From what she’d overheard, the artifacts restraining them were ancient and everyone knew time weakened even the strongest mage-craft. Danika tested the net’s control constantly, barely allowing the pain to fade before she tried again. From what she’d seen of their expressions, Stina and Jesine were doing the same. Annalyse looked so miserable her expression could have been hiding anything, and Kirstin had remained strangely quiet. But then, Kirstin hadn’t been herself for some days, although preparations for the war had kept Danika from inquiring. She’d thought to have plenty of time to speak to her on the road to Trouge.
In her defense, this was not something she could have anticipated. Soothsayers had a way of complicating the most basic of expectations.
Her own face as expressionless as she could make it, Danika remained passive in the grip of the enemy, walking between them because being dragged would accomplish nothing but leave her less able to fight when the time came.
“Sarge! These wet skirts weigh a fucking ton! Can we strip them down?” The shout came from behind, from one of the soldiers charged with keeping Jesine on her feet.
“You can stop bellyaching and put some effort in!” Sergeant Black called from the shore.
“Effort, he says,” muttered the soldier on her right as he half guided, half dragged Danika forward another step. “Didn’t see him crossing at the same pace as the prisoners. My balls have climbed so far up into my body they’re sitting on my shoulder.”
“Shut up, Murphy, you fool!” snapped the soldier on her left. “She can understand you.”
“What’s she going to do, Tagget? Tell the sergeant on me?” Murphy’s grip tightened and he shoved her down until the water that had been up to her chest slapped against her face. “You’re not going to say anything, are you, sweetheart?” he murmured as he pulled her upright again.
Coughing, Danika fought to get her feet back under her, helped by Tagget’s arm around her waist. When she could speak again, she turned her head to the left and nodded as graciously as her position allowed. “Thank you.” Murphy, she ignored.
Then there were hands reaching down from the bank, and she was hauled up and left to lie on dry ground while the others were pulled from the water. For the last few weeks, as her body adjusted to pregnancy, she’d been too hot, but now, in cold, wet clothing, her teeth started to chatter. A warm body rolled up against her back, and Jesine whispered, “I can still control my temperature. Maybe it’ll help.”
It didn’t make her less wet or less cold, but it did help.
“If there’s a breeze,” Danika told her, lips barely moving, “it carries sound both to and from, but I have no control.”
“Seems we’re first level again. Stina should force the rockweed into bloom.”
“What…”
“Allergies.” Jesine’s tone made it clear her teeth were showing. “Might as well make them as uncomfortable as possible until the Pack arrives.”
“Shut up!”
The wet wool of her skirts absorbed most of Murphy’s kick and, as it was Tagget who hauled her to her feet, Danika allowed herself to be hauled, teeth gritted against the growing pain in her shoulders.
“Come on, get up, you great bloody cow!”
The soldiers lifting Stina were handling her a lot less neutrally, grunting and cursing at her weight and grabbing both breasts and buttocks as they maneuvered her upright. When she jerked away, calling them names, it was probably just as well for her safety they didn’t understand. One of them reached inside her open jacket to pinch a nipple, visible through wet shirtwaist and chemise.
“You lay with beasts, don’cha? You should be grateful for a bit of human touching.”
“Enough.” The lieutenant sounded bored. “We haven’t time for that nonsense. Get them moving.” He peered westward, eyes slitted against the late afternoon sun. “This is taking too long. We’re following our own tracks out. We know exactly where we’re going. We should have been able to make it over the border and meet up with the wagons before dark.”
“We won’t be able to manage that, sir.”
“I know that, Sergeant! That’s why I said should.” He sighed, as though he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. “Fine. Then we need to reach the camp before dark.”
“The camp, sir?”
“The place where we camped on the way in, Sergeant. I want to leave as little indication of our passage as possible.”
“Sir, the beastmen track by scent. It doesn’t matter where we make camp for the night.”
“Then we make it where we…” The lieutenant frowned. “…where we made it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Danika bit her lip at the sergeant’s tone, fighting the rise of hysterical giggles.
Lieutenant Geurin turned his frown on her, as if he sensed her reaction. “The beastmen close enough to track us,” he said, his words meant for the sergeant but spoken to her, “are being dealt with by the Imperial army. If there are others, either beast or mage, they’re both too far away. Get them moving, Sergeant Black.”
“Yes, sir. You heard the lieutenant.” His voice was a nearly familiar growl. Danika bit her lip harder. “Keep them on their feet, keep them moving. And Kyne?”
“Sergeant?” The soldier who’d assaulted Stina now had one hand tucked up into her armpit, waiting for the man on the other side to take his place.
“Keep your hands to yourself.”
“Ah, she doesn’t mind, Sarge. Do you?” As he leaned in, Stina reared back and slammed her forehead down onto his nose.
The next thing Danika knew, Stina was on the ground and Kyne had both hands clamped to his face, blood seeping out past his palms, his profanity varied and extensive. Murphy shoved her toward Tagget and charged forward, raising his musket to strike Stina with the butt. Danika stretched out a foot and tripped him. As he hit the ground, she saw Kyne put his boot to Stina’s hip, saw the marksman Hare prevent him from taking a second kick, saw muskets coming up…
“Enough!” Sergeant Black grabbed Kyne’s arm and threw him away from Hare, now standing over Stina. “You deserved that hit for letting her past your guard.”
“She took me by surprise!”
“And I’m sure that’s an excuse the Record Keeper is tired of hearing from the newly dead. Corporal Carlsan, take Kyne’s place. Kyne, you’re behind the redhead.”
“But…”
Danika couldn’t see the sergeant’s expression, but it shut Kyne up.
“Ma’am…”
The lieutenant’s frown deepened at the honorific, but Danika gave the sergeant the attention an Alpha deserved.
“…tell the women not to try anything like that again. We will knock you out and drag you if it comes to it.”
She met his gaze levelly for a moment, then nodded. “Nicely done, Stina,” she said in Aydori. “But the sergeant says that if anyone tries something similar, they’ll be knocked out and dragged. As I doubt it will slow them any more than if we’re stumbling along conscious, and as we can’t do enough damage to free ourselves, and as I’d rather none of us were irreparably damaged, passive resistance only for now.”
“You’ll tell us when we can be a little more active, Alpha?” Stina showed teeth. The Mage-pack inevitably picked up their spouses’ expressions.
Danika returned her smile. “I will.”
Head pounding, shoulders burning, Mirian collapsed to the ground the moment the two soldiers released her. The one named Chard looked a little surprised and bent to touch her cheek.