest would grab her again.
She bucked her hips as Sally pulled up her skirts.
“Nice looking thatch she’s got,” one of the men commented. “I’d like to bury my cock in there.”
“You wish,” Sally snapped, then glared at Willow. “Hold still, or you could rip your maidenhead while I’m examining you.”
When Willow continued to struggle, the midwife lifted her head and looked back toward the main group. “Brenda, come help us.”
A heavyset woman waddled forward.
“Hold her hips in place.”
The woman threw herself across Willow’s middle, almost cutting off her breath. Her rank smell rose in Willow’s nostrils as she fought back tears.
While the group held her down, Sally probed between her legs, touching her where no one else had ever touched her. The humiliation made Willow toss her head back and forth as the midwife spread her woman’s parts.
“A virgin all right,” she pronounced before pulling down Willow’s skirt again.
The man she had addressed as my lord came over.
“A virgin. That’s good. There are rich men who like to take a virgin to their beds.” He gave a nasty laugh, and she shuddered.
“No, please.”
“It’s an honor to serve them. We’ll alter our course to take us to Gordwill.”
He had brought rope, which h
e used to tie Willow’s hands behind her back. Then he tied more rope to one of her ankles and attached that to a stake which he pounded into the ground. When she was secured, he looked at her in satisfaction.
She could kill him or blind him by hurling a bolt of lightning into his smug face, but she was sure the rest of them would tear her to pieces. Unless he was only ruling his ragtag group by fear. But she couldn’t risk it. They thought she couldn’t get away, but they were wrong. She would wait until night and use her powers to untie the ropes. Then she would slip into the woods while they were sleeping.
* * *
Cullendor woke with a feeling of dread. He and Willow had parted badly. He had wanted to stay and make sure everything was all right between them, yet he’d been forced to leave and find a dark place to spend the day.
He shouldn’t have taken her in his arms and touched her breast again. That was too forward, too threatening. She had blamed him, but secretly she had probably blamed herself.
Now he wanted to rush back to her, but he knew he must feed before he tried to fly. He strode into the forest where he sniffed out a herd of deer. They were graceful animals, smaller than the pelentines his people used at home for their main food source, but he was able to sprint up behind one on silent feet and capture it before it could get away. He used the powers of his mind to gentle it while he took enough blood from its neck to satisfy his hunger. Refreshed, he changed to dragon form and leaped into the air.
Again he landed where she wouldn’t see him and walked back to the hut, but as he approached through the trees, he sensed something was wrong.
“Willow?” he called as he ran forward. “Willow?”
His heart blocked his windpipe when he saw that the hut was empty. And she wasn’t outside answering a call of nature or looking for water. His pulse was pounding so loudly in his ears that he could barely think, but he forced himself to stand and sniff the air. To his relief, he caught her familiar scent. It was faint in the area of the hut, but he could follow the trail she had left for him.
He could have traveled faster as a dragon, but then he wouldn’t know which direction to follow.
Taking a deep breath to fix her scent in his nostrils, he began to run through the forest, angry with her for leaving and at the same time frightened that something bad might have happened to her.
Chapter Four
Lying at the edge of the ragged group, Willow bided her time, watching the women gather around campfires and cook the meat the men had caught in the forest. And watching the men joke and relax. Everyone had been walking all day, but now only the women were working.
Sally came back with some charred venison. “Eat this,” she said, cutting off a piece and putting it in Willow’s mouth. She wanted to refuse, but she knew that would be stupid. She had hardly eaten all day and she needed the nourishment.
She ate several bites, then washed the meat down with a cup of water that Sally held to her mouth.
“Thank you,” she murmured.
“I didn’t like following his orders, but we all have to do what he says.”
“Why?”
“He keeps us safe.”
She might have pointed out that they didn’t seem very safe to her, but she wasn’t going to challenge the woman.
“Who are you?”
“Some of us was cast out.”
“From where?”
“Different places. Tom and some of them were caught thieving and escaped before the law could cut off one of their hands.”
Willow winced. “And you? What did you do?”
“Nothing wrong. I fled my village after I delivered the head woman’s baby, and the mother died. They blamed me, but it weren’t my fault.”
Willow nodded, knowing that this woman was trying to get along the best she could.
“Lord Carnas found me in the woods. He coulda killed me, but he recognized my worth.”
“Lord Carnas, that’s the name of your leader.”
“Yes.”
“Would it be better if another took his place?”
“It wouldn’t be much different.” She glanced over her shoulder. “I got to go back now, before someone tells him I been talkin’ to you.”
“I understand.”
The old woman left Willow alone, and she watched the camp settle down. As she lay on the ground, she began to work on her bonds, trying to loosen them with her telekinetic powers. It was hard going because she couldn’t see the knots that held the rope tight, but she used her mind to push the cords together, loosening the knots. Finally, she was able to pull her hands from the loops around her wrists. With a sigh of relief, she bent to untie the cord that held her ankle to the stake.
She was free!
She moved her arms and legs, easing the cramped muscles, but before she could slip into the darkened forest she saw one of the men who had captured her come staggering toward her through the darkness.
“There’s my little beauty,” he murmured, his words slurred.
She flinched back as he came down on his haunches beside her, but she kept the same position she’d been tied in so that he wouldn’t see she’d freed herself. “Stay away from me, or Lord Carnas will be angry.”
“He won’t know I’ve been here.”
“Sally said I’m a virgin.”
“Maybe she made a mistake.”
When he reached for her, pulling her toward him as he fumbled under her skirt, she slammed her fists into the back of his neck.
“What the hell?” He pulled back, staring down at her. “How did you get free?”
Instead of answering, she scrambled up and tried to sprint for the forest, but he caught her leg, pulling her down with such force that he knocked the air out of her lungs. While she was struggling to catch her breath, he pressed her to the ground and pulled her skirt to her waist.
“No.”
“Let’s see if you’re really a virgin, you bitch.”
She tried to fight him, pounding his back with her fists, but he slapped her in the face, then fumbled with the tie at the front of his leggings.
She pulled her legs together, crossing them at the ankles, still beating against the man’s back—until she felt the point of a knife pressing into her neck.
“Stop struggling, or I’ll slit your throat.”
She went still, gathering her power to strike him with a bolt—as the boy had done to her back at Valleyhold, only stronger. Above her, she heard the flapping of great wings, then a roaring noise.
She craned her neck and looked up, seeing a dragon in the sky above the encampment.
“Run!” she shouted.
“Wa?”
“A dragon. Run.”
The beast shrieked as it dove at the ragged group. Below it, people scattered. It came winging toward Willow and the man who had meant to rape her. As it reached the man, flames shot from its mouth, catching the man’s greasy shirt, making it blaze up.
He screamed and ran into the forest.
The beast circled above her, then headed back to the main encampment.
“No,” she shouted. “Leave them alone.”
Maybe it heard her because it only circled the camp, roaring and flapping as it sent the travelers scattering in all directions.
Willow took advantage of the confusion to run into the forest. She didn’t even know which direction she was taking. She only knew she had to put distance between herself and Lord Carnas’s people.
Her lungs ached and her hair caught in brambles as she ran, until strong arms caught her and held her back.
“No,” she screamed.
“It’s me,” a familiar voice said.
“Cullendor?”
“Yes.” He turned her in his arms, and in the moonlight she saw emotions c
hasing themselves across his face. Relief and also anger. “Why did you leave that hut?” he asked.
“I...” She stopped, wondering what to say. “I was frightened of what was happening between us,” she finally said.
“I’m sorry.”
“How did you find me?”
* * *
Cullendor swallowed, wondering what to say now. He settled on the truth.
“I followed your scent.”
She stared at him. “How is that possible?”
“It is a skill my people have.”
She nodded, probably thinking it was a strange ability.
She craned her neck up. “Did you see the dragon?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not afraid of him?”
He swallowed again, steeling himself for a huge lie. “I didn’t tell you at first because I thought you would not believe me—but the dragon and I have an understanding.”
“What?”
“He comes to my aid.”
“How did you manage that?”
“He owes me a favor.”
“What?” she pressed.
Wishing he’d thought of his story before he’d found Willow, he waited a beat before coming up with something he hoped would sound plausible. “I freed him from a snare.”
“You weren’t afraid to get close to him?”
“He is from the land where I was born. They are common in that place.”
She kept her gaze on him, probably trying to determine if he was spinning her a story.
“In my country, we live together in peace, but they are treated badly here,” he said.
“Because people fear them. They rain fire down on their enemies—like he did at the encampment.”
“To save you.”
“Yes. Where is he?”
“He’s gone.”
“Where.”
“He didn’t tell me.”
When she accepted the minimal explanation, he breathed a small sigh, hoping she wasn’t going to ask him more questions later.
“We should put distance between ourselves and that band of scruffy travelers. Who were they?”
