"She stinks!" the smaller man growled. "What's she been rolling around in?"
Emriana wanted to scream again, but without her feet under her for support, much of her weight had settled on her neck, which was still trapped in the arm lock of the assailant behind her. She flailed desperately with her free hand trying to pull that massive arm away from her throat, but it was a useless gesture. She was gasping for breath as they toted her deeper into the alley. Behind the skinny man, Emriana could still see the capacious woman following, laughing.
As spots began to swim in her vision, Emriana thought frantically of the warning Xaphira had given her, about bodies turning up outside the rathrur every morning. Practically paralyzed with panic, Emriana began blindly punching at the man carrying her upper body, slamming her small fist up over her own head at where she guessed his face might be. She felt her pummeling connect with his nose and she struck again, terror lending her strength.
"Ow! You little brat, stop that!" the man howled, nearly dropping Emriana as he turned his face away from her blows. The distraction also loosened his hold on her neck, and the girl gulped a huge breath of precious air.
Just as quickly, though, he had a hold of her again, and he switched hands, shifting his grip so that his arm slid beneath both of Emriana's, between them and her back. With his free hand he took a firm grip on the girl's hair, yanking her head back to face him from upside down.
"You stop squirming," he said, viciously tugging her hair, "or I'll let Lak here slit your throat and be done with you."
Emriana froze, her eyes tearing up from the pain of having her hair pulled. Her hands fluttered uselessly behind her back, unable to prevent the horrid thug from hurting her. Then her hand bumped against a strategic point between the man's legs. Emriana clamped her hand around the telltale bulge and squeezed as hard as she could.
The man's scream was perhaps the loudest thing Emriana had ever heard. It blasted her ears and echoed all around her, bouncing off the high walls of the narrow alley. More important, he sank down to his knees, releasing the girl's hair and arms and bringing both his hands down in a desperate, frantic attempt to pry her painful grip off of himself.
Emriana landed awkwardly on her arms but quick as a cat, she was trying to roll over, twisting herself onto her belly while still maintaining a stout grip on her assailant. At the same time, she jerked one leg free from Lak and kicked, slamming the heel of her boot into his gut.
The skinny man staggered back, releasing her legs, while the larger man, his hands still prying futilely at her clenched fingers, doubled over, still howling in misery. Behind Lak, Emriana heard the woman swear. Emriana released her grip and scrambled to her feet. She was just about to dodge past the larger man, who was still crumpled in the dirt of the alley, whimpering, when something struck her hard from behind, right on the back of her head.
Waves of pain radiated through the girl's skull, and she dropped to her knees, spots swimming in her vision. She tried to stand up again, but the whole world seemed to be out of balance at that point, and she staggered to one side, bumping against the wall of the closest building. As she reached out to catch herself, the rotund woman stepped into view and planted one of her puffy fists right into Emriana's stomach.
All of the girl's breath left her in an audible whoosh, and she sank back down to the ground, gasping. The spots in Emriana's vision only intensified as she struggled, coughing, to regain her breath, and she was unable to do anything but crumple where she had sagged, flopping into the filth.
She felt hands grab her roughly and yank her to her feet again. Something hard cuffed her hard upside the head, snapping it to one side and making her cry out in pain. The blood was roaring in her ears as she was dragged, stumbling farther down the alley. A small part of her mind screamed at Emriana to stand up, to fight back, to stop her assailants from towing her along, but she was too dazed to react. She pulled feebly once or twice against the hands that gripped her by each arm, but it was a futile gesture and did nothing to deter her attackers.
Suddenly, Emriana was thrown forward, and she stumbled to her hands and knees upon something softer than stone and dirt. She rested there for a moment, panting to get her wind back, but before she could figure out what she was resting on, a hard boot planted itself in her backside and sent her sprawling the rest of the way down. Without warning, two or three hard blows struck Emriana in the ribs, and she vainly tried to bring her arms down to protect herself.
That, apparently, was what her attackers had been waiting for, for in the next instant, Emriana felt herself enveloped by the soft material upon which she lay. She realized it was a carpet, and it was wet and sour-smelling. She understood that her three assailants were wrapping her up in the rug, and she began to thrash about again, trying to prevent her entombment, but she was too dazed and her foes too fast. All too quickly, she was engulfed in fetid darkness, her arms pinned to her sides as she was rolled over and over several times. She could feel the thick material tightening around her, cutting off her movement and her air.
"No!" She cried out, trying to jerk her arms back up over her head. "Stop! Please!" She was panicking, terrified of the sense of being buried alive, but her voice was muffled and ineffectual. She frantically kicked her feet, trying to keep from being completely trapped, but it was too late. She could already feel coils of rope being wrapped around her torso and knees, effectively binding her helplessly inside the wrapped carpet.
She wound up on her back, and though she continued to kick and fight, Emriana realized that the trio of attackers was no longer working to contain her in the rolled-up carpet. She felt herself being lifted from the ground, and a rhythmic swaying motion set in, evidence that they were carrying her. The thought that she was being hauled off, farther away from The Silver Fish, from any point of reference she knew, frightened the girl even more, if that was possible. She continued to cry out, hoping perhaps someone somewhere near her would hear and investigate. Praying.
At one point, something slammed into the middle of the carpet roll, walloping Emriana right in her gut, knocking the wind from her once more. She gasped and coughed again, trying to take in enough air to regain her breathing. Tears welled up in her eyes, tears of pain and fear. The stench of the wet, molding rug was almost unbearable, and she thought she would pass out from the suffocating atmosphere. She stopped kicking and screaming after that, fearing that she would be struck again if she continued. She began to sob, shuddering, shaking sobs, knowing she would never see any of her family again.
Images of her mother and grandmother, of Vambran, of Xaphira, even of Marga and the twins flashed through her mind. She could see them all grieving for her, perhaps wondering what had become of her, why she had disappeared. The frightening notion made her chest ache.
No! She insisted, trying to clear her head. You're not dead, yet! Figure something out! Steeling herself against the panic, Emriana grew still and began instead to listen, trying to gain some sense of her surroundings. She could hear nothing, but she at least could begin to think clearly.
After a while, she felt herself lowered onto a flat surface, and she could hear muffled voices, though she could not make out what was being said. She realized that her own efforts at making noise had most likely been similarly muted, and the likelihood of someone actually hearing her in the alleys of Arrabar was slim. She would have to save herself.
As she assessed her situation, Emriana remembered that she had a second dagger hidden on her person, tucked into the waist of her pants at the small of her back. She tried to reach it, but her arms were pressed too tightly to her sides, and she was finding it difficult to flex her elbow enough to shift her hand back there. It was maddening. She stopped trying to grab it and considered other methods.