by Jenn Vakey
“Maybe you should head back up and see if you can find a place where we can intercept her at,” a third man suggested. “He’s not going to be happy if she manages to make it back inside of the wards before we grab her.”
My stomach dropped. This wasn’t just a group out on patrol that I could just hide from until they moved on. They were hunting. Hunting me.
One by one, a group of men dressed in black stepped into view almost exactly where I had just been on the river bank. Five men, each armed. Each searching in the distance. Trying to find out where I had gone.
A man with dark brown hair turned and started looking around at the trees near them. I wasn’t sure what he was doing at first. Then he walked up to one and jumped, grabbing a sturdy looking branch. With a grunt, he pulled himself up onto it. He didn’t stop there. Holding the trunk to steady himself, he stood and started climbing higher and higher until I couldn’t see him from my hiding spot any longer.
I just had to hope that also meant he couldn’t see me.
“Anything?” a blonde man leaning against the trunk of the tree asked.
Several tense seconds passed in silence. With each one that dragged by, I feared what his answer would be. That he was about to tell them exactly where I was. If he did, there wouldn’t be anything I could do about it. I could never outrun them. Their guns meant they wouldn’t even have to try to chase me.
“I don’t see her,” he finally said, then dropped down onto the ground next to the tree. “She’s been traveling for an hour and a half, so she’s probably stopped a little ways ahead for a break.”
The blonde man shifted, clearly unhappy with the report. “How far are we from the wards?”
“About two miles,” the first answered. “We won’t have any trouble catching up to her before she makes it to that point.”
“You sure this is the one he’s looking for?” another asked. He sounded like the first one I had heard. The one this man had called Arion. “This is a lot of trouble to go to for just some random Tainted chick.”
The brown haired man shot him an annoyed look. “Well, she pretty much looked like a drowned animal when she pulled herself out of the river, if I’m being completely honest. But she matches the notice. Short brown hair, petite. I don’t know about you, but I for one don’t want to go back and tell our king that we decided that it was too much trouble to track a lone woman down to see if she’s the one he wants.”
The one the king wants? What in the world did Dex want with me? Sure, I was Rhydian’s fiancé, but there wasn’t any way of him knowing that. Almost no one did. Unless I really was the wrong girl, and there was someone else in Alkwin who looked enough like me that they got mixed up.
I had a feeling that was too much to hope for.
“She couldn’t have just made this easier on us and stayed in the river until it brought her right to us,” another grumbled.
Several of them nodded like they agreed.
“Right,” the one I was going to assume now was their leader said. The dark haired man. He didn’t look as bothered as the others that they were having to track me. Instead, he actually looked bored. “Like Tainted have ever made things easy for us. We aren’t going to find her just standing around, though. Get moving so we at least have a chance to make it back to the city tonight.”
More muttered complaints followed, but he either didn’t hear them or chose to ignore it.
I was trying to process all of this when a strange sensation filled my mind. One I recognized. This wasn’t a good time, though. So when I felt the connection starting to click into place with Lillith, I pushed it away. I needed to focus on what was going on in front of me.
She apparently wasn’t happy with my decision. Only a few moments passed before she tried again. “Stop it!” I snapped, hoping she had been right that we could just think our thoughts to each other. It must have worked, because she didn’t try again.
I felt bad, knowing she was probably worried and trying to find out where I was. There wasn’t anything I could tell her now that would help me out here. It wasn’t like I could tell them where I was. It was more important that I keep my focus on the threat ahead.
“Keep moving along the river,” the man said, pointing in the direction I had been going. “This area has a good view from above. I’ll keep watch in case she hears you and changes direction. I’ll alert you if she does, then follow if there’s still no sign once you’ve made it half a mile.”
No. No, this wasn’t good. He couldn’t stay here. If he did, I would be stuck until he finally went after them. By that point, there would be no way of knowing where they were and what areas to avoid. Not if he would be moving quickly to catch up. I couldn’t follow and still remain hidden.
No one argued, though. The men just nodded and went off as he had instructed.
The one who stayed behind stood there for several minutes watching them go. When he turned, I expected him to go right back up the tree he had climbed before. Instead, he turned and moved out of sight in the direction they had come from.
I wanted to get up and run as far and as fast as I could before he made it into a position where he could spot me. Fear kept me in place, though. I had no idea where I was. I knew now that there were still a couple of miles to go before I reached the wards. Even if I moved away from where the group had gone, chances of me being able to find them before one of them grabbed me were slim.
There was a sensation similar to the one I felt watching Rhydian train Alister that told me I really didn’t want to be caught by these men. Some buried memory that left me terrified of the possibility.
As much as I didn’t like the idea, I was beginning to think that the only hope I had of making it out of this alive was if I just stayed here until I was either sure they were on their way back to Eden or until one of my people found me.
I just had no idea how long that would be.
The only sounds that surrounded me for some time after that were those of the woods. The wind moving through the trees, distant animals scampering around. I wasn’t sure how long it would take the men to reach the half mile point that would make this last one follow, but I couldn’t imagine it would be much longer. If he didn’t cross through the spot that I could see, though, I might never know when he did.
How long was I supposed to wait? Hours? A day?
The next sound I heard made my heart almost stop in my chest. It was a stick snapping. The way it did when someone stepped on it. And it had happened right behind me.
I twisted quickly, half sitting as I moved. Terror filling every inch of my body when I looked up into the eyes of the man standing just feet from me.
“You’re the girl the new king is so determined that we find?” the brown haired man asked. He looked almost confused as his eyes covered my face, then swept over my body. His smile made my stomach turn. “Isn’t that interesting.”
The only thing that kept me from screaming when he took a step toward me was the knowledge that it could bring the rest of the men back. Instead, I pushed back through the brush, stumbled to my feet, and ran.
“Stop,” he ordered.
I could hear his larger body crashing through the trees and brush behind me, but I didn’t slow. I ran as fast as I could in the direction they had come from. Away from the others. I didn’t know where I was going to go. I just knew I needed to get away from him. I had to flee. I had to hide. I couldn’t let him catch me.
In my panic, I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going. I realized the mistake in that a couple moments later when I pushed through a thick patch of brush and discovered that the ground wasn’t where it should have been. Instead, it had dropped off. I’d been moving too fast to correct, and before I knew it, I was tumbling down. My arms and legs flying in all directions as I rolled. The sound of the water growing louder the only thing I could hear between the thuds of my body slamming into the ground. Then the splash when I flew forward into the cold water.
I coughed,
trying to right myself when my head emerged. The shock of my landing kept me in place too long. By the time I got my bearings and readied myself to move again, it was too late.
A pair of large hands grabbed me by both arms and yanked me up out of the water. I tried to get away, but it was like my body wouldn’t listen. My movements sluggish, my limbs weighted down by my soaked clothes. I kicked out enough to make contact with his leg when he had succeeded in dragging me to the shore, but all he did was grunt before he pushed me back up against a tree. He had my arms pinned to my sides as he stood back, making it difficult for me to do anything other than kick at him. Again, he just ignored it.
“You don’t remember me, do you, little one?” he asked, looking almost amused as he held me there.
“Don’t take it personally,” I said, clenching my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering from the cold. “I don’t remember much of anything at the moment.”
He studied me for a moment, almost like he was trying to understand my meaning. Wondering if I was trying to trick him. For all I knew, it was a valid belief. I had heard from several people that I’d had encounters with Sentry in the woods. Fought them. Then there were the ones I was sure I had dealt with when we were in Eden for the rescue.
I had made a lot of enemies.
“We’ll have to rectify that then, won’t we,” he said with that same smile as before.
I really didn’t like the sound of that.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
RHYDIAN
“I won’t pretend to know much when it comes to dirt, but do those look like drag marks to you?” Dallin asked from my side.
The tightness in his voice told me he already knew the answer.
I stared down at the disturbed dirt and debris where Kip’s trail for Leeya ended. At the river. It did appear that something had been dragged through here. While it could have been unrelated, it left me fearing what we would end up finding. If we found her.
No, I couldn’t think like that. Lillith had made a connection not even half an hour ago. It wasn’t more than those few words, but it was enough to know that Leeya was still alive. And still close to the river.
“Follow the river,” I said, looking back at my team.
Dallin looked at the stream, which flowed stronger here than it did closer to camp. Zaydan and Auggie nodded, the former giving Kip the same instructions. Prestyn and Nevin didn’t wait for me to say anything else before moving again.
Leeya might have been adventurous, and she did have a tendency of getting herself in some rough situations, but I don’t think a single one of us believed she just decided to jump in for a swim. Not in this weather. Certainly not with her clothes still on.
“Maybe she tried to cross it,” Dallin said, looking toward the woods at the other end.
“It’s possible. But she wouldn’t have been able to make it outside of the wards moving in that direction. Not this quickly.”
The river would have gotten her there, though.
“We’ve got about a mile before we reach the border,” I told them. “We’ll move quickly until we get there, then spread out and start searching for her. Hopefully Kip will be able to tell us where she came out.”
It took us fifteen minutes before I felt us pass through the magic of the wards. We watched the bank of the river for any signs of where she emerged, but the soil and grass were for the most part undisturbed. The few places we did find that could have been something turned out to be nothing more than animal movements. It wasn’t as easy to tell when watching the other side of the river, but it was the best we could do for now.
The river was also moving quicker here. If she had lost her footing and fallen in, this wouldn’t have been an easy place to climb out. Everyone but Dallin, Kip, and I still branched out and started moving through the woods parallel to us. Leeya was smart. She would know the best way to make it back would be to follow the river upstream. If she was in any condition to travel, our paths would eventually meet.
We made it another mile or so before my Haller went off in my pocket. It had been everything I could do not to call Lillith every few minutes since we had left Alkwin. The only thing that had stopped me was her promise to reach out when she made contact with Leeya.
“Finally,” I breathed, pulling it to my ear. “Lillith? What did she say? Where is she?”
There wasn’t a response for several long seconds. I was close to checking the connection to see if I had lost her when her small voice finally sounded. Soft, worried.
“I only got a single word before she broke it again,” she said. The relief I felt at just knowing that she was still alive and able to talk to Lillith died with the next word she spoke. “Sentry.”
I stopped in my tracks, my heart sinking. This wasn’t just about finding my lost girl anymore. It was so much more serious.
I could hear Dallin whistle for the others to come in, but I couldn’t focus on any of that. My mind was racing over everything this could mean. Had the Sentry grabbed her? What would they do with her if they did? They could already be on the way back to Eden with her. Unless they were going to exact what they considered justice out here in the woods.
“Were you able to pick up anything else?” I asked. “Anything useful?”
“Um, yeah,” she answered. “I could still hear the water.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. That meant that she was still out here somewhere. We weren’t too late. “Thanks, Lillith. Let me know immediately if you get anything else.”
I ended the call, clutching the Haller in my fist as I took in a deep breath to try to pull myself together. Then I looked to the men who had surrounded me.
“There are Sentry out here,” I told them. “We don’t know if she just saw them or if they have her, but she’s still close to the river. We’ll move under the cover of trees.”
We didn’t need words as we started to advance again. With the exception of Dallin, we were all accustomed to dealing with Sentry. It was usually at the archway, but there had been instances before where we had to fight them on the paths. We might be in a section of the woods that we didn’t know, but we were still used to it in ways they never would be.
Tension filled the air as we moved as quietly as we could ahead. I didn’t know what we were walking into, but thankfully, it didn’t take us long to find out. We only had to travel another ten minutes before we caught the first sign of Sentry.
“He was probably just seeing an animal,” someone called through the brush ahead. We took cover behind trees, waiting and listening. We couldn’t just charge into this. Not without knowing first how many Sentry were out here.
“Be ready to move again in ten,” another closer to the river called out. “The king is going to want the girl back in Eden tonight.”
“Yeah, yeah,” a third, standing somewhere between the first two muttered. “Maybe he should be the one out here then.”
It wasn’t said loud enough for the others really to hear, although it did elicit a chuckle from the one just ahead of us.
Apparently there was some strife amongst the ranks of Sentry. Even those the council trusted enough to send out here to hunt us. If Leeya’s life wasn’t on the line, I would consider showing myself and seeing just how deep those feelings ran.
I would never take a chance like that with Leeya. Not my girl.
Catching Auggie’s attention, I motioned toward the guy closest to us. He nodded and readied the crossbow in his hand, shifting to the side so he could move closer. He stopped when he had the man in sight. After looking around, ensuring no one else could see him, he took aim and fired.
The faint wiz through the air was followed by a soft thud. To anyone who wasn’t expecting it, it didn’t really sound like anything more than a body pushing through a particularly dense area of brush.
We stood frozen for several moments following it, though, ready in case we needed to move.
No alert was raised.
One down, at least two others to go. Three if
they were talking about someone else alerting them to movement they had believed to be an animal.
I motioned ahead and we started moving through the trees toward where we knew they were. Prestyn and Zaydan also had their crossbows ready. We weren’t going to bother with a fight if it could be avoided.
A small group of Sentry were found camped out near the edge of the river. One was perched up on a boulder, looking bored. Two others were standing near the trees, talking quietly amongst themselves. I looked around, but I didn’t see any sign of Leeya. That meant they either had her somewhere else, or they hadn’t found her yet.
“We need one of them,” I whispered. “I think one of the two by the trees will be our best bet.” Assuming one of them was the one I heard grumbling about my cousin.
