Risk

Chapter IV

Jasta awoke to a blood-curdling scream. She sat bolt upright in bed, listening. There was the sound of angry shouts and fearful cries. She dressed with shaking hands, dreading what she might see when she left the house. From the sound of the racket, it was something bad.

By the time she was out in the main room, Rose and her mother were also dressed and rushing out of the door. The dying fire cast an eerie glow on their backs as they left. Their expressions showed that they were just as worried as Jasta. She ran after them.

There was a mob formed in the middle of the village. Some villagers held torches while others held garden tools as makeshift weapons. One person held a sword, though why they would even own one was lost on her.

They were all gathered around the grocer's store. The angry villagers were assembled in the rough shape of a half-moon. They were apparently too afraid to get any closer to the store, and it seemed that an invisible force prevented anyone from breaking rank and actually entering the store.

She shoved her way into the crowd with some difficulty but eventually managed to get pretty far. She didn't know if Rose or her mother managed to follow her. She asked Griff, Etta's father, what was the matter.

"There's robbers in the store!" he boomed, his voice easily carrying over the other's villager's shouts. He was obviously outraged that anyone would dare rob a village where he was living.

Jasta almost felt like correcting his grammar, but dread kept her from doing so. Robbers? There were never bandits in the peaceful little village.

Jasta pushed herself to the front of the crowd. She could see dark shapes moving around inside the store. One of the shadowy silhouettes slowly got larger, as if it was getting closer to the windows.

The door started to open and the villagers suddenly surged forward, ready to release their rage in the form of violence. The barrier of fear that had been holding them back had shattered completely.

She turned around, unwilling to be caught up in the violence, and because she was at the front of the crowd, she could clearly see the outrage and fear etched into the villagers' faces. She held out her hands to stop the flow, but it only partly worked.

"Stop!" she yelled over the din. The surge stopped. She was about to point out that if they hurt the person in the shop, then they were no better than the bandits themselves, but a shrill voice cut her off.

"Jasta! Look out!" It sounded like Timothy, the Grocer's son. She searched the crowd for him, not really taking in the warning until a long moment had passed.

Before she was even able to turn around, she felt a large hand reach around her from behind. The thick, meaty hand clamped over her mouth. Another hand grabbed her arm. She tried to scream but the hand in front of her mouth muffled it.

A harsh voice spoke up from behind her, and she could tell by the movement of her captor's chest that it was him speaking. "If anyone tries anything, I'll break this girl like a twig." With a sickening feeling, she realized that she recognized the accent in which the man spoke. Only a Risk would speak in that way. Could Eghur be one of the robbers?

She felt the hand move from her arm and close around her. She knew from the size and obvious strength of the arm that his threat could easily be carried out. The beefy hand was still over her mouth so she couldn't say a thing. His hands were sweaty and they smelled of year-old garlic and skunk.

She felt herself being lifted up, despite her best efforts to break free. She was placed on a horse. The robbers must have hidden their mounts behind the building.

She could hardly see anything, but for a moment, she wasn't being held by anyone. She tried to roll from the horse.

A huge, burly man swung himself up onto the horse in front of her, his leg jamming into her nose. She felt the horse jolt under her. If she tried getting off now that the mount was moving, she could be trampled.