Page 42 of Ragoru

He cocked his head as he regarded her. “Why? You said this would be the easiest route to your coordinates so that you can finally finish this and we could return to our territory.”

Her lips twisted. It seemed nothing about this trip was going to be simple or easy. “I know, but there’s something uncanny about this place and I can see that all three of you are uncomfortable with it.” She hesitated, uncertain whether she should reveal what Vrishna had confided in her but then pushed the thought away.No secrets.“I know that there’s something here that I can’t smell the way you can. Vrishna tried to explain it, but it opened my eyes to what has been bothering me. No birds, no animals rustling in the bushes. Just the buzz of an occasional fly at most.”

Damned things had come over with their colony ships and had been a plague to Solum ever since. Along with cockroaches, Evie privately suspected that some form of roach existed across the universe to plague all species.

“What I’m saying is that it’s foolish to ignore all these warning signs just to forge ahead into what could possibly be a greater danger if something is scaring the wildlife from this area. It may take a little longer going with my original plan, but I think it’s probably the best idea for us.”

He expelled a long breath. “I think you’re ri—” Thral suddenly stiffened, his words cutting off as his head snapped around.

His ears pricking, he quickly scented the air, and a menacing growl built in his chest. With one arm he pushed her behind him, and Evie’s eyes flew around their surroundings in a desperate attempt to catch some glimpse of whatever now alarmed her triad. Not only was Thral on guard but Vrishna had shot to his feet, and both he and Sabol were loping toward them.

“Thral?” she whispered, her skin prickling with fear.

“Humans,” he snarled as he backed her up into the waiting guard of the rest of her triad. “Several males are approaching us.”

She shook her head. That didn’t make sense. Who would it be? The huntsman didn’t have permission to leave the village, and she was certain that no one else would have bothered to trail after her this far.

A loud crack fired through the air, making Evie jump. Vrishna and Sabol growled as they placed her firmly between them.

“Evelyn Willocks,” a familiar voice boomed through the forest.

Her back went ramrod straight at the mocking way the huntsman drew out her name. He sounded like he was close but that only meant that he had a voice amplifier at his disposal. She wouldn’t be surprised at all if the mine had a couple that they utilized in their day-to-day operations.

“Ms. Willocks, on behalf of the Order of the Huntsmen, I charge you with one count of unlawful engagement with creatures that are a threat to human life and failing to report it. One count of assisting said creatures from evading capture. And most egregiously, one count of facilitating the movement of monsters within unlawful proximity to human habitation. By law, I’m fully within my right to carry out sentencing and execution. Come out with those creatures and I may be merciful and just imprison you. One way or another, those creatures will die. If not by my hand, then by the hand of one among the miners who agreed to accompany me in the interest of protecting their own.”

Evie shook her head. “They aren’t a danger to you,” she shouted over the growls of her mates. “They are only trying to protect me. Let us leave and I will take them away from here.”

Vale tsked over the amplifier. “I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Ms. Willocks. The miners need their pound of flesh. It seems that there was a death in the mines two days ago. A miner was torn apart by something. It is obvious to anyone with eyes that these creatures are capable of doing that sort of damage.”

“What? They don’t even match the description of the creature that the witness saw. Not to mention they never came near the mines and were with me the entire time as we took a long route into the valley. They couldn’t possibly have done it.”

He sighed, the sound carrying loudly through the forest. “Unfortunately, your witness was the miner who died while working at her post. It is entirely likely that she was mistaken, and we cannot corroborate her story against yours as her report, as you know, was undetailed.”

Fuck!

“Manchen was there,” she protested, screaming over her mates’ snarls. “She could confirm.”

A dark chuckle followed her words. Did it sound louder, closer, than it had a moment ago? “I’m afraid Manchen has been removed from her post and confined until she can be transported to report back to her superiors in person. She tried to detain me from doing my duty, so I had no choice but to act in the best interest of the citizens stationed under her care. Especially when I reported back to her that I saw your tracks mingling with prints made by some sort of beasts and she still did not grant me permission to investigate further. In her refusal to let me act in accordance to what the Order and High Council has decreed, she proved to be as big a traitor to our people as you are, Ms. Willocks. Now… step away from those creatures and come out of the woods. Do not think to try and get around us. We have the passage directly behind us bottlenecked. You have to the count of ten and then we open fire. One. Two.”

Evie inwardly cursed. The rocky ledges from the mountain had indeed created a small bottleneck a short distance away where they nearly bisected the valley save for a narrow strip of ground near the beach. They weren’t going to be able to get out that way. They had no choice but to try the cave system and hope that they found the way into the mines from there or the shaft up to the surface that was marked on her coordinates.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she whispered as she quickly slid her pack on and went so far as strapping it around her hips and chest. Her gaze shot up to Sabol. “We have to make a run for the caves. I’ve been studying the schematic and think they might be on the other side of the village,” she said in a rush, keeping her voice low. “There’s a rocky ledge that will come out. You’ll probably smell the cave before you see the entrance, knowing you guys. That is our only chance out of here.”

She only prayed that there was nothing out there. The what-ifs sprang unbidden to her mind of horrible monsters that ate the villagers and gobbled any wildlife that came near the village nearly made her breathing jackknife so hard that she nearly passed out if not for the warm grip of Vrishna’s hand on her shoulder.Fuck. Please don’t let it be that!

Sabol grunted in understanding and exchanged a look with Vrishna before loping over to Thral. She didn’t see what happened after that because Vrishna yanked her up into his arms as he spun around and burst forward at an incredible speed. She’d never seen a Ragoru running at full speed. If she weren’t so terrified of what was happening, she would have marveled at it with the way they slipped around trees that blurred past them and the faint sting from the pressure of air rushing past her face. She kept her mouth and nose buried against his fur, to help her breathe against his momentum. The air she dragged in was warmed by his comforting scent as the amplified voice of the huntsman shouted order in the distance.

Buildings rose, wood half-rotting, the scent of decaying lumber filling the air around them as they neared the area she estimated the cave system to be. Vrishna’s pace slowed, his body quivering against hers. There was a loud crunch, and the male snarled as he lifted his foot, jostling her in the process so that she looked down at it curiously. A human skull stared sightlessly back at her, the top of its head fractured and caved in by Vrishna’s paw. But that was only the beginning of the damage because Evie could see that its jaw had been severed and flung a distance away, and there were only a few bones left scattered from what ought to have been a complete corpse if there were no animals there to predate on it.

She swallowed back the sick feeling that rose from her belly and peered around as he skirted it and continued to hurry as he searched for the cave entrance that had to be nearby. Bones and skulls became more visible, some not even making it out of the open rear doors of their homes as if they were trying to escape. They were gray with age and no longer stank in a way she could perceive, but from the way Vrishna’s nose wrinkled, she was certain that he was smelling something there. The village began to recede in the trees, the branches weaving a dark veil around it as he left the houses behind and began to climb the rapid rise of the hillside.

From somewhere nearby a horse whinnied fearfully, and she quietly groaned to herself. She hadn’t thought that the huntsman would be allowed to bring a horse to the valley, but apparently she was wrong. Dead wrong. That terrible clarity hit her as the air cracked and Vrishna snarled in pain as he crumpled around her even as he threw her free of the massive weight of his falling body.

She sailed through the air, her body hitting the ground with enough force to knock the air from her lungs. She barely had her eyes open and took one look at her blurry surroundings when the ground beneath her gave way and Evie plummeted with a scream of terror. Vrishna’s pained bellow followed after her as darkness swallowed her, and then all went quiet with an explosion of pain behind her head.

CHAPTER34

Vrishna suffered. The pain burning through his side was terrible enough but nowhere near that which eclipsed his heart, destroying it. Their mate was gone, swallowed by the ground. Some part of him denied it and insisted that she was still alive down there, but his pain blurred his world so that there was nothing but suffering and death just beyond the ruins of human dens upon which death had richly feasted.

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