Page 20 of Feast

When Ika came to, dawn was already breaking over the treetops, filling the air with a hazy golden light. She had not been unconscious very long. Maybe half an hour at most.

But gods, a lot had changed in that short time.

The cord holding Ika’s long hair had been removed, and her messy locks now spilled over her face, obscuring her vision. Even worse, her clothes had been stripped away, leaving her bare skin exposed to the burning cold wind that ghosted across her body. Already, that chill was seeping into the marrow of her bones, and she was shivering uncontrollably.

The shivering was not just from the cold air, however.

It was also due to fear.

Ika was in a cage. An extremely small cage that did not allow her to move at all. She was on her knees, with her torso pressed against the tops of her thighs and her hands bound securely behind her back with steel shackles.

In this position, her naked butt was raised, exposing the shameful anatomy between her legs. The anatomy that made her not an ukkur. That was the least of her concerns in this predicament, but it added insult to injury.

Plus, whenever the cold wind gusted through the steel mesh of her cage, it stung all those sensitive places especially badly.

Ika was trapped.

Caught like a wild animal.

Her cage was sitting on the snowy ground, but this was not the same place where the nith had attacked her. They must have carried her some distance through the woods while she was unconscious.

There was a machine nearby, a gleaming metal cart that hovered several feet above the ground. A cart with no wheels and no beasts to pull it. The nith really were masters of black magic, it seemed. Rolf had told Ika about such things, but she had scarcely believed him.

She believed him now, however.

Rolf.

The thought of her brave and steadfast protector made Ika’s heart beat faster. She didn’t know her exact location, but if she was close enough to the den, perhaps Rolf would hear her cries.

She drew a deep breath and tried to scream, but hardly any sound came out. Only a faint, muffled whimper.

Ika realized that some kind of weird metallic mask was affixed over her mouth and nose. It must be another example of nith magic, because something inside the mask was keeping her lips and tongue from working. She could breathe well enough, but speaking proved impossible.

Ika’s fear transitioned into anger. She shook her body as much as the confines of the small cage would allow, rattling the steel mesh in the process.

A knot of black-clad nith were standing near the hovering vehicle. They were obviously the same nith that had incapacitated her before because some of them now sported white bandages that stood out in stark contrast to their dark uniforms.

Ika felt a rush of malicious pleasure as she remembered how she had at least hurt a few of her captors before they had subdued her.

Little difference it had made in the end though. She had still ended up like this—naked, bound, and freezing.

Ika shook again, banging her body against the inside of her cage.

The nith turned in her direction and regarded her with a kind of amusement. They chittered to each other, a few words that Ika could not quite make out, and then two of them approached her cage.

One of the approaching nith was the biggest of the group, and his black uniform was trimmed with silver around the edges. That one must be the leader. The one who followed after him was carrying a black baton tipped with metal prongs. His wrist was wrapped in white bandages. That was the one that Ika had bitten. His beady eyes glared at her with a hunger for revenge.

“Szzkkktt! Look at me, human,” the leader said.

With a great effort, Ika raised her eyes and looked through the curtain of her hair at the hideous nith towering over her. Its long reptilian snout was covered in a tough hide of jet black scales, and its thin lips peeled back to reveal double rows of ivory fangs. A pair of beady eyes stared down at her with cruel condescension. The nith looked upon her as nothing more than an animal.

But what was that word it had used to address her?

Human?

Ika had never heard that word before, but something about it made her skin crawl with a creepy feeling.

“Good,” the nith hissed. “Now tell me, human, where is your mark?”