lift me off the ground. I was terrified, furious to be so helpless and vulnerable, with one of my senses disabled.
The familiar sound of a sword hissing from its scabbard halted us all, and one of my captors growled, “Deal with him.”
One of the Guard!
I’d never been so thankful to be followed!
So busy attempting to hear the exchange, I wasn’t paying attention to my captors and stupidly allowed one of them to throw me onto a hard shoulder. Grunts and a shout of pain hit my ears. I hoped the officer’s sword had just found one of my captor’s bellies. The clatter of steel hitting stone made me tense. Then all I could hear was flesh smashing into flesh—grunts, groans, hisses of pain.
“Stop, or we kill the girl.”
I heard heavy breathing and then silence.
Fearful, I squirmed, beating down on whatever body part I could find.
“Stop it, or we will kill your bodyguard,” the man holding me said as an insolent hand swatted me hard on the bottom. Tears of humiliation sprung in my eyes but I stopped fighting, realizing they had both me and the officer in an untenable position. If one of the Guard had been disarmed, then there must be too many of them to fight.
“What will we do with ’im?” a rough female voice asked from somewhere to my left.
“Bring ’im. ’E’ll only send people after us otherwise.”
I began to fight again in earnest, taking pleasure in the yelp of pain I produced when I bit what I assumed was an ear through the hood over my head.
“Blood ’ell! Prick her!”
A sharp, short pain flared in my arm and I cried out. Heat rushed up the appendage at a dizzying speed and flooded my brain in a gush of warmth and bright colors. The colors burst like fireworks in the night sky until they faded, leaving only a numbing darkness.
Chapter 11
A shaft of light pried at my eyelids causing a sharp pain to ricochet through my head. I moaned through lips that were dry and cracked.
“Rogan?” a familiar voice asked.
I jolted and my eyes flew open. Blinking against the light, I turned my head and winced at the feel of cold stone beneath it. A tiny window was the source of the annoying illumination in the dank cellar. I scrambled quickly to a sitting position, grit and dirt pinching my palms. At the sight of Wolfe sitting near me, looking tired and pale, I experienced more than a flicker of panic.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
I shook my head, trying to get my bearings as I looked around the large room with the low ceiling that had nothing in it but us and a changing screen in the corner. A door made of thick metal bars stood at one end. It was as if I were in a dream. I couldn’t remember how I had gotten there. Flashes of images, of unfamiliar faces, swept through me.
Then I remembered being jostled. Someone tried to feed me.
“Where are we?” I croaked. My throat was dry.
Wolfe sighed and pushed a cup of water to me.
I gulped it thirstily.
“Do you remember being taken in the market at Ryl?”
Fear shot through my body and I trembled, dropping the cup. I could still feel that clammy, dirty hand over my mouth, hands on my body as they tried to restrain me. “You were the one who followed me?”
He nodded gravely. “We’ve been kidnapped by the Iavii.”
That was the last thing I had been expecting. Although, to be honest, I didn’t know what I’d been expecting. The last time I’d been kidnapped, it was for my power; I assumed this was the reason behind our current situation. “The clan from Alvernia that have been causing havoc in Javinia?”
“The very ones.” He grimaced. “They drugged us. We’re in Javinia, but we’ve only been out for a few days, I think, which means we must be near the border.”
My heart thudded. I felt sick. “A few days. At the mercy of those people?”
Wolfe’s jaw clenched and he turned away in frustration. “Well, you would have to defy orders and take off on your own.”
Furious heat shot through me. “Oh, it didn’t take long for the lecture to start, did it, Stovia?”
“I’m not the one who got us into this mess,” he hissed, gesturing around at the cell. “They have a Dravilec, Rogan. And they’re well armed and can fight. God knows what else they have up their sleeve.”
“A Dravilec?” I was momentarily thrown by the fact