Two of them, dark and silent, emerging from the forest at the far side of the village like shadows given form. The joy died instantly. One of the women screamed.
“HUNTERS.”
They rode straight to the happy reunions and dismounted quickly.
The taller of the two men spoke, anger in his tone. “Those who hide have something to hide.”
A man stepped forward, clutching the lass who had hidden in the woods to his chest. She could not have been more than ten years, her hair tangled, her face buried against him.
“She’s a child,” he said, voice shaking. “She has no gift. Please?—”
The Hunter’s gaze washed over them both, cold and impassive. “If she has nothing to hide, she has nothing to fear.” He reached for the lass.
The mother dropped to her knees, grasping at his cloak. “She’s no healer! She can’t even tend to a wound! Please, she ran out of fright!”
The Hunter did not look down. “All the same. The king will decide.”
The man’s grip tightened around his daughter, her thin arms clinging tightly around his neck. “You’ll not take her!”
The second Hunter moved fast. A strike, sharp, to the back of the head, and the man collapsed, his arms slackening as his daughter was torn from them. The mother’s cry broke the air, raw and unending.
Elara’s breath hitched and Dar pulled her against him.
“Don’t,” he whispered harshly. “You cannot stop them.”
Tears burned in her eyes as she watched the Hunters mount again, the lass crying out for her da as she squirmed in the one Hunter’s arm to break free. The two women were tethered together and forced to keep a quick pace behind the horses as they rode out of the village.
The wife knelt beside her fallen husband, her sobs the only sound left in the still air as she hurried to tend to his wound.
Elara turned away, pressing a trembling hand to her lips. “Hunters are heartless creatures.”
Dar’s jaw tightened. “They do what they are ordered to do. It is the king who is heartless in his demand, and he will not stop until this healer is found.”
“Then perhaps it is time she is found, for if she is such an exceptional healer, she would not want anyone to suffer because of her.”
His brow shot up. “You think to find what others can’t?”
“I think this horror must stop and she is the only one who can stop it.”
Dar shook his head. “We can talk of this later. We need to move.” He scanned the edge of the woods. “They’ll search the forest next.”
“I can’t leave. Not yet,” she said shocked he even suggested it.
He turned a stern glare on her. “You can, and you will. The Hunters won’t stop for nightfall.”
“I need to speak to the villagers,” she said, her eyes darting to the village. “Learn what was said and who was taken.”
“What does any of that matter?”
Her chin lifted, defiant. “The Hunters’ words might provide information. And as for who was taken? They must be named so they can be found and returned home.”
He stared at her for a moment, the muscle in his jaw tightening. “You think the king will allow them to return home?” He shook his head. “He will put them to use at Caerith or in the village. They are lost to their families.”
“Nay, I don’t believe that,” she said with an unshaken resolve. “There must be a way to bring them home.”
Silence fell between them. He could see the stubbornness in her eyes. Foolish yet at the same time brave. A combination that could prove dangerous.
“You’ll get yourself caught thinking such nonsense,” he cautioned.