“You must need me for something…”
There was a very subtle shift in his jawline, as if his teeth clenched inside his closed mouth. “I guess you aren’t that stupid after all.”
“I won’t cooperate.” He’d taken me from my home, accused my father of being a rapist, a murderer, and a liar, and vowed to kill me. I wouldn’t do a damn thing for him, not to save my own life.
“You will.”
“Torture me all you want. Won’t make a difference.”
“I won’t have to torture you.”
My eyes shifted back and forth as I stared.
He looked back to the hallway. “Because you’ll want to do it.”
FIVE
Ivory
Days passed.
Very long and cold days.
It was more of the same, long treks with wordless conversations, frozen nights when I shared the bedroll with a naked man that had more strength in his body than an ox and a horse combined.
I didn’t take a peek again, but it wasn’t as if I’d forgotten what I’d already seen.
How could I forget?
I’d been with a handful of men, but none of them looked like that. None of them were that size. Even the guards at the castle weren’t built with the same muscularity. Mastodon dwarfed each and every one.
There was finally light at the end of the tunnel. It was subtle, but it was there.
“Oh, thank god.”
Ian held the torch in the lead. “You say that now…”
“I’m confident I’m not going to miss this place,” I said, eager for the summer sun on my skin.
The light grew brighter and brighter, a beacon of warmth and hope, an end to this interminable dark tunnel. The beginning of the journey had been filled with fear because I’d been captured, but then it had turned into fear for different reasons. Being underground…was torture. No sun. No trees. No sky. It was unbearable.
But as we came closer, the heat didn’t carry on the breeze and hit me in the face.
It stayed cold—ice-cold.
The white light grew brighter and brighter, making my eyes wince and smart. My hand raised in front of my face to make it more bearable, to cast a shadow over my face so it was easier to see what was right in front of me.
Torches were extinguished with a quick flourish of their wrists and tossed into a bowl at the entrance to the cave. There were others there as well, ready to be used for a trek back to the top of the cliff.
I looked at the world before me—and it was nothing but snow.
A frozen tundra.
Winter.
A winter I wasn’t dressed for.
I passed the men and stepped farther under the cloudy sky. Light came through the overcast atmosphere, reflective and bright, but not warm. These were the same clouds I’d stared at from above, the clouds that obscured this world below. I turned around and stepped back, looking up rocky crevasses until they disappeared into the clouds.
“Should I grab her?” Ian asked.
Mastodon shook his head. “If she wants to stay alive, she won’t go far.”
I looked around, the scenery expanding farther into the horizon, an endless frozen tundra. A gust of wind picked up and hit me in the face, the sting of the cold air making my eyes smart harder. “What is this place…?”
Mastodon walked past me, his heavy boots crunching against the snow, his black cape blowing in the wind. “The real world.”
With the cliffs behind us, we ventured deeper into the wasteland of cold. Tall pines were covered with fresh powder, and the snow began to pile higher and higher as we traveled, getting all the way to my waist and soaking my flesh with the numbingly bitter cold.
I didn’t complain, even though I was probably going to die.
Ian glanced at me a couple times, his height making it much easier for him to push through the snow, especially with his armor and clothing. He looked at his brother afterward but didn’t say a word.
Mastodon didn’t look at me, even when I tripped and landed in a pile of snow.
When my face hit the ice, I felt a shiver. “Okay…I miss the cave.” I pushed myself up and back to my feet.
The men continued to move ahead, not the least bit worried about me running off or attacking them from behind. I considered myself a decent foe, but the climate had crippled me, and I was utterly useless at the moment.
It made me realize how weak I truly was. My father had taught me the blade and the bow, but those skills were useless when I was outnumbered and about to die from hypothermia instead.
Ian’s voice carried to me on the wind. “You know she’s going to die.”
Mastodon’s came next. “I already shared my bed with her.”
“You’re stronger than I am.”
“Now you admit that…when you don’t want to do something.”
“Anything is better than helping that cunt.”
I started to walk again, my entire body frozen.