Shadow Queen (15 page)

The pounding of hooves on the road ahead
roused his attention from the corpse in his arms. Drifter burst
into his sight, head flailing and nostrils flared. Streaks of blood
glistened from wounds on the horse’s body. Lightning flashed and
the breath from Nathaniel’s lips was stolen. Drifter’s saddle was
empty. Lisbeth was gone.

“Lisbeth! LISBETH!” He bellowed her name,
roaring until his voice cracked. Without hesitation, he hung the
body over Drifter’s shoulders and hefted himself up, swinging his
leg over the saddle. He grabbed the reins and turned the horse
around. Drifter was immediately calmed by his master’s touch and
sped away with only a tap of Nathaniel’s heel.

What had seemed like miles to Nathaniel as he
forced his way through the deepening mud went by in mere seconds
atop the mighty beast. He soon saw the familiar clearing and pulled
hard on the reins. The small field was barren with the exception of
a number of small craters he guess to be footprints left behind
from Lisbeth’s captors.

Nathaniel roared, rearing his horse high and
stomping the hooves deep into the mud. He had always feared this,
his fear driving them to live deep in the mountains, away from the
ignorance of the villages, away from where they could be
hunted.

He peered down from his seat and followed the
prints with his hardened gaze. They veered away from the mountain
road and toward the main road that led straight into the
village.