Chapter 28 #2
“Tie her up. Put her in the cart bound for the Black Castle.” With a quick shove, I fell back into waiting, clutching hands.
I bucked and kicked, fighting with everything to break free.
I couldn’t let them take me to the Black Castle.
They’d torture me, they’d use me for my blood and drain me until I was an empty shell. I’d rather die now than go there.
More strong hands gripped my arms and legs. Leather straps circled my wrists. A furious fire burned through my veins. “Get off me!”
“Dravyn,” someone said to the black-haired vampire. My breathing intensified. I knew it was him. “We need to move. They’re going to concentrate their archery on us any moment.”
The three men holding me started to drag me off. On the road ahead there were three wagons full of captives. Hands were wrapped around the bars of the windows. Wails and cries came from inside. I couldn’t see faces well but there must be twenty people in each.
I jerked and writhed to break away but the three of them held me with an iron-clad grip. Panic rose, clawing and fighting its way to the surface. I couldn’t get in the cart. No no no no. I screamed until my throat burned.
Dravyn pulled Viper’s dagger from his arm without a flinch and inspected the blade.
A moment later, he lifted his black eyes to mine and a cruel smile curved.
“Wait.” The men holding me stopped. I stilled.
“Put her on a skirin next to mine. Make sure she’s tied on securely.
” He picked up my sword from the thick grass and walked over to me.
“I’ve seen this sword before. You know who it belonged to? ”
I turned my face away and clenched my teeth.
“Certainly you do.” He curled his lip and ran his tongue over his teeth. “Darius said Viper had a new apprentice. This must be her. She has his dagger and Oriana’s sword. Belladonna will be pleased.” He nodded. “Let’s move.”
I struggled again until one of them struck me on the head and I blacked out.
I started coming to as belts tightened around my waist and wrists.
Something cold and hard jabbed into my throat.
I slowly lifted my chin and blinked, clearing away the blurry vision.
My head throbbed, making it difficult to think, but I was sitting on horseback, strapped to a saddle.
The horse next to me shrieked and tossed its head, then nipped at my leg.
Dravyn jerked back on the reins. “Enough, Miski. She is not for you.”
My head finally stopped spinning enough to take in the beast and I jolted.
It wasn’t a horse, it was a monster. The elongated canines pushed outside its lips from both top and bottom.
The protruding teeth were at least three inches long.
Its red eyes reflected in the moonlight and made my skin crawl.
The shiny black coat and mane were deceptively beautiful.
The warriors’ talk in the bar was true after all, but these horses had more than just wings... He called it a skirin.
“Miski craves your flesh, girl,” Dravyn said, as his mount danced impatiently. “Behave or I’ll let her have it.”
A vampire-horse? Oh, no. No.
Huge black feathered wings spread from the creature.
I tugged at the bonds on my wrists, trying to work my right hand free.
I had to get off this thing. I glanced back at the wall.
Warriors and assassins ran along the top of it, signaling archers to turn their fire from inside to outside.
I desperately searched for Vander. They couldn’t open the door, but he could climb the wall quickly.
Then I saw him at the top. I’d recognize his form even from a mile away. I’d memorized every bit of him. “Vander!”
The skirin I sat on pawed at the ground and let out a shrill noise.
I wrenched against the straps and glanced down to my feet in stirrups to see black wings opened up.
Dravyn grabbed my skirin’s reins and nudged his.
I bounced in the saddle as we moved into a trot, then a gallop, and I held in a scream as we lifted off the ground.
Several others rose into the air around us.
Vander was on the ground, sprinting after us, but as we flew up past the treetops I lost sight of him. My heart slowly sank.
I didn’t think about being hundreds of feet in the air on the back of an animal that wanted to eat me, or that I was on my way to be tortured by vampires.
I kept my mind on working to free my hands.
Whoever had tied me to the saddle did a thorough job of it.
There was even a cold metal collar around my neck that chained me to it.
If I freed my hands, I wouldn’t be able to get it off, but I’d at least be able to unhook the collar from the saddle and fight back once we landed.
My sword and dagger were strapped to Dravyn’s saddle. I wouldn’t have time to get to them, but I had a knife in my boot. I’d have only moments to act and flee.
My stomach dipped as the creature I rode began its descent.
It whinnied as it sensed home and the wings beat faster.
Nocturnus glittered in the moonlight. The Black Castle bricks were covered in a glossy sheen that made it glimmer like water.
We passed over the Devouring Swamp. The smell was like rotting corpses.
I didn’t want to imagine running through it to escape.
The wind whipped my hair around wildly as we picked up speed. I squeezed my thighs tighter to the beast as we dipped lower again. It looked like I and a group of twelve others were going for the castle with one prison cart full of slaves, while the others went in a different direction.
The carts, pulled through the air by two winged creatures, seemed to defy nature. I wondered if magic was used to steady them. Did they have a mage on their side now? The thought sickened me.
Vander had warned me what it would take to get through Nocturnus’s natural terrain—the rocky cliffs, the swamp—and with vampires chasing me the challenge of getting out would truly test my training.
The skin was raw on my wrists, but I finally pulled one hand free.
Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I quickly worked the knot around my other wrist and gripped the saddle horn as the beast touched down onto inky black cobblestones.
The hooves clopped loudly as I jolted up and down in the saddle.
I glanced at the massive castle looming above me so high I craned my neck to see the top of it.
It was twice the size of Drakthar and every bit as menacing.
The peaks reminded me of stalagmites. With dread, I realized we were several hundred feet above the city of Nocturnus and searched for a way down.
A road back in the direction we had come led through thick, towering woods covered with gray fog.
I tried remembering the map I’d studied a couple months back. The details were fuzzy, but I knew there was also a backway off the mountain, somewhere on the east side but with several cliffs and steep inclines I wouldn’t be able to climb down fast enough.
My mount slowed. I unlatched the chain and the belts around my waist. Nothing held me anymore.
I glanced between the road and the dark forest. They knew these lands and I didn’t. I could easily lose my way and get lost in the wrong direction.
I’d have to rely on my speed and stealth. With a sharp inhale, I swung my leg over and jumped. My boots hit the ground and I dashed for the foggy road.
“Stop her!” A deep male voice bellowed.
I flew down the steep decline, pumping my arms and driving my legs. The sounds of feet and hooves pounded behind me. I focused on the curving path ahead until the mutant horses started to gain on me.
A sharp turn off the road led me into the black woods. I weaved between towering dark trees and dodged branches. I’d trained for this. I would get away, nothing else mattered at this moment.
Run, run, run.
“Bring her back alive!” Dravyn’s voice echoed around the forest.
A shadow passed before me. My boots slid over the forest debris and my palm grazed the ground as I stopped and abruptly turned left.
Shit.
They were herding me back toward the road.
I had to do something different, take them by surprise. I skidded to a halt, pulled my knife and whirled. I jammed my blade into the neck of the man already on top of me. I stabbed over and over until warm blood spilled across my face. He collapsed and another waited behind him.
He threw up a closed fist, slowing the others, and said one word, “Assassin.”
And I’d drop all eight of these vampire men or die trying. Several of them bared their sharp teeth, but they left their weapons on their person. They didn’t want to kill me, so they’d hold back. I’d bet on myself with a sword, but with only a knife the odds didn’t favor me.
The huffing breaths and shrieks of their mounts on the nearby road reverberated through the night. The circling vampires’ low growls reminded me of a pack of wolves closing in on prey. But I was not the cattle they were used to. I had claws and blades and speed.
Make a move. I went for the closest to my left, ducking under his fist and slicing open his inner thigh.
He went down, clutching his wound. Spin, slice, I cut up the face of another.
A hand gripped the back of my top, I whirled and slashed across the major arteries in the underside of the wrist. He reared back, clutching the wound.
An arm meant to circle my throat. I dropped my chin like Vander taught me and stabbed behind trying to hit anything. My knife stuck into meaty flesh. I jerked forward with all my strength, tossing him over my shoulder. My focus narrowed to my enemies and how I could use myself as a weapon.