Chapter
One
Freckled skin gave beneath my spade as
I angled its honed point at the hollow of some poor female’s
throat. Milky eyes bored into mine when I braced my foot on the
spade’s tread, shifting my weight, bearing down until the blade
sliced through her slender neck, tearing flesh and crunching bone.
Her lips parted on a gasp, or perhaps I imagined that flicker of
awareness before I snuffed her final remnants. Gods knew I hoped it
was only guilt picking at scabs on my weary conscious.
The death of even one innocent would
break me, if any scrap of the old Kaidi remained.
Tossing the spade aside, I wiped sweat
from my brow and bent to check her pockets, finding them as empty as
my own. No coin meant going another day without food. Not that I had
much of an appetite after this, but I couldn’t live on stale water
for much longer. Soon I would need a hot meal and a safe place to
rest, if one still existed.
Gaze skimming the grassy field littered
with the corpses of plague victims, I had my doubts.
Exhaustion bore me to my knees. I was
too tired to wince when one knee cracked on a loose stone. My chin
hit my chest, and my eyes shut. The pulse of pain, of hunger, of
regret, lulled me.
One minute lapsed, then two. Any moment
I would rise. Any time now…
The press of cold metal against my
throat shocked me awake.
“I’ll have your name, female.”
The booming masculine voice made my head throb.
“I hope not.” I ignored the blade
and rubbed my eyes clear. “It would sound silly on a male.”
More pressure made breathing without
cutting my neck difficult. “Tell me your name.”
I rolled around a few choices before
saying, “Imani.”
His grunt called me on my lie.
Interesting. Usually they couldn’t tell.
He nudged me with his boot. “What’s
your purpose here?”
I shrugged. “The same as my purpose
elsewhere, I imagine.”
Grasping my upper arm, he hauled me
onto my feet and spun me to face him. I stifled a gasp when I met the
pitch-black eyes informing me that I had run afoul of a Mimetidae
warrior. I had tracked the plague to Cathis, the Mimetidae’s clan
home, but had I been in my right mind, a state I barely recalled
these days, I would have avoided their borders and continued on to
the next city.
Contrary to my actions these past few
months, I did not have a death wish.
Thinly leashed anger radiated through
his tightened fingers. “You play a dangerous game.”
“You have no idea,” I murmured,
while measuring the distance from here to the forest.
His gaze trailed after mine. “You
won’t make it.”
“So you say.” I struggled until he
released me, then I hit the ground like a sack of stones.
“If you can’t stand, then you can’t
run.” He sheathed his weapon, turning to appraise my long night’s
work by the dawn’s soft glow. “Care to explain this?” He
gestured toward the headless corpse. “Or those?”
I forced myself to count
victims—sixteen females and one male for good measure.
My laugh was rusty. “You wouldn’t
believe me if I told you.”
His brow creased. “Try me.”
I fisted a palm’s worth of loose
dirt. “Well, it’s like this…”
When he folded his arms over his chest,
away from that lovely sword of his, and inclined his head, waiting, I
exhaled hard and prayed the gods gave my feet wings. His frown cut
deeper, lips parting on his next demand, when I gathered my nerve and
flung the contents of my hand at him.
“What in the gods’ names—” He
staggered back, blinking in surprise.
Shoving to my feet, I bolted past him,
snagged my spade and ran for the safety of the trees. His bellow of
rage made my heart race and chest tighten. Those were not the sounds
of a happy male. No, they were the sounds of a male preparing to rend
a female in two, if he could catch her.
Scenery blurred as I ran harder,
faster, until my foot rung a hole and I tumbled onto all fours. I was
halfway to standing when the male burst into the small clearing, head
lifted, nostrils flared.
“Move,” he warned, “and we’ll
see if your head comes off as easy as theirs did.”
Turning my head slowly, I noticed his
arms were out, but his sword remained tethered at his hip as if he
didn’t want to harm me. Pity. Once I might have appreciated his
misguided chivalry. Now I saw it for the weakness it was. I was
female, but I was not soft. Not my heart, and not my arms. They were
lean and muscled from digging up graves, as firm and cold as the
ground where I had buried my mother, my sisters and cousins, all the
members of my family but one, my uncle.
I did this for them, as practice for
the day we met again and I added their names to my tally.
Can’t kill what’s already dead,
I reminded myself.
While my thoughts churned over each
other, the male took a step, and I tightened my grip on the spade.
Before he got near enough to lay his hands on me, I twisted on my
side and swung my weapon. The flat side cracked against his jaw,
popping his neck as his head twisted. In a daze, he faced me, eyes
whirling. Staggering back, he smeared the blood welling from his
smashed cheek.
Scrambling out of his reach, I clawed
my way upright, and a heartbeat later I was running. I barely dared
to hope I might escape him unscathed when an impact knocked me
against a tree. Ears ringing, I clamped my head between my hands and
focused on not vomiting as the world lurched beneath me. A second hit
from behind sent me tumbling onto the ground and burst my lip.
I wheezed when my attacker collapsed
across my back, crushing the air from my lungs.
“I can’t…breathe.” My sight
tunneled, turning hazy around the edges.
His low growl rumbled against my spine.
“That makes two of us.”
Strong hands grasped my shoulders and
flipped me onto my back. Before I brought my knee up to greet his
tender parts, the male straddled my legs and sat on my shins, pinning
me in place. His fingers dug into my collarbones, and the twist of
his lips told me that if he had another set of hands, my wrists would
be shackled too. Luckily for me, he didn’t, and I knew what I had
to do.
I brought the spade up, but seconds
from contact, he noticed. Wrenching the handle from my grasp, he
flung it so far I lost sight of it. He lowered his head until his
blood dripped on my chin. His breath was hot and hissed between his
teeth. His expression sent fear shivering up my spine.
I swallowed hard. “Please—”
His palm sealed the plea in my mouth.
“Save your lies for those who might believe them.”
Trapped beneath a snarling male who
stood a head taller than me, three times wider than me, I had no
choice but to obey. He was battered, his judgment clouded, and I knew
I would outlast him.
“Those eyes—that hair—” His
gaze narrowed on my left ear. “You’re Segestriidae.”
A name I could falsify. The golden hair
and lavender eyes common to my clansmen, those I had no way to alter.
Failing those telling signs, there was the clear quartz crystal
suspended from my earlobe by a golden strand of Araneidae silk. The
expense of that silk confirmed my identity. If their nigh-unbreakable
silk made the Araneidae the wealthiest clan in the Araneae Nation,
then the craftsmanship of mine made us almost equals in worth. Our
skill with crystals was unrivaled.
To possess the appearance of the
Segestriidae and indicators of my status was foolhardy.
Vanity kept me clinging to one while
desperation made me reliant on the other. At least I had the good
sense to travel with the matching necklace concealed. Bad enough to
be a lone female on the road. That earned me unwanted attention. But
if my fellow rogues had coveted the earring, they would have gutted
me for the pendant.
Behind my captor’s eyes, I imagined
his mind at work puzzling out my identity. My clothes were heavy and
meant for travel, dyed soot black because I hunted my prey after the
sun had set.
Briefly, I wished for his midnight hair
and eyes. How well he must complement the night.
After a moment’s hesitation, he wiped
the blood from my mouth with a cloth pulled from his pocket. When he
finished, he inhaled my scent, and dread tightened my stomach. The
Mimetidae were trackers, the lot of them. What I had given him was a
means of locating me should I escape.
While tucking away his prize, his gaze
never left mine. “Why are you on Mimetidae land?”
I mumbled against his hand, and he
removed it. “Let me go.”
His eyes crossed. “I asked you a
question.”
“Why bother answering when we both
know I won’t tell you the truth?”
“I suspected as much, but as you’re
female, I thought to give you the benefit of the doubt.”
“Well,” I countered, “as you’re
male, I thought honesty and small words were prudent.”
A tic started beneath his right eye.
“You’re insulting me.”
The seriousness of his expression made
me laugh. “You’re a quick one, you are. Did you enjoy the chase?”
I winked at him. “Set me on my feet and we can have another go.”
“I prefer you just as you are…”
he shifted his hips, “…flat on your back.”
His words dried the spit from my mouth.
All the ways this encounter could end poorly—for me—spun wild
through my head. Though the guard’s heavy thighs pinned mine
together, he was not aroused. That realization somewhat eased my
mind. Now if he would only stay uninterested.
When he slid his hands down my body,
then up my waist and over my breasts, I launched my fist at his
bloodied jaw, but he swatted aside my arm.
“Calm yourself.” He went still, his
face earnest. “I would never harm a female in that way. I must
search you for more weapons. Understand?”
I nodded as if I believed that was all
he was after.
“What’s this?” His patting had
located my necklace. When he fished it from my shirt, his eyes
widened. “I’ve never seen such a large crystal. The setting…”
he turned it over in his hand, “…it’s solid gold.” He wasn’t
asking. He didn’t have to. What would be the point of using such a
remarkable stone but denying it an equally elegant setting? He
breathed, “This must be worth a small fortune.”
His tone implied I must have stolen it.
In fact, it had been a gift from my betrothed, a bauble as beautiful
as it was lethal.
Qualities Hishima had once ascribed to
me.
“It was a gift from my uncle.” I
wasn’t stretching the truth too far. The earring had truly been a
gift from Ghubari, a match to the impressive novelty my betrothed had
given me. “Please let me keep it. Better yet, let me go.”
“If I did, where would you go?” He
glanced up, then back at me. “What would you do? Find another field
of bodies to desecrate? Loot more poor souls bound for the Above?”
His expression mirrored his repulsed tone as he shoved the pendant
back into my shirt. “Have you not a decent bone in your body that
you violate the dead?”
“You don’t know me.” My morals
had been abandoned for the sake of survival.
“I know enough.” He pushed to his
feet and took me with him. “Come on. Let’s go. You can keep the
necklace until my paladin says otherwise.”
My palms turned sweaty. “Where are
you taking me?”
“Has it slipped your recollection
that you’ve mutilated our dead? That offense is punishable by five
years imprisonment, and assaulting one of the city’s guards has
earned you another five.”
“They were dead.” At least they
were as far as he knew. “What does it matter to them?”
“They have family that will come to
pay their respects and find their loved ones hacked into pieces and
the silver tokens placed upon their eyes pocketed by the female who
did the cutting.”
Shame prickled my skin, but I held my
head high while he dragged me toward the city. Near the bodies stood
a second male, whose short blond hair was so filthy it almost matched
his mud-brown eyes. His frame was heavy with muscle, his shoulders as
wide as the ursus northlanders rode.
He paused in his deliberation and
jerked his chin my way. “Did that little thing do all this?”
My captor rubbed his discolored
jawline. “All that and more.”
The blond smirked. “You taking her to
Vaughn?”
“No.” His grip on me tightened.
“The paladin has weightier matters on his mind.”
Paladin Vaughn? No, that couldn’t be
right. The maven here was his mother, Isolde. She had ruled the
Mimetidae since the death of her husband, since before I was born.
Unless the plague…
“That’s the truth of it.” The
blond male scrubbed a meaty hand over his head.
“Finish up, then check the
perimeter.” He tugged me closer. “Her kind rarely travels alone.”
He was right about that. Most future
paladins, especially Hishima, refused to let their future wives leave
their clan home unguarded. What would this male say if I presented my
necklace as a token from my once-beloved as proof of what my kind
was? How would he react once he realized that I was the future maven
of the Segestriidae? His scowl made me believe that neither the scrap
of parchment bearing Father’s crest nor Hishima’s letters tucked
into my pocket would sway his determination to see me punished, so I
studied my captor and our surroundings as the males wagged their
tongues.
“Get on with you, then.” The blond
knelt and resumed whatever task we had interrupted.
A hard tug on my arm sent me stumbling.
“Are you trying to yank my arm from its socket?”
The brute loosened his grip a fraction.
“Stop dragging your feet.”
Out of spite, I was tempted to dig in
my heels and make him haul me every step into Cathis. But I wanted
freedom more, so I hurried along while slipping a hand into my shirt
to grasp the pendant. With a firm jerk, I broke the silken chain’s
metal clasp then shoved my hand into my pocket. My fingernail slid
along the topmost edge, where the stone met its metal setting. A push
of my thumb broke the seal and left me holding the crystal sheath
while the petite dagger it had concealed dropped into my pocket.
Careful of the blade’s razor edges, I grasped the short hilt in my
palm.
“What will you do with me?” Sad to
say, I had some idea. “Will it involve seasoning salts?”
He glanced back, his eye twitching
again. “We do not partake of the flesh of our prisoners.”
Hit a tender spot, had I? Perhaps I
ought to jab harder to prod a reaction from him.
“Ah. Well, that’s a comfort. I had
heard Mimetidae consumed the flesh of their enemies. I’m relieved
you said even my kind is exempt from your kind’s
indelicate predilections for eating—”
He whirled around so fast, I yelped in
surprise. Grasping my shirt, he reeled me hard against him. “What
else have you heard? That we find the screams of helpless females
intoxicating? Or a favorite of mine—how we peel the skin from our
victims, dry the meat in strips to savor it later?”
I blanched when our chests bumped and
his head lowered. I had what I wanted—his reaction was whip-sharp
and furious. Riling him proved he was as far removed from
Segestriidae males I had known as the moon was from the sun. He was
no gentle craftsman. He was fierce, a warrior.
My knees quaked, but I stood my ground.
“I don’t believe everything I hear.”
“In this case…” his eyes
glittered, eager for truth to burn my ears, “…perhaps you
should.”
By the time a scornful retort had
readied itself, he had given me his back. I let my gaze slide over
him while I deliberated, the broad expanse of his muscled shoulders
coaxing my eyes lower.
No time to be squeamish. While he was
distracted, I had to strike. I had to break free of him.
Tightening my fist around the dagger’s
hilt, I slipped it from my pocket. Its tip wavered as if it were a
divining rod, angling toward his weak spots. I had never sunk a blade
in a living person.
But since he had no intention of
granting me freedom, I would seize it for myself.
Death awaited me in Cathis. If not in
the teeth of his clansmen, then at the hands of mine.
Steeling my nerves, I brought my arm
across my body. My wrist rested on my shoulder for a moment before I
used all my strength to bury the blade deep in the tender meat above
his left hip.
My captor howled, and I struggled to
break his grip on one arm while twisting the knife with the other.
When pain brought him to his knee, I shoved him, retrieving my dagger
and toppling him to the dirt on his back.
Guilt and relief made me lightheaded as
I pocketed the blade and sprinted for the forest. The fallen male’s
furious shouts would set his friend on my trail for certain. I had to
hurry. I had to—
Bones popped in my shoulder when a wall
of muscle slammed me against a tree. Thick arms banded about my waist
and cut off my air. Gasping, I squirmed and kicked, but the blond
giant held tight. He lifted me, tucking me under his arm as if I were
a bedroll. With my arms pinned, I threw my leg to trip him. He caught
that too and swung me high on his hip as he would a child.
Blood heated my cheeks when he smirked
at me. “Nice try, but I’m one tree you won’t fell.” To prove
his point, he trapped both my ankles at his hip with one hand while
the other supported me by crushing me so tight against his side his
lungs might have been supplying the air for mine.
“Shouldn’t you see to your friend?”
I twisted my head, the only part of me I could move, but I saw no
sign of the male I had stabbed. The field was littered with bodies,
but none of them his.
“Murdoch?” The behemoth grinned.
“He’s not my friend.” He chuckled at something behind me, and I
dreaded what lurked past my shoulder. “Female, I don’t think he’s
your friend, either.”
“I’ll take her from here, Lleu,”
a familiar voice grated near my ear.
“You sure?” The giant squeezed
until I gasped. “Shouldn’t you get sewn up first?”
“I’m sure.” Murdoch wrenched my
arms behind my back. “Do you have your hawser?”
A tense pause stretched between them.
“Always.”
Murdoch held out his hand. “May I use
it to secure the prisoner?”
“Use this instead.” The blond
tossed him a length of black thread that made Murdoch frown.
He ran the thick, knobby silk rope
through his fingers. “You’re a male of many talents.”
His friend waggled his eyebrows at me.
“So the females tell me.”
After binding my wrists, Murdoch
smoothed his thumb over the stump of my missing ring finger. I
cringed when he touched it. The first two joints were missing, and
his caress of what remained felt too intimate somehow. I was grateful
he showed me the small mercy of not asking about it, but resumed his
task. He pried my legs from Lleu’s grip and crossed my ankles to
hobble me before he knotted the rope. Lleu was all that held me
upright while Murdoch searched me. This time his efforts produced the
bloody dagger and its crystal sheath, which he kept.
Assured I was unarmed, he slung me over
his shoulder. My face hit a wet spot on his lower back, and I
recoiled from the blood turning his worn shirt brown. The wound
splashed crimson over his tan skin, and the stain kept growing.
He must be in terrible pain. I wasn’t
being wholly facetious when I offered, “I can walk.”
“Very fast,” he said, “and in the
opposite direction of where I want you to go.”
Huffing hair from my eyes, I glared at
his arse, figuring it was the same as arguing to his face. “Release
me.” When he grunted, I promised, “I’m more trouble than I’m
worth, Murdoch.”
His shoulders tensed at my use of his
name, but he continued on without comment.
“You will regret this.” We both
would if Hishima got word. “Put me down, please.”
“There.” He winced when he set me
on my feet. “You’re down.” He reached into his pocket and
produced the cloth he’d wiped my face with earlier. “Open your
mouth.” He waited. “Now.”
My eyes rounded. “You can’t be—”
He crammed the cloth into my mouth too
fast for me to even bite him. After hefting me over his shoulder
again, this effort costing him a muttered oath, Murdoch lumbered on
toward Cathis.
Chortling sounds made me lift my head.
Lleu sauntered past me, a grin splitting his face. He tipped his head
when our eyes met. I narrowed mine, which appeared to amuse him all
the more.
Let him smile.
If Hishima found me at long last, his
retribution would be no laughing matter.
