Nada's Escape

4- Uneasy Enthralment.

"You come down here and I'll catch you little girl," growls the Huntsman below me. I look down, my stomach recoiling at the height still left to go but I remind myself that with half the ladder above me I probably won't die from the fall. It's still just the one Huntsman and I sigh in relief.

My pace quickens on the ladder and the Huntsman crunches closer on the gravel path behind me. I glimpse Amy above ushering Fern onto the ladder but I focus on what's in front of me. It's still going to take all my grunt to face down this fully-grown Huntsman. I locate him from his crunching steps and the whisper of cloth on cloth.

I fling out from the wall, turning in the air like a cat. The Huntsman staggers just where I thought he was and my heels connect to his shoulders with all of my weight. He falls sideways and I roll awkwardly, trying to avoid tangling my legs. My ankle still twists the wrong way, caught under his arm. I kick it away and arch my back, struggling to my feet before he can react. He is rolling sluggishly onto his front and I pounce on his back, ripping one arm out from under him and twisting it back.

"Stop you fiend!" Shouts a woman and I am doused in shivering bright light. I crouch on the Huntsman's back, blind in the brilliance and snarling in anger at the half circle of torches effectively trapping me against the wall. The torch bearers are huffing from their run and so each light is inconsistent, wavering unintentionally up and down or left to right. They start speaking to each other, battle-planning their next move but I can't understand them.

One of their faces comes into view and I zero in on it, analysing the fitness and training of the wearer. But he is analysing me too. I feel it like a cold cloth on my neck and hear a voice that I know is only in my head.

"Calm down, lie down, give up the fight." The cold feeling on my neck loosens the muscles there, stealing my anger. I clench my fists in response, fighting the pressure behind the Huntsman's gaze. I tear my eyes from his face, burning them on torchlight instead. The Huntsman below me bucks and I take the opportunity to leap blindly for a torch.

I catch only air, the cool of the wind seeming to brush the underside of my skin. I turn, rubbing water from my eyes. The torch bearers are too fast, reforming into a circle around me, cutting me off from the ladder. A crunch close behind me has me whirling into more blazing light. They are closing in.

Caged by light, I pace and slash with my hands. All that meets me is air and noise as they shout unintelligibly to each other.

A hand takes my wrist and I wrench free, only to find the other arm trapped. Then the first arm is recaptured. Leaning on the arms holding me I kick out and meet flesh. But now I'm unstable. I don't feel the blow but I fall, face to the gravel. Whoever is holding me halts the potential face plant and stretches my arms behind me so that I am forced into a painful kneeling position.

A face swims before me, the same as before. I turn my head to avoid their gaze. Thick fingers and the edges of nails press into my jaw, jerking my head back to the front. I roll my eyes, searching the corners of my vision for helpful details. They can't make me look into his eyes.

"Nada!" Fern's voice cries out before me. On reflex I look to her, straining against my captors. That's all the Huntsmen need. Black eyes shivering in concentration. No pit could be deeper.

"Keep looking right at me," the insidious voice whispers, both in my head and my ears. The fingers on my jaw relax, unnecessary now. Damn it, I need to look away, to break the connection. When I try the seed of cold in my neck intensifies and my head only twitches, my eyes still locked on his heavy-lidded ones. I focus instead on my knees, shuffling towards the face.

"Stop moving," the voice commands and I whine way back in my throat as the cold slides down my back. It's like a vaccination, the cold painful fluid sliding underneath my skin to invade my legs, locking them where they kneel.

"Stay right there and think how lucky it was we caught you." I try to reach for him or curl up into a ball but my muscles merely twitch and lock. I can't tell if they are physically holding me anymore; it's irrelevant. Cold bands hold fast my wrists, neck and knees and the word 'lucky' echoes through my head. I move what I can, my fingers and toes mostly, exercising my muscles and waiting for him to slip up. Just one second of distraction.

But the Huntsman is unblinking, "Relax..." he whispers, moving closer. I know he's good at this now, not many Huntsmen can enthral and walk at the same time. My fingers let go of their invisible stress ball and all the breath leaves my lungs as his face fills my peripheral vision.

It's all about the eyes and how lucky I am... how lucky I am ...how lucky I am. My body is no longer just cold its numb... it barely exists... not past the loving eyes of the Huntsman before me.

I want to follow him everywhere. I would happily open my veins for him. But right now I can't wait to take my proper place. In Seven, my home, my comfortable cell. Why had I been trying to escape?