The Witch Woman's Prophecy

40 | Captured |

I jumped to my feet and swung around, my knife ready in my hand. My mouth was dry, dry as the sand and rocks beneath my feet.

'No!' was all I could manage to say.

A tall man dressed in dark desert robes had stepped out from behind the rocks surrounding the clearing. His face was hidden by a dark scarf and his sword was pointing straight at Naamiya. She'd started to draw her own sword as she spun around to face the stranger, but her hand dropped away from the hilt once she realised that his gleaming blade was a hand-span away from her throat.

I wondered if I could throw my knife at the man before he could injure Naamiya, but he glanced at me with cold, dark eyes that seemed to see right into me and I knew that I had no chance.

'Drop the weapons. Now!' he shouted at us.

I let my knife fall onto the sand where it landed with a dull thud. Naamiya drew her sword out and squatted to place it on the ground then stood upright to look the stranger straight in the eye. He slid the sword away from her with his booted foot, his eyes were fixed on us and the tip of his sword pointed unwaveringly at Naamiya's throat the whole time.

'Who are you?' asked Soni.

'Gerdian,' said the man in a husky voice, then he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. At the sound several more men came out from behind the rocks at the edge of the clearing and surrounded us. They were all dressed like their leader and their weapons were pointing straight at us.

'Search them,' said Gerdian. The tone of his voice showed he was used to giving commands and having them followed without question.

A brown-robed man stooped to pick up my knife and stuck it through his own belt while another man searched us. Soni frowned and stared straight ahead as she was being searched. Naamiya stood with her head held high, but she muttered some curse words and spat at the man who searched her. I was angry that the man's hands seemed to linger where they did not need to. My own search was briefer and I tolerated it without a word. I was just glad that Soni and Naamiya weren't being slaughtered in front of me.

These men had been waiting for us. Were they bandits? How had they known we would be travelling this way?

'Gerdian, what are you going to do with us?' asked Naamiya, as if she had plucked the thought from my mind. Her voice was steady and I admired her for it. I knew that my own would be a mere squeak at best.

'You're not important,' he said, waving at Soni and Naamiya. 'He's the only one I want,' he said, looking at me.

'What are you going to do with us?' repeated Naamiya.

Gerdian thought about this, frowned and pushed back his scarf from his forehead to wipe away the sweat. 'I haven't decided whether to kill you two here or set you loose in the desert to take your chances. The end result will be the same, I expect.'

Terror of the sisters being murdered in front of me like my own family made my legs weak and my hands shake. A bead of sweat ran down from my forehead into my eye, but I did not dare to move a hand to wipe it away despite the sting. Yardin's prophecy was coming true again. More people dying because of me. I took a deep breath.

'Don't kill them or I won't go with you. Release them and I will do whatever you want,' I said, doing my best to speak in a confident voice. I knew this was a hopeless plea but it was the only thing I could think of to stop my friends being killed.

Gerdian chuckled, the noise came from deep inside his chest and made his whole frame shake. 'Oh, you think you're that important to me, do you, little boy? Well, let me tell you what will happen. I will decide what happens to you and your friends, not you.'