Chosen: Book 1 in the Dragon Queen series
17 – Taken Willingly

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” The hunter held Brunna immobile while he bellowed into the woods. He clearly didn’t know where I was since he was facing the wrong direction. Although that was little advantage – I couldn’t run off and abandon my friend. “Or I’ll slit your pal’s throat.”

I hoped that was an empty threat – they wanted both of us to hand over to the mages. I pressed against the tree I was hiding behind, trying to see without being seen. I could try and sneak behind the hunter and somehow get Brunna free, but not if that meant I’d walk straight into the second hunter.

“Come along!” he called. “I’m not a patient man.”

“We’re not fae,” Brunna’s soft voice barely reached me, her words strangled as they pushed past the knife. “We can’t help you. We just want to go home.”

“Give us a dragon and you can go home,” the hunter snapped. He stood straighter, bellowing into the trees. “You hear that? You and your friend want freedom, we’ll let you go just as soon as we get a dragon the mages can use.”

There was a scuffle and barking began again – moving towards me.

I dodged back behind the tree, trying to think, hoping past hope that the dogs might go in the wrong direction. I had to get Brunna free. “The dragons have gone into hiding,” I called. “And the fae with them.” If the hunters were determined to take someone, I’d be willing to offer up the nasty fae who’d sent us away, but even he was safely out of their reach. We were the only people fool enough to go tramping through the forest when hunters were on the prowl. “They knew hunters were coming.”

“We don’t intend to return empty-handed.”

The dogs’ bounding steps came closer. “We can’t help you!” I called desperately. I strained to see through the moonlight and shadows. Brunna didn’t have the strength to make him let go, not when he had a knife and she didn’t. “The mages will be angry if you take a couple of Muirlanders. You might think we’re fae, but they’ll know there’s nothing extraordinary about us.”

He roared with fury. “You must be fae!”

Fear closed my throat as the two dogs came into sight, barking in fury as they halted a step away, snapping and snarling. I glanced up, looking for the second hunter. I couldn’t have long. “We’re a pair of ordinary Muirland girls,” I called. I glanced around before returning my attention to the hunter holding Brunna. I still didn’t know where the second one had got to.

“I don’t believe you,” he called back. “Maybe this one is.” Brunna cried out with pain. My fists clenched and I took an involuntary step forward, making the dogs renew their noise. “But you’re wearing a necklace with a dragon scale. That’s fae-made.”

I couldn’t help the bitter laugh that escaped me then. The damned necklace. If only I could be rid of the accursed thing. “It might be made by the fae, but that doesn’t make me a fae shifter. We truly can’t help you.”

“That’s a shame.” The hunter seemed calmer. Might he accept my words this time? “Because I guess you’re no use to me if you’re not fae and you can’t replace me a dragon.” Brunna screamed.

“No!” I dodged around the closest dog – and ran straight into the second hunter. Strong arms grabbed me and swung me round, lifting me off the ground. A hand clamped over my mouth. I struggled, but he was too strong for me.

“You should have handed over the dragon,” he snarled in my ear. His arm, strong as an iron bar, clasped around my arms and my body. I twitched when something sharp pricked my side.

“If you scream, or move, or try to get away, I’ll gut you like a fish,” the hunter hissed. “Do you understand?”

I paused, then tried a cautious nod.

He looked past me towards the first hunter. “What now? Do we stick with the plan? Take them to Muirland City?”

I breathed deeply, my ribs constricted. His arm didn’t move. I needed him distracted if I was to have a chance to escape again. I looked at Brunna, trying to communicate silently. We both needed to get free. There could be slim chance to gain freedom a second time, but I couldn’t let the hunters have their way. If we returned to the mages we’d never see home again.

“They might be telling the truth,” the first one said. “If they were fae, they shouldn’t have been able to get out of those ropes.” I should be relieved we’d got through to him, but all I felt was fear. If we weren’t of use to them…

“What about the necklace? How have they got a dragon’s scale if they aren’t fae?”

My muscles tightened with the need to run as they discussed our fate emotionlessly, but the hunter was still gripping me implacably, while the steel of the dagger was cold against my skin. My thoughts spun, and I grasped at what the fae had told me about the necklace. I just hoped that wasn’t a lie.

“Wait! You can have the necklace,” I said. “That will lead you to what you need. Let us both go and you can have it.”

“The necklace is no use,” the first one scoffed. “We need a dragon or a shifter, not a scale.”

“The necklace will help you replace a dragon,” I promised. “I can sense where dragons are when I’m wearing it.”

Brunna whimpered as the first hunter took a step towards me and dragged her alongside. “Why would you give it up?”

“It’s been nothing but trouble. I thought it would be glamorous, being able to sense dragons. But all it’s done is bring me here and get me caught by hunters.” I shivered deliberately and tried a sob, but it sounded more like a strangled sneeze. The fae had said the necklace needed to be taken willingly – had I said enough for these men to even realise I was offering bait? I sniffed. “I just want to go home.”

“It lets you sense dragons?” The knife left my ribs as he reached up to jerk my collar aside. As though it felt the movement, the scale heated against my skin. I bit my lip so I wouldn’t react. The last thing I wanted was to give them a hint of the curse that came with the necklace.

“Where does it say a dragon is now?” he demanded.

“East.”

The hunter holding Brunna, snorted. “East takes us higher up the mountains. It’s not hard to guess where dragons might be found.”

“We can check, can’t we?” the other returned. “Give it here.” He held his hand out, palm up, right in front of my nose. I could pull out of his grip and run – but I had to get both of us free.

“You want the necklace?” I didn’t know what words would unlock the curse.

“Yes, I want the necklace.” His fingers jerked in an acquisitive gesture. “Hand it over.”

My breath whistled out. As he spoke, the necklace loosened, the links dropping away from my skin to hang limply around my neck. I glanced across at Brunna, trying to signal that she should be ready to run. I couldn’t be sure whether she could see my expression in the dim light. “And then you’ll let us go?” I asked.

“If it gets us what we need we have no use for you,” the first hunter snapped.

The one holding me swapped his grip, one hand on my shoulder while the other reached behind my neck. The hunter breathed down my neck, hungry for a tool he thought would make his job easier. His weight left my shoulder as he unfastened the catch.

I bit back a sigh as the weight and the heat of the necklace left me.

“Should I put it on?” The two hunters exchanged a look.

“I’ll do it,” the first one stated. He pushed Brunna aside, all his attention on the necklace and the softly gleaming dragon scale. I stepped cautiously to Brunna’s side, reaching for her hand.

The hunter put the necklace around his throat. It had been snug around mine, but somehow it was also the right size for him. More evidence of the enchantment it carried. I squeezed Brunna’s hand. We took a step away from them, further into the shadows of the trees.

The first hunter’s hands fell to his sides.

“Can you sense the dragon?” the second hunter demanded.

I looked at Brunna. She nodded. We bolted into a run as the hunter opened his mouth and screamed a howl of pain and terror that turned my blood to ice.

The dark forest abruptly filled with noise. Brunna’s hand tight in mine, we dodged the trees, desperate to escape. Our breaths panted, while my heart smashed against my ribs with a racket loud enough to wake the dead. Twigs cracked beneath our boots. The dogs barked. Above it all, the screams of the hunter rang out, howls of agony knifing the air.

I tried to think as we ran, but my brain could only think of escape; running regardless of what lay ahead because it couldn’t be worse than the men behind us.

“I’m going to cut your heart out!” the second hunter hollered. His steps crashed as he sped in pursuit.

Fear lengthened my strides. I didn’t doubt he meant the threat. And if he had enough energy to shout, he had plenty to keep pursuing us. I kept running, dragging Brunna with me. We dodged around obstacles that loomed out of the darkness. If we were captured, we were dead.

The first man was still screaming, although his voice grew hoarse and faint. We were still within hearing when his screams cut off all together. He must have fainted; unless the necklace was powerful enough to kill a man.

I tripped, flying through the air for barely long enough to understand what had happened before I slammed to the ground. Brunna continued running. Before I could scramble to my feet the second hunter was on me, crushing me into the leaves and mulch on the ground, my breath choking on the earthy smell. I wriggled desperately to get away, expecting the cold of a blade to slit my skin at any moment.

The hunter flipped me over, kneeling on my legs and grasping my flailing arms, pinning both wrists above my head with one of his hands. His free hand fumbled for the knife at his belt. “You’re going to regret that,” he snarled.

I bucked and writhed, fighting to get away. All I managed was to jolt his hand away from the sheath at his belt. He cursed and used that hand to slap my face. Stars flashed in front of my eyes. I tasted blood.

His hand returned to his belt, freeing the knife. My breath stuttered as moonlight caught the blade. He leaned closer, steel gleaming. “Too bad you can’t give us a dragon. It might have saved your life,” he snarled. His eyes gleamed, pitiless with malice.

I squeezed my eyes closed as though I could hide from death. A soft, wet thud sounded. He grunted. Death didn’t come. I opened my eyes in time to watch him slide sideways off my legs.

I didn’t…

“Come on, Alliss.” Brunna’s hand came into view. “We have to go.”

I accepted her hand and wriggled out from the unconscious body of the hunter. “Is he—”

Her teeth gleamed in the moonlight. “I told you I was getting handy with the slingshot.” She prodded him with her foot. “I hope he’s not dead. They’ll really have a reason to come after us if I’m a murderer.”

“He deserved it,” I said savagely, gripping her hand and pulling her into a jog. He would have killed me gleefully.

“Oh.”

We skidded to a halt when Brunna spoke. Ahead of us, moonlight shone on water. We’d reached a river, one too wide for us to cross – and there was no sign of a bridge.

Brunna cast a look back into the trees. “I can’t swim.”

Dead by drowning was no better than dead at the hands of hunters. “We follow it,” I told her. “It’ll give us water for our journey, at least.”

We turned to follow downstream, keeping as close as we could to the babbling water.

“What if it leads all the way to Muirland City?” Brunna asked.

“We’ll get away before then.” I was never going back inside the walls of the capital, not for all the gold in the king’s treasury. “We need to head west.” That would take us back to Besserton. I craned up, but I couldn’t navigate from the moon or the stars. We’d have to wait for daylight before we knew whether we were going in the right direction.

Brunna sighed. “To think I envied you that necklace when I first saw it. I thought it was pretty.”

I shivered. “More dangerous than decorative.” I smoothed the skin around my neck, reassuring myself it was really gone. My skin was puckered and tender like the scar from a burn. The necklace and the curse it carried was gone, but it looked like it had left me with a reminder. “I just hope it keeps the hunter too busy to follow us.”