Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
The Winter Lands
Asher was huge. Maybe even taller than Thain.
His black hair was cropped close to his head, and his pale gray complexion looked haunting with his black eyes.
And he was fast. He sprang into action almost immediately after telling me I was coming with him.
Three flesh hounds had crept near, snarling and ready to attack.
But the fae that Asher commanded were ready. They sprouted fang and blade and claw, ready to pounce if any of the creatures got too close.
I was terrified. The hounds were huge, and I got a gruesome picture up close that I hadn’t gotten when we’d left Thain fighting one in the trees.
Here in the open I could discern exactly what pieces of torn flesh the hounds had adorned themselves with.
One had a strip of neck and ear over its back along with what must have been a length of scalp.
I distinctly saw fingers on another. Old, dried blood striped their grotesque hides.
It stung to look at them. To smell them was worse.
Instead of healing over, damaged skin seemed to remain open. It festered, dripping pus and infection. The scars I could see told me the wounds would heal eventually, but the marred and open flesh told me it wasn’t a quick or pleasant experience.
One of the hounds closest to me had a mangled jaw with maggots crawling on it. It did nothing to ease my nausea.
It was awful. The smells, the sounds. My newly heightened senses were making me sick, and I kept my eyes shut tightly.
Asher assigned one of the fighters to bind my hands and hold me in place while they fought the hounds.
He did so, none too gently. I couldn’t have run if I’d wanted to, though.
I was absolutely drained of energy. I couldn’t even light a candle right now with my powers.
I strained, trying to hear or see what might have happened to Schula, but I couldn’t tell where she was or if she was even alive. She had to be alive, right? Asher had ordered his soldiers to bring her with us.
I screamed once, when a flesh hound broke the line of defense and came bounding toward me.
Asher himself caught the thing, ripping its throat out with his claws.
Its blood dripped down his arm, and he looked me straight in the eye as he smiled and licked some of it off his bicep, still holding bits of its flesh in his hand as the body twitched on the ground at his feet. He chuckled at my reaction.
I clamped my eyes shut for the remainder of the fight. Even though I could feel warm blood splatter my face. Even though I could smell the pungent scent of punctured intestines, signaling a gruesome death nearby.
It felt like ages before it all died down. I finally pried my eyelids open when I was hauled to my feet. Bodies littered the ground around us. There were probably a hundred dead flesh hounds lying between two dozen fae all answering to Asher. Three of his fae had fallen and were being carried off.
“Come on, you.” Calloused hands yanked me forward, and my feet left the ground as my assigned guard grabbed me.
I was lifted and thrown over his shoulder, now fully realizing I was wearing only my breast band and pants. Filth from his skin and blood splatter from the fighting coated my exposed stomach.
My view was of the ground behind the brute carrying me and little else. I twisted my head and could see the boots and legs of other fae, and we were moving.
“Put me down!” I kicked my legs and did everything in my power to disrupt my captor while my hands were still bound.
“Shut up and stay still,” he grunted.
“Put! Me! Down!” I screamed, willing my flames to come to life around me, but I was still empty.
“Silence.” Asher’s cold voice rang through the field, and I stiffened.
In a flash, his powerful hand was gripping my face, his palm over my mouth and his claws digging painfully into my cheeks.
His eyes came into view as he lifted me by the jaw to meet his eyes, my lower half still over the shoulder of his soldier.
“You listen to me, youngling. I will tolerate nothing but obedience from your disgusting kind. You will remain silent for the trip to the palace, and you will hold your tongue in front of His Majesty, or your friend will be the one to pay the price.”
He jerked my face roughly to the side. Over his shoulder, I could see in the distance where two of his fae were carrying a limp Schula in their arms. I gasped as I saw the trickle of blood flowing steadily from her temple.
“Do you understand, half breed?” He jerked my gaze back to his cold eyes.
Glaring at him, I refused to give him an answer.
He grunted and dropped me, walking back to the front of the group. My body smacked against hard shoulder blades as I fell fully over my guard’s shoulder again.
My heart pounded. What was I supposed to do now? I was going to see Asher’s king. That must be the Winter King, right? And I was expected; Asher just didn’t know who I was. Right?
But where were Thain and Eberon?
And was Schula all right?
I let myself fall limply against the Winter brute’s shoulder as the fae under Asher marched. We made our leisurely way to the looming Winter’s Teeth.
I wasn’t sure if they were hesitant to face what was ahead of us, which didn’t seem like Asher, or if they were letting someone, or something, catch up to us, which I didn’t want to think about either.
Light snow that had crunched underfoot was quickly turning to packed ice as we neared the mountains. The fae didn’t talk, they didn’t march out of line, and they all deferred unquestioningly to Asher.
I would be completely bored if I wasn’t scared out of my mind.
The sun, which had been high overhead, was starting to dip into the afternoon.
Enough that I could tell we were heading further west. I squirmed on my guard’s shoulder, trying to see Schula from where I hung upside down.
He took one giant hand and smacked my backside, and I yelped from the force of it.
“Stop moving,” he growled.
Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding. Maybe the king would recognize me and let us go. Maybe.
Asher had called me a half breed. Maybe I’d never really escaped that after all.
A cold tear streaked from my eye to my temple and dropped to the ground. I furiously tried to wipe at my face with my bound hands.
It was different now. Even if I was going into danger because of what I was, I wasn’t the same lost girl I used to be. Now I had fire. Now I had friends. And I was ready to fight. I was ready to take control of myself.
My newly healed ears twitched as a whisper reached them. Far in the distance, very softly, I heard a familiar caw. My throat tightened as I nearly cried out for Puko. I swallowed and choked out a laugh. A quiet and strained sound.
“What is so funny?” the brute growled under me.
“Nothing.” I grinned watching a tiny black speck in the distant sky.
My heart soared to him as Puko followed safely behind us. If a half-blind bird could track me down across the Wyldes, then I could get us out of this.
I wasn’t alone, and this time I was going to bow to no one.