Shadow Falls by A. W. Tinney

Author:A. W. Tinney [Tinney, A. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-17T22:00:00+00:00

6

She woke to the irritating prodding of a reed staff against her cheek.

“Up, gorrt,” thundered a voice.

She did not comply. Instead she lay there, dully becoming aware of her surroundings. There was damp. There had always been damp in recent days. It clung to her cheek, her breasts, her stomach. Why could she feel it on her stomach?

She realised with sickening fear that it was the first instance in a very long time that Kasela had been without her armour.

The next thing she felt was a sharp kick against her shoulders. “I said up, gorrt.”

She snarled and rose, arms flailing, intent on assaulting whomever thought it wise to strip and provoke a Knight of the Iron Thorn. Her hands were clasped by slimy cool fingers, that drew her face to face with the most repulsive creature imaginable. Thick wafts of swamp breath blew over her as the wart-ridden toad-guard mewed at her. “Try that again, and I’ll snap your arms off.”

He cast her aside as if she weighed little more than a wheat sack. Kasela groaned, and found her body slow to react. Her vision was blurred too, though whether that was from the beating or the poison coursing through her bloodstream she did not know.

“Get up, gorrt,” the toad-guard said again. “You have an audience with the queen.”

“The queen? What queen?”

A deep cackle. “You’ll see soon enough. Up, gorrt.”

She rose, slowly, feeling her muscles ache with each move. Kasela covered her exposed breasts with her hand, thankful that a shift of linen still cloaked her groin. She staggered from her cell, which she discovered was little more than a minute shack barred with thick reed stalks. Immediately outside was a banking, against which a river flowed. A raft waited, bobbing in the soft current. On deck, black-eyed, bruised and sinister, was a familiar face.

“Eresor, you’re alive,” she said.

The toad-guard kicked her again, his powerful legs propelling her off the damp bank and onto the slippery timbers. “No talking,” he warned.

Eresor growled, and she noticed his hands were bound, and a fresh scar bleed freely above his forehead.

“Where is Selvar?”

“I said, no talking, gorrt.”

“What have you done with my steed?”

The toad kicked her again, this time snapping her head back, so she fell against the deck. Blood trickled from her nose. She spat. Eresor grunted and shook his head. A warning. Do not provoke them.

“You’ll pay for this,” the Knight rasped.

The deep chuckle again. “We’ll see, shiny one. We’ll see, gorrt.”

The toad-guard leapt onto the raft, his girth causing the rickety construct to shake. Stagnant water splashed Kasela and she coughed an invasive mouthful away. Using a length of sturdy reed wood, their jailor pushed the raft from the bank and guided it down the river.

The mist enveloped them once more, shrouding the entire journey in silver gloom. Kasela lay on the deck shivering, mucus flowing from her nostrils with the chill. Her wound ached, deep lines of blue lancing through her leg muscles as the sensation of poison still pulsed.

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