Nameless (Nameless #1)(21)
Gryphon sighed inwardly. Joshua’s thirst to prove himself would be the very thing that got him killed someday.
“You can put the knife away, kid.”
“What if it’s dangerous?” Joshua whispered.
Gryphon rolled his eyes and moved toward the water. The whispered singing of a shaky female voice grew louder. It was a sad, intoxicating sort of melody that wrapped its fingers around Gryphon’s heart and squeezed. He inched to the ledge of a small cliff, looking down on the river no more than fifteen feet below.
The moon turned her skin to milk, casting hard shadows along her curves as she stepped from the river onto the bank. Her hair hung like a midnight veil in an uneven line at the middle of her back.
Gryphon caught a small glimpse of her profile as she reached for her clothes. He leaned closer to the ledge, hypnotized by the moon’s generosity. This was clearly no Nameless field hand, and Ram women didn’t sing.
Joshua stumbled forward, snapping a twig in two with his awkwardly large foot. The girl stopped her washing song and glanced up to them, clutching her clothes to her chest.
“Sorry,” Joshua mouthed.
Gryphon shook his head and looked back to the girl.
She studied the trees around them while she dressed. Her body was tense, ready to flee at the first sign of danger. She looked so different from any of the Ram women he knew, yet so familiar. Her face was more square than round, her body longer and leaner than a typical Ram daughter. Graceful.
Then he saw it. A black crescent moon tattooed just below her shoulder.
Gryphon turned to Joshua. “She has the same tattoo as the Wolf I just captured.”
“Wolf!” Joshua whispered too loud.
The girl darted into the trees like a deer.
Gryphon turned predator as he jumped from his perch into a full sprint, dodging branches and bushes to catch his prey. He heard Joshua’s frustrated efforts to keep up behind him, but Gryphon couldn’t wait. This rabbit was far too quick.
The girl zigzagged through the forest. Several times Gryphon thought he’d lost her, and then he’d catch a glimpse of a ruffling white shirt in the corner of his eye and he’d correct his course. He followed her up the mountainside into a thick patch of fog. The trees blurred to white, the fog so dense he could barely see the ground as he ran. Gryphon slowed to a jog. He didn’t need a broken ankle to hinder him in his next excursion. A lame shoulder was bad enough.
He heard movement and crept toward the noise with silent steps, his eyes useless in the dense white fog surrounding. Joshua’s loud feet twenty yards away actually served as a good decoy. For once.
“Wolves never travel alone,” Barnabas had said.
A branch snapped behind him as the girl dropped from a tree onto Gryphon’s back. She held a blade to his throat. “Show me your hands!” she said. Her voice was too calm for the situation.
Gryphon froze, his hands carefully raised in surrender. She should have bled him then and there, but for some reason she hesitated. A costly mistake.
With his hands already raised, Gryphon grabbed her by the hair and flipped her forward onto her back. She let out a cry of pain as she landed on the rocky ground. He jumped on her, pinning her arms down with his knees. He wrenched the knife from her hand and forced the tip of the blade to her delicate cheek.
The fog cleared enough for him to see the whites of her almond eyes. She didn’t beg or even so much as whimper, just stared at him with a penetrating glare.
“How did you get inside the Gate?” he snarled, unable to imagine her scaling the wall. He could feel her labored breath. The rhythm of her heart accelerated.
“Answer!” He forced the blade deeper, breaking the skin.
“I owe you nothing, soldier. Kill me if you must.” Her smooth face was eerily calm, as if ending her life would save her the trouble.
Gryphon looked up in time to see Joshua charge him with both arms outstretched. The force was enough to push him off the girl.
“Leave her alone! She didn’t do anything to you!”
Gryphon dropped his blade. His grip stayed locked around the girl’s wrist as he wrestled Joshua to the ground next to her. A regular string of quail lined up for the plucking.
“Get off of me!” Joshua said, kicking and swatting. “And don’t you dare hurt her!”
Gryphon looked between Joshua and the girl in disgust. “She’s a bloody Wolf, kid. I can’t let her live.”
“It’s Zo! It’s Zo!”
Gryphon sat back and released his hold on Joshua. “Trust me, this is not her.”
Joshua slapped at Gryphon’s hand until he reluctantly let go of the girl’s wrist. “Say something,” Joshua said to the girl.
She didn’t move.
“Say you’ll slit my throat. Say it!”
The girl pushed up to rest on her palms, brushing away wet strands of hair from her face. “Your throat is safe, boy. It’s your ox-for-brains friend who should watch his back.”
Joshua tackled her with a warm hug. “It is you. I knew I recognized that voice. I’ve never seen you without that mud mask thing or without your hair all wrapped up on your head. You look so … different. I mean, look at you.” He gestured at her whole body, blushing. “Why do you wear that stuff?”
“Because she’s a Wolf. She knows we kill Wolves,” said Gryphon. He used his armband to bind her wrists. He’d heard Wolf women were considered the fairest of all the clans. Now he understood why. It was a lethal beauty that made Gryphon’s senses fuzzy and his rationale distorted.