The evening air cooled as the sun sank behind the trees. A few clouds drifted through the sky, but nothing of any size to prevent the crescent moon from casting a gentle glow upon the landscape. All lay still in the forest. The animals seemed to hold their breath as the strangers passed through. The laboured breathing of the horses echoed from the shadows. Sprays of white, foamy spit flew from their mouths as they released the oxygen-stripped air. The squeaking of leather against leather beat the same rhythm as the hooves stomping the ground. Their riders kicked them, spurring them forward into the darkness.
The hauflin on the lead horse dug his heals into his stallion and jerked the reins. The scar stretching from his left cheek to his nostril penetrated his scowl.
Behind him in the saddle, Isla held onto his waist for dear life. She had almost fallen off more times than she cared to think about. The first time, she had deliberately let herself go. She had jumped to her feet and ran into the woods. The hauflin had caught her and tackled her to the ground. When he had her under his control, he broke a branch from a tree and whipped her with it. He stopped only when he had appeased his anger in spite of her shrieks of pain.
Isla’s buttocks and lower back ached from the beating, but she held on and absorbed the agonising pounding of the saddle. She had nowhere to run for safety if she fell off here, in the middle of the forest. They had travelled so far she doubted she could find her way home. Her only hope lay with her das rescuing her.
Thinking of her das, an ache began in her chest and moved to her throat. She missed him. She wanted him to hold her, to make it safe. Tears filled her eyes and though she fought to hold them, they fell. She buried her face into the back of the hauflin in front of her. Why had this stranger taken her away from her das?
She welcomed the moisture plugging her nose. It blocked the stench coming from the hauflin. He smelt dirty and stinky, but oddly, she sensed a familiarity with the odour. She had to be wrong. Her granddas didn’t know him, though he had barely time to yell at her to run before being struck with the club.
Isla cried harder. They’d killed him. They had beaten him right in front of her as a strange creature held her by the hair. She had screamed at them to stop, but they only laughed. She swung at them, kicked and screamed louder, but no one came to help her granddas. He lay in a heap near the waggon when they dragged her into the trees. She kept yelling at him, but he wouldn’t get up.
Onward they went for what seemed like hours to Isla. The horses pounded their way through the forest. Branches whipped at her legs. She absorbed the sting. It didn’t matter. Ache and pain numbed her body.
Suddenly, the horses broke free of the trees. Isla looked around. They came to rest on a road wide enough for two waggons to pass. She looked into the darkness, hoping to find a person to help her, but the area appeared deserted. No houses lay nearby to run to, but then she doubted her numb legs would take her far.
The riders gathered the horses in a circle for a short break.
“Yew know what to dew,” said the hauflin in front of Isla. “The castle guards will pick up yar trail, so be quick. I don’t want them to catch yew any time soon.”
“That won’t be your problem,” said the human. From the tone of his voice, Isla didn’t think he liked the hauflin. “I hope this satisfies you?”
“Damn right it does,” said the other man, a dwarf like her das. Dwarfs were an honourable race, but this one lacked the virtue. “Our debt to you is paid in full.”
The hauflin chuckled. “Nice doing business with yew, boys. Maybe we’ll meet agin.”
Isla watched the human and dwarf enter the forest directly across the road from where they exited the trees. She feared the hauflin might be right. Her das and anyone who came to rescue her would trail them and not her. As they disappeared into the shadows of the foliage, she felt the horse below her turn. The hauflin kicked the animal, and it charged forward. A second dwarf and the strange creature which had held her by the hair followed them. She wished the beast had gone into the forest with the others. He looked unusual and nothing like she had ever seen in Maskil or Moon Meadow.
The road allowed the horses to travel faster and smoother, and the trail leading to Linden Lake quickly disappeared in the distance. By the time Isla felt the horse slow, exhaustion had set in. The hauflin pushed her from the saddle, and she fell into a soft mound of grass. There she lay, not wishing to ever move. She heard the horse move away and the familiar sounds of the others dismounting and removing saddles. She wanted to watch, but the aches and pains induced a rest and teased her to sleep.
“Now that you have her, what are you going to do with her?”
Isla heard the voice. It sounded like the dwarf. She wanted to learn their plans, too, so kept her eyes closed and her mind awake.
“One can do amazing things with children if they take the time to train them properly.”
Isla didn’t know what the hauflin meant.
“You going to leave her there?”
Isla heard a pause, but no one came near her.
“Does it matter?” asked the hauflin.
Isla heard leather straps being pulled through buckles, the removing of lids and the clank of spoons on the inside of tin cans. Sleep threatened to claim her several times, but she fought against it. If they said anything, she wanted to hear it.
“I’ll take first watch,” said the dwarf.
“Wake me for second,” said the hauflin. “Reese, you’re last.”
A long silence followed. When she heard the rhythm of snoring, she also heard movement. The dwarf walked up to her and paused. She felt his strong arms lift and carry her to a soft grassy place and a blanket go over her. She opened her eyes. He stared at her, not smiling nor frowning. The darkness made it difficult to see the racial features he shared with her das. Silently she wished him to be her das.
Isla watched him sit a few feet away from her head, taking up a position under a tree where he’d guard the campsite. Maybe the dwarf possessed a little honour after all.
She closed her eyes. She’d sleep now. Her body felt too tired to argue further. She snuggled into the blanket and before any other thoughts entered her mind, snoring erupted.