Where had Nathan gone? Silk finished her lecture and gave the children their assignment. "One hundred words on the importance of chain-of-command," she instructed. "I want you to relate that concept to the outcome of this battle." She heard repressed groans. "Due tomorrow," she said in her best instructor voice. Really, they were the brightest of her class. They should find this assignment easy.
She shivered. The weather had turned colder. More sleet blew into her face, and she closed her eyes against the ice. Time to get everyone back in the van and return to town. But where was Nathan?
The children trudged past her, intent on getting out of the weather. Silk shaded her eyes with her hand and peered into the whitening forest. Was that movement? She headed toward where she thought she saw a man walking among the trees.
But branches snapped behind her. She whirled as she heard one of the girls scream. Gunfire smashed through the muffled sounds of the woods in winter. More screams. Shouts. Men in long, dark gray coats rushed toward her. Three of the children were down, their bright blood staining the ground scarlet. Someone grabbed Silk from behind, jerking her back by the hood of her cloak.
"Let me go!" she cried.
Silk heard more gunshots, more screams from the children. She smelled hot, stinking breath close by her face. Frantic, she ripped open the clasp of her cloak and slipped free. She saw a dozen men in Sov uniform in the clearing. They'd appeared out of the sleet and snow like ghosts of the long past battle. They were thin and dirty, their uniforms in rags, but their weapons were deadly. What were these soldiers doing so close to the city? They should have been safe. The children should have been safe.
"Nathan!" she cried. No, no. Don't call him. He'd only be slaughtered with her and the children. If he'd gone far enough into the woods for the soldiers to have missed him, he might have a chance to live.
There was a final burst of gunfire, and she saw the last of her students fall. They were all down, all dead. She didn't know where Nathan was. She only hoped he would stay safely hidden.
"One bitch left," one of the soldiers said. He poked her in the stomach with his weapon, hard. Silk gasped with the pain.
"Then kill me," she said. She would not scream. Nathan might hear her and come.
"Not yet," another man answered. "Been a while since we had a woman. You're just Ushan scum, but you still got a cunt."
Silk felt nausea rise in her throat. Rape first, then death. So much for her plans and her high academic ambitions. So much for her dreams of starting her own clan. In the end, the only thing she had of value was her body.