Soul Seeker

10: Ensnared

"Sebastian?" The woman looked up. Her eyebrows lowered. "Who is that?"

"An outlaw, I suspect," the trap-setter said.

"I am no outlaw!" Ciara protested.

The entire camp had gone silent.

The woman jerked her head, motioning Ciara and Sebastian closer. "Carry on with your work." Authority dripped from her voice; the others complied without protest.

They tied Ciara to the nearest tree and stood over her. Both had the same black hair.

"What kind of name is Sebastian?" she said scornfully.

"An old one." His jaw was set, and he looked at her with dislike. "And you are the one under questioning, not me."

"Don't ever show a hostile woman you're letting her rile you, nephew," the older woman said with amusement. She was beautiful, with sharp cheekbones, cat-like green eyes and full lips. Any hopes Ciara had of receiving sympathy from a fellow woman were fleeting. She moved like a lynx. "We want the truth from you, girl, and we'll get it even if we have to carve it out of you."

Ciara scrabbled against the tree bark with her fingertips, desperately feeling for anything sharp. "What are your names?"

"I found her tracking our sleds, fully armed," Sebastian said in an undertone. "I'm willing to bet she already knows our names."

Where was Fell? She couldn't see any hunter who stood out from the ones continuing with their tasks. Had they got it wrong? Were these people just ordinary hunters? If so, why did they feel the need to tie her up?

"Is hunting here against the law now?" Ciara demanded. "It may have looked like I was following your sleds, but I was just searching for deer tracks! What's wrong with that? This land belongs to everyone."

"You have a lot of weapons for someone who's following deer," Isa said.

"I like to be prepared. I'm a hunter, same as the rest of you. Please, let me go, I'm just trying to find food for my family." She gazed up at them with pleading eyes.

Sebastian shifted from foot to foot, but the beautiful Isa wore a mask of ice which made a shiver crawl down Ciara's spine.

Oh, they definitely had something to hide. They were definitely not innocent. All she had to do now was free her hands, find Fell, and she could save herself and Darius and it really would be in self-defence and all of this would be over and she could go home...

"Sebastian, go to the fire." Isa pointed.

"But –"

"Go."

Casting Ciara one last suspicious look, he walked away.

"Thank you for getting rid of him," Ciara said brightly as Isa knelt in front of her. "Now we can have a nice woman-to-woman chat. Your hair is so thick and shiny, what do you use –?"

Isa brought a tiny knife to Ciara's lips and traced their outline, dragging the point across her skin with lethal precision. "Oh, I'll give you a nice woman-to-woman chat... Or I might just cut out your tongue so I don't have to listen to your pointless blabbering," she murmured.

Ciara didn't dare breathe.

"You are going to stay here. You are not going to move. If you do, I will use this blade to carve you up, and it will take a very, very long time." She rose, fluid and graceful.

Then she left to join the younger boy by the fire, and Ciara sagged, feeling as if she had just run a mile.

Nearby, a couple of men were chatting as they shelled hazelnuts.

"...What I wouldn't give to spend a night with Isa Midgarson."

"What, you? In your dreams."

"I've seen the way she's been looking at me."

"She wouldn't look twice at you even if you were the Suzerain's Heir..." They guffawed.

A Midgarson.

Was Isa Fell's wife? She was just as violent and despicable as Ciara had imagined the Midgarsons to be – was Fell even worse? It made sense, then, that Isa and the boy immediately suspected her.

She had to get free. She must find Tonraq. They could still end Fell's life and escape – she just had to figure out how to get out of her ropes...

She struggled violently, and the rope caught against a broken piece of tree bark with a sharp edge.

Yes!

By the main fire, it looked as if Isa and Sebastian were talking, discussing what to do with her. Ciara sawed madly at the rope, her shoulders burning.

Come on, come on...

Sweat poured down her back and her muscles protested at being pulled into such an unnatural position, but Ciara ignored the pain and sawed with all the force she could until... finally, the rope gave. She scanned the camp, remaining perfectly still. Isa and Sebastian were glancing at the forest as if they were expecting someone to arrive, while the rest of the hunters were absorbed in their tasks.

After all, why would anyone put a close guard on a young girl who had stupidly walked into a snare?

Ciara shook her ropes free and dived into the undergrowth.