Page 52 of The King has Fallen
One thing I could be confident of with Gall, if there had been a threat, if he’d taken her away, he would be found or he would bring her back.
But what if she’d tricked him?
My heart hammered as my mind spun with the consequences if Gall was the one to lose her—consequences to me and to him. But I couldn’t focus on the problems that had not yet arisen. I had to give all my attention to solving what I knew: Both were missing, and this left us all in great peril.
I was only minutes from the tent, slipping deeper into the forest, when the deep roar of a male crowd rose. My first instinct was to dismiss it—but as the voices rose higher, a feminine shriek cut through and I froze. Turning my head towards the camp I realized that the roaring wasn’t coming from behind me, but from my left.
Deeper into the forest.
Cursing, I began to run.
18. A Cry in the Dark
~ MELEK ~
A minute later I was creeping up on a clearing in the forest, grateful I’d had the foresight to wear dark clothing and bring my weapons.
Ahead, through a gap in the trees, I could see a crowd of young Neph, milling, talking, cheering, laughing. If I’d happened on them, I would have thought they’d come out here to drink. I drew close enough to see but kept myself out of sight in case I’d been wrong about what I heard, there was another ripple of laughter.
“Gall’s gonna become a man!”
“Hey! You’ll get to show her yourwarrior’s length,Gall!”
My heart sank as a cluster of the males leaped aside, laughing and tussling with each other.
What were they doing with him?
The worst occurred to me, but Gall wouldn’t. I knew he wouldn’t. He still had the mind of a child.
And yet… if they showed him the way?
Where the fuck was the Fetch?!
Still staying back and undetected, I tried to slip further around the group, seething that I could be even this close to so many so-called soldiers in the dead of night, and not one of them was watching their surroundings, or aware of my presence.
Their backs remained to me. No one even checked over their shoulders.
Idiots.
There were shouts, cajoling laughter and rising taunts. But the Neph were so large I couldn’t see beyond them to be certain of what I suspected.
I was forced to slip back into the forest and leap up to grasp the bough of the largest nearby pine, pulling myself up onto its broad branch so I could see beyond them.
And what I saw made my blood run cold.
A hundred feet away, Gall stood facing the crowd, my spear in both hands and leveled, his head snapping left and right, his lips peeled back from his teeth—like a cat cornered by a pack of dogs.
And beyond him, a small, lithe shadow crouched, one hand on his back, her eyes wide and expression grim.
Yilan. Looking like a prey-animal under the eyes of wolves.
I gritted my teeth as Gall’s attention was taken by one of the leaders, calling to him,daringhim to drop the spear—and meanwhile, one of the others slipped out of the crowd from Gall’s right and darted forward.
There was a hissed,“Gall! Watch out!”and he whipped around, bringing the spear around with handy speed and someskill despite the fact that the weapon was longer and heavier than he was accustomed to using.
I would have been proud as he stabbed it towards the interloper, but one of the young leaders stepped forward putting his hands out to stop the others.
“Calm down, calm down, Gall. I told you; you’ve got nothing to be worried about. We’refriends,right? Remember?”
