Abducted [W&W Book 3]

Chapter 4

The morning light found Ildri farther from Wildwood than she had been since the day that the old Lord Wildwood had rescued her.  She tried not to think about it, because every time she did she could feel the fear crashing in like it would suffocate her in its bulk.

She could not let it.  She needed to survive.  Because then she could go home.

Finally, the stranger stopped pulling her along.  "We'll rest here," he told her curtly.  "Sleep."

Ildri sank down against a tree.  How was she supposed to sleep in these conditions?  It was cold and she was without even her cloak for warmth.  She wrapped her arms about herself and tried not to think about what had happened.

But the thoughts came, unbidden though they might be.  She could feel tears for Saul forming at the corner of her eyes, and she wiped them away.  As her tears dried they stole the warmth from her face, and the ground was damp.  She shivered.

"Here," he said.  A blanket flopped down on the ground in front of her.  "Get some sleep.  We'll be going far today."

The man sat against a tree not far from Ildri.  The large animal, the wolf creature curled up against him.  She shivered and wrapped the blanket around herself.  It smelled like the forest.

Ildri was tired but her mind circled restlessly.  She did not know what to do.  All she wanted was to retreat home where she belonged.  But he would not let her.

By the increasing light of the morning she could see that his chest was rising and falling steadily. His monstrous wolf was also breathing evenly and deeply.  If they truly slept...

Did she dare to run?  She looked at the man's sleeping form, and saw that his face was beginning to show in the light of the morning.  Curiosity overwhelmed her.  She crept closer, not sure why she needed to see his face.  He was the man who had ripped her dreams of a happy future from her.  Yet she wanted to see if he was truly human, not some horrible creature from the depths of the world.

She looked, and she wished that she had not.  She gasped, even though she had meant to stay silent.

His face was deeply lined and cut like a gargoyle's.  There was a terrible scar running from the side of his right cheek down his neck.  For a second Ildri felt certain that the evil murderer inside had somehow burst forth to spread onto his face.  But that was nonsense.  She moved back as quietly as she could manage, not wanting to wake him.  Yet she could not remove his horrid visage from behind her eyes.  She could not forget what she had seen.

She had never imagined him to be so old.  His face clearly spoke of his great years, but his strength was that of a younger man.  There was something very wrong.  He must be doing something awful to retain the workings of his youth.  She did not know what it was, but she was certain it was some sort of dark magic.  Normal people could not defeat the workings of time no matter how hard they fought it.

And it hurt so badly to know that her young and handsome Saul had been killed by such a wretch.  She did not care what this lying monster said.  Saul had been a wonderful man, and he had been snuffed out forever by this creature.  She could not stay here.  She had to run, for her sake, and for the memory of Saul.

Ildri lifted herself slowly to her feet.  She took one slow step and then another, moving ever farther from where the killer lay asleep.

"Ildri of Wildwood.  What do you believe that you are doing?"

Ildri's body stiffened in shock.  "I'm just, you know, seeking a bit of privacy," she lied in a shaky voice.

"Privacy?  You were attempting to escape."  It was not a question.