Page 23 of Captive

When Aruna had been gone several minutes, a pair of them approached her. She kept her gaze carefully averted, hoping in vain that they were heading to the door and not to her.

They stopped in front of her. Reluctantly, she looked up. A man and a woman glared at her.

“Ardanian?” the man sneered, not quite pronouncing it correctly through his accent.

Novikke supposed ignoring him wouldn’t go well. “Obviously.”

He looked her up and down. His gaze was half leer and half loathing. “Why are you not restrained?”

She inched farther back against the wall. “Because I haven’t fought,” she said, which was strictly not true, but was a simpler explanation than the truth.

Several more elves approached behind the first two.

He put on a surprised face. “You don’t fight?” he said. “Ardanians want to fight anything that moves. They will fight a songbird if it gives them a wrong look.”

There was a short laugh from the others.

“I don’t want to fight anyone,” Novikke said carefully.

“Of course you do,” the man said. He took a dagger from his belt and offered it to her hilt first.

Novikke looked down at it. The man was smirking at her. The others stared, waiting. He was baiting her. He was giving her the opportunity to stab him with it, and when she inevitably didn’t, he’d gloat over her cowardice.

When she didn’t take it, he forced it into her hand and closed her fingers around the hilt.

“Come on, Ardanian,” he said, drawing his sword and backing away a few steps. “Fight me.”

Novikke didn’t move. She held the dagger against her midsection. She didn’t dare make so defiant a move as dropping it, but she didn’t want to look threatening, either. They were looking for a reason to hurt her.

“You are afraid of a fair fight?” he said, feigning surprise again. “If you had fifty of your friends with you, then you would be ready to fight me, I think. That is the Ardanian way.”

There was another wave of snickers. A crowd had gathered by then. Someone grabbed her wrist and shoved her toward the man. She stumbled and fell to the ground at his feet.

She twisted to look up at him. The dagger was still gripped tightly in her hand. Without thinking, she held it up between him and herself.

He laughed and swept his sword in a lazy arc toward her chest, and she took the full force of it on the crossguard of the dagger. She winced and nearly dropped the dagger as the impact vibrated through her hand and wrist.

“I’m being brought to your leader for questioning,” she said in a desperate rush. “You can’t kill me.”

“We will not damage your voice, human. Don’t worry.” He moved to swing the sword toward her again. Novikke flinched.

And then someone was shouting above the noise of the crowd. The man’s blow never landed.

Aruna pushed through the crowd. Novikke let out a tight breath. She’d never been so glad to see him.

The crowd stepped back as he arrived. He spoke to the one with the sword, making a placating gesture. The man shot Novikke another look of distaste before reluctantly lowering his weapon.

Aruna turned to her, looking at the dagger clutched in her hand. She’d forgotten she was holding it by then. She carefully set it on the ground beside her. Aruna motioned for her to get up.

She didn’t hesitate. The faster she got away from the mob, the better. When she was close enough, he took her roughly by the back of her collar and pushed her through the crowd. She stifled a sound of protest.

The man who’d challenged her caught her arm as she passed, stopping her short. He said something to Aruna. Novikke didn’t like his tone. She disliked his hand clutching her wrist even more. She glanced up at Aruna, who was suddenly feeling a lot more like an ally than an enemy.

Aruna said something quiet and stern to the man and peeled his fingers away from her. Finally, the man backed off.

Aruna pulled her away from the group and around the side of a building. As they rounded the corner, his choking grip on her collar softened and then released. He took her arm instead, and led her into a dark room lit by a single lantern hanging from the rafters.

She put her back against the wall beside the door, half expecting someone to come chasing after them, but when a few moments had passed and no one else had entered, she began to relax.

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