“Whip your tiny worm out,” she croaked, “andI’ll bite it off.”
“I like me a little nip,” he said, slappingher across the cheek with such force that the back of her headstruck the tree.“But bite me and you’ll lose your teeth.”
She tasted blood and spat at him, refusing tocower as he raised his hand up and back, readying for another blow.A shadow moved from behind her, and then the Jackal’s face slammedinto the tree with a bone-crushing crunch, and his body slid to theground at her feet, his forehead split open above the bloody,mangled pulp that had been his nose.She tried to focus on thegrotesque mask that had been his face, but her vison swam and herears were filled with a distant ringing.
The shadow moved, and spoke in a ghostlywhisper.“Sahar?”
She tried to lift her gaze to the spiritlooming over her, but all she saw was a thousand blinking lightsand then complete darkness.
Aleksi placed his fingers to Sahar’s neck anddragged in a deep breath as he felt the weak but steady beat of herpulse.He had been following their trail when he saw the glow of acampfire about a league up the mountain’s eastern face and hadurged Zolotoy on, thanking the gods for the Wolf’s arrogance andconceit.
Tying off Z in a thick glen downwind from thefire’s beacon, Aleksi had continued on foot, walking along the treeline of the path they’d taken, and had been no more than a hundredfeet away when the distinct, human cries of sexual release hadechoed in the quiet of the night.His heart in his throat andterrible gut-wrenching images in his head, he silently prayed toevery god and goddess he knew to keep Sahar’s body and spirit alivewhile he slowly snuck up on the camp, and then let his breath outin a ragged sigh.
The gods had answered his prayers.She wasalive.
From what he’d heard of the Jackal’s vilethreats while creeping up on the camp, she hadn’t been violated,though as he took in the cuts and scrapes and bruises that werevisible all over her, it was obvious that they had beaten herregularly.His tigress had fought back.
He grinned, recalling her threat to bite offthe Jackal’s cock.
“My fierce, fearless tigress,” he whisperedas he cut the ties on her wrists and then the rope tying her to thetree.
Her fiery spirit had held, even if her bodyhad finally succumbed.
She slumped into his arms, and Aleksi scoopedher up.He glanced down at the Jackal’s smashed face, at hisbloodless lips and fixed eyes.The corruption of a man was dead,and good riddance.Aleksi kicked the corpse for good measure, andstartled as he heard a groan.The groan didn’t come from theJackal, It’d come from the mound of blankets closer to the line ofhorses.A mound with two heads.
Aleksi slipped behind the tree and peeredback over at the mound that had to be Yago and Taweel, torn betweenslitting their throats as they slept, and getting Sahar safelyaway.He wasn’t one to murder people in their sleep, but if anyonedeserved to die that way, it was those two.If they were dead, shewould be safe.That settled it.He started to lay her down, when heheard movement and low voices.Yago and Taweel were sitting up andlooking around.
“Damn.”
He could stay and fight or he could leave andget her to safety.Yago and Taweel were princes, both of them welltaught in the art of sword fighting, and it would be two againstone.If he was injured, or killed, he’d leave her to their crueltyand certain death.Holding her closer, he did something he neverwould’ve thought possible: he turned and ran from a fight.
Sahar was not a small woman, and carryingdead weight was always harder than a person who could hold ontoyou, especially when silence and stealth were needed.Aleksi hadonly made a hundred paces or so when he heard the sound of voicesand maybe another twenty before the voices grew loud andinsistent.
“The bitch is gone.”
“The Jackal is dead.”
“These boot prints are too large to be theJackal’s.”
“Curse the whore and her whore-mongeringbastard.”
Aleksi moved deeper into the surroundingbrush and hunkered down on a fallen log as the snapping of twigsand crunching of leaves grew louder.
“I can’t see a thing,” Taweel whisperedloudly, no more than a stone’s throw from where Aleksi hid withSahar.
“Me neither,” Yago said, not bothering towhisper.“You can bet they’re long gone.Still, it doesn’t matter.We’ve done enough.My father will have his war.”
At the sound of Yago’s voice, Sahar’s eyesflew open.Aleksi clapped his hand over her mouth, and she bitdown, hard.Gritting his teeth, he held her tight as she twistedand turned in his grip, her nails clawing at his hands, as feral asa wild cat caught in a snare.She was strong and sleekly muscled asa cat as well, and it was all Aleksi could do to keep hold ofher.
“Shh,” he whispered.“Shh.You must be quiet,my tigress.”
Her eyes widened and she stopped herthrashing as they focused on his face.He shifted her on his lapand took his hand from her mouth, putting a finger to his lips ashe motioned with his head toward the sound of retreating boot fall.She calmed and settled into his hold, nestling her nose into thecrook of his neck, and burrowing her way straight to his heart.
Aleksi sat bolt upright at the thought, andgently peeled her arms from around his waist.
“I don’t hear them anymore,” he said.“Weshould move.”He stood and held her close as her long legs unfoldedand her feet found the ground.“Can you walk?”he asked, taking astep back, still holding her by the arms.She nodded and graspedhis upper arms and took a step, and then another before letting go.“Good,” he said, his hands at the ready to grab her as she swayed,but she stayed upright.“Z is not too far away.”
At mention of Zolotoy, she started and madeto turn back around.“Lasair,” she said over her shoulder.“We mustgo back for Lasair.”
