Princess Academy By Shannon Hale

Chapter 20

Well, the bandit man
He told his first man
Climb up and when you arrive
Leave no mountain man
Alive, no, leave no man alive

  Miri did not wait to learn more. If Esa said to run, then she would run. Peder would be just minutes ahead, and perhaps she could catch him. The rocky path she had run on her entire life suddenly felt as treacherous as sprinting through mud, and she wished with all her breath that she could fly as the hawk, though she did not know what she was running from. She passed the bend in the road and hoped to see Peder just ahead, but the road stretched long before her with no one in sight. After leaving her, he must have kept running.

  Then she heard the someone behind her. At first she hoped that she was hearing her own echoes, but no, the rhythm of bootfalls was different, faster. She peered back and saw a man she did not know. He was getting closer.

  She would have screamed for Peder if she could, but fear constricted her throat and the effort to flee used up all her breath. She tried to focus on making her feet spring over the rocks and her legs pump her forward, though fright began to gnaw at her hope. She knew she was caught even before the rough hands reached out to seize her.
She kicked and screamed and tried to get her teeth into his hand, but she was so small and her attacker so strong. He carried her back to the academy writhing under his arm and dumped her on the floor of the bedchamber.

"I found this one outside," said her attacker, his breath wheezing in his throat. "Gave me quite a run, the little rodent."

  The girls sat on the floor. Knut was leaning against a wall and holding his arm as though it might be broken above the wrist. The room was crowded by fifteen men in sheepskin and goatskin, leather boots tied with long cords up their thighs, and fur-lined caps. Some had golden loops in their ears, some carried cudgels and staves. They all had untidy beards and faces dirtier than an unswept floor.

"Bandits," Miri said aloud to make herself believe it. After so many years, bandits had returned to Mount Eskel.

  Olana crouched in a corner, and her hands shook as they fluttered about her neck. That one detail made Miri's heart beat as if it would come loose. If Olana was scared, then the situation was very bad indeed.

  The bandit nearest to Olana caught her throat in his hand and shoved her against the wall.
"You said they were all here before." His voice was low and raw, as though he had battled a chest cough for months on end. "Count them again, this time as though your life depended on it, because, in fact, it does. Is anyone else missing?"

  Olana scanned the room, her eyes scarcely blinking. She shook her head. The man smiled with dirty teeth.

"I believe you this time," he said. "How fortunate for you."

  He let her go and turned to face the rest of them. He was larger than most of the other bandits, though Miri noted that none looked as large as her father, Os, or most Mount Eskel men. No wonder the bandits avoided attacking the village directly.

"Hello, children," he said. "If you need to address me, you may call me Dan."

"His ma named him after the first king himself," said another, who had a thick, jagged scar from one side of his mouth up to his ear. "Hoped he'd grow up into a proper nobleman." Several of the men laughed.

"Dan suits me fine," he said amiably. "Better than Dogface."

The men laughed louder, and the scarred one called Dogface spat on the floor.

"Looks like we've some talking to do." Dan sat on his heels, rested his forearms on his thighs, and looked at the girls with a smile that made Miri's stomach feel sour. His rough voice became singsong, as though he were telling a bedtime story to small children.