by Patty Jansen
“Stop it, Nellie. The more you protest, the more they like it. Keep still.” And you might just come out of here alive. Although maybe not unscathed.
A sixth man now clambered up from the hold, with Loesie over his shoulder. She was pulling his hair, but he set her down as if she didn’t exist. Great bundles of hair hung from her hands.
Johanna still couldn’t see Roald anywhere. What if they . . . The ring under her shirt felt heavy. If Roald was dead, then . . .
Panic rose in her. If that was true, then the whole future of free Saarland was in her hands.
Then, she heard splashing and growling and yet another thug came up the ladder, pulling Roald with him. Water dripped from his clothes, his hair standing on end on one side of his head.
The men laughed.
Roald’s eyes were as wide as Johanna had seen them that day when they fished him out of the harbour. Any moment now and he’d start banging his head on something.
The thug pushed Roald forward to the railing as if he wanted to throw him off the boat. Roald squealed.
“Keep your hands off him,” Johanna yelled.
The men laughed again. One pushed Roald harder into the railing. But then the bald one shouted something, and they let Roald go. He fell heavily on his backside. “They’ll kill us. They’ll kill us!” His squeal chilled Johanna deeply. “They’ll kill us. They’ll kill us!”
“Shhh, calm down.”
Roald met her eyes, and some of the madness seeped out of his face.
The bald-headed bandit leader jerked his head towards the riverbank.
There, on the high bank, approached three more men with a whole team of huge horses black as night. They had long flowing manes and huge hooves. With them were two bears on chains and a pack of dogs.
The bald leader yelled something, and a voice responded from the bank. The group descended to the water, the horses snorting and blowing, tossing their great heads. Some of them waded a bit into the water. The bears appeared nervous, pulling on their chains.
The bandits forced Johanna, Nellie and Roald to clamber down the ladder, and wade through the water.
Johanna sat down to take off her shoes, but a thug pulled her up. Nellie cried when they pushed her down the jetty. “Do you know how much those shoes cost my father?”
The only thing she got in response was more rough handling.
On the riverbank, the bandits hauled each of them in front of another rider on a horse.
Johanna’s horse was smelly and the man at her back stank of sweat and chewing tobacco. He snaked an arm around her waist, but she pushed him away. She would not let herself be humiliated.
“I can ride myself. You don’t have to hold me.”
She glanced at Roald, gave him her best behave like a king glare, and said, “Sit up.”
He did. His face was so pale that she was afraid that he might faint. Hopefully he would remain quiet about who he was.
The bald leader whistled and the column of horses set off, away from the riverbank, into the forest. Johanna cast a look over her shoulder to where the Lady Sara lay. She had to remember this place. One day, she would come back.
IF YOU ENJOYED THIS STORY . . .
In the next in the series, Willow Witch, we learn about the spell cast over Loesie and how she can, or cannot, be trusted.
Learn where to get Willow Witch. Or if you want to be notified when new books come out, put your name on my new release mailing list.
About the Author
* * *
PATTY JANSEN lives in Sydney, Australia, where she spends most of her time writing Science Fiction and Fantasy. Her story This Peaceful State of War placed first in the second quarter of the Writers of the Future contest and was published in their 27th anthology. She has also sold fiction to genre magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Redstone SF and Aurealis.
Her novels (available at ebook venues) include Shifting Reality (hard SF), The Far Horizon (middle grade SF), Charlotte’s Army (military SF) and Fire & Ice, Dust & Rain and Blood & Tears (Icefire Trilogy) (dark fantasy).
Patty is a member of SFWA, and the cooperative that makes up Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and she has also written non-fiction.
Patty is on Twitter (@pattyjansen), Facebook, LinkedIn, goodreads, LibraryThing, google+ and blogs at: http://pattyjansen.com/.
More by This Author
* * *
In the Earth-Gamra space opera universe
RETURN OF THE AGHYRIANS
1. Watcher’s Web
2. Trader’s Honour
3. Soldier’s Duty
AMBASSADOR
1. Seeing Red
2. Raising Hell
The Far Horizon (For younger readers)
The Shattered World Within (novella)
In the ISF-Allion universe
Charlotte’s Army (novella)
The rebelliousness of Trassi Udang (short story)
His Name in Lights (Novella)
Shifting Reality (novel)
Epic, Post-apocalyptic Fantasy
ICEFIRE TRILOGY
I. Fire & Ice
II. Dust & Rain
III. Blood & Tears
Short story collection
Out Of Here
Shorter works
Looking For Daddy (absurd horror novella)
This Peaceful State of War (Writers of the Future winning novella)
Seven Days To Save the World and Other Homework Projects (children's silly fairytale novel)
Visit the author’s website at http://pattyjansen.com and register for a newsletter to keep up-to-date with new releases.
Table of Contents
Front Matter
Title Page
Copyright page
Table of Contents
Ch. 1
Ch. 2
Ch. 3
Ch. 4
Ch. 5
Ch. 6
Ch. 7
Ch. 8
Ch. 9
Ch. 10
Ch. 11
Ch. 12
Ch. 13
Ch. 14
Ch. 15
Ch. 16
Ch. 17
Ch. 18
Ch. 19
Back Matter
About the Author
More by this Author
