The Girl King (The Girl King #1)(93)

“He’s not . . . this can’t be,” Nasan whispered. She was still clutching Lu’s arm as if she were set to wrench it off. “It’s not possible. The Pact was broken—”

“He’s done it before,” Lu admitted. “When I first met him in the forest, he was like that. He hasn’t been able to do it again since then, though. He can’t control it yet, but—”

“Gods,” Nasan breathed, dropping Lu’s wrist. “My brother is a Pactmaker.”

A shriek drew Lu’s eyes away.

Below them, two soldiers were on the ground, one very still and seeping red-black out of his eyes; the other screaming horribly, dark blood making a geyser from his arm. Something glinted in the sun—the fallen man’s sword. Still clutched in his severed hand, yards away.

Nokhai, Lu thought, seeing the jagged edges of the man’s torn arm. No weapon had done that.

She fit an arrow into her bow. Beside her, Nasan hefted her staff in both hands.

Lu’s first shot took a soldier in the side. He flew from his horse. Another shot back at her, but she ducked. The arrow thunked hard into a narrow little scrub tree behind her. She ran, heart slamming in her chest, but before her assailant could follow, she caught a blur of gray and the man was torn from his saddle. Nok’s massive wolf clutched him by the throat, gave him a single hard shake, throwing the mangled body to the ground. The other soldiers circled the wolf warily as the creature bared its teeth.

Lu started toward him, but Nok cried out to her in thought-speak.

Don’t. I can distract them. Get to safety—both of you.

There was no safety.

An arrow speared the dry earth just to Lu’s right. Another one flew at her face . . .

Nasan knocked it from the air with her staff. Behind her, Lu saw a horse that had lost its rider. The creature reared, and Lu darted forward, seizing the reins and whispering rapid nonsense until it stilled. She spun toward Nasan. “Can you ride?”

Nasan stared. “Ride?”

“A horse!” Lu shouted. “Can you ride a horse?”

“How hard can it be? Try not to fall off, right?”

“Ride down to the copse of trees we saw over the ridge,” she yelled. “Find the Yunians and tell them to open the gate. Nokhai and I will meet you.”

Doubt rippled across Nasan’s face, but she was already scrambling into the saddle. “There’s no guarantee they’ll answer my call.”

“We’re all guaranteed to die if we stay here.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Nasan said, and then she was gone.

Lu!

She spun at the sound of Nok’s thought-speak. The boy’s wolf was surging toward her. Lu’s heart dropped; its long gray fur was streaked dark with blood. Behind it, a tangle of soldiers lay on the ground, their throats a hopeless seeping mess of red gore. Three were still on their horses, though, closing in behind him.

Lu nocked an arrow and took one of the men in the throat, striking him clear from his horse, but not before a second loosed a crossbow bolt straight into the wolf’s ribs. It hit home with a hollow thunk. Nokhai jerked hard at the impact, letting off a yowl of pain.

“Nok!” Lu screamed, but he was still coming toward her, determined.

Get on! he shouted at her.

Madness. He would collapse with the added burden of her weight. But he was approaching fast. Madness, she thought again as she seized a hank of fur about his ruff and swung a leg over the beast’s broad back.

“I sent Nasan ahead,” she gasped out, then bore down close against his back as a crossbow bolt whizzed past her ear. “Trees by the lake. Meet her there.”

Nasan—he repeated, breaking off as another crossbow bolt narrowly missed his flank and embedded itself in the dirt where a moment ago his paws had been pounding.

“She’s fine,” Lu panted, hoping it was true. “She’ll be fine.”

The short blat of a scout’s horn came from behind them.

“There’s only one of them now,” she said. “Where did the others go?”

To get reinforcements?

She groaned. “Most likely. If that’s the case . . .”

We only counted about a thousand soldiers, he cut in, pain pulling taut at the edges of his words.

They broke over the ridge and plunged into the paltry trees spangling its face. Nokhai cut through them, wending a deft, jagged path, trying to shake their attackers. The scout’s horn blasted again, but this time it came from farther away, as if he were losing ground.

Listen, Nok said, and she was alarmed to hear how ragged he sounded. If I can’t make it all the way with you, you have to go on, all right?

“Shut up!” she snapped.

No, he said, and his voice was coming thin and terse now. You have to protect Nasan, and you need to keep your promise to her, and all those kids of hers. And you have to get Omair—

“Shut up!” she repeated.

Please promise me, Lu. Omair. Do you promise?

They were so close. “Shut up, or I swear I’ll—”

The wolf’s legs gave out.

They skidded hard down the remaining distance of the slope, carried by its momentum, kicking up stones as big and hard as fists. Clouds of yellow-gray dirt blew across Lu’s face, stinging her eyes shut. Distantly, she felt the flesh of her left forearm split like wet paper, but she felt no pain. Not yet.