The Bones of the Earth (The Dark Age) Read Online Free Page B

watch,” Hrech protested.
    “ Then we’ll have to kill him quietly,” Javor answered. Where did these words, these ideas, come from? “We’ll have to be careful not to make any noise that would alert them. But they won’t be expecting us. They’ve done this before, I’ll bet. And I’ll bet that  every time, the poor villagers were too afraid of getting killed to follow and rescue two girls.
    “ I think they’ll get really drunk, eat everything they can, rape the girls, then tie them up and fall asleep. We’ll sneak up when they’re deep asleep. If there’s one on guard, we’ll have to kill him quickly before he can alert the others. I’ll sneak up behind him and ... and cut his throat.” Javor felt the dagger’s fish-shaped handle. The way it fit in his palm calmed him. “You untie their horses and lead them away, but be sure you don’t make any noise doing it. Then we’ll untie the girls. They’ll probably be tied up near the guard. Then we’ll get out of there as fast as we can.” He was making this up as he went along, but it all seemed to make sense.
    “ They’ll follow us, you know, to get the girls back. And to revenge their dead guard,” Hrech said.
    “ You’re right. Well, we’ll have to kill all of them. First save the girls, take them someplace safe, then sneak back and cut their throats while they sleep.”
    “ I—I don’t think I can do that, Javor.”
    “ You’ve killed chickens and pigs, haven’t you?”
    “ I can’t kill a sleeping man,” Hrech said in a very small voice.
    Javor turned to look at Hrech directly, something he almost never did. “Do you know what they’re going to do to the girls? First, they’ll rape them repeatedly. They’ll each take their turns with them, keeping them for their amusement as they ride back to wherever the Avars stay. When they get tired of them, they’ll kill them and leave their bodies to the vultures and dogs. And they’ll go to another village and take more girls.
    “ If Elli and Grat are really lucky, the raiders will sell them to a slave trader and they’ll go to Persia or someplace even farther and live the rest of their lives as slaves for some prince. Either way, we’ll never see them again alive, unless we do something right now. Are you with me or not?”
    Hrech fell into step without another word, his face miserable.
    At nightfall, they stopped by a stream to rest and drink. They found some nuts and sour pears. Hrech fell asleep, but Javor couldn’t. Elli , he thought. He thought of her thin legs, cut and dirty, of the tears on her face as she was pushed astride the horse.
    When the moon rose, Javor woke Hrech and they slowly followed the horses’ tracks. From the droppings, they knew they had almost caught up to the riders. The group must have stopped long before nightfall and had a lazy afternoon.
    The trail soon led into the forest. Javor and Hrech crept ahead, trying not to make any noise, listening. Javor winced every time they broke a twig or made a branch swish.
    Soon, they heard a girl’s sobs. The moonlight would not penetrate the shadows under the trees, so Javor felt his way toward the sound. Hrech stepped on his heels  and whispered “sorry.” A twig cracked underfoot and the sobs stopped with a sudden inward breath. Javor squinted: a darker shadow under a tree seemed head-shaped. Javor fell to his knees and found himself touching Elli’s soft hair. Her fist was in her mouth. Grat was beside her, trembling with the effort to stop sobbing.
    The girls were bound to the tree with a thin rope looped around their waists and wrists. Hrech stepped around Javor to cut the rope with the axe, frustrated because Javor never seemed to know how to do anything practical. He pulled Grat to her feet. “Where are the soldiers?” he whispered. No answer. “Did they let you go?” Javor and Hrech led the girls to a narrow path. “Are you hurt?” Hrech asked as they stumbled along, but Elli would only shake her