Chosen (The Warrior Chronicles #1)(60)

She felt the minds of sentries around her, watching, in their trees, protecting the people, wondering why this half clothed, bloody woman was running. She felt an arrow nock. She didn’t know how she knew—it was an action, not an emotion, but she did. They probably thought she was trying to escape. She stopped and knelt, grabbing each mind with ease, the power bubbling, needing action.

Using a trick she’d learned from the nasty little mouse, she cut out the function of their minds. Not dead, just unconscious. A sleeping spell of sorts, like a coma. One sentry fell and she hoped he’d be okay. Following her own advice, feeling ripped in half, she looked up to the sky, and ROARED.

It all went black.

Chapter 29

Sanders opened his eyes slowly. His head pounded. The last thing he remembered was a swarm of little guys descending on his trade party. He’d planned for that, of course. He hadn’t planned on the feeling of needles prickling his eyes. That had hurt. Real bad. He’d tried to keep fighting, but fighting three guys when you’re nearly blind wasn’t an easy chore. And now he knew.

He hated that that foreign girl had been right. She’d probably insist on rescuing him just to rub it in his face.

“You are awake.”

“Yes, that is exactly the accent I was expecting to hear,” Sanders said, not bothering to sit up. He lay on cold, hard stone in near darkness. The only light came from one torch on the opposite wall. Being that it was a dungeon, there wasn’t a ton of natural lighting. “Did I piss myself, or is that smell just an added attraction of his lovely little bed and breakfast?”

“I am told you are the leader of this outfit.”

“Yup.”

A soft scrap sounded somewhere to the right, beyond the bars. “I am not planning to kill you. I simply need to know some information.”

“You might as well just say ‘the shoe’s on the other foot’.”

“The shoe on the foot?”

Sanders snorted in a self-deprecating sort of way. “Never mind. What did you want to know?”

“Would you like some food?”

“Easy ones first, huh? Food would be great. Unless it’s poisoned. Then no thanks.”

The gloom was dank and smelt musty, the space he was imprisoned in barely larger than his outstretched body. Men shifted at the door, keeping watch.

Well, he hurt too bad to escape anyway, so before the torture started he might as well just take a little nap.

Chapter 30

“I don’t know why they even gave you your own place. You always end up in mine.”

Shanti was in the familiar hospital room with the familiar nightgown that tangled her legs and gave her nightmares of people tackling her. And, of course, the same dry witted doctor who thought lecturing her would do some good. He’d made it clear he didn’t care about her sleeping preferences.

“Did they find me outside the wall or did I stumble in somehow?” Shanti asked as she wiped the sleep from her eyes.

“Same old story. The Captain miraculously found you even though Molly had nearly the whole town looking, then brought you in, yelled for everyone to drop everything and see to the foreign girl who can’t stand on her own two feet for longer than ten minutes, and left with a promise to return. Well, promise and threat are synonymous.”

“He was okay?”

“Actually, no. But that might be the first time you’ve asked. Finally starting to think of someone other than yourself?” The doctor stopped putting his items into a leather bag for a moment as he looked at Shanti. “Ah, the permanent scowl must mean no. Dare to dream. Oh well. To answer your question, the Captain could barely stand. He apparently walked out of the ball fine but didn’t return. He wouldn’t let me see to him, though, so I have no idea what ails him. Though it seems you do. Care to enlighten?”

“I don’t make a habit of messing around in the Captain’s business.”

“Hmmm, I see a shocking lack of proof to that statement. Regardless, I must leave you. I have five sentries to care for. It seems they all fell asleep at their posts. One even fell out of his tree. Amazingly, he didn’t wake up upon hitting the ground. Suspiciously, they happened to be in your vicinity at the time. How strange. But the Captain says there is no correlation so, as the lowly working man, I must defer.”

“I didn’t catch half of what you said, but you seem bitter.”

The doctor stopped halfway out of his crouch and gave Shanti a flat look intended to portray his suffering at her presence. She smiled in response.

“I used to have an easy life,” he said whimsically, picking up his things. “Colds, muscle strains, the occasional accident with a weapon. Now I have unexplained mental weakness, everyone has holes in them, broken limbs—“

Still mumbling, the doctor left the room. A second after that, still in her nightgown, Shanti left behind him. Her head was fine, her body felt great, and that bloody power was starting to build again. She needed to start working with the larger flow or move out of the city. Only two choices at the moment.

As she neared her small bedroom, she breathed in the rich smell of living forest. Her living quarters, which were barely big enough to turn around in, were an add-on to Lucius’ much larger residence. Currently he either wasn’t home or had someone over because his front door was closed. It was too bad—she wanted to ask him about Cayan’s release of power. She knew Lucius would be honest with her.