‘Where is she?’
‘Lana?’ Sorin called.
She was nowhere to be seen. Viktor looked at the marks in the dirt. Most were theirs, but someone else had been here too. He drew his sword with a growl and Sorin did the same just as they heard a loud yell and then a scream from the ruins. They raced under the broken arches and through forgotten rooms and cloisters overgrown with fauna towards the sound.
They came upon three men. Dark Brothers. One was on the ground, unconscious, and the other two were in front of Lana. She was pressed up against a stone wall, a knife at her throat.
One of them said something to her they couldn’t hear.
She spat at him, her face defiant, and for a moment Viktor’s heart swelled in pride. She was theirs.
‘Back away from our woman,’ he snarled.
Both men turned their heads and Viktor saw who they were. Uth, Kilroy, and the one on the ground was Fen. In battle these days, they preferred to hang back from the actual fighting and appeared for the pillage and rape, he recalled. He stalked forward. ‘I said, leave our woman alone.’
‘Your woman?’ Uth sniffed the air. ‘I don’t smell you strongly on her. You know the rules; if you haven’t claimed the female, she belongs to the Camp.’ He grinned nastily.
‘That’sinthe Camp, fool.’ Viktor slammed the pommel of his sword into the closest man’s face. Kilroy screamed in pain and went down without a fight.Pathetic.
With no one’s attention on her, Lana had edged away from Uth and his dagger and ran behind Sorin.
Uth glanced down at his two fallen Brothers and his lip curled into a snarl. ‘The girl practically invited us to take her.’
‘That’s a lie!’ Lana cried from behind them.
‘Quiet, girl,’ Viktor spat. ‘Your unit is down. Is she worth your life, Uth?’
‘Bah! You keep the high-and-mighty bitch. You’re welcome to her.’ Uth sneered. Kilroy got to his feet with a moan, blood streaming from his broken nose. They grabbed the still-unconscious Fen and hobbled off in the opposite direction.
Viktor let out a breath and turned on Lana. He stalked towards her, but she held her ground, staring up at him. ‘Do you invite everyone to maul you, you stupid girl? We leave you alone for less than an hour and you throw yourself at the first men you–’
She slapped his cheek with an angry cry – hard enough to make even his weathered skin smart. She stared at her palm and then at where she’d struck him as if she couldn’t believe what she’d done. She was shaking with fury.
‘I have never invited any man to touch me,’ she said through clenched teeth. ‘I have never wanted any man to touch me save y–’ She took a shuddering breath, turned, and fled in the direction of the camp.
Sorin sighed. ‘Fool,’ he muttered at Viktor.
Viktor breathed out and closed his eyes. Even the idea that she would want anyone besides them was enough to make him insane with rage. He’d known her only days. What was happening to him?
‘Well.’ Sorin inclined his head towards where she’d disappeared. ‘What I did last night was nowhere near as bad as that.’
Viktor let out a snarl, but he’d never before agreed so wholeheartedly with anything Sorin had said. ‘Come on.’
‘Where?’ Sorin asked.
‘Back to camp. We have to talk to her.’
‘We?’
Viktor didn’t reply. He ran quickly through the ruins to the horses, finding her sitting on a log with her back to them. Sorin was on his heels.
‘Speak to her,’ he ordered Sorin.
Sorin shook his head. ‘This was your doing, Viktor. You fix it. As for me, I’m going to start a fire and sort dinner.’
He took himself off, saying something about gathering wood, leaving Viktor alone with her.
He walked slowly to the log where she sat hunched over, hugging her knees. ‘Lana.’