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Another shriek comes from somewhere nearby, but the sound echoes across the mountaintop, making it impossible to pinpoint exactly where it’s coming from.
Alek sighs in aggravation as he pulls something out of his pocket.
It’s a diamond about the size of my fist. Sunlight dances across its faceted surface, making it sparkle so brightly the reflection is almost blinding.
“Who did you steal that from?” I ask.
Alek shrugs as he stuffs the diamond back in his pocket. “I have no idea. It was just laying around for anyone to grab.”
Nahla lightly jabs Alek in the ribs as she tilts her head in my direction. “Tell him all of it, you scallywag, or I will.”
Alek clears his throat uncomfortably. “Last night while I was scouting, I found a statue of a snake. The diamond was one of its eyes.”
“So you more than likely desecrated a monument that someone obviously built?” I shake my head in dismay. “I don’t know why I feel surprised that you would do something so despicable. I think I’m more surprised that you didn’t take both eyes.”
“I could only fit one diamond in my mouth as a wolf,” Alek says with a wry grin. “How was I supposed to know someone would miss it? Other than the shack, it’s not like we found any evidence that people live down there. It would have been a waste to just leave it.”
“Seriously?” Oliver asks with wide eyes and his mouth agape. “Statues don’t make themselves, you idiot. Of course, someone built it, and if they decorated it with diamonds, it had to be important to them. For all we know, you desecrated a holy relic.”
Alek scoffs but he also looks uneasy as another high-pitched scream fills the air.
“Someone started the fire down there,” I say. “What if they did that to kill us for what you did? Or worse, flush us out into the open.”
“I say we get off this mountain as quickly as possible,” Nahla suggests, looking over her shoulder uneasily. “While you were sleeping, I found a trail that should take us down to the tree line quickly. We’re too vulnerable out here.”
“Agreed,” I say. “Lead the way before whatever keeps screaming finds us.”
“If they haven’t already.” Oliver peers around us warily.
The trail Nahla found is easier to traverse than the one we traveled on with Ivy and the others. This one is hardpacked earth with very few loose stones, making it ten times faster to travel over.
For almost two hours, we run down the mountain in a desperate attempt to place as much distance between us and whatever made those screams. Once we reach the tree line halfway down the mountain face, we stop to catch our breaths. At least with a little coverage, we aren’t sitting ducks. Or so I hoped.
“Do you think we lost whoever that was?” Nahla asks, breathing heavily.
“I have no idea.” I lean my back against a tree as I try to catch my breath.
We hear another scream.
But this one isn’t behind us.
It’s in front of us.
“Bloody hell,” Alek says, peering into the dense forest. “How did they get in front of us?”
“That didn’t sound like the same person.” Oliver holds a hand against his side as if to ease a muscle cramp. “It had a lower pitch. More like a man.”
“What do we do now?” Nahla asks worriedly.
“We don’t have much of a choice.” I push myself off the tree. “We have to keep going and find our people. As long as we keep the sun to our backs, we should be heading in the direction to meet up with them. We don’t have any weapons, and we surely don’t have the numbers to fight off whoever is chasing us.”
“You don’t know that,” Alek sneers. “It might just be two of them. That’s all we’ve heard so far.”
“If it’s people indigenous to this part of the world, I would wager anything there are more than just two of them chasing us. Now, let’s get going. I don’t like standing still when we’re being hunted.”
Our race through the forest isn’t as fast as our journey down the mountain. The uneven ground and dense foliage makes it harder to travel through, impeding our progress at every turn.
“Does anyone else feel like we’re being herded in a particular direction?” Oliver asks as we trudge our way through a muddy bog. Every step we take makes an irritating sucking sound as the earth tries to swallow us whole.
