I had no idea what this massive man's plans for me were at that point, or what he would have done if noises hadn't started to come from upstairs. Lights were coming on and people moving about, woken by my screaming.

Before I could even wonder about what might happen next, I found myself being lifted bodily up into the air. I squealed involuntarily as the man I had run into on the stairs threw me over his shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes, only lighter. He handled me as if I weighed nothing at all.

"Come on!" hissed one of the men at the bottom of the stairs, and they all ran for the exit, moving with astonishing speed and silence given their size and the fact that one of them was carrying a struggling woman with him.

As we exited the building, I caught a glimpse of lights going on elsewhere in the temple precinct - because when I scream, I seriously scream and no one is sleeping through it. I now regretted it. It had been instinct but what good was it likely to do? There were no warriors here. The Caretakers might have been a bit scary to me and the other girls, but I didn't think that was likely to cut much ice with these men. The bottom line was that if anyone did come to my aid then they would be easily killed and I would be no better off. All my screaming had done was put everyone in danger and, much as I disliked the majority of those who lived in the precinct, I did not wish death on any of them. Maybe Clementine.

I need not have worried. The men were clearly expert at what they did and remaining unseen was a big part of that. They ducked from shadow to shadow, not making a sound as they moved, heads always turning this way and that, on the alert for anyone who might have spotted them. Darting between the buildings with a feral athleticism I might have admired if I hadn't been their unwilling captive.

The one who was carrying me whispered, "I probably don't have to tell you this; but if you say a word, if you make a sound, if you breathe too heavily, you're in for a world of pain."

I wanted to snap back a clever response, but from long experience with the Caretakers, I could hear in a person's voice whether a threat was serious or not, and this man meant every word he said.

At high speed we raced across the assembly ground, where rhythmic dance was taught. For a moment, it occurred to me that I might never see this place again, might never have another rhythmic dance lesson or hear Caretaker May's cracked voice telling me that I had all the grace of a dead frog. Even in the direst of situations, it's usually possible to find some silver lining.

The temple precinct was surrounded by a massive wall that cleaved through the jungle itself. At its southern end it met sheer cliffs, which ought to have been enough to stop any invading force, but the wall still climbed up and across them, taking nothing for granted.

I sometimes wondered if that wall was there to stop others getting in or to stop us getting out. I had tried to cross it more than once - not necessarily planning to escape, but just wanting to see what lay on the other side - but I had always failed. The wall was insurmountable, curving inwards so you could not climb it, topped with sharpened metal spines. There was no crossing the wall. Which had always struck me as odd, because there were also no gates in the wall, no doors, no way through at all. The Caretakers encouraged us to believe that the precinct was all there was - there was no path through the wall because there was nothing beyond it. Not even naive Sadie really believed that.

But how did one get through the wall? I had come to the conclusion that there had to be a secret entrance somewhere and had spent long hours looking for it when no one was watching me.

It turned out that I was right. We reached a part of the wall that seemed no different from any other and the two men who were not carrying me both put their shoulders to it. A section of the stonework turned on its axis, revealing a tunnel beyond, leading through the thick foundations of the perimeter wall. A strange thrill, combining fear and excitement passed through me; I was about to leave the temple precinct. I had dreamed of this moment. Admittedly, in those dreams I was not being kidnapped by large men but I would take it. As we ran through the tunnel, my breath came sharp and fast, I was going to find out what was beyond the wall.

What was beyond the wall was another wall. This one was smaller, stood about twenty feet from the main one and seemed to encircle it completely. Where was the point of that? Why two walls?

Then I saw the reasons standing on the wall. The outer wall was manned. The main one could not have guards on it because then we girls within would get a glimpse of what men looked like, and that would never do. So, the guards were stationed on the small outer wall. They had clearly heard the commotion from within and were now starting to turn around and look back towards the temple precinct.

I observed all this, from my vantage point, slung over the man's back, as we crouched in the shadow of the tunnel, waiting. Three men could not have overpowered all the guards on the wall so these three must have somehow stolen past that outer wall to get access to the inner one, killing or otherwise incapacitating the tunnel guards on their way through. But how was it possible that three people had gotten past without anyone noticing?

The guards on the wall seemed to be debating what to do next. Their duty, the job they had been hired for, was to stop people getting past this outer wall and reaching the inner one. If anyone did get past then those people would be stepping over the corpses of guards who had laid down their lives to protect the temple precinct. But now there were troubling noises coming from behind them.

Technically, it wasn't their job and if someone had gotten in then they were almost certainly going to be in trouble. One thing that had been made very clear to them when they got the job was that they did not, under any circumstances, go into the temple. The temple was sacred and what lay within its precinct was not for the eyes of men. If they did sneak in then surely the volcano god would visit upon them a terrible revenge, which would be nothing compared to the revenge that their commanding officer would visit upon them. No one had foreseen a situation like this one.

As their discussion on how to proceed continued, I noticed one guard on the wall who seemed to stand apart from the rest. As I watched him, he waved his arm urgently in our direction and my three captors made a break for the outer wall. That was how they had gotten in without the alarm being raised; they had taken out a single guard when no one was watching and one of their number had taken his place. It was the only way past the temple's impressive fortifications.

I took a moment to consider just how much work had been put into keeping me and the rest of the Chosen safe. Hundreds of people, vast walls, fierce fortifications, and all of it just to make sure that we died at the right time. How very flattering.

Reaching the outer wall without being spotted, the inside man ushered us through the gate that he 'defended', before joining us in a breakneck run for the jungle. I looked back, for the first time seeing the place in which I had spent my entire life from the outside. It looked small. Well... it looked massive, and yet somehow small at the same time. From the inside it had seemed like the whole world, but from out here it seemed like someone trying to parcel off part of the world. It was an ugly monument to exclusion. The precinct had always felt like a prison to me, now it looked like one as well.

"Good work everyone," I heard one of the men say as we passed the tree line.

A little further in and we came upon four horses tied to trees. They were the best-behaved horses I had ever seen, standing waiting for us like soldiers at attention. They did not skit about or neigh distractedly like normal horses. These horses were as well trained as the men. Whatever I had disturbed tonight, it had been a very serious military operation.

"What are you going to do with me?" They were the first words I had said. I wanted to know where I fit into all this.

"What did I say about talking?" the man carrying me snapped.

"But we're outside the..."

"World. Of. Pain," the man enunciated. He then, clambered up onto one of the horses and dumped me across his lap.

The other men mounted up and we were off, riding through the forest. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed to me that these horses even galloped more quietly than the average untrained animal. But I had other things on my mind right then.

"Excuse me?"

"What did I tell you? What did I say? Can't you understand basic instructions?"

"I'm sorry," I begged, "but I think I'm going to be sick and I didn't want to throw up all over you."

"Don't be sick. You hear me? If you're sick on me then you're in for a..."

"World of pain," I interrupted. "I know. But if you just let me sit up, in front or behind you. I swear, I won't try to escape. Otherwise, I can't be held responsible for what my body does."

Without a word, but with a fair bit of gruff muttering, the man yanked me up from across his lap and plonked me down in front of him, straddling the horse's neck uncomfortably.

"Better? Good. Now keep that mouth shut. And if you try to get away or to hurt me, then you will not be in for a world of pain. You will be beyond pain. You will be in for a world of dead. Do I make myself clear?"

I nodded vigorously, afraid to speak.

"Good. I don't want to kill you. I'm not that kind of guy. But I will if I have to."

I had no doubt that he would.

As we rode on through the night, the exhaustion, physical and mental, began to hit me. I started to lean forward, finally lying along the horse's neck, its mane forming an unexpectedly comfortable pillow beneath me. I closed my eyes. I'm not sure if I actually slept, but I drifted into a half-sleeping state, remaining aware of the thunder to the horse's hooves, and the movement of its body beneath me, but gratefully relieved from the stress of my current situation.

I woke when we finally came to a stop. I started up and looked around. We were in a clearing, and it occurred to me that I had traveled farther in one night than in the rest of my life put together. It ought to have been an exciting thought, but I had little room for anything but fear now and would have given anything to be back in the safety of the temple precinct. Even though I knew that they were planning to sacrifice me in nine days’ time, it was still the only home I had ever known and so I yearned for it.

My captor swung off his horse. "Get down."

I did as I was told, wincing painfully as I did so. Horseback riding was not considered an appropriate pastime for the Chosen and the few times I had been allowed on a horse I had ridden sidesaddle - as good girls should. I was definitely not used to the rigors of normal riding, and was wondering if my Devil's Doorbell would ever ring again.

"Sit. Don't move," said my ever-friendly captor. "You try to escape, you know what happens."

"Gage, would you try to be nicer?"

"She's a Sudder," the man named Gage snapped, before looking back at me. "Sit."

I sat down on the ground and looked around me. For my first venture out into the big wide world, the scenery was very disappointing as it was nothing but forest. A large swathe of forest was captured within the temple precinct and forest looks like forest. The company, however, was very different.

Gage, the man who had carried me and threatened me and given me such explicit instructions was the biggest. A huge, dark-skinned man with a thick, black beard and permanently scowling face. His muscles put to shame those I had seen on the men in the history book. He moved quickly and aggressively, and every other moment he looked back at me, checking to make sure I wasn't trying to run. It struck me, rightly or wrongly, that this was more than the mistrust of an enemy - Gage hated me for some reason.

"Ignore him," said the man who had suggested Gage should be nicer. "He gets cranky when he's up late."

"Shut up, Adrien!"

Though he was still a big man, Adrien was built on less expansive lines than his comrade. There was an almost elegance to the way he moved, light on his feet, purposeful in his manner. As one of the others started a fire in the middle of the clearing, I got a better look at Adrien's face and was surprised by what I saw. I didn't have a word to describe it but... his features pleased me. If he had been a woman, I would have said he was beautiful, but that felt the wrong word. I didn't know what the right one was, but Adrien was it.

"There's no harm in treating her decently," said one of the others, who was taking care of the horses, whispering into their ears.

"You think they'd treat our women decently? This is a war. And stop screwing around with the horses. It's weird."

A war. If it had not been for the overwhelming panic then I would have worked it out sooner, but it was only now that it occurred to me that these men were from the other nation on the far side of the island that I had read about in the book. What had they been called?

"You're Norren?" I asked.

All eyes turned to me.

"Who said you could speak?" That was Gage, of course.

"Who else would we be?" That was the man lighting the fire. He looked up at me now with blue grey eyes in which there was something that I could not read.

"We don't get told much," I replied. "I only learned the word Norren yesterday." It now seemed like a lifetime ago. "And I'm sure the Caretakers would punish me for knowing it."

"You expect us to believe that?" The man at the fire was the oldest of the four - though still couldn't have been more than thirty - he spoke quietly and evenly, but there was a hardness in his voice, as well.

"I don't know. But it's true."

For a long time, the man stared at me, then seemed to come to a decision. "Well, perhaps it is."

"Just because she's a Sudder, doesn't mean she lies all the time," said Adrien.

"Jax," Gage turned to the man lighting the fire, "will you tell this fool that she's our enemy."

"He knows. Killian?"

The man whispering to the horses looked around.

"Scout the perimeter."

Killian was the smallest of the men in build. Though still quite tall, he was rangy and long-limbed, though I suspected he was a lot stronger than he looked. He smiled more than the others, but only to himself, as if enjoying some private joke.

"What are you planning to do with me?" I asked. Since one of my questions had been answered, I felt that a precedent had been established and was slightly less nervous about asking more.

"Adrien, put some food on." It was becoming clear that Jax was the one in charge.

"Was kidnapping me - or someone like me - part of the plan?"

"Gage, we need fresh water."

"What was the plan? I really don't know much about the war. They don't tell us anything."

"All clear, Captain." Killian returned.

"Good." Jax nodded.

"Do we have soldiers like you on our side? I suppose we must - but I've never seen them."

Adrien slung a pot over the fire and I tried a different subject.

"What are we eating? I've only had food from the temple precinct, which, to be honest, is pretty much all the same. Do you guys eat different food to us? Is that what the war's about? What is the war about? You'd think I'd know but they genuinely don't tell us anything. Are you going to allow me to eat?"

They continued to ignore me as Gage returned with water. "She still talking?"

"Yep," acknowledged Jax.

"Well, I'm sorry but I don't know what else to do," I pouted. "I don't know how to find anything out other than by asking. Let me tell you," they all went about their business, completely ignoring me as I spoke, "until yesterday, every day of my life has been the same. And I've hated it for as long as I can remember. Everything I like doing, everything fun, just gets me punished. Do you know what that's like? I'm guessing not, you all look like guys who do what they're told. Well, it sucks. And if I said 'sucks' back home then Caretaker Harvest would slap my face. That's my life. I mean, you probably have troubles, too - you're soldiers so you're facing death and all that. I'm not saying my life is worse than yours but... Well, at least you know what yours is. Until yesterday, I didn't know that I was going to be sacrificed - that that is all my life has been about. They didn't even tell me that."

"In fairness," said Adrien, the first to cave in and speak to me, "you can understand why they might not tell you that."

"Maybe," I acknowledged. "But it's a hell of a thing to learn. Hey, can I ask what a Sudder is?"

This time they all looked at me in blank astonishment.

Jax was the first to speak. "You don't know what a Sudder is?"

"Believe me; you could fill the world with all the stuff I don't know."

"You're a Sudder," said Gage, spitting the word like he didn't want it in his mouth.

"I am?"

"We're Norrens," Adrien explained, "you're Sudders. The Sudders are your people. How can you not even know who you are?"

I sighed. "I'm one of the Chosen. That's all I've ever known. And all you need to know if you're destined to become a sacrifice."

Adrien turned to Jax. "It may not have all gone exactly to plan but it sounds like we got what we came for."

Jax shook his head grimly. "One won't do. They'll have a back-up plan."

"You attacked just to kidnap me?" It was kind of nice to feel special.

But Jax shook his head. "One of what you call 'the Chosen'. Actually, more than one, but you screaming your head off kind of changed our plan."

"What was your plan?"

Jax went back to the fire to stir the pot but Adrien answered. "To disrupt the sacrifice. We - that is to say, Norrens - we have tried many times to attack your citadels to the south, but the might of the Sudder army has always been too much."

"Because the volcano is with you," growled Gage.

"So, we devised a plan - rather than sending an army, we would send a handful of our best men..."

"That would be us," put in Killian, the slight smile still on his face.

"...to kidnap some of the virgins to be sacrificed. So; no sacrifice - no volcano god on your side. Get it?"

"Mostly," I nodded, "but what's a virgin?"

The men all looked at me.