Chapter Five

Savich found the source of the noises. He saw something scrambling on the ground outside a cabin. Suspicious, he ran a circuit around the small building. He used his nose to detect aromas, but the scent of wood smoke was strong. There were no telltale signs of the Resistance. Kumar had given him several things to look for. This appeared to be someone’s homestead, though not very well kept. He returned to his original spot and crouched.

Savich tried to reconcile what he was seeing with what he knew about humans. Mia, Kumar’s charl, was a delicate lovely flower with curly dark hair and fair skin. She comported herself with grace, and her shy laugh brought out a gleam in Kumar’s eyes that amused Savich. The creature sprawled on the ground before him lay under the light of the stars and stared up at him. It barely blinked, but he smelled the tang of sex, sweat and tears. Glimpses of pale skin showed here and there, but it appeared to be wearing dark leggings and a long-sleeved shirt. And then he took another step closer, and saw that it wasn’t leggings and a shirt, but rather layers of dirt and blood. The scent of its blood filled his nose and he took a single deep breath, filling his lungs with the fragrance. He looked closer. There were two small breasts, a rib cage. She was a female, and she was naked, filthy and bleeding.

He shot a glance to the cabin. Light filtered through rags on the windows, and the sound of rumbling male voices drifted out to him. He couldn’t make out the words, so intent he was on the girl lying on the ground. He saw that her ankle was shackled. Waking himself out of the shock, he ripped the stake out of the ground in one swift motion, then picked up the girl in his arms, grasping the chain, shackle and stake in one hand and turned around and walked back into the forest. He didn’t know when her captors would come back outside, so he broke into run. He would run as far and as fast as he could.

Taking care not to jostle the girl, he held her close to his chest, thankful for the clothing Kumar had insisted he wear on his mission. He was used to his furs and leathers but thought the soft fabric might be soothing to the girl. He would give her his shirt once he felt they were safely away from the men. He ran for miles, avoiding the underbrush and forest floor obstacles with ease. He ignored the coppery tang that tickled his nose and the end of his tongue.

Dozens of miles away from the cabin where he’d found her and one day later, Savich chose a thick wooded glen that abutted a rock outcropping. All this time, the girl had made not a sound. If it weren’t for the thready pulse he felt when he touched her neck, he would have thought her dead. Humans were so frail. He had stopped every few hours to give her water, but his priority had been to hike as far away from the cabin as possible.

He suspected the outcropping hid a cave entrance, and after gently laying the girl on a mossy knoll, he poked around the rocks until he found what he was looking for. The temperature was continually dropping. He smelled rain in the air, but this high up, it could snow. He entered the cave and quickly cleared out dead leaves and some small creature’s dried up scat. Satisfied it would do, he returned to the girl. She hadn’t moved. Carefully lifting her again, he took her into the cave, and inspected the shackle. It was black, most likely iron. A slow burn of anger started in his gut, and he used it to fuel a spike of adrenaline. He snapped the cuff in half and startled to hear a hiss from the girl.

He looked at her, but the filth on her face obscured any expression in the darkness of the cave. He threw the shackle and chain out of the cave with a small growl.

Savich sat on his haunches and looked at the girl he had laid on the smooth cave floor. They regarded each other.

“What am I to do with you?” he asked softly. She gasped and tried to roll further away from him. His heart cracked in two. He held his hands up, palms toward her. Showing he had no weapons. Had he spoken too loudly? What language had he used? Shit. He may have spoken in Krinar. Of course, that would frighten her.

He decided he needed fire. He doubted the men who had held her captive would be able to find them, and she had begun shivering. Either from cold, fear or shock, it didn’t matter. She needed heat. He pushed his hands forward, indicating she should stay, though he guessed her wounds would prevent her from getting far, should she decide to run.

He made quick work of gathering extra dry kindling and fallen branches and logs, so they would burn without much smoke, ignoring the fact that Kumar had sent him into the wilderness with plenty of modern niceties he could have used, including the small devices he could use to build shelter with nanotechnology. He’d lived for centuries without them, why would he start now?

Because she deserves comfort.

He shook off the thought. It would probably scare her if he started throwing up walls and furniture and running water. Maybe later. He knew absolutely nothing about this girl, why she was held captive, where she was from, how long she’d been at the cabin. Did she know about the Krinar or had she been isolated her entire life? These questions rattled around in his head as he started a fire at the lip of the cave and blew it gently into a strong flame. He looked over to see the girl staring. She shivered and Savich cursed himself for a klapkovic, a fool. He took off his tunic in a swift movement and saw too late that the girl began shivering violently.

His eyes rounded, and his lungs shuttered. She thought he would rape her? Bile bubbled up in his throat. He used the same motion as before, pushing his palms toward her, to stay, to calm, to see he meant her no harm. Then he slowly approached and placed the tunic on the floor in front of her. He then turned his back on her, building up the fire. Once satisfied it would burn a while, he left the cave, keeping his back to the fire, the cave, and the girl.

He looked out into the wilderness, listening intently for any signs of danger. The only thing he heard was a high wind whispering through the tops of the lodgepole pines. He did a circuit of the area, spying the best ways to attack if he were tracking around here. It was a good spot. Relatively high up, a cliff on one side, a thick stand of trees on the other. There was only one good place to approach the cave, and he had a good view of it. His curiosity burned hotter than the fire now blazing in the entrance to the cave, but he did not turn. He would stand guard the night through, and when the sun came up, he would scout a mile out to make sure they hadn’t been followed.

Then he would find out who this girl was and return her to where she had come from.