Ander - Part 5: Subchapter 46
46
"Hyk-"
Nilia tightened her grip around Ivio's throat, pulling back on her wrist so that her bicep cut off his windpipe completely. "Go to sleep, Ivio."
"Eeergeghegheeeg!" He writhed beneath the weight of her body and clawed at her arm, scratching for his life. Frothy drool pooled in the crook of her elbow, but she did not relent until his movements stopped and his arms fell limply by his sides.
She got up, wiped the spit from her arm, and flipped him over onto his back. There was white foam around the corners of his mouth, quickly freezing into a hard crust, but he was still breathing.
Sorrin walked up to her, carrying Hyker over his shoulder like the catch of the day. "That looked brutal," he said and dumped the sexist one-eared bastard beside his partner in crime, blood still oozing from the gash in his head.
"You're one to talk," she said with a small smile.
Sorrin shrugged. "Meh."
"Did you bring enough rope?"
Sorrin unhooked the loops from around his shoulder and dropped the whole thing onto the snow in messy coils. "I think so. It's all I could find on such short notice."
"It'll have to do. Help me with these two."
Together they were able to bind the would-be assassins'' hands and feet and prop them up against the training dummies, well out of sight from the main living area of the village. Lastly, they stuffed their mouths with rags and tied their muzzles for good measure.
"I'm not used to this kind of thing," Sorrin said, pulling the last knot tight. "How long do we have until they wake up?"
"It's hard to tell. If we're lucky, they'll stay out of it all night. If not, well... they might be working to free themselves within the hour."
Sorrin grunted. "No matter when they wake up, they'll be coming for us."
"I know."
"It would be safer if we just kill them now. Danado and Hezzi are hurt bad, and Renna's just an innocent little girl. And Mellah... if anything happened to her... I don't know what I'd do. If we kill these two right now, that's two less hunters we have to worry about tonight."
Nilia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I know."
"But that's not what we're going to do, is it?"
She shook her head. "No... No, it isn't."
She felt his big, brawny hand gently touch her shoulder. "Why?"
A flash of memory, of orange light glancing off the blood-splattered tip of Garten's knife, flowing crimson over Ander's shaking fingers, mixing with his own. He raised his head and screamed to the heavens, and that was when she realized that what he had been forced to do was far worse than any torture or punishment even the most sadistic Wolves could have thought up - the pain of ending a life.
She could still feel his arm against her neck, tacky with blood, his heartbeat against her back. Even more clearly, she could still see the iron tip of Wardo's spear, coming to end her life just like Garten's, but she knew that her killer would not feel any pain or remorse, only pride. She could still remember what it had felt like, the certainty of death rushing to meet her, and then the sudden jerk of her body being pushed away. She remembered looking up, and there was so much agony in those eyes, those sad, sad eyes, looking down at her as she lay useless on the ground. But there was also relief. Relief that she was still alive.
"Nilia?"
She opened her eyes, confident in her answer. "I want to be able to look Ander in the eye the next time I see him. I want to be able to thank him for saving my life, and I want to repay his kindness by bringing his little brother back to him, safe and sound. I can't do any of those things if I'm part of what he tried so hard to escape from."
Sorrin smiled. "You don't speak very often, Nilia, but when you do, you say exactly what's needed."
Nilia didn't know about that, but she did know that time was running out, and that they still had a lot of work to do. She took the remaining length of rope, tied a loop at the end, and clamped the loop between her teeth.
She faced the row of archery targets against the wall and gauged the distance, visualizing her movements beforehand, and looped the remaining length of rope around her neck so she wouldn't trip.
She took a few steps backward, then sprinted for the wall flat-out, kicking up a clump of snow with every stride.
She leapt through the air, landed on top of the archery target, and kicked off, gaining even more height. Using her upward momentum to its fullest extent, she practically ran all the way up the wall and grabbed the top just as she started to feel herself slow down.
Hanging on with one hand, she took the loop from her teeth and put it around one of the spikes, letting the rest drop down to where Sorrin was standing in the snow, looking up at her with his mouth slightly open.
"Damn, woman..." he said.
"Thank you." She pulled herself up and straddled the gap between two of the wall's teeth, waiting for Sorrin to stop gawking and get climbing.
She looked up at the sky, at the shifting moon and the stars overhead.
It was almost -
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