“This contest will be fought with—”

“It will be fought with care,” the knight said harshly. “No harm comes to his highness. For I am still sworn to his protection. And I swear to you, pagan, that if you go too far, I will be at your throat with my own sword. Do you understand me?”

Anger suffused Dain. He stared at Sir Damiend through a haze. “You want me to lose, just to satisfy the prince’s ego. What dishonorable request is this?” “Call it what you like,” Sir Damiend replied. “I have given you fair warning. Go too far, and I will finish you.”

Sun blazed down on Alexeika’s head and shoulders. Barefoot, with her ankles hobbled, she stumbled over a canyon’s rock-strewn bottom in Vika’s wake.  Alexeika’s hands were bound in front of her. Whenever she stumbled or slowed down too much, Vika yanked the noose around her throat to keep her going.  Coughing and half-choking, Alexeika quickened her pace, forcing herself to ignore the rocks that cut and bruised her feet. She was still alive, she reminded herself. Still alive, although she knew not for how long.  At dawn, when Vika had captured her, Alexeika expected the Grethori maid to slit her throat then and there. “If you kill me,” she said in desperation, “Holoc will hunt you down and slay you.”

Vika moaned deep and low. Her well-honed knife blade pressed against Alexeika’s throat. “Holoc loves me. We are promised to each other.” “The sheda’s spell has ruined that. I don’t want your man. I—I have chosen another in my heart. Let me go, and Holoc will be yours again.” Vika had growled curses in her native tongue and began to pummel Alexeika. Her blows were harsh and painful. Alexeika twisted in her hold, evading the knife, and elbowed Vika back away from her. They fought ferociously in the semidarkness, rolling over and over on the ground for possession of the knife.  Shouts from the top of the ravine stopped them both.  Vika made a little sobbing sound, and Alexeika wanted to scream. She would not let herself be captured again. Better if she died on Vika’s knife than that.  Together, they lay amidst the bones and offal thrown into the bottom of the ravine and listened to the shouts and angry voices of Alexeika’s pursuers.  She closed her eyes to hold back her tears. Fear clawed at her throat, but she mastered it quickly. She had to think. This was her only chance to get away; she must not lose it.

Squirming, she tried to break free, but Vika clamped a hand on the back of Alexeika’s skull and mashed her face into the ground to hold her.  “Let me go!” Alexeika whispered. “If they capture me, I will be given to him. Is that what you want?”

Before Vika could answer, Holoc’s voice rose above the others.  “Find her!” he said savagely. “She is mine. Mine! I will slay any man who does not bring her to me.”

“Vika is also missing,” another said. “They have run away together.”

Holoc swore terrible curses. His voice had a frantic, out-of-control quality.  The spell is still on him, Alexeika thought with a shiver. She listened to the men crashing through the brush as they climbed down the precipitous ravine.  “If Vika has stolen my woman-man demon,” Holoc said, “I will cut out her bowels and wear them for a necklace. I will drink her blood and pound her bones into meal for my bread. This I swear.”

Vika’s grip on Alexeika’s head loosened. Feeling hope that now they could be allies, Alexeika pushed her way upright. Vika snarled something soft and vicious and scrambled to her feet.

“This way,” Alexeika breathed, aware that the men would soon be close enough to hear them. She ran across the uneven ground, and Vika followed her.  Together they followed the bottom of the ravine until it grew shallow and petered out. Then it was Vika’s turn to take the lead, as she guided them through the brush and trees that grew thickly on the mountain slopes. By the time the sun came up, its pink rays slanting across the slopes, they had a good head start.

Eventually, they flopped down to rest. Panting, Alexeika grinned at her new ally. “We’ve doubled back and forth across our trail enough times to confuse them well.”

Vika grunted. In the sunrise, her skin looked drawn too tight across the prominent bones of her thin face. Her eyes were dark with hatred. She bared her filed teeth in what was not a smile. “They will come,” she said, almost grunting her words. “They will come forever. Holoc will not give up.” Alexeika rose to her feet.“Then let us keep going.” She had lost everyone and everything she cared about, but she had her life and her freedom. She would begin anew. “If we can make good time all day, by nightfall we should be close to—” The blow caught her in the back of her head. The world spun around her, faded, and went dark.

Minutes later, she woke up and found herself lying on the ground, her hands bound to a stake driven into the ground. Vika was crouched next to her, busy plaiting another rope from vines she had cut down from a nearby thicket. She knotted the end, twisted it about Alexeika’s ankles, then made a longer rope that she fitted about Alexeika’s throat.

“Why do you do this?” Alexeika demanded furiously. Her head was throbbing, and she fought against being sick. “We can help each other.” “You have ruined my life,” Vika told her, sending her a look of loathing. “Now you will bring me a new one.”

Alexeika didn’t understand what she meant, but she feared that Vika meant to sacrifice her in some strange Grethori ritual. “I am not your enemy, Vika.” Vika growled something and pulled her onto her feet. “Walk,” she said harshly.  “You are my prisoner. I will get good price for you. When we find another tribe, I will use you to buy my way into it.”

Alexeika’s spirits sank. If they found another tribe, Vika might secure a new place for herself, but Alexeika would be no better off. She started to plead with Vika, but compressed her mouth instead. Volvns did not beg. If there was a way to escape from Vika, she would find it.

Vika gave her a shove. “Walk.”

By nightfall, they reached the foot of the mountain. Weary and footsore, Alexeika sank down to rest. Vika prowled back and forth nervously, as though she still feared pursuit. Eventually they slept, but sometime in the dead of night, Vika sprang up with a choked cry.

Startled awake and certain they’d been discovered, Alexeika scrambled to her feet. But she heard nothing out there in the darkness, save the quiet song of insects and the cold wind’s sigh.