“Then shutter your windows and bar the door and send who you can to help the village fight.”
As the cooper’s wife hurried Paolo to the house, Paolo begged, “Please, Ma, let me go to the fight.”
A keening wind drifted through the trees. Tomaaz glanced at town, so close, then back to Lofty’s farm. Bill was going after Lovina. He had to stop him. But Pa was stuck in prison. Or was he dead, as Bill had said? Shards, what to do? For an agonizing moment, Tomaaz was on the balls of his feet.
Then he raced to town. Lovina had Ernst and others to protect her. Pa only had him, and Pa might know how to save Lush Valley.
§
Tomaaz skirted around the main road to avoid the worst of the fighting. He ran past a blazing house and arrived at the jail, panting, the old burns on his legs throbbing.
The door was open. The guard was dead, throat slashed, his blood sprayed over the foyer. Sickened, Tomaaz entered the corridor and snatched up a blazing torch. Rows of cell doors stood ajar. He ran down the aisle.
So far, all empty.
Before Pa’s cell, an enormous tharuk was sprawled against a barred door, a piece of wood sticking out from under its chin, sticky blood pooling around it.
Pa’s wooden bed had been splintered, bits of timber scattered across his floor.
Tomaaz bent to examine the dead beast. So that’s how Pa killed tharuks.
§
With Klaus’ help, Hans had succeeded in rallying the villagers to take refuge in the square. They’d blocked off three entrances by piling furniture high and setting archers on nearby rooftops, but the monsters were still pouring in through the broadest street. While others staved off beasts with spears, Hans led fighters into the fray.
“Watch the tusks,” he bellowed, slicing an unarmored tharuk’s belly open.
“Look out for their claws!” Hans drove his sword into a tharuk’s eye. “Hit their weak spots.”
Around him, inexperienced fighters surged, some injuring one another while swinging at the brutes, but they hewed and cut their way into the enemy, desperate to protect their families.
Briefly, Hans wondered where Tomaaz was. Marlies. Ezaara.
Bodies hit the cobbles.
In the square, a couple of narrow alleys provided an escape route should the villagers need to flee. It was looking more and more like they’d have to. They were outnumbered, people falling like autumn leaves.
More tharuks kept streaming in. They had no chance. If dragons didn’t arrive soon, the whole township would be lost.
§
Lovina huddled under the bed with the littlings. Crashes and grunts rang out around her. A dead tharuk thudded to the nearby floorboards, making the littlings tremble. Bellows came from the room next door, then, little by little, the noise receded and the fighting continued outside.
“Can we come out?” whispered the smallest.
“The monsters might hurt you, so we have to stay and be quiet,” Lovina whispered.
The fighting sounded further away, now, but she’d promised to keep these children safe until their parents returned.
If their parents returned. She swallowed a bitter pang. Now that the numlock had lifted, her memories were trickling back. Strangely, the most distant ones had come first. The night she’d hidden in a closet while tharuks had ransacked their village looking for slaves. Da had not come back that night, and she and Ma were captured.
Arms around the littlings, she waited in the dark under the bed, trying to remember what had happened to her ma, but that memory was still shrouded in fog.
There was a clunk. Lovina’s muscles tensed. Another clunk—the bump of wood on wood.
Was that a window flapping in the wind? She couldn’t remember opening one, but with fighting going on, maybe someone else had. Perhaps she should close it in case a tharuk climbed in. Lovina waited, the window bumping softly against the sill a few more times.
Lovina eased her head out from under the bed. Oh, no: worn brown boots with tarnished buckles. Her heart froze. They were Bill’s.
Bill grabbed a clump of her hair and pulled. Lovina resisted, clinging to the leg of the bed, but he yanked harder. A chunk of her hair ripped out, pain searing her skull. He grabbed another handful and yanked again, smashing her face against the frame of the bed. One of the littlings grabbed her legs.
Gods, no! If they hung on, he’d see them, hurt them too.
“It’s all right, Bill,” she gasped. “I’m coming out.” Oh gods, don’t let Bill think that was too easy and get suspicious. She shook her leg, getting the littling to let go, then clambered out.
Bill’s eyes shone yellow in the candlelight.
Lovina cringed. She couldn’t help it. Swayweed made him meaner.
He dragged her toward him by the hair, forcing her into a chair. He leaned over, his face in hers.
“What did I promise I’d do, if you ever ran away again?” Bill’s breath made her eyes water. “What did I say?”
Last time, she hadn’t got far. “B-break …” Lovina swallowed, unable to finish. She’d asked Ernst and Ana to help her get out of Lush Valley, but with Bill in jail, they hadn’t thought it necessary. Why hadn’t she left? Tomaaz’s face flashed to mind. Where was he now? Nowhere. No one was ever there—except Bill.
“What did I tell you?” Bill asked, quiet menace in his voice.
Lovina hung her head.
The littlings shuffled under the bed.
“Um, ah …” She spoke loudly, so Bill couldn’t hear them. “You said you’d break my bones.”
His smile wasn’t kind. “Good. You remembered. Now, let’s get on with that. I’d hate to break my promise.” Bill laughed at his own pun. Tying a length of rope around Lovina’s wrist, he shoved her toward the open window. “I’m taking you somewhere we won’t be disturbed. And if you make a
