Age of Druids Read Free Page B

discover the way out, he’d suffered a terrible beating that had him bruised and weak for a long time. He was only just starting to feel strong enough to try again. He needed something to distract them. But these strange creatures were simple and single-minded. They were tall, bent creatures with sickly pale skin that was cold to the touch. Their bony and drawn faces looked horrible enough without the scraggly patches of hair growing in clumps on their heads, set off by a dim red gem pressed into their foreheads. All the ones Huck saw seemed to be male, with shrivelled sex organs dangling between their twisted legs.
     
    “I have an idea,” Huck said. “We should venture out in quick jaunts. One of us goes to the intersection outside. I have a bit of metal on my belt buckle. We use it as a stylus and put a rune by one exit, then we come back here. When the coast is clear, we go out again and make the same symbol by another exit. Marking a trail is the only way I can think to make any progress.”
     
    Demi shivered. “Are you sure you’re ready? Are you well enough?”
     
    “I’m sore, but I need to get moving before I lose my mind. I’m thinking if we mark the way with runes, we should be able to keep track of where we’ve been before. If they do catch us, at least we won’t repeat ourselves or wander in circles when we start again…as long as they don’t obscure the runes.”
     
    Demi didn’t answer. The lack of enthusiastic response disheartened him. In the beginning, she’d led the way. Now, she cried more often. She was in danger of giving up. He needed to do something, make some progress, give her some reason to believe they could escape.
     
    “I’ll go the next time someone comes with food, because I think they pay less attention then,” Huck said. “I’ll come right back after I make the first rune. We have less chance getting caught if we aren’t wandering aimlessly.”
     
    After a pause, Demi said, “Maybe we should follow them. They have to be getting these animals from somewhere. If we can discover where they hunt, maybe we can find a way out?”
     
    The plan struck Huck as dangerous, but at least she was brainstorming again. “Okay. We can try your way.”
     
    “If that doesn’t work,” she said, “we’ll do the runes. It’s a good idea. Carving on each intersection may take a while, but we’ve got nothing else to do.”
     
    They’d developed a routine of helping each other stretch, of doing what exercise they could in the small space. They’d become a team and learned to sense each other’s moods. After the first few weeks, they’d talked through things he’d never revealed to anyone else.
     
    Over time, he’d settled in to their friendship, begun to see her as a woman, not simply as a romantic interest. Now she was like a part of his own mind, closer than any lover or even a member of his family. When they held each other, the mood wasn’t sexual, but survival.
     
    If they did escape, he didn’t know what their relationship would be on the outside. They had forged a deep connection and would probably always share something special, but his love for her had grown into something entirely different than he’d expected back when he first met her.
     
    After they stretched, they talked about a distant memory, as they so often did. Demi was leading in to an incident from her high school years when they heard one of their captors approach.
     
    When the creature shuffled into the doorway, he brought a waft of foul-smelling air with him. Oddly, he didn’t carry food. He began to babble at them in harsh, guttural tones. To Huck’s ears, the language sounded strangely familiar. He couldn’t pick out specific words, but he wondered if they were speaking a variation of the fae tongue.
     
    He slipped a protective arm around Demi. The creature towered over them and was soon joined by three others. Huck had begun to notice certain individual traits, although the creatures did