Flight of the Princeling Ch. 02

"Tie her hands," said Yellow Hand. "If she's truly one of the Riva's courtesans, and I believe her, she'll be of value back in Kalassas."

Inthira started, trying to scramble away to her feet, but the nearest elf caught her by the waist, sweeping her into the air. Two of the other scouts grabbed her thrashing legs and arms.

Avir began to clamber to his feet, but Naru caught him and pulled him down to the sand, so hard some got in his mouth.

"Come," she said softly, touching his shoulder, guiding him back down the dune, away from the fire.

"What about Inthira?" he hissed.

"She's captured. She made a choice to help you escape, my prince. We can help her by giving her a distraction," whispered Naru. She pointed down the dunes to the river nearby.

"Their mounts. We free the elk and drive them away, they'll be forced to chase. Fewer left at camp to guard their prisoner, and time for us to free Inthira, then get ahead of them on the road."

Avir nodded, and Naru slid back down the dune, scampering in a crouch towards the river, not waiting to confirm that Avir was following after her.

The sands of the desert gave way to a hard wet sand of the river's edge, and the ground at the bank had been worn sharply away by the annual flooding, so that they dropped at least a man's height to get down to the water's edge, cloaked further by the few hearty grasses that grew in strands as sharp and broad as a razor blade at the edge.

A small group of elk were tied in a long line at the water's edge, staked as best they could be to two large rocks.

"You take that side," said Naru. "I'll go to the far end. If we can drive them across the river, fine, otherwise, send them back up the banks towards Kalassas."

Avir nodded, wading out into the water to one end of the picket. He found a brutal knot holding it around the rock. Trying to pry it loose with his fingernails yielded nothing, so instead he found a rock with a jagged edge and began to saw it apart.

He was so focused on his work that he never heard the Abraykar sentry, who must have been assigned to care for the elk, creep up behind him until the man was shoving him forward.

Avir lost his rock, the thing plunking into the water in front of him, and he grunted in surprise as the elf tried to drive him into the face of the rock the elk were tied to. He spun, twisting out of the Abraykar's grasp, coming face to face with him, staring into a grimacing dark face with a red handprint in facepaint on it.

He lashed out with a leg, kicking the Abraykar's stance out from under him, and they stumbled to their knees in the waist-deep water. The Abraykar made a grab for Avir's throat, but Avir struck him hard across the face.

The elf reeled into the water, but Avir had barely enough time to prepare himself for another blow before his opponent came bursting out, barrelling into his chest, so that Avir's punch landed in the square of his back as they both went toppling under the water.

Avir's world went dark in the muddy water. He breathed in without thinking as the elf tried to punch him in the stomach, the blows weakened by the effort to pass them through the water. Avir kicked him away, bursting, spluttering to the surface, gasping for air, coughing out the river.

The elf's pointy ears and long hair pushed up as he tried to surface, and Avir dove on him, shoving his head back down, quickly putting the Abraykar into a headlock to hold him beneath the surface.

Like a whale breaching, the elf's back and legs rose up, trying to kick himself free, thrashing about, but Avir held him until the kicks weakened and slowed, and steeled himself to hold him a breath further.

"Avir!"

Naru grabbed him, pulling him to his feet, the sentry slipping out of his chokehold as she did. Avir grabbed him by the front of his tunic.

"What are you doing?" he demanded of her.

"What are you doing, you fool?" she cursed him, pulling the sentry, the elf disoriented and barely conscious, from his grasp. "Don't you hear his friends coming?"

Avir glanced up. Lights made the long grasses on the banks of the river seem to glow as they danced in the wind, and he could hear shouts. Someone yelled to go after "the girl" while another shouted to "get the ones in the river."

"You sounded like two water buffalo fighting!" Naru hissed at him. "Jaan Umir could hear you in Kalassas!"

"We should get back to the camp!" said Avir.

"No," said Naru. "There's no help for it. They're between us and there now. We cannot go back."

"Then where?" asked Avir.

She pointed at the river.

"We swim."

"Are you mad?"

A light crested the edge of the river, and Avir could see elves with bows.

"Swim or die, my prince!" said Naru. She threw the incapacitated sentry into the water, then grabbed Avir by his sleeve and pulled him in after, running deeper and deeper until she could simply lean forward and launch herself into the middle of the river.

Avir hesitated, thinking of Inthira in the hands of the elves. His favorite courtesan left to the terrors of the Abraykar. An unworthy fate for a woman who'd served him well.

As he did, an arrow whizzed past his head.

Avir plunged into the water.