Page 56 of Mountain Captive

“Get him off me!” the first man screamed.

“Harley, release!” Chris shouted. She was on her feet now. She picked up the second man’s rifle and hit him over the head. Both men were on the ground now—one unconscious, the other groaning.

“Let’s go!” Rand grabbed her hand.

“Serena!” Chris called.

“I’m right here. Harley, follow me.” She raced out the door, and the others followed.

The rain hit them in an icy downpour. Rand scanned the area but saw no other guards. Maybe the storm had muffled the sounds of their struggle enough that Jedediah and the third guard hadn’t heard. “Which way do we go?” Chris asked.

Rand had no idea, but he reasoned Jedediah and the other guard were probably somewhere facing the door of the container. “This way!” He pointed to the rear of their former prison.

They ran, slipping on mud and slick rock but getting up and going again. Serena stayed with them, the dog at her side. Their course gradually took them downhill. Rand tried to picture the topo map of the area he had studied last night, but he couldn’t relate this soggy landscape to what had been printed there. All they could do was continue to put distance between themselves and their captors.

After what felt like an hour but was probably only a fraction of that, they entered a drainage, clumps of grass and wildflowers replacing bare rock, a thin trickle of water cutting a path ahead of them. The rain slowed, then stopped, and the sky began to clear. Rand stopped beneath a rock ledge and they rested, waiting for their breathing to return to normal before anyone spoke. “Where are we going?” Serena asked.

“I don’t know,” Rand admitted. “But a drainage like this should lead to a stream or a road or something.” He hoped. He wasn’t certain that was true.

Chris looked up the way they had just come. “I don’t hear anyone following us,” she said.

“Maybe they’re gathering reinforcements.” He straightened. “Let’s keep going.”

They walked now, instead of running, but they kept a steady pace. No one complained, though he knew they were all hungry and tired. He fell into step beside Serena. “How are you doing?” he asked. “Are you in pain?”

She shrugged. “My face hurts. But I’ll be okay.”

The drainage they had been following did end—not at a stream or road but in a box canyon. They spent the next two hours picking their way up the canyon walls, grappling with mud and loose rock before finally emerging at the top as the sun was sinking. “We need to find a place to spend the night,” Rand said.

They studied the landscape. Rand wished he had his pack and binoculars. “That looks like a building over there.” Chris pointed to the west. “Maybe an old mine ruin.”

They trudged in the fading light toward the structure, which proved to be the remains of a cabin, the roof mostly gone and one wall collapsing. But they cleared out a dry spot at the back. With the darkness, the temperature had dropped, and they were all shivering, with no way to make a fire.

“Let’s huddle together,” Chris said. “We’ll keep each other warm.”

They put Serena between them, with Harley at her feet. Soon, she was breathing evenly, asleep. Chris stroked her hair. “I’m still so angry that they beat her,” she said softly. “She’s just a child.”

“She’s safe with us now,” Rand said. But for how much longer? The Exalted and his followers had proved they were relentless in their pursuit.

“Why does he want me so badly?” she asked. “Why go to so much trouble to have me?”

“Maybe it’s because you defied him and got away,” Rand said. “He wants revenge, or to make an example of you for his followers. Or maybe he’s obsessed. He’s decided he has to have you, and that’s what drives him.” He wrapped his arm around her. “But I’m not going to let him have you.” He didn’t know how he could stop them, but he would do everything in his power to keep her with him.

She tilted her head back and looked up, blinking rapidly. He wondered if she was holding back tears.

“THEWORLDLOOKSso big from here,” Rand said.

She nodded. Her world inside the Vine had been so small. Everything revolved around the Exalted and life in the camps. Their whole focus was obeying the Exalted, serving him and, thus, somehow, perfecting themselves. Even though she had told Rand she wasn’t as fully indoctrinated as Serena, it had taken her a long time after she and her mother had left to accept that no one and no situation was perfect.

Rand leaned in closer, and she turned toward him. She shifted until she was pressed against him, then kissed him. The kiss was a surrender—not to him as much as to the part of her that wanted to rest, to feel safe in his arms. And it was a release of the tension she had been holding in too long. She had fought against trusting anyone else for so many years that it had become second nature, but Rand made her want to trust him, with her secrets, her fears and her very life. The feeling both frightened and thrilled her, and she did her best to translate those sensations into that kiss.

He brought his hand up to caress the side of her neck, and she leaned into his touch. She wanted to be closer to him, but the child between them prevented that. She had to be content with drinking in the taste of him, the soft pressure of his lips, the firm caress of his hand. She wished she could see more of his face in the darkness, but maybe that only heightened the experience of that kiss. It warmed her through and fed a growing desire within her. “I wish we were alone, somewhere more comfortable,” she whispered.

“If I have to be here,” he said, “I’m glad it’s with you.”

She laughed, more nerves than mirth. “You have a strange idea of romance.”

He kissed her again. Okay, not strange at all. If he could make her feel this way with a kiss, imagine what he could do with more time and room.

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