No, his expression told her. You can’t do anything now, remember?
Jahrra bit her lip and nodded, letting his magic soothe her, before turning her eyes back onto the horrible scene unfolding below them.
“Have you seen any such travelers?” the one in black demanded.
When the limbit remained silent, his eyes fixed on the ground, the interrogator motioned toward the man in the red cloak. Without a sound, he lifted his hands and began a low, nearly inaudible chant. The limbit twitched twice, then opened his mouth in a silent scream as his hands shot to his head. Shortly after, the scream became all too real as he writhed on the ground, kicking at the mud and clawing at his ears.
“Enough,” the squadron’s leader barked after several seconds passed.
The cloaked man lowered his hands and became still once more.
“Now, speak!”
The limbit slowly crawled back to his knees, his shoulders heaving once again as he waited for the pain to pass. He took several deep breaths, then lifted his head. Jahrra couldn’t tell for certain, but it seemed like the limbit glanced quickly in their direction before turning his eyes onto his tormentor.
“Aye,” he coughed, his voice harsh and weary, “I saw the girl and the dragon.”
Jahrra froze, her skin prickling with sudden, inescapable fear. He was going to turn them over. But of course he was. Who were they to him? Some passing travelers who had caused him far more trouble than any person deserved.
Nevertheless, Jahrra felt betrayed. If only she could have gotten the chance to speak with him while they were still at the lake, but she couldn’t see how that might have happened. He had been clear across the wide stretch of water, and Jaax had shown up before she could so much as wave at him. Besides, who could have guessed any of them would end up in their current situation?
Instead, Jahrra considered their odds since it looked like this encounter would end with a fight. We have a dragon, she told herself, but there are sixteen of them, plus their blood-thirsty quahna, and a powerful dark mage.
Could they possibly come out of such a fight victorious?
The squadron leader relaxed in the saddle, drawing Jahrra’s attention back onto the crossroads.
“And where did you see them?” he asked.
Jahrra waited for the limbit to point in their direction and announce that the Tanaan dragon was currently hiding the others with his color-changing scales. Instead, the creature took a deep breath and pointed his face to the sky.
“Well?!” the man demanded.
“I’m trying to remember,” the limbit answered in a quailing voice. “It’s been at least a week since I’ve seen them.”
Jahrra actually gasped, earning another squeeze from Ellyesce.
“A week?” the squadron leader grumbled.
The limbit nodded. “Down by the lake. I was up there with my geese, letting them graze and paddle around in the water. They like it better than the muddy pond near my village.”
The limbit sucked in a quick breath and sniffled. Probably remembering what the soldier had said about his family and neighbors.
“Well, while I was lying there in the grass, something huge soared overhead. I jumped up, thinking it might have been a spurred owl.”
The squadron leader growled and allowed his quahna to snap at the limbit. Crying out in fear, the creature leapt back, almost losing an ear to the dark beast.
“Get on with it! I don’t need every last detail!”
Clearly, the entire squadron was growing anxious. Their own mounts were starting to snap at each other and paw at the earth.
“It was a dragon! The great shadow was a dragon. A green one. It landed on the opposite shore and then a girl, a Nesnan I think, or maybe an elf, with yellow hair, ran up to greet it. They exchanged words and then made for the trail heading north. I followed them, because I was curious, and when they came to this very crossroads, they took the trail going east. I swear it!”
“How long did you follow them?” another soldier asked.
The limbit turned to look at his new questioner.
“Not very far. I had to get back to my geese. I should have kept following them,” he grumbled. “The geese were long gone when I got back, and my mum and sisters didn’t take too well to learning I’d lost another flock. That was my last chance, you see. I haven’t been back to my village since. They ostracized me. No longer welcome.”
“Oh, shut up!” a third soldier, this one with a patch over his eye, growled, kicking his leg out at the limbit and clipping him on the shoulder.
The limbit screeched again and fell to the ground.
“Mage! Does this creature speak truth?”
The red-cloaked man nudged his mount forward, lifting one hand and muttering once again. The limbit whimpered and curled into a ball, his great red tail wrapping around him.
Jahrra heard Ellyesce murmur something under his breath behind her and a wave of slight nausea hit her. He was using his magic. He was using his magic to help the limbit.
After several more seconds, the dark mage let his hand fall back to his side. “I detect no deceit,” he growled.
“Then we take the eastern road, men!” the squadron leader shouted. “They have a week’s head start on us, but they cannot move as quickly as we can. Move out!”
The men turned their quahna around and, one by one, slapped them into a quick pace, churning the rich earth with their sharp hooves.
“Grenneth, Harol, you two stay behind and do away with this filth. Catch up with us when you’re done.”
Two riders, one of them being the man with the eye patch, nodded and grinned.
The squadron leader turned to the mage. “We’ll report to High Commander Boriahs tonight. But now, we must close the distance between us and the girl.”
The mage merely nodded as the two of them kicked their own mounts into a sprint. The sound of the beasts’ bellows and the thunder of their hooves disappeared down the canyon, but Jahrra’s attention was on the two soldiers who had remained and the terrified limbit still trying to make himself as small as possible.
“What shall it be, Harol?” the taller man asked. “A beheading, or death by a thousand pinpricks?”
“Or, we could have a little fun,” the other man replied. “Make the vermin run and let our quahna hunt him down.”
Harol laughed. “Better yet! Let’s chase him up this tree and throw our knives at him until one sticks, then set the beasts on him when he falls.”
Jahrra gritted her teeth as her stomach turned in revulsion. These two men, Nesnan by the looks of them, needed to be taught a lesson. She was aching to burst free of Jaax’s confinement and take aim at them with her bow. Surely, they could do something to intervene? The vast majority of the Tyrant’s men were half a mile down the trail by now, and if these soldiers treated all their victims like this, their squadron leader wouldn’t expect them for at least an hour or more. Plenty of time for her companions and herself to incapacitate them and be well on their way.
“Jaax!” Jahrra hissed as loudly as she dared.
“Wait just a bit longer,” he growled softly, the first time he’d spoken since pushing them against the hillside.
“Can you reach your bow?” Ellyesce whispered.
Jahrra nodded and carefully turned in the saddle. It was a tight fit, but somehow she managed to reach her bow and get one arrow in place. She took a deep breath, trying not to think too hard about what she was planning to do, then whispered, “Ready!”
Ellyesce, too, indicated that he was ready to act.
“On three,” Jaax murmured, his voice tight.