Threatened [W&W Book 2]

Chapter 44

The night was long and Anya's sleep was uneasy.  She was sore and uncomfortable and tired of sleeping on the ground.  Worse, the only thing that lessened her pain at the loss of Sabin was her fear of Thorne.  It was almost a relief when they began to ride again.

It was not long before riding had become frustrating.  Anya could not help but notice the wary looks that the soldiers kept shooting her.  At first it was almost funny.  Here she sat, a bound female with no ability to use her magic, and these great strong knights clad in armor and carrying deadly weapons were afraid of her.  After a while, however it began to grate on her nerves.  What did they imagine she could do?  Turn them to stone with her gaze?  If only, for Thorne would be a statue.

It was not until they stopped for the lunch break that Anya's fears materialized as reality.  She was deposited in from of Thorne's stretcher.  She eyed him closely.  He was still bound from head to toe with ropes.  There was no way that an ordinary man could manage to escape.  Of course, Thorne was not ordinary.  He was a crafty, wicked wizard and he was resourceful.  And he yet had access to his magic.

Anya tried to reassure herself.  Sir Thomas had only been attempting to stabilize him for the journey.  He would not be waking up yet.  He was bound firmly, in fact better than she.  She wanted him to pay for his crimes.

Thorne would not escape, she told herself.  Then she noticed something odd.  The ropes, which had originally seemed so thick and sturdy, seemed to be thinning, and wiggling, until they slipped right off of his body as if they were a mere liquid.

"Anya.  Good of you not to kill me," he said with a wicked smile.

"Thorne!" she gasped. 

"I must bid you farewell for now, Anya," Thorne said with a grin.  "But I have much to do and no time for this nonsense.  Give the king my regards."

"Thorne's awake!  Thorne, everyone knows what you have done."

Thorne chuckled.  "That hardly matters.  I'll just work from the shadows as I do."  Thorne leapt up from the stretcher, as quickly as he had moved earlier.

"He's escaping!"  Anya shouted.  Everything would be for naught.

Then Thorne slammed face down on the ground.  Anya realized that he had been pushed down by a wave of magic, although she could feel no sense of it.  She breathed a sigh of relief and looked up to see Lord Wildwood standing there.

"Sorry to disappoint you David, but we've got other plans for you."

Thorne was clearly fighting the magic and losing.  It was a gratifying sight for Anya.  "I'll never cooperate."

"The words of an innocent man?  Your record speaks against you."

"Shut it, Wildwood.  You cannot stop what is to come.  There's no way that someone like you could defeat me.  Your pitiable honor and loyalty weaken you and forces you to waste your efforts," Thorne said in an eerie tone, still held fast to the ground.

"Just like your pitiful dog.  I destroyed that peasant easily enough.  It was only this one," Thorne twisted his head to look contemptuously at Anya, "Who was too foolish to take her freedom when I handed it to her.  Her stupid sentimentality limits her powers, as does yours," Thorne finished, his voice full of contempt.

Anya opened her mouth in outrage.  How dare he talk about Jim that way?  But Wildwood spoke first.  "I doubt that beating Jim was easy.  His magic is far greater than yours.  But that's why you picked on him so, wasn't it?  Jealousy?  I suppose the fact that a mere commoner exceeded you was difficult to swallow."