Page 3 of Captive

The horses suddenly slowed, swishing their tails nervously.

“Come on,” Ermo grumbled, flicking the reins.

The horses grew more agitated, tensing their muscles and raising their heads high. One of them reared up as if trying to break free of its harness.

Then a shadow moved. Just outside the circle of light cast by the lantern. Novikke, struck with panic, jumped to her feet in the wagon and drew her sword.

The shadow darted closer, into the light. A shining eye stared up at them.

It was a small, black rabbit. Its nose twitched.

Dimos laughed for a long time. “A good thing Novikke is here to protect us from Kuda Varai’s vicious rabbits. What a relief. You were right—I never would have come here if I’d known such frightening creatures guarded the road.”

She lowered her sword, glaring at him. “It could have been something else.”

“Could have,” Dimos agreed patronizingly.

The rabbit darted across the road and disappeared with a rustle of bushes.

Novikke had begun to sheath her sword again when Chrysana whispered, alarmed, “Novikke, do you see that?”

Novikke followed her gaze into the trees adjacent to them. “What?”

They both stared into the darkness. Dimos and Ermo looked, too.

Then she saw it. The shine of eyes reflecting their lantern light out of the darkness.

There was movement from the road in front of them. Novikke turned and stared as a dark humanoid shape gradually resolved out of the darkness. Her stomach dropped.

“Ash,” she cursed.

“Astra preserve us. Turn the wagon around!” Chrysana said, and Ermo struggled to pull the horses into motion.

Dimos stood up. “Come take your death head-on, demon!” He leapt from the wagon and hit the ground running. The figure on the road seemed taken by surprise, and stopped moving. It drew a sword, but held it down at its side, waiting for Dimos to approach.

“Well?” Dimos shouted. “Come on! Show me what you’ve got!”

Before the figure could move, Dimos rushed at it, sword raised. For a moment, Novikke thought he would win, that his opponent would be caught off guard by the suddenness of the attack.

And then the figure side-stepped, parried his attack, and countered. There was a flash of blood as a blade sliced through Dimos’s neck.

Novikke and Ermo gasped. Chrysana screamed. Dimos staggered and fell to his knees, clutching his throat.

The figure on the road stepped around Dimos and came toward them, picking up speed.

Novikke turned, and there was another dark figure behind them approaching the back of the wagon.

“Forget the wagon. You have to run,” Novikke snapped at Ermo. The elf who had killed Dimos broke into a run and came fully into the light, and by the gods, he looked terrifying up close, like a demon from the fifth hell. He shied away when one of the horses neighed and reared up.

Novikke jumped to the ground and chopped through the other horse’s harness, then pulled it up alongside the wagon. “Can you ride?” she asked Ermo and Chrysana.

Ermo looked aghast. “Yes, but—”

“Get on and go fast.”

There was no time to ask twice, nor even to look back, so she hoped they heeded her instructions. She circled around the front of the wagon, where the night elf was still uneasily watching the remaining horse, as if he thought it might be trained to attack. When she crossed his line of sight, he turned to her.

Her breath caught in her throat. The swinging lantern illuminated his face in uneven light.

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