Risk

Chapter V

The blackness of her sleep was pierced by a gentle nudging on her arm. There was a soft whispering. She was too tired to hear what the voice was saying.

At first, she thought it was Rose, come to tease her for sleeping late. But as the fog in her head cleared, the words took form and the voice speaking them was not her beloved sister, it was the low, rumbling whisper of a man.

She jolted up, fully awake, and looked around, taking everything in. She remembered what had happened now, from the kidnapping all the way to drinking what had to have been tainted water.

Her hands and feet were bound together, the knots so tight that they made her limbs numb from the lack of blood flow. Jolting awake like she did wrenched her arms harshly, and she winced.

She struggled, trying to break free, but only succeeding in further wrenching her arms and legs.

"Shhh! You'll wake the others." The husky whisper said. Jasta looked up at him. It was Rowan. "I can get you out of here, but you'll have to be quiet." His whisper was urgent. He was trying to help?

Not able to think of anything to say, she just nodded. Her head was still quite fogged with sleep, but she was pretty sure that he wasn't supposed to be helping her. He was a Risk. Not only that, but he was in the company of the very Risk that had captured her.

She could just make out the glint of a knife in the moonlight that filtered through the dense canopy of leaves. The Risk had a knife.

Fear flashed through her, as hot as the dying embers in the nearby fire pit. But then her arms were free and she was standing, rubbing her sore wrists.

Rowan was still whispering as he walked over to the sleeping line of horses, which were tied to the crooked branches of the trees.

"I was okay with them stealing the stuff, and I put up with all manner of other acts, but when they took you... that was going a little too far." She was able to make out that he was shaking his head.

"Why are you helping me? Aren't all Risks supposed to be bad?" she asked. The question filled with uncertainty, remembering her encounter with Eghur. But Eghur was different. This Risk was a part of a band of thieves, so even if some Risks were good, he wouldn't be one of them, right? No, there was no way a bandit, and a Risk at that would ever be of good intention. She had been told that her entire life, and she believed it.

But why was he helping her? the only reason she could guess was that he wasn't really helping her at all.

"I can't explain much right now. Hontar is a very light sleeper." He said, waking up one of the horses and slinging a thick, canvas sack over its rear. He tied the pack on with a rough length of rope.

Jasta climbed up onto the horse without question. Even if he had some heinous plan in store for her, it was much better to die fighting and free, then victim to whatever the other Risks had in store for her.

They rode in silence for the whole night, the only sound the clopping of the horse's feet as it sped over the uneven ground. The claw-like branches of the dark trees blurred overhead.

When the sun peeked over the horizon, Jasta guessed that they had to have ridden at least half of the journey back to her village. Sleep dragged at her eyes but she didn't dare drift off, for fear that she would fall off the horse.

Rowan reigned the horse in without much warning, making her start out of the latest of her many dozes.

They had arrived at nothing more than a small clearing with a fire pit in the middle. There was a place to tie up a group of horses and Jasta guessed that the clearing had once been an old camp of the group of bandits. It looked about the same as the one they had left the night before, only lacking the tents and, most importantly, the Risks.