Page 65 of Trapped to Tame
His heart in his throat as he thought about her death at the hands of this man, Drax took the fighter by his shirt, dragging him close.
‘Did you kill her?’
He put his hands up. ‘No. In the middle of the fight, she suffered a fit of some kind. She was dragged to the side of the pit, and another took her away. He was a large man I’ve not seen here before though he was clearly no stranger to the rings by the looks of him. He wasn’t from Kitore.’ The fighter hesitated before he spoke again. ‘He looked pleased to see her. I thought perhaps they were friends.’
‘And what was she doing during all this?’ Fie asked.
‘She was insensible,’ he said. ‘She seemed to suffer a great pain that left her unable to even stand.’
Drax and Fie shared a grim look. The anguish of the bond being broken would have been worse for her as she had been tied to all three of them. If Priest had cost them their Fourth, Drax would find a way to get around the wards of the Dark Army, and he would kill his Brother himself.
‘Where did they take her?’ Drax asked, letting the man go.
‘They went in that direction.’ He nodded with his head.
Fie and Drax left the rings, walking the way the fighter had indicated. A child stood by a corner, and Drax approached him.
‘We're looking for a female.’
The boy gave a bored yawn. ‘Two streets over.’
‘Aspecificfemale,’ Drax said, producing a gold coin.
His young eyes took on a feral gleam. ‘I'm sure I can find her for you.’
Drax held out a coin. ‘One now. One when you can show us where she is. She's small, was being carried by a much larger man from the rings.’
‘Wait here,’ he said, disappearing down the alley nearest to them.
He came back a moment later.
‘You’re in luck. Come with me,’ he said, leading them into the narrow street and down another to a spot not far from the river’s edge.
‘In there,’ he said, pointing to a ramshackle building that looked like it might collapse under a persistent breeze.
Drax gave the child the second coin. ‘If we find her, I'll give you five more.’
He nodded, his fingers curling around the money and secreting it away in his rags. ‘She's in there.’
They slunk towards the building, drawing their knives when they heard someone approaching. Drax turned to find Priest. His Brother had already healed from the beating he and Fie had given him. Drax sneered at him. They should have used iron to hurt him.
‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ Fie snarled and Priest subtly flinched at his tone.
‘Where’s the female?’ Priest asked, ignoring Fie’s question and looking around as if she might appear.
‘What do you care?’ Drax ground out, his voice sounding like a prelude to further violence.
‘Silence,’ Fie snarled at them both.
Drax looked at his Brother in surprise.
‘She's in there,’ Fie said to Priest. ‘She's been taken.’
Priest stared at the house. ‘By whom?’
‘We're going to find out.’
Drawing their weapons, they opened the door a crack and slunk into the house if it could even be called that for it was practically a ruin. The floorboards were rotten underfoot, and they had to be careful not to fall through them as they walked across the interior. The stairs down into the cellar were holey and rotten, but the ones that led up to the next floor were completely impassable.
