Page 28 of Feast

Thusar let go a hissing breath of tension and moved forward with the knife. He brought the edge against the tight straps that held the mask in place, taking great care not to nick Ika’s skin.

With a bit of sawing, the strap broke and the mask fell away.

Ika’s mouth was free again.

She had a decision to make. She could trust these ukkur and attempt to talk and reason with them. Perhaps if she just told them where she had come from, they would return her to Rolf.

But hadn’t Rolf warned her that these ukkur were cruel? And their treatment so far seemed to confirm that. What’s more, Rolf had said they would eat her alive. She had doubted him before, but after experiencing these brutes up close, she could believe it.

If she were going to resist these ukkur, she would only have one chance to do so.

In the space between two heartbeats, Ika made up her mind.

She drew a deep breath and let out the loudest, shrillest scream she could manage.

It was a huge risk. She did not know exactly where they were. She could only hope that it was somewhere in the proximity of Rolf’s den. If her protector heard that scream, he would instantly recognize Ika’s voice. She didn’t use any words. To do so would be to give away her gambit. Even more important, she didn’t use Rolf’s name. That might lead to retaliation against her beloved protector, and Ika didn’t want that.

So she just screamed. One clear, shrill note.

The sound was quickly cut short by Gunnar’s hand clapping over her mouth.

“Hush, rot you.”

Without thinking, Ika bit down hard on the meat of the palm covering her mouth. Gunnar bellowed in pain and let her go.

In the moment of confusion, Ika twisted her arm free from Slaine’s grasp and bolted for the cave entrance.

“Hold it!”

Muk was standing there, legs wide, arms outstretched, ready to catch her if she went left or right.

So Ika went down instead.

Dropping briefly to all fours, she scrambled between the huge ukkur’s outspread legs and through the cave entrance into the forest beyond.

The cold air of the outer world hit her like a wall, but she didn’t slow down.

Ika ran and screamed at the top of her lungs.

But her escape was short-lived.

She heard grunting behind, felt hot breath at her neck, and then she was shoved to the ground face first into the snow, which melted at the touch of her hot, naked skin. Whichever one of them had caught her, he pinned her down like a wall of flesh.

More grunts at her ear. No words.

It was Slaine.

And his stick was still hard as stone down below. Ika could feel it, stiff and hot, pressing against her backside.

She screamed again, and Slaine clamped his hand over her mouth.

She bit, but it was like biting a chunk of wood.

Slaine didn’t pull back. Didn’t even flinch. Only the slightest hiss of pain told that he felt her teeth at all.

Ika went on screaming, but her cries were muffled now.

“Good job again, Slaine,” came Thusar’s voice from above and behind. “Get that thing up and get it back inside.”