with her? He couldn’t bring her back to Silvergard. The castle was deserted, and even if Baltrasard had returned by now, the moment he saw them coming he would escape again. She would be alone there no matter what. He would take her to Theshwar and pray that her father contacted them. He didn’t know what he would do with her if her father did nothing.
Did he give up and sell Silvergard’s booty for what the people of Shondravar needed, as originally planned, or to continue their quest to bring Baltrasard to justice?
He thought of Shondravar as his eyes closed. Yes, he told himself falling into a deep sleep, I’ll take her to Shondravar. I’ll take her home.
Caleb was the first to wake up a few hours later. His arms were empty.
Baltrasard’s daughter was gone.
As the shock of her escape settled over him, Caleb leapt to his feet, cursing under his breath. He woke the rest of the camp with shouts and various orders. “She couldn’t have gotten far,” he called out while they rushed to fold their tents. “We’ll split up into groups so it will be easier to find her. Hurry,” he ordered, leaping into his saddle. “She won’t survive alone out there.”
Kicking his mount into a full gallop, Caleb cursed his plan again. He’d known the princess would be trouble, but he never expected her to be so witless as to wander the plains alone.
Everyone in Predaria, whether they lived here permanently or not knew the terrors of the Great Plains, the way the scorching sun beat down upon a man until all that was left of him was burnt flesh and dry bones. They all knew about the fires that sprang out nowhere and threatened to kill everything in their path. Caleb tightened his grip on the reins and urged his mount faster.
The sun burned angrily in the orange sky as the hour of its zenith approached. The horses sweat and foamed at the mouth as their hooves pounded the sunbaked earth of the plains.
Jonas spotted her first and pointed. Caleb kicked his stallion faster. She was walking, quite exhausted but determined to get as far away from the savages as possible.
Willow heard their approach and turned, wide eyed with astonishment that they had found her so quickly. She was ready to cry out a string of curses. She had almost done it. Her pretend seizure had worked but staying quiet and still in his arms until he fell asleep had been almost impossible. His comforting voice in her ear and being strewn across his lap had worked her nerves up good. She couldn’t help but smile at him like a dreamy fool.
All that for nothing! Here he was with four of his Warrior friends.
He veered his steed to the right with a murderous cry that shook Willomenia to the marrow of her bones.
She pivoted around slowly, already feeling the thunder as it vibrated under her feet. The oaths she was about to deliver faded from her lips and died on the stagnant air before her.
Catchers were racing toward her, twenty men strong, clothed in black robes from head to foot. They carried long poles with nooses attached to the end and rode on fearsome war-horses whose black, willowy trappings flowed outward like wings of demons coming to snatch away her life. Great clouds of dust rose to their haunches as though the pits of hell had just spit them out and delivered them to the dry earth.
Willow ached to run, but her feet rooted into the ground like ancient trees. Her father had told her about the Catchers too. They rode the plains searching for wanderers and sold them as slaves. Sometimes ravaging villages when trade was slow, snatching children right from the arms of their mothers. They were nomads as far as anyone knew, never remaining long enough in one place to be completely stopped. Their victims never turned up again, often being sold to other countries.
Her father had warned her about the Catchers, but she wanted to believe they were naught but a myth used to frighten ill-behaved children. But they were as real as the Warriors behind her, their voices raised in a chant that lifted her hair off the back of her neck. The harrowing sound broke the spell the Catchers had over her and Willow tore her eyes away from the nightmare quickly approaching, lifted her hand to her throat in horror, and ran for the cover of the largest