Page 7 of Ironhold, Trial One

I run again, out into the village square this time. There’s still a crowd of people there in the wake of the bear’s attack. Maybe if I can get to them, they will help me. Surely they will be grateful to me for saving them?

The soldiers are faster. One moves to cut me off, while the other moves behind me.

“Help me!” I call out to the other villagers. “Somebody help me.”

There are enough of them that if they all try to help me together, they will easily overpower the two soldiers. Surely afterwhat I've just done saving them from the bear, they will want to help me?

But no one moves forward. I can see the fear on their faces and a kind of gratitude that it isn't them the soldiers are targeting. They might like me, might be grateful for everything I've done, might respect my mother, but they still aren't going to intervene against trained soldiers of Aetheria. I'm sure each of them fears that the first one to do so will die at a soldier's hand. Or maybe they just fear what will happen if the soldiers come back in force.

I look from one soldier to the other, trying to judge the best way to run as they close in on me.

“Leave my daughter alone!”

My mother is there then, trying to get to me. One of the soldiers turns to her as she approaches.

“Stay back!” he commands.

My mother keeps coming and he hits her, back-handing her casually, hard enough that she goes sprawling in the village square.

“No!” I cry out. “Mother!”

I try to go to her, and that is a mistake. Maybe if I had taken the opportunity to run when the soldiers were distracted by her, I might have been able to flee again. Instead, the soldiers are waiting for me as I try to go to my mother. The two of them grab my arms, holding me between them as I try to struggle. I kick out at them, trying to get them to let go, but all that does is earn me a slap across the face that makes my head ring and tears well up in my eyes.

I am dizzy after that blow. Dizzy enough that they are holding me up as much as holding me in place. I can see their eyes roving over me, and fresh fear rises in me of what they might do next.

I see the figure of the grey-robed official approaching, moving slowly, not hurrying. He looks annoyed, the way hemight have if someone had tried to hide a few silver pieces away from his inspection.

“Running? Foolish.”

“Help us!” I call out again to the other villagers.

The official laughs at that. “Help you? That rabble? Even if they could somehow take on two trained soldiers of Aetheria, they know it would only mean a squadron of them would return to this village and raze it to the ground. They aren't going to help you.”

“Why are you doing this?” I ask. “I saved your life.”

“Yes,” he says. “And in so doing, showed exactly the kind of gift for magic that the empire sends me out to seek. My talent is for finding such things, and IknewI sensed something in this village. I will be well rewarded for bringing you back.”

“You can't just kidnap me!” I insist.

He shakes his head. “This is not kidnapping. You are not a citizen of Aetheria. You do not enjoy the protection of its laws. Indeed, those laws are clear. All magic flows outwards from Aetheria. All those with it must be brought. We are quite entitled to take you.”

“What are you going to do with me?” I demand.

“I’mnot going to do anything,” the official says. “But I'm sure they'll pay a good price for you at Ironhold. They are always seeking those with talents.”

He says it as if it is the most natural thing in the world for him to enslave me like this. As if it is only right that he can walk into a village and decide to take someone from it. Already, the guards are pulling my arms in front of me, manacling them together, then fastening a short chain to those manacles, one of them holding it almost casually.

“I have done nothing wrong!” I insist.

The official frowns. “You say that as if it matters. All that matters is what you are. And what you are not. You're not acitizen of the city. You live in lands conquered by it. You have a talent it desires. Your fellow villagers should be grateful to you. I was going to have to take several of them to make up for the lack of taxes from this place. Instead, it's only going to be you. As of this moment, you are the property of the Aetherian Empire.”

My mother groans, starting to rise, starting to try to save me. The soldier who is not holding my chain only knocks her back into the dirt again. The one who is holding it jerks the chain, forcing me to march along with him or be dragged along the ground.

The shock of what is happening to me starts to hit me fully. Tears start to fill my eyes as I stumble along after him. Through them, I can see my village, my home, receding behind me step by step.

I saved lives today, and only my reward for it has been to be claimed by Aetheria.

CHAPTER FOUR

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