A Kiss of Fire (A Kiss of Magic #2)(13)

“A party on horseback can scour the countryside three times as fast as this lumbering iron contraption can move,” she said, indicating her fireproof prison.

“True. But it is a very large country,” he said smugly.

Ariana gritted her teeth, knowing he was right. He had a right to be smug, for all she wanted to slap the expression from his face. But a carriage like this would be far from untraceable. Rescuers would have to figure out where they went off road in it. If they figured that out, then maybe they could follow tracks leading to them.

“My my, what a fanciful mind you have,” the arrogant Jadoc said. “Believe me when I tell you, no one can track us.”

“Anyone can be tracked!” she hissed. “That’s why they call it tracking! Everything leaves a trail that can be followed.”

“Hmm. True. But you first have to know what you’re looking for. And, I’m sorry to tell you, not many people will notice a tradesman’s wagon carrying two sacks of burlap goods out of the city. And then you were carried on horseback off the road a good distance before you were brought into the conveyance that now carries you. It would take a miraculous tracker to be able to follow three different modes of travel when they do not even know what they are looking for in the first place.”

“You are risking a war! Can’t you see how dangerous this is? Your leader is a madman!”

“Perhaps, but he’s my leader. And what he says goes.”

But Ariana saw a flicker of something in the man’s expression. It was ever so brief, but if she had to mark it with a name she would call it concern. He might be going along with what his leader has demanded of him, but he didn’t fully agree with the actions. She could use that.

“Is she taking a piss or not?” one of the men on horseback asked crudely.

She looked up at the man with fury in her eyes. Even on horseback she could tell he was of shorter, stockier build than the man she presently stood before, with dirt water brown eyes and a balding pate with the remnants of salt-and-pepper hair. He ignored her glare and spit onto the ground. She couldn’t even give him the name barbarian. He seemed so much worse than that.

“I’ll take her if you like. Been a while since I had a woman drop her lacy drawers for me. Then again, my women don’t usually have lacy drawers.” He eyed her up and down lasciviously. “But you do. I can tell.”

“Your women probably never even heard of drawers because they don’t have time to pull them up before the next customer comes along!” she spat at him.

The other men chuckled and the man shifted irritably in his saddle.

“You might want to watch yourself, princess. Sin is gonna want you nice and docile by the time you reach Kilt. Maybe I’ll take a few turns and show you what a hoity-toity thing like you’s been missing.”

“Enough Mordol,” the Jadoc warned him. Then he reached to take her elbow in hand, as if to guide her away.

“Touch me and I’ll burn your skin off,” she hissed at him.

He paused and then held up his hand in acquiescence.

“No one is here to hurt you,” he said.

“Tell that to Mordol,” she ground out. “And you’ve already hurt me. By taking me from my home you’ve abused me very badly.”

“I’m sorry but that could not be helped.”

“It couldn’t be helped? Of course it could have been helped! You could have done the sane thing and left me alone!”

Again there was that flicker of doubt in his eyes.

“Take me back,” she begged urgently. “Take me back now and I promise you nothing will happen.” When she was met with stony silence she said, “Would you really risk a war with these actions?”

His expression turned hard, his mouth grim. “Even if they could figure out who has taken you, I doubt your people would risk thousands of lives for the life of one woman.”

The observation left her cold. What if he was right? Would they really go to war for her? Would she really want them too?

No. She wouldn’t want them to. She wouldn’t want to throw away countless lives because of her.

Squaring her shoulders and lifting her head proudly, she marched off into the trees with the Jadoc by her side. The Jadoc was tall. Not as tall as his master though, and had black hair and eerily fair blue eyes. She had long ago noticed that all Kiltians were dark haired, ranging from black to brown. Rarely blond and never red like hers. She had always wondered why that was. Surely the Kiltians had mated with the occasional Saren over autumns past before the wars. Why wouldn’t they have some more blonds and even some redheads? Were their traits just that dominant?

He led her to a copse of trees then after raising a brow, he turned his back on her. He was close enough to her to hear everything she did and that made her blush. He was also close enough to catch her if she should decide to flee. She thought they were far enough away from the others that she could burn him and then make a run for it…but that would be silly. She was on foot and they were on horseback. She was but one woman and they were a band of men. And even if she could burn them all to a crisp, she had no idea where she was. There was nothing but fields and a forest for as far as the eye could see. Where would she go? How far was it to the nearest sign of civilization? She could walk for days without coming into contact with someone without knowing where she was or what direction to go in. And what of Mariah? She could keep warm, but Mariah could freeze to death if the temperatures dropped much lower. The sun was shining now, but soon snow would come. It was due any day. Even more likely the further north they went toward Kilt.