Pilgrim Read Online Free

right leg and slammed it into his back. The force of the kick
sent him sprawling onto the ground.
    She didn’t waste any time. She stepped
forward and slammed her boot into the boy’s head. It crunched on
contact and his body lay still: unconscious.
    At the fall of their companion, the other
children moved in. They rushed at Nova from all directions with
their spears held out.
    “I want her alive, she will be a worthy
sacrifice to the Great Rock,” Vera said.
    The children obeyed her command and slammed
into Nova with the blunt ends of their spears. The pieces of wood
smashed into her arms, legs and torso. With each blow, pain burst
out from the point of impact.
    She turned in circles, desperately trying to
stop the attacks. There were too many of them and she couldn’t
watch all sides at once. She grabbed onto a stick as it swung at
her face, wrapped her hands around it, and yanked as hard as she
could. The spear flew out of her attacker’s hands and she gripped
it firmly. She stepped towards her unarmed attacker and swung as
hard as she could.
    The boy was taken by surprise and couldn’t
get his hands up in time. The spear slammed into his temple and he
collapsed to the ground. She stepped forward, creating room to
move, and whirled to face the remaining three attackers.
    A smile played at the corner of Vera’s mouth
while the other two had expressions of fixed determination. They
moved forward with their spears held out.
    Nova stepped back. She gauged her enemies.
They were confident but over-sure. She had already taken down two
of them, only three more to go. Nova lifted her spear above her
head and opened her mouth to bellow at her attackers.
    Pain exploded at the back of her head and
the world went dark.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER
FOUR

    Nova’s eyes blinked open. She squeezed them
shut again at the bright light burning through her eyes and into
her brain. Her head ached as if it was being crushed by a giant
vice. Her left cheek stung, her ribs ached, her shoulders were on
fire, and her legs burned.
    Her wrists and ankles were rubbed raw by a
rope, stringing her limbs together and holding her to a wooden
pole. She was tied face up so that the sun burned her face but the
agony in her shoulders was less than before.
    Her vision was somewhat lopsided. All she
could see was blue sky and the wooden stick. Her body swung
mid-air, dangling in a light breeze. Half of her field of view was
blacked out.
    “What the—” she began, before grinding to a
halt. Her left eye was swollen shut.
    “Cal?” she whispered, speaking out loud for
the comfort of a familiar sound. Her throat was dry and her voice’s
vibration sent a new wave of agony through her head.
    “Thank goodness you’re alive,” Cal said.
    “I’m beginning to wish I wasn’t,” she said,
gasping.
    “Hold onto that thought,” Cal said, “I’ve
been watching the village. Things don’t look good for you. You’re
trussed up over some kind of pyre.”
    Her eyebrows shot up and she wriggled
against the ropes. “They’re going to burn me to death?”
    “Certainly looks that way,” Cal said.
    “I’m glad you can be so calm about it. Why
haven’t you found a way to get me out of here?” she said.
    Nova ground her teeth together. She’d never
expected her mission for a warp converter to be easy, but she
certainly hadn’t counted on being taken captive by savage children
and burned alive. As a last resort, she considered trying to reach
through time and break herself out, but she wasn’t willing to do
that until the flames were actually licking her back. Just the
thought of toppling through time made her throat close and her
breaths come in ragged gasps.
    “Mostly because none of our weapons
work.”
    “Can’t you just fix them?”
    Her headache worsened. She closed her eyes
against the sun’s bright glare.
    “I’m afraid not. The magnetic source is some
kind of rock, not far from here. There’s no way to overcome