Chapter twenty-eight
Alarge, callused hand enclosed my mouth, causing me to rise through my dreams and into full consciousness.
My eyes opened to find my legs and arms bound by several shadows who had snuck into the servants quarters in the darkest part of the night.
My heart raced.
What is happening?
No air or sound escaped my mouth as I tried to scream at the top of my lungs.
I elbowed one of the bodies that were close to my face only to receive a brutal jab into my ribs.
I rammed my pale, naked legs against their dark silhouettes and attempted to free myself from their iron hold.
They tightened their grip even more.
They hoisted my body from my wooden bed and carried me away as I attempted to yank my limbs free of their hold.
Why weren’t my roommates hearing this? My screams faded into the rough hand that engulfed my mouth.
Their bodies were rock-hard.
No matter how much I resisted, it did nothing.
Somehow, some way they had managed to wrap a thin cloth between my teeth and around my head, ensuring no sounds would come from me.
I couldn’t see anything.
It was so dark.
I couldn’t breathe.
They rushed me out of the servants quarters, into the palace gardens, and towards the woods.
The dark night was chilly against my skin and short night dress, leaving me feeling more vulnerable and exposed.
The men in shadows led the way with several torches and its burning light.
Through the dark, I noticed red leathers.
The shadows walked and grunted in a beast-like manner.
Strokan warriors.
Of course.
I could smell their stench now.
They placed me on the ground as they pushed me out of the gardens.
What did they want from me? Why did they take me? It surely was because of Tobias.
It had to be.
They were here for revenge.
I hadn’t realized my face was wet until now.
Tears had sprung from my eyes.
I was pulled further from the palace and its gardens.
My hands lost feeling from the warrior’s firm grip as we went up the hill and into the foreboding forest.
The tall and thin trees that gave room for the moon light gave me little comfort as the energy had shifted with my circumstances.
We walked further and further, and at this point, I was sure their intentions were to end my life.
I doubted the Siniyan servants would notice I was gone.
No one would know if I disappeared.
Though spring was here, the nights were still chilly, but that did nothing for the sweat that accumulated on my skin.
I had to get out of here if I wanted to live.
I could feel my sister’s presence and her disappointment seeping through me.
What a waste of life, she must be thinking.
How I had failed her.
Miserably.
Think, think, think.
What would my brother do in this moment?
Without another thought to delay me, I thrust an elbow into the man who ensnared my wrist, but I missed.
He flashed a murderous glare.
This was it.
It had to be now.
With his shock still settling, I drove another hard elbow into his ribs, and for a moment, he released my wrists and grunted.
I yanked my arm from him.
I didn’t stop to think about what I was doing as I rammed my knee into the other warrior who had my other wrist, wrenching myself free.
I stumbled out of their grips and ran as quickly as my short legs would take me.
I heard them shouting.
Don’t look back.
Keep going.
I aimed for the forest edge.
I would hide under a bush until morning.
My legs burned with fire as I busted through the woods, gaining more speed and more distance—
My body flung forward, falling to the cold hard ground as one of the warriors jabbed his hands into me.
Before I could scramble to my feet, his foot swung into the side of my ribs, and I let out a scream as it struck me over and over again.
I let my arms guide me forward, crawling from him, but he grabbed my long hair and flung me back.
I thrashed against him as he straddled his legs around my body and grabbed my arms with his hands.
No, no, no.
“You little witch.
You’re going to regret this,”
he growled.
His face came close to mine, and I could see a large scar from his ear to his mouth.
He raised my arms above my head, and I thrashed and flailed my legs behind him.
He fumbled his free hand, ripping my night dress as I heard the other warriors catching up.
No! I wanted to sob and cry and kick and scream.
And I did.
I fought with all of my strength.
I hoped someone would hear me.
“Enough,”
the leader ordered him.
“The earlier we get this done, the better we can move forward with tonight.”
“A little fun—a little lesson—won’t waste that much time—”
“You may do as you please after.
Don’t delay us any longer,”
the leader warned.
After what?
The other warriors forced me upright and pushed my shoulders forward until my bare knees hit the cold hard ground.
I shook at the thought of what might have happened if they hadn’t appeared at that moment.
I couldn’t stop thinking of the bravery I never fought for.
I could have fought harder, faster for myself.
I could have lived life better for me.
The moments I betrayed my own body and soul. I wasted so much time hiding and not living enough.
Now, I’d be dead before I could do anything differently.
Now, I was out of time.
It was too late.
A single tear fell down my cheek.
A warrior with a tattooed neck stepped to the side of my body with a torch that held the largest flame, reflecting off my pale skin.
He lowered it near my shoulder.
They were going to kill me by fire.
This was how I was going to die.
It was ironic.
No matter how burning-red my hair was, there was no fire lit in my soul—until now.
It burned bright with anger.
Anger at myself.
The leader brought forward a rod of iron.
He placed it above the licking fire until it glowed red.
My breath quickened.
What are they—
Two warriors appeared each beside me, crouching, and secured my arms firmly against themselves, keeping my body glued to the ground.
They pushed me into the dirt, my cheek pressed onto the cool, moist dirt.
The leader proceeded towards me with the iron.
They were going to brand me.
The glowing orange rod approached faster and faster.
A tear of linen exposed my left shoulder, exposing my skin to the biting cold of the night.
I wasn’t going to let them hear a victim’s screams.
My melting skin seared in my ear as the iron imprinted the side of my shoulder.
Smoke from the contact danced in front of my eyes.
There was no sound that escaped my throat.
If there was anything that I could control, it was my voice.
They didn’t deserve to hear my screams, to hear me beg for them to stop when they would do no such thing.
The searing flesh of my shoulder was the only thing I heard.
My entire body clenched and froze in time.
Then, I betrayed my body when a whimper escaped my lips as the searing rod burned until it felt like my bones were melting.
What felt like a lifetime within seconds later, the searing sound came to an end.
The warrior released the iron rod from my shoulder, and the excruciating pain halted at its peak.
“You were never his.
Now, you’ll never question it.
You’re ours, sweetheart.”
The warrior to my left chuckled as he released his grip on my arm.
“This ought to teach him a lesson,”
the one to my right grunted, also releasing me.
My arms fell to my side, trembling on the cooling dirt ground.
I couldn’t move, but my arm twitched uncontrollably.
My eyes focused in and out from the pain.
Tears rolled down my cheek onto the pasty dirt below me. The linen wrapped around my mouth and head at some point loosened and fell around my neck.
“He won’t harm another one of us again,”
the tattooed warrior with the torch muttered.
“Harm? Aris didn’t harm one of us.
He killed him,”
the scarred warrior spat.
“This isn’t to remind him of who owns these people.
It’s to start war.”
“I don’t think Malakar wants that, Jamir,”
the leader spoke.
Jamir stared at the leader with deadly eyes.
“I say we kill the branded witch.
He should have done it himself at the festival,”
he hissed through gritted teeth.
“Killing her won’t start anything.
She’s nothing.
It’s a simple reminder.
That’s all. Not only to him, but to Siniya. This girl should have never gotten in Tobias’ way.”
“He killed Tobias and—”
An arrow pierced Jamir’s throat, and he tumbled, thudding beside me, bleeding from his neck and mouth.
The light in his eyes disappeared almost instantly.
The warriors scattered for their weapons as another arrow penetrated the leader’s head.
With the sudden commotion, I managed to twist my body to see a man in a dark hooded cloak slinging his bow across his chest and unsheathing his sword from his hip.
He approached the warrior to my left.
“Aris—Aris, he made us—"
Aris slashed his sword clean through the man’s neck and kicked the decapitated warrior’s chest to the ground.
He twisted around to intercept an incoming blade to his back, and with his free hand revealed a second short blade that with a powerful swift motion he stabbed into the warrior’s neck—exactly as he taught me.
The warrior’s blade fell from his bleeding hand and on to the ground, followed shortly by his body.
I became all too aware of where I was in the midst of this chaos.
I scrambled to a nearby dead warrior and ripped one of his knives attached to his hip.
My shoulder felt like a thousand coals.
As soon as I had the handle free, a hand wrapped around my waist—
“Come here, you wench.”
The warrior with the neck tattoo was the last one remaining, and grabbed a hold of me.
I managed to twist my body and by instinct, I plunged the knife into his shoulder—not exactly deep and not exactly where Aris taught me.
My eyes widened, and my hands shook when the warrior didn’t release his hold.
Rage filled his eyes as he took the blade with his free hand and pulled me towards the woods.
This was exactly what Aris warned about.
I rammed an elbow into his ribcage, and his hold on me loosened.
In that moment, Aris was catching up to us.
I fell into the rustling leaves, and the warrior decided wisely I wasn’t worth the trouble and scurried into the dark woods.
With an abnormally swift speed, Aris lunged across the empty space at the escaping warrior.
I could only hear the screams of a life ending as the sound of splattering blood echoed through the woods.