Sorcha gripped her thighs hard as panic threatened to consume her. Her gaze wandered toward Lieutenant Kashenko. Don’t go into shock again. Her gaze flitted to Aleksi, who looked unconscious. Blood still seeped from his wounds. He would not be able to save her. And if she didn’t manage to save him, he would die.
She had to do it. She had to rescue Aleksi. And save herself before Gwennore tried to do it. But how?
“Tie them up and throw them in the cages,” Griffin ordered in Elfish.
As one of the soldiers made a grab for Sorcha, she knocked his hands away.
“You won’t like what happens when you don’t cooperate,” Griffin muttered in Norveshki as he stalked toward her, lifting his sword.
She raised her hands to defend herself, but two soldiers seized her arms to hold her still. With the hilt of his sword, Griffin knocked her hard on the head.
Pain exploded as she collapsed next to Aleksi. Then everything turned black.
Chapter 4
Sorcha woke slowly to a dull pounding in her head. She blinked, wondering why she couldn’t see well; then her befuddled mind realized that night had fallen.
She gasped, coming fully awake as the afternoon’s terrible events flashed through her mind. Escape. That was what she needed to do.
Furtively, she glanced around, willing her eyes to adjust quickly to the dark. She was lying on her left side, her cheek against cool grass. A few feet in front of her was a line of round wooden poles. She shifted slightly for a different view and realized with a start that her hands were tied. Her feet, also.
About five feet away from her feet was another row of wooden poles. A gate with a lock on it. She glanced up. More wooden beams crisscrossed the top. She was in a wooden cage. The night was clear, the two moons gleaming half full, surrounded by a million stars.
Not far away, she spotted campfires. Tents and a few soldiers. She was on the border of the elfin army camp. Should she pretend she was still unconscious? Where was Aleksi?
She quietly rolled onto her back, turning her head to the right.
Another cage. Some twenty or thirty yards away. She squinted, barely making out a man’s body lying on the ground.
“So you’re awake,” a man’s voice grumbled in Elfish.
She froze, wondering if she should pretend to fall back asleep. Probably too late for that now. But it might be a good idea to continue her pretense of not understanding Elfish. She might hear something useful.
The guard sauntered up to the cage to look at her. “I heard you’re a princess. The colonel said we have to keep you alive. For a while.” He chuckled.
Another elfin asshole. She sat up slowly, ignoring the pain in her head as she looked around. Behind her cage, she spotted the jagged silhouettes of tall trees. She was not far from the forest.
“Hey, I’m talking to you!” The guard rattled something against the cage, and she glanced his way. “I bet you’re hungry. Hell, we all are, but some thieving bastards wiped out our supplies. All we have left is some stale bread and some casks of wine. Guess the casks were too heavy for the bastards to carry off.”
Someone had robbed the army camp? Sorcha smiled to herself. The elves deserved any rotten thing that happened to them. It was hard to see her guard in the dark, but he seemed like an older, heavyset man. His hair was a dark color, not whitish-blond, so he had to be one of the Wood Elves.
He turned a wooden plate sideways to slip it between two poles, and she realized that was what he’d used to rattle her cage. He threw the plate, and it hit the ground, rolling on its edge before wobbling and falling flat not far from her feet. Then he tossed a small loaf of bread that landed on the grass a few inches from the plate.
“Oops. Missed.” He stepped back with a chuckle.
Sorcha lifted her tied wrists and spoke in Norveshki, “If you expect me to eat, untie me.”
With a smirk, the guard responded in Elfish, “I can guess what you’re saying, and it’s not going to happen.”
“Hey.” Another soldier approached, holding two pewter tankards. “It looks like this is dinner.”
“More wine?” The guard grabbed one of the tankards and took a big gulp. “Those damned thieves.”
“I know. I’m so hungry.” The soldier took a long drink, then wiped his mouth with his hand. “The general sent out six hunting parties.”
“Good. I hope they bag a few deer.”
The soldier snorted. “Idiot. They’re not hunting for food. They’re trying to catch the thieves.”
“Oh, right.” The guard rubbed his ample belly and belched. “So is there any bread left?”
“I wish.” The soldier drank some more wine.
“Damn.” The guard glanced at the small loaf he’d thrown at Sorcha. “I shouldn’t have wasted that on her.”
“So she’s awake?” The soldier stepped close to the cage to peer at her. “She doesn’t look like a princess.”
“I know.” The guard gave her an annoyed look. “She just sits there, staring at us. Too dumb to understand a word we’re saying. So does the general know who robbed us?”
The soldier shrugged and took another drink from his tankard. “He thinks it was the Woodsman and his gang.”
The guard snorted. “He would. He thinks the Woodsman is the cause of every foul thing that happens.”
“Aye. If he smelled a fart, he would think the Woodsman did it.”
The two men laughed and finished off their drinks. The guard stumbled a bit, then caught one of the poles to steady himself.
With only wine and no food, they were getting drunk, Sorcha realized. This might work in her favor and help her escape. But who was this Woodsman that General Caladras hated so much? Had he actually broken all those arrows and spears during the battle? The general had sent out search parties, but apparently, they had not caught the man. Whoever he was, he was probably long gone.
The guard yawned. “Don’t forget to relieve me in a few hours. I didn’t get any sleep last night, what with us moving to that new site to lay the trap.”
“None of us got any sleep,” the other soldier mumbled, casting a sour look at Sorcha. “Don’t worry about her. She can’t go anywhere. And the other one is too weak to do anything.”
The guard glanced over at Aleksi. “Aye, he might not live through the night.”
Aleksi, stay alive. Sorcha slumped down on the ground, hoping to look like someone who had given up all hope. With any luck, her guard and the other soldiers would fall into a drunken slumber. And then, she could make her move. Thank the goddesses she had a weapon no one could take from her.
Her Embraced gift of fire had been frowned upon at the convent, especially after she’d burned down the kitchen in a horrendous accident that had come close to killing one of the nuns. She’d been only eight years old at the time, eager to experiment with the new talent she’d discovered. But after the accident, Mother Ginessa had forbidden her to use the gift, declaring it too destructive and dangerous.
Sorcha had agreed, for the realization that she could have killed someone had terrified her. From then on, she’d only used her gift on rare occasions when no other source of fire had been readily available.
But now, her gift could save her. And Aleksi. With her tied hands, she made the sign of the moons. Goddesses be with me while I make my escape.