"Close the door," he said as he looked between the pair of us. "Stay here, stay quiet, and do not come out until we call you."
"Okay," I promised, shifting Tamin so he was behind me.
Then Kanik turned. I slid the door closed, but there wasn't a lot of space. Barely enough for the pair of us to stand. The popping sounds were still going off all around us. The sound of the men in the weapon closet was loud - until it wasn't. Then I heard the backdoor open and shut hard. A moment later, a man screamed.
"It's the Moles," Tamin whispered.
"Shh..." I breathed, because Kanik had said to be quiet.
But that only worked so well on a scared six-year-old. Tamin sniffed. A moment later, he whimpered. When I turned to check on him, the boy was not only crying but also shaking with fear.
"We'll be safe here," I whispered. "It's okay, Tamin."
"What if Zasen doesn't come back?" Tamin asked. "What if - "
But the sound of a door opening made both of us freeze. Heavy footsteps followed. These weren't like the Dragons. I didn't hear nails lightly tapping on the wooden floors. No, this person was wearing boots.
As quietly as I could, I pulled Tamin even further behind me and set the bow. The safety was off. I put a bolt in the channel and held it before me, ready but too scared to get my finger near that trigger. What if this was a Dragon? What if it was Saveah coming to look for her son? She'd worn boots, but would they sound this loud?
A door opened. Then another. "Clear," someone said softly. The words were in English.
And then the door to the linen closet we were hiding in slid to the side. Tamin yelped. Before me was nothing but black, but I knew it much too well. Even lit from behind, I recognized this man!
"Ozias!" I gasped, my eyes landing on the gun he was pointing right at my chest.
The barrel dropped slightly. "Ayla?" he asked - just as Tamin moved.
I felt the child lean to peek around me. Ozias immediately lifted his gun, aiming it right at the kid. I lifted my bow with one hand, pointing at his chest. The other pushed the gun away on instinct.
"He's just a child!" I hissed, using English because it was the language this man would know.
"He's a lizard!" Ozias snapped, jerking the gun from my grip so he could aim again.
I could see it on his face. I knew what was going to happen. Fear made my ears ring as I saw the barrel of that gun slowly getting closer to where Tamin stood and I knew there was only one way to stop this.
My finger slammed down on the trigger. The weak little arrow shot from the end, ripping through the leather armor the hunter wore and deep into his chest. The gun tipped upwards, pointing to the sky and the man before me gasped. He staggered back. Then he collapsed.
"Ozias?" someone yelled.
Grabbing Tamin's hand, I pulled. "We can't stay here!" I whispered.
Tugging him behind me, I rushed up the hall, looking both ways and trying to figure out where the voice had come from. At the same time, I needed to reload the bow. I didn't have enough hands!
"Stay with me," I ordered, letting him go so I could reload the only weapon we had.
He did. Tamin grabbed the back of my dress as we rushed past the weapons closet and towards the kitchen. The men had gone out the back door. That meant it would be the safest place for us to go too. If the hunters were coming inside then -
"Ayla?"
I spun, yanking the string back hard enough to make it snap into place. "What?" I whimpered in Vestrian, putting my body between the sound and the child.
"Ayla Ross." A man chuckled as he moved closer. "Found a little pet, hm?"
My fingers were shaking as I pushed the tiny arrow they called a bolt into the channel. "What?" I asked again, but this time in English.
"The lizard," he said as he stormed into the kitchen. "Trying to buy your way back into the compound or something? Gonna take a lot more than that little bit of meat." Then he lifted his gun.
"He's a child!" I screamed, raising the bow with every intention of firing it.
"Ayla!" Tamin yelped.
But the hunter simply swung, slamming his fist into the side of my head hard enough to knock me off my feet. I crashed down to the ground, refusing to let go of the weapon, but it was too late. The hunter had his gun up.
I heard the pop as it went off. Tamin screamed in pain before crashing sideways into the kitchen cabinets. The hunter rushed forward another step, and I didn't stop to think. I didn't have the chance to aim. Jerking my arm up, I simply pulled the trigger and felt the bow jerk with the force of the release.
The man was almost directly over me. The bolt slammed into his throat and upwards, through the underside of his mouth and kept going into his head until only the brown feathers were left visible by his Adam's apple. Immediately, his body began to collapse onto itself.
I didn't stop to look because Tamin was still crying. Rolling that way, I scrambled to my feet, relieved to see blood only on the child's leg. Tamin was still standing. He was still alive!
But I couldn't handle a child and a weapon. Dropping the crossbow, I scooped the boy into my arms and raced for the back door. Behind me, the hunter was still making sounds. Sick and disgusting ones that made me not want to check on him.
"Please be okay, Tamin," I begged, hugging him against my chest as I pulled the door open and rushed into the coming darkness of dusk.
"I'm okay," he whimpered. "I'm okay."
Which meant I had to make sure he stayed that way - but we were running out of places to hide.
Forty-OneAyla
