35

I woke up face down in the snow. My hands were tied behind my back. I could taste blood in my mouth and could feel it dripping down my face from a gash on my forehead. I blinked away the disorientation and heard voices.

"We should just kill her now, Tarick"

"She killed Jascon and Bando, and Uncius too. What kind of crazy woman is that?"

"We got to take her back to the boss. I think he might want to see her."

I felt rough hands grab my arms and haul me up to my feet. Dizziness washed over me, but I remained standing, looking up at the ugly bearded face in front of me. The man leered at me, grinning with large gray teeth. He wore a dirty wolf-skin cloak and smelled awful, like he hadn't bathed in months.

"Nah," he grunted. "I don't care about the boss. I think I might keep this pretty little thing for myself."

"Just kill her and get it over with," another man grumbled.

The bearded one shook his head and reached up to rub my cheek with dirty fingers. "I don't know about you fellas, but I haven't had a good woman since we came to this stinking island. How about it, sweetie?"

I spat blood at him and bared my teeth. "Sure, go for it," I snarled. "How about you cut me loose and I'll do you real good."

He laughed and pushed me away. I stumbled into two others and they grabbed my arms, forcing me to walk forward. One of them yanked on my hair, pulling my head back. "After Tarick is done with you, I think I'll have a turn," he hissed.

The other one muttered. "Just shut up and let's take her back. We got to get inside before the storm gets worse."

The bearded man, Tarick, ordered some of the others to take the dead bodies back to camp. As they pulled me away, I realized that they didn't know about Reinhardt, and I almost couldn't believe it. If they took more time to see that there were two sets of footprints, or saw his blood in the snow, they would realize there had been two of us. But with the storm coming down harder, they didn't bother to check.

Reinhardt was going to make it. My sacrifice had meaning after all. Not that it did me any good right now, but I was grateful that he would make it back to Raven Rock. Of course, he probably thought I was dead, and he would have to pass that information onto Gaea when he returned. I didn't want to think about how she would take the news of my death, but my situation was not as bad as it seemed.

If I could stay alive for another day or two, it might be enough time for Cavorian to organize the Legion into a planned attack. Of course, this army of criminals and murderers must already be aware that their position was compromised, since anyone could follow their tracks from Raven Rock. They would be prepared for an attack. But they might not know about the reinforcements. If I could keep them from killing me long enough for the Legion to come to my rescue, I might still get out of this alive.

They marched me back through the woods to the clearing near the rock formation, and I saw that the snow was really falling hard now, swirling and twisting in the wind so that it was hard to see. The sky was getting dark, and soon the storm would hit with full force.

The men pushed me up the steep path along the edge of the rock face, laughing and mocking me the entire way, telling me all of the horrible things they planned to do as payback for the men I had killed. I struggled a bit, making them laugh harder, but I was too tired to fight. I just tried to keep my head and stay calm. I couldn't very well fight them with my hands tied, I would have to wait for the right moment.

I glanced back and saw the rest of the men were coming toward the cave as well, hurrying to get out of the snow. I was alone against fifty or more filthy scumbags and killers, and there was no way out. I was being brought into the lion's den.

The path went up about thirty or forty feet to a narrow ledge, and then the mountainside split into a cave leading downward. Smoke drifted from the mouth of the cave, and they pushed me inside roughly, knocking me against the wall.

"Careful with her now," Tarick said with a nasty look in my direction. "Don't bang her up too much."

"After what she did to Jascon, I should cut her up," the other man snarled, waving a knife in my face. "Should slash her throat and let her bleed."

"Maybe later," Tarick said. "After we're done with her."

They yanked me up again and forced me down into the narrow, winding tunnel of the cave. They had torches bolted to the walls and wooden planks over the floor in places to make it easier to walk. The rock walls were jagged and uneven, and smoke stained the ceiling.

As we continued, the cave split off in two directions. To the left, I could hear the loud babble of voices and smell food cooking. To the right, there was a narrow crevice in the rock leading to a room.

"In here," Tarick grumbled, leading me through the tight space. Up ahead there was a rather large space, lit with several oil lamps, containing some rickety tables and chairs and a few sleeping bags along the sloped rock wall. Beyond that I could see another tunnel in the rock that lead to a much larger space beyond.

There was a well-dressed figure sitting in one of the chairs, his legs crossed, leaning back to read some loose sheets of paper. He raised his head to glance up as we entered.

"Look what we found sneaking around outside," Tarick said to the man.

The man looked at me in genuine surprise and set the papers aside as he got up. "Sasha, is that you? My goodness, it certainly is unexpected to see you here," he said, and I found myself face to face with the East Empire administrator, Carnius Magius.