Gild (The Plated Prisoner #1)(54)

Not beams of sun, then, but my persistent, protective ribbons. The comforting glow was only in my head.

Groaning, I sit up to gain my bearings, just as everything rushes back. My entire body stiffens as I catch up to the present, and I look around at the still, broken carriage lying on its side.

Snow is crowding in beneath me through the broken window, already numbing my legs where I landed against it. I manage to pull my feet beneath me, my eyes adjusting to the near pitch-black as I attempt to get up. The door is above me, and I slink slowly to a stand, my fingers coming up to feel for the handle.

Grabbing hold of it, I flinch at the sound of fighting outside. There’s the unmistakable clashing of swords, guttural groans of the injured, shrieks of the women. It makes me cower for a second, the noise making me want to curl up into a ball and shove my hands over my ears.

But I force myself to stay standing, despite how badly my knees shake, regardless of the dizziness that sweeps through my head. I push through it because I can’t pass out again. I can’t cower or hide.

Sail is out there. The other guards, the other saddles… So I tighten my hold on the handle to steady myself and then lift my head out of the empty window frame. Just a bit, just enough to peek over.

But all I see when my eyes lift is a man climbing onto the carriage, a heavy thump marking his ascent. I flinch back, smacking my already sore head against the window frame as I try to pull myself back into the carriage, as if I have any hope of hiding. But before I can fully scramble back, the man leans down, a pair of eyes latching onto me as I try to sink down, his hands snatching at my arms, hauling me right back up.

I shriek and struggle, but he lifts me up as if I weigh nothing, as if my fight doesn’t hinder him at all. The man pulls me out of the carriage, the hold brutal against my arms, my waist scraped against the jagged edges of the broken window pane.

I’m barely out of the carriage and standing on top of it with him before he turns and tosses me carelessly over the side.

I don’t even have time to pull in a breath before my body tips headfirst, and I fall into the snow pile on the ground. I land cold and hard, on a hidden rock buried beneath the white. My shoulder and lip smack into the sharp edges, and I instantly taste blood in my mouth, wincing at the pain.

Dazed, I hear the person on the carriage jump down nimbly behind me, and then he’s yanking me to a standing position by the back of my coat, the fabric pulling tightly against my throat.

By the veiled ethereal light of a hidden moon, I can just make out one of the horses dead in the snow, still attached to the broken carriage. The other one is gone, pole strap snapped free, reins abandoned.

Sail is nowhere in sight.

Fingers wrapped in thick white bandages grab my chin and turn my face, forcing me to look at the man holding me. The first thing I notice is that he’s dressed head-to-toe in white fur. Blending in with the landscape around us, except for the blood-red cloth around his face—the notorious band of the Red Raids.

“What do we have here?” His voice is muffled but rough, like his voice box froze a long time ago in this frigid world, a throat iced over, words that dig out like shards of ice.

“Get the fuck away from her!”

My head snaps to the left, and I see Sail being hauled forward at knifepoint by three more pirates. Gone is his gold-plated armor and his cloak. He’s even been stripped of his uniform, leaving him in just his thin tunic and trousers. His face is swollen and bruised, a crack of blood clotted against his brow—either from the carriage wreck or a struggle against the Red Raids.

The pirate holding me laughs at Sail’s struggles, but the two holding him by the arms easily subdue him by punching him in the stomach and making him bow over with a cough. A pained breath pointed at a sagging snow, droplets of blood landing at his feet.

“Now, let’s get a look at this one,” my captor says before shoving my hood back.

The moment my hood is pushed off my head, the pirate grabs my chin again and tilts my head, pointing it up at the cloaked light. His eyes widen, flicking over my hair, my skin, my eyes. I don’t know how well he can see, but it seems like it’s well enough.

“Take a fuckin’ look at this one.”

My stomach tightens, fear tensing along with the ribbons caught in his punishing grip at my back.

“She’s got paint all over her face.”

I blink, but I don’t dare look relieved. I don’t dare speak.

The one holding Sail licks his lips. “Hmm. She’s a pretty one. Cap’n Fane will want to see her.”

The pirate grunts in reply and drops his hold from my chin. “You three bring ’em,” he says before stuffing two fingers in his mouth, letting out a deafening whistle. “I’ll make sure the carriage gets pulled in.”

One of the others snorts. “Good luck. That fuckin’ thing is heavy as shit. Look at all the gold on it!”

“Aye, heavy enough to fetch a pretty price,” the pirate replies.

Behind me, I hear movement, and I see a group of more Red Raids coming, answering my captor’s whistle. The first pirate releases me, just to hand me off to another. The brutal grip on my arm digs in as I’m dragged forward despite whatever protests I try to put up. Sail and I are led away, up a hill, leaving the broken carriage behind.

Sail keeps his eyes on me, ignoring the way the two pirates manhandle him, struggling not for himself, but to try to get closer to me, as if he wants to shield me, protect me from this. “Don’t fucking try anything,” one of the Pirates sneers, holding a blade against Sail’s side in clear warning.