Light flashed. Pain exploded in her jaw. She crumpled to the ground, a sharp rock digging into her thigh. Warm blood filled her mouth, wine red against the snow as she spit it out, crying out a curse or a plea. She couldn’t tell through the haze of anger and confusion. The Goat bent over her, blotting out the stars above.

“You’re not giving orders here, you little brat,” he said, though he lowered his voice. He glanced about the white expanse once more, then gripped the crossbow so hard Anji could hear the leather gloves squeak on the wood. “Hells,” he muttered.

Still panting on the ground, cradling her pulsing jaw, Anji allowed herself a morsel of hope. Wherever the Hawk was, she’d turn up eventually, hopefully to cut this bastard’s stinking cock off. With the tether broken, Anji would be able to escape in the confusion of a fight. I can still get out of this, she thought, though her confidence drained like filthy wash water as she watched the Goat adjust his mask and step forward, kicking a stone away with one of his giant booted feet.

“Get up,” he said. “Time we got off this rock.”

Chapter 16

16

Anji slogged down the trail, hands raised, feet scuffing on loose stone. Sweat and melted snow dampened her soiled clothes. Every part of her ached and starved and smarted, every tendon and muscle wound tight as a drum. Her mouth pounded with each weary step, the metallic taste of blood ever present at the back of her throat.

Patches of snow littered the mountain’s base, giving way to mounds of lava rock, windblown moss clinging in orange and green tufts. The sun had finally crept over the mountain’s dome, scattering wisps of gray cloud as the masked man herded her down.

“Caused quite the stir in Linura, you did,” said the Goat at her back. “Hear what they’ve got planned for you?”

“I’m to be tortured, apparently.”

“Torture’s a decent enough word, but vague. They always omit the details, those posters. Way I heard it, you’re facing the Scavenger’s Maid. You know what that is?”