Page 29 of Dark Elves of Ardani

“You know a surprising number of Varai proverbs,” he said flatly, in a way that left her wondering whether he thought this was a good thing or a bad thing. She felt the hilt of the blade touch her hand. She took it quickly, tucking it into her belt.

“I was raised by a priestess. She is very formidable and very wise.”

“Most Varai women are.” He slipped out of her grasp, and his magic left her, leaving her fully visible again. She heard a footstep or two, and then he was gone, a shadow blending in with the rocks.

She waited, motionless, for several minutes. She could see several places where the half-elf could have crossed the river, but if he had done so already, she hadn’t seen him.

The hunters were still talking. One of them was trying to get the horse to eat some moss on a rock, which it seemed disinterested in. Another was urinating in the river slightly downstream. They seemed so at ease, for murderers.

The longer she watched them, the more she hated them.

Finally, she’d had enough. The half-elf had to have been in position by now, though she still couldn’t see him. She climbed out from behind the rocks. The men noticed her immediately.

She waved a hand, trying to force the hate from her expression. “Well met,” she called over the roar of the waterfall. The men stared at her. “Can you help me?” she said, leaning on her stick and doing her best to look needy. “I am lost.”

She didn’t miss the knowing look they exchanged with each other.

“Well met, Paladin,” said the closest, biggest one. “Are you alone?”

An alarming thing to ask someone in these circumstances, she thought. She gave a smile that probably looked as strained as it felt. “Yes.”

The man came closer, approaching a line of stones that spanned the river. Zara tried not to let her eyes wander from his. Was that a half-elf-shaped shadow lurking behind the others?

“Interesting armor you have,” he said.

“It was scavenged,” she said, shrugging belatedly. “It is the only armor that would fit me.” Probably a believable lie, since it was less common for Ardanian women to have a need for armor.

He reached her side of the river and stopped in front of her, then gave her a long, up-and-down look. He towered over her. “You’re awfully pretty for a Paladin.”

She resisted the urge to take a step away from him. “Pretty people cannot be Paladins?”

He chuckled. “Not in my experience. Never seen a female Paladin before.”

Zara’s eyes darted behind the man as one of the hunters on the other side of the river suddenly gave a choked scream. Blood spurted from a long slash across his throat. When the man in front of Zara turned away from her to look, she tore her dagger from its sheath and drove it toward his heart.

His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her right before the point met his chest. He gaped at her. “Bitch!”

Zara twisted sideways, leveraging her arm out of his grasp and striking again at his ribs, her hand quick. It would have hit if she hadn’t stumbled on her weak ankle. The hunter blocked the blow again, and rather than striking her, he simply picked her up off the ground with his massive hands and threw her.

She was still in shock when she hit the water and sank below the surface. She had the presence of mind to hold her breath rather than gasp, and to hold on to her dagger. Her hand tightened on the hilt, refusing to let go even as water buffeted her. The force of the waterfall was driving her under and out, spinning her until she couldn’t tell which way was up.

Finally she surfaced, gasping. She pushed hair out of her face, and a shudder vibrated through her. The water was practically ice. Her limbs were so cold that it was difficult to move. But the dagger was still in her clenched hand. She grabbed onto a stone in the river, and the cold, rough surface bit into her fingers.

The hunter who’d thrown her was leaping across the line of stones back to the other side of the river, where the half-elf was grappling with one of the others. One of the hunters already lay dead, but the other had somehow disarmed the half-elf and was coming at him with a knife. As Zara watched, the hunter managed to pin the half-elf against a boulder. As the hunter raised his knife, Zara cocked her arm back, took aim, and threw her dagger.

It landed in the hunter’s back. He pitched forward, stumbling, and the half-elf slipped out from under him to wrestle him to the ground. Zara was stunned for a moment. She’d practiced throwing knives back in Kuda Varai, but she’d never used the skill in a real fight. She’d only half expected it to work.

The hunter who’d thrown Zara spun to face her. Snarling, he took a step toward her. Zara realized what he intended, and her heart rose into her throat. She shoved off her rock and kicked, trying to put more distance between them, but she wasn’t fast enough.

The hunter jumped and slammed into her, his mass knocking her beneath the surface. Water spiraled around her pinwheeling limbs and filled her nose and mouth. Dark, blurred shapes moved in the foaming water, and then a large hand closed on her arm and another found her throat. She kicked wildly, clawing at the hands, but they held fast, keeping her from surfacing. He wasn’t trying to strangle her—he was trying to drown her.

She could see the surface just above her, just out of reach. Unable to hold her breath any longer, her body inhaled reflexively, filling her lungs with water. The hunter’s grip on her was iron, immovable, and her struggles were already weakening, her vision spotting. The world faded as her body grew cold and numb and slow.

She was only vaguely aware of the currents shifting around her, and of the hands on her moving away. She had no resistance left when she was grabbed and pulled through the water, and she did not quite feel the frigid air touching her face when she was brought to the surface.

Warmth touched her lips. A mouth was closed tightly over hers.

She opened her eyes, coughing. The half-elf was above her, staring down at her with a look of intense concentration, his brows drawn together.

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