The Ippos King (Wraith Kings #3) - Grace Draven Page 0,79

back, and she lost her footing. The ground rose up hard and unforgiving, driving the air out of her lungs in one thin, constricted whoosh.

She worked at the rope collaring her, trying to slide a claw between it and her throat to keep from being strangled. The noose tightened even more, choking off her air. Rough fibers cut into her skin as she thrashed on the ground, this time reaching back to find her killer and sink her claws into him. Her hands met only air and the end of a long baton to which the rope was attached. Whoever held it was far out of her reach.

The gray of the mists became the gray of strangulation that finally closed over her eyes in a black curtain, and she knew no more.

Chapter Nine

What's to come won't be fair.

She woke with a muffled gasp, wincing at the fiery pain flaring in her throat, as if she'd swallowed a live ember. A thick cloth gag covered the lower half of her face, muzzling her. An attempt to stretch resulted in muscles cramping in protest. She was bound in a fetal position, wrists to ankles, the leather strips wrapped so tight her fingers were numb. Forced into a hunch and unable to straighten, she was afforded only a sliver of view of her surroundings.

A cluster of horses gathered nearby, shuffling away as human legs strode back and forth. Raucous voices filled the air, all male, some joking, others angry, a few drunken.

Anhuset twisted her shoulder and craned her neck, trying to see better. She lay in the middle of a camp surrounded by strangers who, for the moment, hadn't noticed she'd woken.

There was no sign of Serovek, though she thought she caught a glimpse of Magas half hidden behind the large tent at the edge of her line of sight. Sadness weighed on her as she remembered the sound of an arrow striking a body, then Klanek crying out in pain. Was he dead? Was Erostis? Serovek himself? And if so, why had their attackers chosen to keep her alive for now?

The pain in her throat was nothing compared to what swelled in her chest and threatened to choke her more effectively than the lasso someone had noosed around her neck to strangle her into unconsciousness. The margrave who'd battled and won against the galla surely hadn't met his end at the hands of a bunch of roving marauders and thieves.

She tugged on her bonds, testing their strength. Her captors had trussed her more thoroughly than a pig set for slaughter, and if her blurring vision and pounding head were clues, they'd drugged her for good measure.

A pair of muddy boots suddenly planted themselves in front of her. Anhuset arched her neck for a better view of their wearer. He crouched in front of her, revealing a boyish visage with a sweet smile and the empty-eyed stare of a murderer. She didn't have to be human to discern the trappings of madness lurking behind his eyes. Whatever stared at her from black pupils and hazel irises, it made her think of the galla in Haradis. Every hair on her nape stood on end.

“Finally awake,” he said in Common tongue. “I'm surprised you aren't dead with as many darts as we shot into you once you fainted. There was enough sleep elixir on those points to drop a warhorse. It really is true what they about the Kai—as strong as you are hideous.”

He was less than subtle with his baiting, and Anhuset didn't rise to the insult. She met his stare with an unwavering one of her own until he stood up and put some distance between them. He motioned to someone standing nearby. “Remove her gag.”

“What if she tries to bite?”

Count on it, she thought.

The chill in the killer's tone would have frozen a lit brazier. “Then I suggest you don't get your fingers too close to her mouth.”

Coward. For all his posturing and the dead gaze, this man was craven. Was he the group's leader? And if so, what idiot followed a commander who ordered his men to do what he wouldn't do himself?

Another man skirted a wide circle around her until he stood behind her. A painful jerk on her hair, and the gag fell from her mouth. This time when the first man squatted in front of her, he wasn't nearly as close. “Sha-Anhuset of the Kai.” Her eyebrows arched, and his satisfied smirk made her want to slap it