Page 62 of Bought to Break
She jumped and looked around for someone else, sure he couldn’t be directing his words at her.
The priest sat down carefully, nursing his wounds. ‘You. In the shadows. I can’t see you, but I sense you’re very near, and that’s the only place you could be so well concealed.’ He coughed, his palm coming away splattered with bloody spittle. ‘You chose a terrible time to visit our beautiful isles. This Dark Army will destroy you. You must run into the hills and hide until they’re gone. I only told them what they wanted to know so they’ll leave and you’ll be safe.’
In the dark, Lana’s brow furrowed. Perhaps they’d hurt his head as well. But she found herself drawing nearer to him until she saw his eyes focus on hers.
‘There you are.’ He smiled genuinely. ‘I never thought I’d actually see one of you. So rare.’
She shook her head and edged nearer. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’
His eyes widened as he took in her clothes. ‘You’re one of them? But – I don’t understand …’ Something changed in his expression, as if he’d found the answer to some mystery. ‘That’s why they haven’t killed us all. Of course. You’re with them.’ He cocked his head to the side. ‘Except you aren’t, or you haven’t been for very long. Days? Weeks?’
Lana nodded. ‘How do you know these things?’
‘I am a priest of the Mount. It’s my job to recognise the gods.’
Oh no, not one of these fanatics.She rolled her eyes. ‘I’m no god.’
‘But you are distant kin. There used to be many of you – a long time ago, but now there are few – very, very few. Most of you don’t even know what you are.’
‘A witch?’
The priest’s lip curled into a sneer. ‘They’d call any woman with power a witch. Because you curtail their natures, stop them from revelling in the violence and destruction they crave without you near. To us, you are a being of light, a child of the gods themselves. I can see the brightness inside you. It’s blinding.’
Lana’s brow raised sceptically. She’d never met a priest, but she’d imagined they were like this; quoting scriptures and believing this drivel – see her blinding brightness indeed! ‘If I’m a child of the gods, then why did none of them ever help me? Why was I left to pain and suffering if I am one of these beings of light?’ She chuckled. ‘I will help you, priest, but no more silly tales, I beg you. We have to be quick. If I’m found freeing you, I’m in a world of trouble.’
As soon as she clasped the manacle around his foot, he reached out and grabbed her wrist. She tried to pull away. ‘Let me go. I’m trying to save you, you fool.’
He looked at her imploringly. ‘You must leave me. The Dark Army isn’t even of this realm anymore. It’s ties are to much darker ones than this. They were once caretakers and peacekeepers, did you know that? Sentinels and protectors of all the realms. Now they are simply mercenaries and the darkness beyond the breaches grows ever closer to us with no one to keep it at bay. Please. Save yourself. After what happened – or rather, didn’t happen – today, they’ll realise what you are and they will kill you – horribly. I couldn’t bear seeing you so defiled.’ The priest slapped her hand away. ‘Leave me! Someone’s coming!’
‘Someone’s already here,’ came a soft voice behind her from the very shadows where she herself had hid.
Lana turned with a gasp to find a Dark Brother she recognised. Kane had spoken with him the day she’d tried to drown herself in the river and she’d seen him since, hovering near her unit sometimes while they trained. Quin.
He came forward out of the shadows slowly, tutting at her. ‘So not only are you a witch, which some of the men already suspect, but you’re also about to betray the Brothers by setting this man free.’
Lana swallowed hard. ‘No, I wasn’t … I mean, I’m not. I …’ Words failed her as she scanned the room for avenues of escape. The closest door was now behind her, she remembered. The one Gorran had taken.
‘Run, girl!’, the priest urged, and Lana spun on her heel. But she was too slow by half, and Quin’s fingers tangled painfully in her hair before she could leap away from his grasp.
A cloth clamped over her mouth and nose, cutting off her scream, and the priest got to his feet, yelling at him to let her go. Quin quickly silenced him with a well-placed blow to the jaw. He fell to the floor, unmoving, as Quin dragged her back, the darkness enveloping them. She struggled against him, but it was no use; whatever affected her made her efforts feeble and completely ineffective.
There was a cloying smell to the rag over her face. It permeated her mouth and nostrils and made her see spots. She pulled at his arm weakly, but her legs crumpled and some force compelled her eyes to close. She fought to keep them open and looked up at him, pleading. They were still moving through the dark, but he now held her in his arms like a babe.
He was speaking to her, but his words sounded muffled, as if he was very far away. ‘… a witch, I know. It will all be over soon, Lana.’
Chapter 31
Sorin
There was no skirmish. That much was clear when he, Viktor and Kane made it to the east gate to find naught there but a bored-looking contingent of twenty or so soldiers lamenting that they had not yet killed anyone and that this was the dullest campaign they’d ever been part of.
Frowning absently, Sorin rubbed his sore knuckles. His lip curled into the ghost of a smile when he looked over at Kane’s bruised face. It wasn’t the only place his fists had landed the day before, but it was where he’d concentrated the bulk of his blows. Nothing was broken, but Kane would feel the pain of the beating Sorin had given him for weeks.
‘Perhaps Greygor’s information was wrong,’ said Viktor from behind him, but his voice lacked conviction.
‘Perhaps,’ Sorin agreed. ‘Or perhaps we have a big problem.’
Kane’s eyes darted around as if he expected an attack. ‘Where is she?’
